Republicans came to Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing determined to prove that former special counsel Jack Smith had abused his power, lied under oath, and perhaps committed perjury. Instead, they briefly proved that Hawks and Hawkeyes are two different basketball teams.
The trouble began when Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri grilled Smith about whether he had attended an Atlanta Hawks game on Feb. 3, 2024. Schmitt suggested that Smith’s presence in Atlanta could somehow connect him to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the Georgia prosecution of Trump. Smith denied going to an Atlanta Hawks game and said he didn’t recall visiting Atlanta in his role as special counsel.
Schmitt then dramatically announced, “I think you’ve already perjured yourself,” apparently believing he had caught Smith in a lie. He concluded his questioning by calling Smith a “dirtbag” and a “villain.”
There was just one problem.
Smith had, in fact, attended a basketball game that weekend, but it was a University of Iowa Hawkeyes women’s game at the University of Maryland, where Caitlin Clark was playing. The game took place in Maryland, roughly 650 miles from Atlanta. Footage 𝕏of the game, where he can be seen in the crowd, has since circulated on social media.
At that point, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar helpfully entered the chat.
“Could it then be that the University of Iowa was the Hawkeyes?” she asked, before suggesting Schmitt might have wanted to look into the matter a little more carefully before accusing a former federal prosecutor of perjury.
So the case went from bombshell evidence of possible misconduct to someone misreading a basketball mascot in approximately the time it takes Caitlin Clark to cross half court.
To be fair, “Hawks” and “Hawkeyes” do share several letters.
“Look, nobody ever heard of Sen. Schmitt before, and nobody’s going to ever hear of him again,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “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 added that Schmitt’s questioning was “all about being the most obsequious sycophant you can be, and he proved that he was.”
“And he doesn’t even understand how much that he’s utterly humiliated himself in the eyes of the country,” he added.
The episode came during a much broader and more serious hearing in which Republicans accused Smith of running politically motivated investigations into Trump.
Of course, this is all bullshit and it’s just another in a long line of examples of Republicans running interference from Trump. But for a few glorious minutes, the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed themselves for the incompetent fools that they are.
Smith, to his credit, rejected accusations that his investigations were politically driven and said he would not be silenced by threats of prosecution.
