Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt thought he had caught former special counsel Jack Smith in a potentially damaging contradiction during a Senate hearing, even raising the possibility that Smith had just committed perjury. There was just one major problem with the senator’s evidence: Schmitt had confused the Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The mistake quickly transformed what Schmitt presented as a major revelation about Smith into an embarrassing moment for the Missouri Republican, with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar later correcting the record and calling for an apology. Critics online had much less restraint, with one person simply writing, “Wrong team. Wrong city. Wrong facts.“
The exchange featured above initially unfolded as Eric Schmitt questioned Smith about whether he or members of his team had communicated with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis or prosecutor Nathan Wade. Smith denied having contact with Willis and also denied attending an Atlanta Hawks basketball game while visiting Georgie.
Schmitt then suggested he had evidence contradicting that answer, telling Smith he had text messages indicating that Smith had been in Atlanta for a Warriors-Hawks game around the time developments involving Willis and Wade were forming. “I don’t think you know that we have this stuff,” Schmitt told him before giving Smith “a second to process it.”
Smith appeared confused by the accusation and said he remembered attending a basketball game involving the Iowa Hawkeyes rather than the Atlanta Hawks. The mistake undercut Schmitt’s suggestion that the exchange had exposed Smith committing perjury.
Klobuchar was also present, and she returned to the subject after her own questioning and said Schmitt had gotten his teams wrong. She writes in her post after the fact, “Before calling someone a “dirtbag,” the Senator should have had his facts straight. An apology is in order. Glad one of us knew the difference between the Atlanta Hawks and the Iowa Hawkeyes!“
Comments and Reactions to Eric Schmitt’s Mix-Up
Commenters quickly seized on the basketball mistake, as well as others, including reporters such as Sahil Kapur. Under a post where he discussed the topic, a user wrote, “LMAO @SenEricSchmit
is a clown. How humiliating for everyone in Missouri. Vote out every Republican to end this circus.”
Others focused on how dramatically Schmitt’s accusation unraveled after he suggested he had caught Smith in a lie. One commenter described the episode as the closest Republicans had come to damaging Smith’s credibility before it ended up becoming a “self-inflicted failure.“
As the video continues to go viral, the incident becomes a prime example of how misinformation can cause an uproar, with people leaving their opinions and frustrations in the comments below.
