Schmitt and His Show
When decisions to get that viral moment go way, way wrong…
If you’d like these posts delivered directly to you, subscribe to the Decisions newsletter now!
(No – I didn’t miss the obvious phrasing for the title – just didn’t feel comfortable with it…)
On Tuesday, Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt thought he had former special counsel Jack Smith dead to rights.
Schmitt had his staff hold up a poster board in the Senate Judiciary hearing room with three text messages from Smith’s team. Schmitt told Smith that he’d give him a moment to process it “so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself.” [1]
Schmitt asked Smith if he went to a Warriors-Hawks NBA game in Atlanta on February 3, 2024; Smith said no.
The poster showed a text from Smith’s team: “is 109 Row 1 reserved for Jack?” Schmitt believed that this showed that Smith attended the Atlanta game while he was in that city to meet with Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who was also prosecuting then former President Donald Trump at the time.
And that “no” was proof enough for Schmitt: “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.” [2]
But what happened next is rarely witnessed in real life – it’s usually seen in Warner Bros. cartoons where Wile E. Coyote blows himself up in pursuit of the Roadrunner.
Smith got a look at the poster and remembered that he did attend a basketball game on that day – but it was a University of Maryland women’s basketball game where they were playing the University of Iowa – the team with the star Caitlin Clark.
Iowa? Could that instead be… not the Hawks, but the… Hawkeyes?
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar asked Schmitt if he may have the teams mixed up. Talking Points Memo actually checked the seating charts and found that Atlanta’s arena labels their rows in section 109 with letters, not numbers – so there was no “109 row 1” at the game on which Schmitt was fixated; [3] there was even a video showing Smith at the Maryland game, sitting in row 1. [4]. MS NOW’s Chris Hayes has a pretty good rundown of the entire end-to-end episode. [5]
This is one of the most obvious examples of poor decision making - conviction that he was already right about a grand conspiracy, an anecdote in hand that proves it, and no further checking needed to move forward with accusations of perjury.
No checking other data. It took only a few hours for news outlets to fact-check Schmitt – something his staff obviously should have done themselves.
Certainly, an explosive backfire - but let’s not forget what the hearing was about. Schmitt’s efforts were intended to discredit Smith because the investigations he led against President Trump were powerful.
The truth of what underlies this spectacle matters.
Trump was indicted for leading a conspiracy to defraud the nation, obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election, and prevent the peaceful transition of power. [6] For a free self-governing republic, preventing the people from selecting their leaders and constitutionally transitioning that power to them is one of the greatest crimes against the republic.
Smith filed his report on his January 6 investigation last year – Volume One of his special counsel cases can be found here. [7]
Congress also documented their findings in their full January 6 Committee report (it’s a very large file consisting of a deeply researched record comprising 845 pages and 99 MB – if you open it, it may take time to load). [8]
Trump was further indicted on more than 37 counts of obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and unlawful possession of classified documents. [9] The term “mishandling” of classified documents doesn’t quite describe how serious these offenses are. The classification of these documents - at the TOP SECRET and higher levels – indicates that the unauthorized disclosure of the information contained in these documents could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security. [10]
Smith gave an overview of what his investigation found and the strength of the evidence to the Senate Judiciary committee this week: [11]
Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation.
If asked whether to prosecute a former president today, based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.
The charges against President Trump were the result of the evidence.
Grand juries in two separate districts reached this conclusion based on his actions, as alleged in the indictments they returned.
Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.
After leaving office in January of 2021, President Trump illegally kept classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Social Club and repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.
Highly sensitive national security information was held in a bathroom and a ballroom, where events and gatherings took place.
Unfortunately, Volume Two of Smith’s report, documenting his evidence in this case, has been permanently blocked by U.S District Court Aileen Cannon; she granted motions from Trump and other co-defendants to prohibit the volume’s release and hide the truth contained in those pages. [12]
However, recent events in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals may breathe new life into allowing the volume to be released; the Court has moved up the date for oral argument to November 2, the day before Election Day. According to former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, it had been languishing, not to be heard until after the first of the year, even though the briefing in the case is complete. [13]
In the end, Schmitt looked for his viral moment… and he certainly got it.
Notes and Sources
[1] PBS NewsHour, “WATCH: Schmitt suggested Jack Smith perjured himself about a basketball game, but mixed up 2 teams,” YouTube video, September 29, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BwxhZpec4M
[2] Ibid.
[3] Hunter Walker, “New Evidence Shows Just How Badly One Republican Senator Beclowned Himself in the Jack Smith Hearing,” Talking Points Memo, September 29, 2026, https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/eric-schmitt-jack-smith-hawks-hawkeyes
[4] MeidasTouch Network, “Footage of Jack Smith at Iowa vs. Maryland game surfaces, further humiliating GOP Sen. Schmitt,” YouTube video, September 29, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ud99jWWUqkE
[5] All In with Chris Hayes, “'COMPLETE DOOFUS': GOP’s Jack Smith ‘smoking gun’ CRUMBLES over Caitlin Clark game,” MS NOW, YouTube video, September 29, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhFJ0-KyKSk&t=102s
[6] United States v. Trump, 1:23-cr-00257, (D.D.C.), Document 1, August 1, 2023, https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf
[7] Special Counsel Jack Smith, “Final Report on the Special Counsel’s Investigations and Prosecutions, Volume One: The Election Case, Report on Efforts to Interfere with the Lawful Transfer of Power Following the 2020 Presidential Election or the Certification of Electoral College Vote Held on January 6, 2021,” January 7, 2025, https://www.justice.gov/storage/Report-of-Special-Counsel-Smith-Volume-1-January-2025.pdf
[8] Final Report, Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, 117th Congress Second Session, House Report 117-663, December 22, 2022, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/pdf/GPO-J6-REPORT.pdf
[9] United States v. Trump, 9:23-cr-80101, (S.D. Fla.), Document 85, July 27, 2023, https://www.justice.gov/storage/US-v-Trump-Nauta-De-Oliveira-23-80101.pdf
[10] “Information Security,” Department of the Army, retrieved October 3, 2026, https://www.dami.army.pentagon.mil/site/infosec/TP-levels.aspx
[11] PBS NewsHour, “WATCH: Jack Smith's full opening statement in Senate Judiciary hearing on Trump investigations,” YouTube video, September 29, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1esQRfJupM
[12] Jacob Cohen and Melissa Quinn, “Judge permanently blocks release of Jack Smith's report on Trump classified documents case,” CBS News, February 23, 2026, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-classified-documents-case-judge-blocks-jack-smith-special-counsel-report/
[13] Joyce Vance, “Finally. Volume II,” Civil Discourse by Joyce Vance, Substack, October 1, 2026, https://joycevance.substack.com/p/finally-volume-ii
Decisions with Mic Farris
Seek Truth. Honor Differences.
