Rep. Jamie Raskin tore into Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt after the Missouri senator’s attempt to confront former special counsel Jack Smith over an alleged secret meeting spectacularly unraveled over one very important detail: the wrong basketball team.
The extraordinary exchange unfolded during Smith’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republicans repeatedly attacked the former special counsel over his investigations of Donald Trump.
Schmitt thought he had something bigger.
He asked Smith whether he had attended a February 3, 2024 NBA game between the Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors in Atlanta.
Smith said no.
Schmitt then produced text messages he claimed contradicted Smith’s testimony, warning Smith to process what he was seeing so he wouldn’t “perjure yourself.”
The implication was serious. Schmitt was attempting to connect Smith to Atlanta, where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was separately prosecuting Trump over efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election result.
But there was a rather enormous problem with the supposed bombshell.
Smith eventually remembered that he had attended a basketball game that day — but not in Atlanta.
He was in Maryland watching Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes play the University of Maryland.
Hawkeyes.
Not Hawks.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar highlighted the apparent mix-up during the hearing, and Schmitt’s attempted gotcha quickly became one of the viral moments of the day.
That would have been embarrassing enough.
But Schmitt had already gone considerably further during his questioning, telling Smith that he would “go down as a total dirtbag.”
Hours later, CNN’s Erin Burnett asked Rep. Jamie Raskin whether Schmitt might now apologize.
Raskin did not expect one.
Instead, the Maryland Democrat unloaded.
“Nobody ever heard of Senator Schmitt before. And nobody’s gonna ever hear of him again,” Raskin said.
“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.”
Raskin argued that the episode reflected something larger about the way Trump’s allies approached Smith’s testimony, accusing Schmitt of trying to demonstrate his loyalty to the president.
“And he doesn’t even understand how much that he’s utterly humiliated himself in the eyes of the country,” Raskin said.
Raskin also characterized Schmitt’s questioning as an attempted “perjury trap” that had backfired.
Schmitt, for his part, did not exactly concede defeat afterward.
When a reporter asked whether Smith had perjured himself, Schmitt responded: “We’ll find out.”
The episode became even more striking because Smith had appeared before the committee to answer questions about matters considerably more consequential than basketball.
Smith defended the criminal investigations he led into Trump and told senators that his team had developed evidence that, in his assessment, supported the charges brought against Trump.
Republicans aggressively challenged Smith’s conduct and investigative tactics throughout the hearing. Schmitt’s basketball exchange, however, rapidly overshadowed much of that questioning.
Even CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who said he likes Schmitt and considers him a good senator, acknowledged that the episode was a “rough moment” and “obviously” a mistake.
Raskin was considerably less charitable.
What was apparently intended to undermine Jack Smith’s credibility instead left a Republican senator explaining why the Atlanta Hawks had somehow become confused with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
And Raskin made sure the country heard about it.
About the Author
