No one was "duped" into believing Jesse Jackson Jr. would be back to serve in Congress, two colleagues said Wednesday after Jackson's resignation.
"I think that this is a process that nobody really knew exactly what was going to happen. I don't think he knew what was going to happen," said 1st District Rep. Bobby Rush. "I think that we were all praying for him and optimistic that he would be able to recover and that the other issues that was before him, that those issues would not affect him that much."
Jackson resigned Wednesday amid a federal investigation into his finances. He's been on medical leave from Congress since June. His doctors say he's being treated for bi-polar depression.
Rush acknowledged that "the cynic in all of us rises up" in times like these but urged people to let Jackson go through the healing process.
He said that when he spoke to Jackson on the phone, the former congressman sounded "sorrowful" and as though he was in a great deal of pain.
Rush and 7th District Congressman Danny Davis visited Jackson at his Washington, D.C.-area home back in October.
"If there was any play acting, then he certainly has a great career ahead of him as an actor," said Davis. "I don't believe that you could convey the genuine feeling that I saw coming from him as he talked about his hopes, his aspirations, what he had hoped to accomplish when he ran for Congress."
