Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume has delivered a withering response to MAGA Sen. Eric Schmitt’s botched takedown of Jack Smith.
Schmitt, 51, had accused the former special counsel of lying under oath during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing after claiming messages showed Smith attended an Atlanta Hawks game in Atlanta in February 2024.
Unfortunately for the Missouri Republican and 2028 VP hopeful, Smith had actually been watching the Iowa Hawkeyes play in Maryland, and the senator apparently hadn’t bothered to do any proper checks before launching his embarrassing failed broadside.
“He brought this on himself and deserves the obloquy,” Hume, 83, wrote on X, as reported by Mediaite.
Hume posted his brutal verdict in response to an AI-generated image mocking Schmitt as a clown and illustrating the distance between Atlanta and College Park, Maryland, where Smith had actually attended the University of Maryland women’s basketball game against Iowa.
The hilarious exchange unfolded as Schmitt attempted a ‘gotcha’ on Smith about whether he had been in Atlanta, where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was then pursuing a separate election-interference case against Donald Trump.
Schmitt held up a big board featuring messages referring to Smith attending a “Hawks” game and suggested they contradicted Smith’s testimony that he had not been in Atlanta.
Smith, 57, explained that he had actually gone to see college basketball star Caitlin Clark play, with Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar pointing out that Clark played for the Iowa Hawkeyes, not the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, as Schmitt had thought.
Schmitt’s mistake was compounded by having called Smith a “total dirtbag” while pressing the allegation, which Klobuchar said the senator should apologize for. He declined, and instead went on The Charlie Kirk Show, where the hosts bizarrely celebrated the botched exchange as a triumph.
Schmitt continued to refuse to concede he’d made an error, according to Mediaite, even after being told by a reporter that there was footage of Smith at the Iowa-Maryland game. He replied: “Great. Well, then he was at the Hawkeyes game.”
The senator later joked about the episode online, but did not respond when Fox News’ Special Report sought comment Tuesday, Mediaite reported.
The debacle came on the same day Schmitt was floated as a possible 2028 running mate for Vice President JD Vance, with the 41-year-old reportedly considering the Missouri senator among potential vice-presidential picks should he seek the presidency.
The Daily Beast has contacted Schmitt’s office for comment.
