Robin Roberts gets ‘completely honest’ about interview with Jussie Smollett
By Christine Burroni
March 4, 2019 | 2:18pm
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Almost three weeks after Robin Roberts sat down with “Empire” star Jussie Smollett regarding his alleged hate crime, she’s opening up about how she approached the highly publicized sit-down.
“I’ll be completely honest, I was like I don’t know if I want to do the interview or not,” she said during The Cut’s “How I Get It Done” event at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge on Monday.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to sit down with him if he’s going to lawyer up,'” the “Good Morning America” host, 58, recalled. “And then I was told, ‘He wants to speak with you,’ [because] he was outraged by people making assumptions about whether it had happened or not.”
Roberts said she was promised she could challenge him on the “red flags” over the alleged racist and homophobic attack and that she’d get new information out of him.
“They said, ‘He wants to say things that he has not said’ and I’m like, ‘As a journalist, as a newsperson, this is newsworthy, he’s going to go on record for the first time, yes I’ll do the interview,'” she explained.
Following the interview, ABC staffers have said they were skeptical of Smollett’s story.
Scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 12, the interview started two-and-a-half hours later than expected.
were paid by the actor to stage the attack.
“People are looking at the interview through the eyes of ‘How did you not know?'” she recalled. “I did the interview 48 hours before then. Had I had that information or [knew] what the brothers were alleging, heck yeah, I would have asked him about that.”
“I pride myself in being fair, I know how much work went into being balanced about what had happened and to challenge him on certain things,” she said.
She concluded by saying that since Smollett was considered a victim at the time of their interview, she carefully selected her questions.
“There’s so many people who do not come forward because others are not believed. I don’t know how this is all going to end,” she said. “We still talk to the [Chicago] police superintendent [Eddie T. Johnson].”
“It was one of the most challenging interviews I’ve ever had to do,” she said.
Smollett turned himself in to police just a week after the brothers came forward saying that the attack was orchestrated. He is facing disorderly conduct charges for filing a false police report. He is now out on bond, and his next court date is March 14.
By Christine Burroni
March 4, 2019 | 2:18pm
Enlarge Image
Jussie Smollett and Robin RobertsABC
MORE ON:
Almost three weeks after Robin Roberts sat down with “Empire” star Jussie Smollett regarding his alleged hate crime, she’s opening up about how she approached the highly publicized sit-down.
“I’ll be completely honest, I was like I don’t know if I want to do the interview or not,” she said during The Cut’s “How I Get It Done” event at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge on Monday.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to sit down with him if he’s going to lawyer up,'” the “Good Morning America” host, 58, recalled. “And then I was told, ‘He wants to speak with you,’ [because] he was outraged by people making assumptions about whether it had happened or not.”
Roberts said she was promised she could challenge him on the “red flags” over the alleged racist and homophobic attack and that she’d get new information out of him.
“They said, ‘He wants to say things that he has not said’ and I’m like, ‘As a journalist, as a newsperson, this is newsworthy, he’s going to go on record for the first time, yes I’ll do the interview,'” she explained.
Following the interview, ABC staffers have said they were skeptical of Smollett’s story.
Scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 12, the interview started two-and-a-half hours later than expected.
were paid by the actor to stage the attack.
“People are looking at the interview through the eyes of ‘How did you not know?'” she recalled. “I did the interview 48 hours before then. Had I had that information or [knew] what the brothers were alleging, heck yeah, I would have asked him about that.”
“I pride myself in being fair, I know how much work went into being balanced about what had happened and to challenge him on certain things,” she said.
She concluded by saying that since Smollett was considered a victim at the time of their interview, she carefully selected her questions.
“There’s so many people who do not come forward because others are not believed. I don’t know how this is all going to end,” she said. “We still talk to the [Chicago] police superintendent [Eddie T. Johnson].”
“It was one of the most challenging interviews I’ve ever had to do,” she said.
Smollett turned himself in to police just a week after the brothers came forward saying that the attack was orchestrated. He is facing disorderly conduct charges for filing a false police report. He is now out on bond, and his next court date is March 14.
White jesus he's getting that work. 
They are going to prosecute his bitch ass to the fullest extent of the law.
