Mister Mix wrote this morning about this circus event in the Jack Smith Senate hearings yesterday, but I want to look at it from a couple of other different angles. MM comes at it from the “Republicans don’t know how to run in competitive campaigns” angle, which is a great point.
My foci are somewhat related but ones which I think can - and should - be used by Democrats running against the Schmitts and Hawleys of the world.
Angle #1: These are not serious people worthy of office. There are two explanations for Schmitt’s attempt at smearing Smith and accusing Smith of perjuring himself: 1) he knew what he was saying was false but did it anyway (this will play into Angle #2), or 2) he and his staff are incompetent.
I’m going with the latter explanation. It looks like Schmitt and his staff were confused between the NBA Atlanta Hawks and the collegiate Iowa Hawkeyes (Smiht repolled that he had attended a collegiate women’s basketball game in February between the Maryland Terps and the Iowa Hawkeyes). In addition, on the poster board that flashed on the screen, one of the key pieces of information was that Smith would be sitting in “109 Row 1”. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that State Farm Arena, the facility where the Atlanta Hawks play their home basketball games, does not have a 109 Row 1.
Additionally, Schmitt’s Missouri Senatorial brother-in-arms Josh Hawley also accused Smith of perjury in yesterday’s hearing. This was in relation to whether or not Smith had lied when asked whether or not he had requested text messages from phone companies during the Arctic Frost investigation that included members of Congress. Without getting into the weeds, again, even the most minor dollop of competence would make it easy to find out that Smith’s team did obtain text messages, but they came from the National Archives and not phone companies. In specific context, that is not perjury because Smith was answering a specific question about phone records.
In line with the rest of the Trump admin and today’s Republican Party, this is simply gross incompetence.
It is also not the kind of “mistake” you will find Democrats making (especially in a coordinated manner), because, generally speaking, Democrats actually care about facts and truth and governing and competency.
Which brings me to…
Angle #2: These are bad people. Accusations of perjury are serious allegations, not to be taken lightly. After Schmitt used his bogus poster at the hearing to allege that Smith had somehow colluded with Fani Willis to do… something bad, he specifically said to Smith, “I think you've already sufficiently answered. I want to run through—we'll put it in a follow-up. You can respond. I think you've already perjured yourself, but.” A bot later in the hearing, Schmitt followed up his perjury accusation with this lovely statement, “You have weaponized the Department of Justice against political enemies to an extent that has never happened in the history of this country. You will go down as a total dirtbag.”
Again, in line with the rest of the Trump admin and today’s Republican Party, and notwithstanding the lack of self-reflection and irony in who will and will not be considered a “dirtbag”, and who and who has not “weaponized the Department of Justice against political enemies”, Schmitt, Hawley, John Kenenedy (who helped hold up the bogus poster in the hearing) and the rest of the Senate Republicans are clearly acting in bad faith with complete disregard for truth, facts and the rule of law. Their sole goal is to discredit anyone who disagrees or opposes both Trump the Savior and their hold on power.
One more point. Jon Light at Talking Points Memo has a great take on this whole sordid affair. In his post, he questions whether or not the Schmitt accusations were more of a coordinated media set-up to highlight Schimtt himself. He notes,
Immediately after Schmitt exited the hearing, Benny Johnson, an omnipresent right-wing poster who is part of the Turning Point USA world, wrote on X that Schmitt had “CAUGHT Jack Smith perjuring himself on the stand in his testimony.” Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, posted on X celebrating how Schmitt had put Smith “on the spot.” Neither man apparently caught what happened moments later, when those claims began to fall apart.
As Hunter noted, Schmitt was soon on a Turning Point USA broadcast where the host declared, “Jack Smith is a total dirtbag and you caught him out on this NBA game … in Atlanta … It was a great moment. Good for you on that.”
Schmitt, for his part, seemed to be aware by this point that things had not gone to plan.
“I don’t — you know here’s the thing — my job is to ask the questions. He’s already — and if that’s what his answer is — then that’s what his answer is,” he said. Hard to argue with that.
Schmitt’s icarus moment also came on the same day Axios ran a piece headlined “(Love that “Icarus moment”Sen. Eric Schmitt is drawing buzz as a possible Vance VP in 2028,” written by the site’s co-founder and CEO Jim VandeHei.
Schmitt’s staff may have set their boss up for a big day around his big moment. But, to echo another famous conspiracy theorist, the intel on this wasn’t 100%.
(Love the ”Icarus moment” phrasing!).
Finally, this episode highlights another problem with our system - the lack of accountability for elected officials. Schmitt accused Smith of perjury. That in itself is a direct and verifiable lie. Schmitt is the one who should face consequences. Of course, he will not (other than some ridicule in mainly progressive media outlets which will be forgotten when the next item takes over the news cycle). And so it goes…
To summarize, Schmitt and his fellow Republican electeds are both incompetent and malicious. They don’t care about governing in any real sense or doing their jobs on behalf of the people of the United States. They care about protecting their own and maintaining power at all costs, even if it involves debasing themselves to those of us who are not fully unindoctrinated into the Trump/MAGA/Republican cult.
Good fodder for Democrats to use against people who Mister Mix points out are not used to - and pretty bad at - campaigning in a competitive race.
Alan Parsons Project - Too Close to the Sun
