‘Completely Humiliating!’ GOP Senator’s Unbelievable Hearing Faceplant Stuns Media World

Screenshot via C-SPAN

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) pulled off an epic face-plant during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with former Special Counsel Jack Smith, sparking an avalanche of criticism from journalists and media pundits.

Schmitt thought he caught Smith in a lie and accused him of being a “dirtbag” and perjuring himself after Smith said he had not gone to an Atlanta Hawks basketball game to meet with Fani Willis – the Fulton County DA who also prosecuted President Donald Trump.

“Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024?” Schmitt asked Smith.

“What city would that be?” Smith asked.

“Atlanta,” Schmitt replied.

“No,” Smith said.

“Let me just give you a little context. 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?” Schmitt insisted.

“I do not believe so,” Smith repeated.

“What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warriors-Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024 — the day after Willis and [Nathan] Wade announced their affair?”

A poster board showing purported text messages from Smith was then quickly held up and taken down.

“I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself,” Schmitt boasted, later adding, “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.”

Schmitt’s mistake was quickly unwound as Smith and later Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who insisted Schmitt show Smith the texts before continuing, made clear that the Missouri Republican had confused the Atlanta Hawks with the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.

NBC’s senior national political correspondent Sahil Kapur shared a clip of the exchange and added, “A phenomenal moment in the Senate.”

MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian reacted, “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. (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.”

CNN’s Aaron Blake added, “Pretty big apparent misfire from GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt at today’s Jack Smith hearing. Schmitt basically constructed a conspiracy theory about how Jack Smith was in Atlanta when Fani Willis’s affair was revealed, saying Smith had attended an Atlanta Hawks game. Smith had no idea what he was talking about.”

Below are some more reactions:

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