‘He’s Basically Disgraced Himself’: Raskin Flames Republican Senator Behind Viral Blunder on Live TV

 

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) shredded Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) hours after the senator authored one of the more embarrassing moments in Congress.

On Tuesday, former Special Counsel Jack Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republican senators took turns berating him for prosecuting President Donald Trump. After Trump left office, Smith brought charges against Trump in two separate cases. One concerned Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The other stemmed from Trump’s retention of government documents after he left the White House in 2021.

Smith withdrew the charges after Trump won the 2024 election to comply with a Department of Justice policy against prosecuting incumbent presidents.

During the Judiciary hearing, Schmitt suggested Smith had a secret meeting in Atlanta with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought charges against Trump for trying to overturn the election results in Georgia. Specifically, Schmitt pointed to text messages from 2024 that he said indicated Smith attended an Atlanta Hawks game on Feb. 3 of that year. Smith denied even having been in Atlanta while he was special counsel. Schmitt responded by alleging Smith had perjured himself before Congress. The senator also called Smith a “dirtbag.”

But it turned out that on the day in question, Smith attended an Iowa Hawkeyes women’s college basketball game when the team was playing at the University of Maryland. Predictably, the gaffe went viral.

Hours later on Tuesday’s OutFront on CNN, Erin Burnett recounted the incident and played a clip of Schmitt talking to reporters afterward.

“Did he perjure himself, Sir?” a reporter asked.

“We’ll find out,” Schmitt replied, showing no trace of embarrassment or remorse for his ineptitude.

The clip ended, and Burnett turned to Raskin.

“Obviously, he didn’t perjure himself on that particular issue,” she said. “So, was he just asking questions? Any chance that he’ll give Smith an apology?”

Raskin responded:

Well, not from the looks of it. I mean, look, nobody ever heard of Senator Schmitt before. And nobody’s gonna ever hear of him again. He’s basically disgraced himself and identified himself with this ridiculous little stunt where he thought he was going to perform some major service to Donald Trump. And it’s all about being the most obsequious sycophant you can be. And he proved that he was. And he doesn’t even understand how much that he’s utterly humiliated himself in the eyes of the country.

Watch above via CNN.

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Mike is a Mediaite senior editor who covers the news in primetime. Follow him on Bluesky.