R. Kelly taken into custody in Illinois after child-support hearing
Only hours after his interview with CBS' News Gayle King, R&B singer R. Kelly was taken into custody in Cook County, Illinois. Kelly was in court for a hearing over unpaid child support. It was not immediately clear why Kelly was taken into custody, and whether it had to do with the unpaid child support he owes. Kelly was detained just over a week after he pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse.
A pop culture writer for “The Atlantic” was mocked after comparing the wild interview R. Kelly recently gave to CBS to the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
R. Kelly became enraged this week during a shocking interview with "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King, which was the first time he spoke publicly about the charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse that were made in February. The singer offered an emotional denial and even erupted at King’s questions, which led to him screaming and angrily pacing the room.
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“The Atlantic” staff writer Spencer Kornhaber saw a parallel between the artist repeatedly accused of child molestation and Kavanaugh’s 2018 testimony, where the judge denied that he had sexually assaulted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford when they were teenagers.
Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The closest comparison here might be to the #MeToo target now on the Supreme Court,” Kornhaber wrote when analyzing Kelly’s outburst. “The substance of what the two men have been accused of differs vastly, but their responses -- and the cultural scripts they draw upon—rhyme. Brett Kavanaugh shouted about Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations as being unfair given the life he’s lived, while Kelly argued that his previous acquittal meant the present allegations were also ‘unfair.’”
Kornhaber then wrote that “boys-will-be-boys logic” applies to Kelly and Kavanaugh’s defenses.
“Most strikingly, the force and fury of the tactics used by both men make the same dare. For those inclined to believe the accused, passion in the face of prosecution could read as innocence. For those who aren’t, it might look like a predator’s brutality coming out,” he wrote.
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Gayle King and R. Kelly on "CBS This Morning" (CBS)
“The absurdity of this comparison is hinted at even by Kornhaber himself when he notes that ‘the substance of what the two men have been accused of differs vastly.’ But this doesn’t prevent him from completely twisting and miscasting what happened to Kavanaugh, wielding the severe allegations against Kelly – which are well corroborated and already have led to his indictment – as a means of trying to smear the sitting justice,” National Review columnist Alexandra DeSanctis wrote in a scathing review of The Atlantic piece.
DeSanctis added that Kavanaugh‘s anger was not because of “boys-will-be-boys logic,” but instead “because none of the accusations against him ended up having any evidence behind them.”
The comparison also sparked plenty of criticism on social media and The Atlantic’s verified Twitter account was hit with an onslaught of negative feedback when it tweeted a link to the story.
The Federalist senior editor, Mollie Hemingway, took Kornhaber to task for comparing a Supreme Court justice to someone such as Kelly.
“Our media lie, pushing false reports such as that Kavanaugh was the leader of a roving underage serial gang rape cartel. And even after their (frankly ridiculous) lies blow up they keep pushing them, as is disgustingly done here by The Atlantic,” Hemingway wrote.
“Wow! There’s tons of evidence for one committing repeated statutory rape and many allegations and for the other there’s no corroborated evidence and one allegation from 30-plus years ago of extremely inappropriate sexual behavior on one occasion! They are both the same,” comedian Yannis Pappas sarcastically wrote while others simply mocked The Atlantic as “garbage” and “predictable.”
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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