CLAY: Jussie Smollett, huge superstar of the Empire television show, he is on trial now, finally — several years after his fake race crime — and this is from Guy Benson, who had put this together. You texted it to me during our last break. I was having a drink, and I literally… You know, every now and then you read something so funny, and you just spit your drink out, literally a spit take. That’s what I did on this.

Jussie Smollett, okay, not only did they have the fake hate crime staged; they did a rehearsal of the fake hate crime. Here is what Jussie Smollett said, and part of it’s on video. Not even just the fake hate crime is on video, the rehearsal of the fake hate crime is partly on video. Jussie Smollett said, “I want you to attack me but when you hit me, I want you to kind of pull your punches a bit because I don’t want to be seriously hurt.”

Smollett also instructed them to put a rope around his neck — these are his accused attackers — to, quote, “make it look more like a lynching,” like a hate crime. “The three men,” he had two attackers, “went on a dry run from the attack, part of which was captured on surveillance camera. Smollett’s Mercedes can be seen circling the intersection showing the brothers the area where he wanted the attack to occur.” Buck, I want this guy to get hit with the full force of American justice. I would be perfectly fine if he went to prison for the rest of his life for what he tried to do with this fake racism attack.

BUCK: Can I just say, you have to remember, everybody — you have to remember — that even after he was caught, just a little trip down memory lane, even after the video of the two actor brothers buying the rope and even after the whole thing fell apart, Jussie had the gall to call upon his friend, Kim Foxx, the DA, to not only dismiss the case but try to lock down the case, and then Jussie walked out of that courtroom sanctimonious about how he was falsely accused.

So should Jussie Smollett get the three years, I think, he faces in prison? Hell, yeah, he should. Absolutely. There were Blue Checks, Clay, when this was going on, who were coming at me from all over the place, “How do you not believe Jussie? It’s so racist not to believe Jussie!” People are such idiots because they want to believe the narrative, because they’ve been told the narrative so many times.

CLAY: The demand for racism is so much more extensive than the actual existence of racism, at least overt like this. Keep in mind what Jussie Smollett was trying to do. He was trying to advance his own career by making himself a victim of the highest magnitude imaginable. That’s how much being a victim pays in this country. That’s what he was trying to do.

And, Buck, that’s why I think he should have to spend the rest of his life in prison. I understand there are people out there who are gonna say, “Oh, it’s not that significant of a crime in general.” I disagree when you consider what he was trying to do. He wasn’t trying to divide all of us based on racial identity politics, he was trying to make himself a victim, he was trying to basically say every Trump supporter is a racist.

Not only a racist, the kind of person who would show up and try to lynch modern-day someone like him. I don’t think there is a punishment significant enough for him behind bars. The idea that he would not go to jail at all is to me crazy. It has to happen, and I don’t think there’s a punished that’s too consequential that he should face. Certainly the financial punishment is he should have to pay for this entire investigation that took place. But, Buck, I think they should lock him up and throw away the key. I think he should go away for a long time.

BUCK: It looks like he might.

CLAY: Amen.