A certain Republican senator doesn’t want to face the Schmitt storm he started.
Politico’s Dasha Burns, who also hosts C-SPAN‘s “Ceasefire” offered an eyebrow-raising update on the senator. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) Thursday: “Now we should mention that Senator Schmitt was supposed to appear on this show with Senator (Chris) Coons, but he withdrew a day after this hearing,” Burns said in a “Ceasefire” clip. she retweeted from C-SPAN on X.
The audience Burns was referring to is the now infamouss Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, during which Schmitt completely delved into what he believed to be evidence of perjury against the former special counsel Jack Smith.
Smith, a GOP target because of his investigation into President Donald Trump’s allegations of interference in the 2020 election, appeared before the committee Tuesday to defend himself.
During the hearing, Schmitt attempted to catch Smith in potential perjury by arguing that he was in Georgia on Feb. 3, 2024, to watch an Atlanta Hawks game.
Win McNamee via Getty Images
After much confusion at the hearing and a lot of back and forth, it was revealed that Smith had indeed gone to a ‘Hawks’ game that day, but it wasn’t in Atlanta. Instead, he attended a university in Iowa Hawk Eye women’s basketball game against the Maryland Terrapins — in College Park, Maryland.
Like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) reported during and after the hearingin the Midwest, the Hawkeyes are commonly referred to as the “Hawks”.
After announcing that Schmitt would be MIA in the clip shared on Thursday
“If you don’t have a good answer, it’s best not to give an answer at this point,” said Republican strategist Doug Heye. “He’s not sure he’ll get a good response on this…I’ve never seen such a proactive error in a hearing before.”
Burns’ other guest, Democratic strategist Joel Payne, compared Schmitt’s reluctance to speak to the media to a popular GIF of Homer Simpson.
“I think there’s no point in keeping a low profile, especially if Senator Schmitt has big ambitions beyond this moment,” Payne said, referring to the buzz preceding his basketball mistake. Schmitt was poised to become a vice presidential pick for Republicans in the next 2028 elections.
Payne went on to explain that he thinks we’re in a current media environment in which the public tends to give “more grace to people who make these missteps in public.”
“That was a pretty big question,” Payne admitted. “But I think if you think you can leave and hide in the bushes like in the Simpsons meme, I don’t think that’s an effective strategy.”
Payne also saw no point in Smith’s hearing and felt it indicated that the current GOP agenda was falling apart. For more, watch the clip above.
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