U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with former special counsel at the Justice Department Jack Smith, in Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., US, September 29, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
Mediaite reports Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) backed out of a planned C-SPAN appearance after his planned “gotcha” of former special counsel Jack Smith went down in flames this week.
“Politico’s Dasha Burns, who also hosts Ceasefire on C-SPAN, explained in a preview of Friday’s edition of the program that “Senator Schmitt was supposed to appear on this program with Senator [Chris] Coons [D-DE], but he pulled out a day after that hearing.”
The hearing Burns was citing is the spectacular Tuesday Senate Judiciary Committee blowout where Schmitt thought he’d pressed Smith into a corner, only to discover that he was entirely wrong about his premise.
Schmitt suggested Smith had attended an Atlanta Hawks NBA game on Feb. 3, 2024, implying that Smith in Georgia to collude with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was separately prosecuting President Donald Trump.
“I definitely did not go to a Hawks game,” Smith said. “I’m sure of that.”
Bit Mediaite reports “Schmitt responded smugly, ‘I think you’ve already perjured yourself.’”
But the former special counsel later recalled that he had instead gone to the Iowa-Maryland women’s college basketball game to watch Caitlin Clark play, prompting Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) to determine that Schmitt had confused the Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
She also advised Schmitt to get his case together before lobbying insults and calling people “dirtbag.”
Republicans blasted Schmitt for his colossal error while others pretended he had not been publicly dismantled. But other Republican insiders claimed Schmitt knew his assertions about Smith were unvetted, but presented them as factual anyway.
"With correct knowledge of the conversation, Republican Senator Eric Schmitt was warned ahead of time by Republican staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Jack Smith text he wants to use to catch Smith in a line were 'unvetted,'" MS NOW anchor Michael Steele reported on Wednesday, breaking a story exclusive to the network. "Schmitt? Well, he decided to use it anyway."
Democrats like Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) mauled Schmitt, calling his mistake “abysmal” and “laughable."
Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes offered a scathing description of how Schmitt conducted himself during the confrontation, “smirking as he presented” a posterboard based on mistakes and poor research.
Other reports suggested Schmitt's gaffe was so monumental that it is already impacting the job prospects of his staff, with Ethan Harper, the general counsel to Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), expected to leave his role on Friday for the White House Staff Secretary’s office next week, according to three people familiar with the plans.
The sources said that transition was now in doubt following Schmitt's awful blunder, the people said.