Senator Eric Schmitt bounced from "vice-presidential pick" to social media meme after purported "slam dunk" perjury evidence against Jack Smith fell flat in a basketball mix-up. His anticipated moment of triumph against the former special counsel crumbled when it became clear he had mistaken the Iowa Hawkeyes college women's team for the Atlanta Hawks NBA franchise in key "gotcha" questioning aimed at placing Smith in Atlanta. The Missouri Republican had been the subject of a glowing Axios story Tuesday morning.
By the afternoon, however, clips of Schmitt's failed attempt to accuse Smith of perjury had gone viral. Newsweek has reached out to Schmitt via email for comment. On Tuesday morning, Schmitt was the subject of an Axios report highlighting his growing relationship with Vice President JD Vance and describing him as a potential 2028 running mate.
"We hear the VP views Schmitt, 51, as trustworthy, intelligent, articulate and a deft political operator," the story read. Suggesting that he has "grown close to Vice President Vance and is seen as a top prospect to become a potential 2028 running mate." Within hours, however, the Missouri Republican's day had taken a dramatically different turn from fellow senators and much of the internet. Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led two criminal cases against Donald Trump in 2023, was at the center of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday where Schmitt raised serious perjury allegations against him.
Calling Smith a "dirtbag," Schmitt suggested the prosecutor may have been in Atlanta around the same time key developments were unfolding in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' case against Trump, raising the prospect of improper coordination. Smith, looking bewildered, denied having been to an Atlanta Hawks game, but Schmitt did not let it go. "What would you say if I said I have a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warrior-Hawks game on February 3rd 2024," Schmitt asked, as behind him a large board was briefly shown displaying messages from the senator’s staff.
Schmitt initially refused to again show the text messages on the board, saying to Smith "I don’t think you know that we have this stuff." The messages on the board did not appear to reference any basketball team or game. "I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing right around that time," Smith offered. The apparent flaw in Schmitt's accusation emerged minutes later when Senator Amy Klobuchar suggested he may have confused the Atlanta Hawks with the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, the team Caitlin Clark played for at the time.
"Could it then be that University of Iowa is the Hawkeyes?…That might be the confusion over the names of the team," she said. It later emerged that there is even footage showing Smith in the crowd at the February 3, 2024, Maryland-Iowa game, appearing to confirm his account that he had attended the match featuring Caitlin Clark rather than an NBA matchup in Atlanta. It was here that Schmitt's "gotcha" moment began to unravel.
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