Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) suffered a “completely humiliating” moment while questioning former Special Counsel Jack Smith during a Senate Judiciary hearing.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Schmitt attempted his gotcha moment on Smith when he asked if the latter had gone to an Atlanta Hawks NBA game to talk with Fani Willis, the Fulton County DA who prosecuted President Trump. Schmitt pressed hard on whether “dirtbag” Smith went to a Hawks game in February 2024 but the former Special Counsel remained confused.
“Let me just give you a little context,” Schmitt said. “The day before Fani Willis came clean with her affair with the prosecutor — you know, the Atlanta prosecutor that was also trying to get Trump — the next day, were you in Atlanta?”
Smith again said he thought the Senator was mistaken. Schmitt then had those behind him hold up a poster board showing texts from Smith but the board went down before anyone in the room could get a good look at it.
“I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself,” Schmitt smugly said. “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.”
It wasn’t until minutes later – and with an assist from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), that Smith realized the texts from the poster board were actually referring to a women’s college basketball game he went to between the Maryland Terrapins and the Iowa Hawkeyes so he could watch Caitlin Clark play.
The gaff left the media world in awe. Those who witnessed it or saw later clips could not believe Schmitt’s blunder and the piling on through social media came quickly after.
“I can’t get over Schmitt’s little smile the second Smith says he didn’t go the Hawks game,” Andrew Egger wrote. “He’s fighting down the giggles for the whole rest of the interaction. He really, really thought he had him! He thought today would go down as Eric Schmitt Day!”
“Sen. Eric Schmitt’s attempt at a Perry Mason moment just blew up in his face in spectacular fashion, after he accused Jack Smith of perjuring himself about a basketball game he never attended,” Ken Dilanian said. “(Smith says he went to a collegiate women’s game in Maryland to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes, not a game in Atlanta to watch the NBA’s Hawks.) Schmitt called Smith a ‘dirtbag,’ just before his line of questioning went up in flames fueled by shockingly incompetent staff work.”
Here are more reactions from the media world following the hearing:
