News Anchor Says Republican Ditched Show After Embarrassing Viral Gaffe: ‘Senator Schmitt Was Supposed To Appear on This Program’

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) apparently backed out of a planned C-SPAN appearance after his attempted “gotcha” of former special counsel Jack Smith spectacularly backfired.

Politico’s Dasha Burns, who also hosts Ceasefire on C-SPAN, explained in a preview of Friday’s edition of the program, “Now, we should mention that Senator Schmitt was supposed to appear on this program with Senator [Chris] Coons [D-DE], but he pulled out a day after that hearing.”

Burns was referencing the now-infamous Tuesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Schmitt pressed Smith on whether he had attended an Atlanta Hawks NBA game on Feb. 3, 2024, suggesting Smith may have been in Georgia to meet with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was separately prosecuting President Donald Trump.

“I definitely did not go to a Hawks game,” Smith said. “I’m sure of that.”

Schmitt responded smugly, “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.”

The former special counsel later recalled that he had instead gone to the Iowa-Maryland women’s college basketball game to watch Caitlin Clark play, prompting Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) to determine that Schmitt had confused the Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Yet new reporting from The Hill even further undercuts that premise. The outlet reviewed the text messages in question between Smith’s staffers and found they did not actually mention either the Hawks or the Hawkeyes. Instead, they largely concerned arena logistics, including seat locations and plans to meet up, suggesting Schmitt’s team may have tried to place the former special counsel in Atlanta based on the date — one day after Willis acknowledged a romantic relationship with a prosecutor in her case against Trump.

Not to mention, MS NOW previously reported that Republican Senate Judiciary Committee staff warned the senator’s team that the texts were “unvetted,” adding that the seat number referenced did not exist at the Hawks’ arena.

Schmitt did maintain during Tuesday questioning by TMZ DC that he wasn’t embarrassed by the flub and that his questions were valid because Smith has “lied before.”

When told that video exists showing Smith at the Iowa game, the Republican senator hit back, “Great. Well, then he was at the Hawkeyes game. I just asked him if he was in Atlanta.”

Watch above on C-SPAN.

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