Camerota: ‘I Was Frankly Surprised How Many People Jumped on Board to Side with Jussie Smollett’

As signs are showing “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s alleged attack appears to have been fabricated, CNN “New Day” host Alisyn Camerota said she was “frankly surprised” so many people believed the story from the jump.

Camerota added that even her bosses at CNN advised “to pump the brakes a little bit” on commenting on the story because of its oddities.

“I remember in the hours right after this happened that CNN … our bosses were advising to pump the brakes a little bit because there were things already that didn’t add up,” Camerota told fellow CNN anchor Brian Stelter. “I was frankly surprised how many people jumped on board to side with Jussie Smollett before there were photos, before there were police statements, before all that stuff. And so, how do you think this all — what was the trajectory of how this went wrong?”

“Yeah, the headline was so sensational and so disturbing,” Stelter replied. “It first came out on TMZ — not only that Smollett said he’d been attacked, but the attacker said this is MAGA country. Well, obviously, Chicago at 2:00 in the morning is not MAGA country, so that didn’t make sense in the first place.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent