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Jussie Smollett Details Attack, Addresses 'Doubters,' His Cell Phone & More

Jussie Smollett has given his first interview since being brutally attacked by two men in an alleged hate crime last month.

The Empire star opened up to Robin Roberts in an hour-long Good Morning America interview, detailing his January assault. Jussie first clarified a few mistruths about his racist, homophobic attack, telling Robin he never described the two attackers as wearing MAGA hats, despite early reports, but he said his attackers did say, "This is MAGA country" when they ran off. "They called me a fa**ot. They called me a ni**er. There’s no which way you cut it, I don’t need some MAGA hat as the cherry on a racist sundae," he recalled.

While setting the record straight, Jussie admitted that he's "pissed off" at the men who attacked him — and by the attacks of those who have doubted his story. "It's like, you know, at first, it was a thing of, like, 'Listen, if I tell the truth, then that’s it,' because it’s the truth," he said. "Then it became a thing of like, 'Oh, how can you doubt that? Like, how do you — how do you not believe that? It’s the truth.' And then it became a thing of like, 'Oh, it’s not necessarily that you don't believe that this is the truth, you don’t even want to see the truth.'" Jussie added, "If I had said it was a Muslim or a Mexican or someone black, I feel like the doubters would have supported me a lot more."

As previously reported, the 36-year-old Empire star was assaulted in Chicago around 2 AM on January 29 by two men wearing ski masks. Jussie had just arrived in the city from New York and made a late-night run to a Subway when someone reportedly yelled: "Aren't you that f**got 'Empire' n**ga?" The two attackers, who have been identified as white males, then proceeded to jump the actor. While he fought back, Jussie was ultimately overtaken by the men. During the attack, the suspects also reportedly put a rope around Jussie's neck and poured bleach on him. Jussie ribs were fractured and he was admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for treatment. He was released soon after.

When asked why he hesitated a half hour following the attack to call police, Jussie said, "There’s a level of pride there. We live in a society where as a gay man you’re somehow considered to be weak, and I’m not weak, and we as a people are not weak," he admitted, explaining that after smelled the bleach that was poured on him by the attackers he changed his mind. "I want a little gay boy who might watch this to see that I fought back. They ran off, I didn’t."

Jussie also discussed why he initially chose not to hand over his phone to authorities right away after they told him they would need "three of four hours" to examine it. "I‘m sorry but I’m not going to do that," he said, describing his reaction. "Because I have private pictures and videos and numbers: my partner’s number, my family’s number, my cast mate’s number, my friends’ numbers, my private emails, my private songs, my private voice memos."

Photo: Getty Images