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Ellen & Kevin Hart are getting torn apart on Twitter for their Jussie Smollett tweets

Jussie Smollett
Photo: Wikipedia

Yesterday, actor Kevin Hart tweeted his “prayers” for Jussie Smollett, the Empire actor who was the victim of a horrifying racist and homophobic hate crime earlier this week.

But people on Twitter weren’t having it.

The problem is that Hart has a history of making violent, homophobic comments. In tweets from 2009 to 2011, he used “gay” and “fag” pejoratively.

He also tweeted that he would hurt his son if the son wasn’t masculine enough: “Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice stop that’s gay.”

Related: Jussie Smollett says ‘I’m gay — but could fall in love with a woman’

Hart stepped down from the Oscar hosting gig and has offered several apologies in the past month that have been criticized, both for being weak and for his concurrent criticism of LGBTQ advocates as people who “slandered” him and took away his “fun.”

People immediately pointed out that maybe Hart should acknowledge the impact his words had.

Earlier this month, Hart appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show. He was not contrite, painting himself the victim of unfair attacks on social media.

Ellen attempted to absolve him, calling his critics “haters” and insisting he host the Oscars even though he didn’t give any indication that he understood why his comments were so harmful.

So Ellen also got some feedback when she tweeted “love” to Smollett.

On Monday night, two white men attacked Smollett in Chicago, beating him, pouring bleach on him, and tying a noose around his neck.

Smollett told police that the assailants said, “Aren’t you that faggot ‘Empire’ n*****?”

He also said that one of the attackers said, “This is MAGA country” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Chicago police have said that the FBI is helping with the investigation into the attack.

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