Jussie Smollett began his first televised interview since surviving an assault in Chicago—one that is being investigated as a potential hate crime with a damning proclamation: "I’m pissed off."

Smollett told "Good Morning America" host Robin Roberts that he is upset with his assailants and the people who doubted his descripton of the attack, which happened two weeks ago:

rnt

It’s the attackers, but it’s also the attacks. It’s like, you know, at first it was a thing of, listen, if I tell the truth, then that’s it, because it’s the truth. Then it became a thing of, oh, how can you doubt that? How do you not believe that? It’s the truth! And then it became a thing of, oh, it’s not necessarily that you don’t believe that this is the truth, you don’t even want to see the truth.

Smollett detailed the assault in the interview, which aired this morning (February 14), and in an accompanying article. The "Empire" star said that one assailant berated him with the n-word and f-word before attacking him. The second assailant joined in, kicking him in the back. Smollett added that he realized the pair left a rope around his neck after they fled.

Watch the interview above.