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Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Thursday that Empire actor Jussie Smollett sent himself a threatening letter because he was dissatisfied with his salary on the hit FOX drama.

JUST IN: Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson: Jussie Smollett “paid $3,500 to stage this attack…The stunt was orchestrated by Smollett because he was dissatisfied with his salary.” https://t.co/5AiMcfe6iH pic.twitter.com/0za7CEbVtv

— ABC News (@ABC) February 21, 2019

This story is developing. 

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson blasted Jussie Smollett for a “shameful” hoax hate crime, and lashed out at media, celebrities, and politicians who amplified Smollett’s story to promote their own agendas, at a press conference held Thursday morning to discuss Smollett’s felony charge.

Police announced the charges against Smollett late Wednesday; Smollett turned himself into authorities early Thursday morning.

CPD Superintendent Johnson revealed details of the Chicago PD’s investigation of Smollett, including that Smollett had paid his co-conspirators by check, and that he allegedly staged the attack because he was dissatisfied with his $1.17 million paycheck from the Fox show “Empire,” and believed he could do better. Johnson also revealed that authorities believe Smollett authored and sent a threatening letter to himself, but that Federal authorities will handle that aspect of the case.

Johnson also took the opportunity to comment on the Smollett case, calling the actor’s alleged actions “shameful” and accusing the actor of taking “advantage of the pain and anger of racism to advance his career.”

“As a black man who spent his entire life living in the city of Chicago, I know the racial divide that exists here,” Johnson said. “I know how hard it’s been for our city and our nation to come together. How can an individual who’s been embraced by the city of Chicago turn around and slap everyone in this city in the face by making these false claims?”

WATCH:

JUST IN: “‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career,” Chicago PD Superintendent Eddie Johnson says. https://t.co/5AiMcfe6iH pic.twitter.com/nOOhk0e8YD

— ABC News (@ABC) February 21, 2019

Johnson added that he was personally offended by Smollett’s alleged actions, and blamed Smollett for taking police resources away from Chicago residents who really need them.

“I am left hanging my head asking ‘why?’ Why would anyone — especially an African American man — use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusation,” Johnson said, according to The Wrap. “Bogus police reports cause real harm. They do harm to every legitimate victim who is in need of support by police and investigators as well as the citizens of this city … I’m offended by what happened and I am also angry.”

But Smollett wasn’t the only one Johnson had words for. The police superintendent also lashed out at those who amplified Smollett’s story in order to capture attention for themselves.

“The accusation within this phony attack received national attention for weeks,” Johnson continued. “Celebrities, news commentators and even presidential candidates weighed in on something that was choreographed by an actor.”

“I wish the families of gun violence in this city got so much attention,” he added.

It seems Johnson was referring specifically to comments made by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who called the alleged attack a “modern-day lynching,” and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who used Smollett’s story to promote his own legislative agenda.

Smollett will likely remain in custody until a bond hearing Thursday afternoon. His lawyers have pledged to mount an “aggressive defense” to the felony charge, and 20th Century Fox Entertainment, which produces “Empire,” says they are standing by Smollett for the time being.

Although CPD has concluded its investigation, statements from the FBI and the USPS Inspector are expected.

Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office about the impact of Obamacare’s individual mandate off by millions, according to a new report.

My former editor at the Washington Examiner, Phil Klein, writes that the “scandalously off” estimates “had significant ramifications for healthcare and tax policy over the past decade.”:

“CBO estimates about the importance of an individual mandate to a national healthcare scheme prodded President Barack Obama into including the unpopular provision into the law in the first place. The mandate projections also played a key role in President Trump’s two major legislative initiatives. The fact that the CBO assumed 14 million could lose coverage mainly due to the elimination of mandate penalties helped kill the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, while its later assumption that 13 million fewer insured individuals would mean less spending on subsidies from the federal government helped get the 2017 Republican tax cut across the finish line by improving the budgetary math. Yet those incredibly influential estimates now appear to have been wildly off.”

This information was contained not in a major section of the report, or in news sources about the report, but in a lone footnote in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ annual report on national health expenditure projections, according to Klein.

Remember that the scary “14 million would lose coverage” was based almost entirely on people voluntarily giving up their insurance because they no longer would be charged for going without. This new report from CMS shows that just 2.5 million more would forgo health insurance coverage in 2019 because the individual mandate was repealed and even fewer would be impacted after 2019.

As Klein reports, the individual mandate was included in Obamacare even though then-candidate Barack Obama opposed the mandate during the 2008 campaign. It was included in the legislation because the CBO and others estimated it was necessary to pay for older Americans by forcing the young – who don’t need as much health care – to pay into the system. The CBO estimates worked for the passage of the bill and against Republican attempts in 2017 to repeal and replace it. Then, CBO estimates saying 14 million would lose coverage (even though the majority would voluntarily give up their coverage) scared some Republicans from voting to repeal.

“While any CBO analysis of the Republican bills was likely to project large coverage losses due to the cuts to Medicaid and subsidies, if CBO had more realistic assumptions about the mandate, the numbers would have been significantly smaller, and perhaps left more room to convince centrist Republicans to get on board,” Klein wrote.

But, Klein notes, these misleading numbers ended up helping Republicans when it came time to pass President Donald Trump’s tax cuts in 2017. The CBO said 4 million fewer people would have coverage in 2019 because of the penalties, and 13 million fewer would have insurance over all – thus saving $338 billion.

The footnote in the annual report states there would be just “1.5 million fewer direct-purchase-market enrollees” because the mandate was repealed, and about “1.0 million fewer employer-sponsored-insurance-market enrollees.” The footnote also said Medicaid enrollment was “assumed to be unaffected.”

Klein, who’s spent a decade covering Obamacare, says “the CBO’s misfire on the individual mandate should be a major story.”

Obviously, it won’t be. One, because few people talk about Obamacare anymore since it has become so entangled in our healthcare system, and two, because the left-wing media isn’t going to give up one of its favorite talking points.

One man was given a humiliating lesson in respect after slinging some vile words at a teenage fan of President Donald Trump over the weekend.

According to The Daily Caller, it all started when a 14-year-old boy walked into a Vans skateboarding apparel store at a mall in Overland Park, Kansas, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat. An employee spotted the iconic headgear, and allegedly said “f*** you” to the teen.

When the boy’s mom stepped in, the employee’s anti-Trump bravado vanished.

Part of the encounter was recorded and made its way to Twitter, where it quickly went viral.

Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. A Vans store employee at Oak Park Mall, Kansas told a 14-year-old “f*ck you” for wearing a MAGA hat. Let’s get him fired. pic.twitter.com/PNkPqAxBci

— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) February 17, 2019

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Although the video doesn’t capture the employee’s vulgar insult, it certainly records his apparent regret over being held accountable for his actions.

It opens with the mom demanding answers for the treatment of her teenage son. The Vans employee smugly replied, “I’m sure he’s heard it before.”

Wrong answer.

The mom then hits him with the three words every bottom-rung retail employee dreads: “Where’s your manager?”

What follows is the beginning of the end for the seemingly liberal worker. A man at the register, apparently a manager, looks around the store as he’s being told about his unruly employee.

The Daily Caller reported that the incident was even escalated to Vans’ corporate level, and ultimately ended in the vulgar employee losing his job.

“We did let this employee go. He is no longer with our company. The actions and comments from this employee at the Oak Park location is in contrast with our values and beliefs,” the company said in a statement.

“We have taken care of the situation,” it added.

RELATED: Trump Hints He’d Put Pelosi on a Payment Plan

Vans, for those who don’t know, is a Santa Ana, California-based company that trades in skateboarding shoes and clothing and also sponsors surfing, snowboarding and motorcross teams.

That kind of business might lean toward a more stereotypically liberal customer base, but that doesn’t explain the employee’s outburst by itself. Not even liberal businesses generally want employees insulting paying customers.

It’s a good possibility that this whole incident was another manifestation of Trump derangement syndrome.

Trump derangement syndrome, or TDS, is the anger, confusion, and mania exhibited by some in the left over the fact that Donald Trump is president. Even the esteemed mental health journal Psychology Today weighed in on the syndrome.

While the author, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Canada’s McGill University, acknowledged that the syndrome isn’t officially recognized, he did point out that it has been widely observed:

“Many have argued that some people have been seriously disturbed and distressed by the policies, speech, behavior and tweets of President Trump, so much so that it has affected their cognitive, affective and behavioral functioning. Such people may need mental health support.”

What else could lead a grown man to verbally attack a boy who can’t even legally drive a car by himself? And in a workplace environment, no less.

Whether it was TDS or something else, it doesn’t excuse the former employee’s behavior.

Pro-Trump Americans have been demonized by the left and the mainstream media, leading to unfair smearing like what the Covington Catholic boys endured. The strange case of actor Jussie Smollett reveals that sometimes, unscrupulous people might even manufacture their own “MAGA hate crime” out of thin air.

Accountability appears to be the answer. This means accountability for everyone — from the nameless mall employee to newsroom editors. A consequence-free culture is not something we should embrace.

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