Sen. Eric Schmitt's attempted perjury set-up becomes historic meltdown

Christy Strawser (0:01)

The day's biggest stories, the people behind the headlines, the conversations you won't hear anywhere else. I'm Christy Strawser, you're listening to Audacy's On Deadline. You know the scene in every gunslinger movie where the guy with the weapon kicks in the door, bent on serving justice, everyone else in the room cowers? Apparently, Senator Eric Schmitt thought he was the main character of the Senate hearing with special counsel Jack Smith. Schmitt thought he had a smoking gun tying Smith to Fannie Willis, the Atlanta attorney who prosecuted Donald Trump for alleged election interference. Turns out, Schmitt quickly realized he had confused Smith's attendance at an Iowa Hawkeyes basketball game with an Atlanta Hawks game. Poised to claim Smith was masterminding a Trump takedown in Atlanta, the world watched him figure out in real time that Smith was watching Caitlin Clark play many states away. He tried to move on without acknowledging he had confused the teams, but he'd put it on a huge poster board. The damage was done.

QC spans lingering zoom on Schmitt's staffer's faces. Shock, dropped jaws, clenched teeth and wide eyes. It had many, many users on X comparing the moment to a scene from The Office.

Others heard it with the music from Curb Your Enthusiasm in the background. Here's a take from Dave Glover and St. Louis.

Dave Glover (1:10)

Okay, so we're going to play the sound for you because the sound is awesome. And I've listened to it three or four times and O'Wheels has too. But I always like to give you a little flavor of it, just so when you're listening, you can know what's going on.

Jack Schmitt's special counsel, Smith, was being cross-examined today by the Senate. And Eric Schmitt's up there on the little dais. And what he was trying to do was establish that Jack Smith was in the hoots with Fonny Willis when she announced that she was having an affair with one of her co-prosecutors.

And so he's placing him in Atlanta, Georgia on this certain day. And the way he's doing it is by proving through a text message between he and his people, that he had tickets to the Atlanta Hawks game on this day. Therefore, you're in Atlanta. Therefore, you are a co-conspirator. And therefore, you are a felon. And when Jack Smith denies it, he says, You're perjuring yourself. It's such an embarrassment. And when he holds up this big picture of the text message, he goes, I'm going to give you a minute to let this process, because I don't think you knew we had this evidence. And then pretty quickly, they put it down, and Klobuchar is making a big deal out of it.

SPEAKER_3 (2:31)

Pretty quickly, it was like eight seconds.

Dave Glover (2:33)

Yeah. And they're like, Hey, could maybe the witness see this exhibit? And he's like, I think you've seen it enough.

Bottom line is Schmitt made an ass out of himself. He humiliated the state of Missouri. Turns out he was at a basketball game. He was at a Hawkeyes game. And this is how it sounded.

Eric Schmitt (2:53)

Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024?

Jack Smith (3:00)

I'm sorry, could you say that again?

Eric Schmitt (3:01)

Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024?

Jack Smith (3:08)

What city would that be in?

Eric Schmitt (3:09)

Atlanta.

Jack Smith (3:10)

No.

Eric Schmitt (3:11)

Okay. What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warrior Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024, the day after Willis and Wade announced their affair?

I don't think you know that we have this stuff. So I'll give you a second to process it so you don't, you know, perjure yourself.

Jack Smith (3:32)

You just took it down really quick. If I could look at that again, if this is the correct basketball game, I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing right around that time, and the Marshall Service was there with me. You could check if that was the exact date. It was Maryland playing Iowa, I think, February of 2024 But again, you could check that out if that's what we're talking about.

Amy Klobuchar (4:07)

Could it then be that the University of Iowa is the Hawkeyes? Could that be it? Maybe before we show this kind of thing?

I know, but if he was at an Iowa game, is that correct?

Jack Smith (4:21)

It was because Caitlin Clark was coming to Maryland to play.