On Tuesday Senator Eric Schmitt treated us to quite a show. See, the GOP had brought Jack Smith in to rile up their base by complaining about how he dared to prosecute President Grievance in lieu of coming up with actual solutions to the problems that the nation is facing.
It was clear that they had diligently prepared for their questioning periods:
actual questions from John Kennedy to Jack Smith: "Do you believe in the Tooth Fairy? How about the Easter bunny?"
But Schmitt was the true overachiever of the day. Here’s the whole thing:
A phenomenal moment in the Senate.Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., claims he has evidence Jack Smith went to a HAWKS game in Atlanta.Smith denies it.Schmitt declares he has busted Jack Smith for perjury.Smith, vexed, says he went to HAWKEYES game in Maryland.WATCH IN FULL, UNINTERRUPTED
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur.bsky.social) 2026-09-29T15:54:16.518Z
Look how puffy and grand he is as he starts in on his questions. He’s practically quivering with excitement. He’s been dreaming of this moment for years—he’s going to catch Jack Smith in perjury. He’s already planned out how he’ll conduct his victory tour on FOX and maybe even CNN would have him on. It would be just like when Raphie wrote the magic essay:
Only there was one problem—Smith didn’t look like someone who had been caught in a lie. He looked like someone who suddenly had to interact with a crazy person. And Schmitt seemed to realize that something was wrong—watch how discombobulated he gets and how he refuses to show the poster again.
Also, please note who jumped in to be part of this historic moment:
And of course we know Amy Kloubuchar jumped in and started the process of clearing up what actually happened.
But the larger question is how did that all even get that far? Because it appears that all of this was elaborately staged in right wing social media—for example, look at this post from Russia-paid Benny Johnson (which was community-noted and thus subsequently deleted):
It’s clear from the composition of that post that he had that ready to go once Schmitt launched into his diatribe. And then there was this Axios story obviously coordinated to run Tuesday morning:
My best guess as to how this shit show got green lit is the GOP’s over-reliance on AI. I’ve written before about how using AI destroys your ability to think critically because there were ways to check to make sure that none of these losers would make utter fools of themselves. One was simply to ask why would someone who wanted to conduct nefarious business have his staff discuss his travel plans in their own messages? He knew they would be discoverable in litigation. Wouldn’t it be simpler for Smith to have traveled incognito? Or simply called Fani Willis on the phone?
Or what about simply checking to see if the seat referenced in the texts actually existed at the arena in Atlanta:
The poster board in question showed a message dated February 3, 2024 from Smith’s deputy special counsel J.P. Cooney asking another man, “Is 109 Row 1 reserved for Jack?”
That message, TPM found, actually makes clear that Smith’s colleagues were not talking about an Atlanta Hawks game. The Hawks and the Warriors did play against each other on the evening in question at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. However, seating maps on multiple ticketing sites show that State Farm Arena uses alphabetical convention for rows in section 109 rather than a numerical system. Social media posts from fans also indicate this system was in place in 2024.
In other words, there was no “109 Row 1” at the game Schmitt was fixated on.
Schmitt was all set to ride the big wave all the way to the 2028 shore. And even though his big GOTCHA! moment went up in flames, the clown show must go on, so Schmitt showed up on The Charlie Kirk Show to pretend Kloubuchar hadn’t pantsed him. You gotta admire his commitment to the bit.
I’ll leave you with this (and h/t to Our Fearless Leader Adrastos for his collaboration on the title and tagline):
“One was simply to ask why would someone who wanted to conduct nefarious business have his staff discuss his travel plans in their own messages? He knew they would be discoverable in litigation. Wouldn’t it be simpler for Smith to have traveled incognito? Or simply called Fani Willis on the phone?”
This is where my mind went. You know how on those clip shows they’ll set up a video and you can tell it’s going to end badly. But the prerequisite question is, “What would success look like?” When the hapless dolt gets body-slammed into a wall or takes a direct hit to the nuts, I often can’t for the life of me figure out what they thought was going to happen.
Same with Schmitt. “Whoa, I got Jack Smith in Atlanta the day after Fani Willis’ affair with a staffer is uncovered.” Two responses: Yeah? So? Even if this terrible transgression of being in the same area code as another person is true, so what? Did Schmitt think Jack Smith would look one way, then the other, then bolt up out of his chair and flee the hearing room? What was success going to look like?
i think they honestly thought Smith was going to realize he was found out and confess to everything. lol. I watched it live and I couldn’t believe it.