The first episode of the final season of the Fox drama Empire kicked off with an anti-Trump bang, even on the heels of the scandal over the series’ former star Jessie Smollett, who was tossed off the show after reporting a fake hate crime.
Smollett was written out of the show after the Chicago Police Department not only found no evidence that there was any hate crime perpetrated against the actor but also found proof that Smollett engineered a fake attack himself just to get publicity.
Despite that massive embarrassment for the show, Empire went full Trump derangement with its first episode with a scene depicting series star Taraji P. Henson’s “Cookie” appearing on a TV show patterned after ABC’s The View, in which expressed her hope that the president would end up in jail.
As the character appeared on the faux talk show, Cookie went off on Trump as soon as his name was mentioned, saying, “please tell me they finally threw his lying ass in prison.”
The talk show’s ersatz Meghan McCain, “Lizzie” (Carisa Barreca), struck back with a snide comment noting that Cookie had been in jail herself, but for the most part, Empire portrayed Cookie as the crowd favorite for her attack on Trump.
Meanwhile, former Empire star Jussie Smollett is still not off the hook for what the Chicago Police Department determined was a hoax hate crime report. Indeed, the county prosecutor who surprised the city by declining to prosecute Smollett for the incident is now under investigation for her failure to charge Smollett.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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