Just as quickly as Sen. Eric Schmitt came onto the national political scene, he was humiliated by his own doing.
The same day, Axios published a short piece asserting that Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, had grown close to Vice President JD Vance in recent months and had been floated as a potential prospect to be his running mate in 2028.
Later that same day, he was name-dropped; he effectively made a fool of himself during a high-profile Senate hearing.
During a hearing involving former special counsel Jack Smith, Schmitt dramatically accused former special counsel Jack Smith of perjury, but seemed to have all of the supporting evidence wrong.
He began by asking Smith about apparent attendance at a basketball game in Atlanta in 2024, as he tried to claim that Smith was hanging with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was prosecuting Trump at the time.
Smith appeared confused at first by the line of questioning because, as it turned out, Schmitt had completely mixed up the location, the team, and even the level of sport.
“Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3, 2024?” Schmitt asked.
“What state would that be in?” Smith asked, appearing confused.
“Atlanta,” Schmitt responded. (Atlanta is not a U.S. state.) “So your testimony today is that you did not go to a Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024. Is that correct?”
“I have no recollection of that,” Smith confirmed, and then accused him of perjury.
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota then gave Smith a moment to explain where he really was, as she asked that Smith be allowed to review the alleged texts placing him in Atlanta, in which his blunder was revealed.
“If this is the correct basketball game, I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing right around that time, and the Marshal Service was there with me,” Smith explained.
“You can check if that was the exact date. It was Maryland playing Iowa, I think, in February 2024,” he added. “You can check that out if that’s what we’re talking about.”
“Could it then be that the University of Iowa is the Hawkeyes? Could that be it?” Klobuchar asked, to which Smith confirmed that yes, it was.
While it remains unclear if Schmitt is still under consideration for the Republican ticket in 2028 after the national embarrassment, he has stood by his false assertions that Smith was in Atlanta that day. Axios has not offered an update to the story, which was only two paragraphs to begin with.
Meanwhile, MAGA media is desperately trying to spin his embarrassing bluff.
“Jack Smith is a total dirtbag, and you caught him out on this NBA game too, by the way, in Atlanta,” Andrew Kolvet, host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” said. “It was a great moment, so good for you.”
Schmitt also stood by his presentation, telling HuffPost that Smith could have simply lied about his whereabouts.
“I don’t know if Jack Smith’s lying or not. It was the only game ― Atlanta was the only NBA game or men’s college basketball game that night at 7:30,” Schmitt said, adding, “I asked him if he was in Atlanta. He said he was not in Atlanta. Jack Smith has lied before.”
