In Sen. Eric Schmitt's effort to trip up former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith on Tuesday, the Missouri Republican seemed to mistake basketball teams playing about 650 miles apart.
Schmitt accused Smith of perjuring himself during a Senate hearing after repeatedly prodding him about whether he'd attended an NBA game in Atlanta on the evening of Feb. 3, 2024. The hometown Hawks were playing the Golden State Warriors.
Schmitt appeared to be trying to set Smith in Atlanta at the time Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was facing scrutiny for her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special state prosecutor she hired for the county's election-interference case against Trump.
“So your testimony today is that you did not go to a Hawks game on Feb. 3, 2024. Is that correct?” Schmitt asks sharply. “What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warriors-Hawks game on Feb. 2, 2024?”
Smith said he didn't think he had visited Atlanta as special prosecutor, and was even more certain he hadn't attended an Atlanta Hawks game.
"You will go down as a total dirtbag," Schmitt fired back, also claiming Smith had perjured himself.
Smith did, however, recall attending a University of Iowa women's game at the University of Maryland on Feb. 3, 2024, recalling the game as one where then-Iowa star Caitlin Clark was playing.
“Could it then be that the University of Iowa was the Hawkeyes?” Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota interjected. “Perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully.”
WCCO Political Analyst Blois Olson notes that for Klobuchar, who is running for governor in Minnesota, it's a moment voters are likely to notice, especially with how viral the clips have become on social media.
"Having seen Senator Klobuchar for a long time, I would just say this is an example of where you can see wow whip smart she can be at certain times," Olson adds. "But my favorite part of the video, if people haven't watched it or they're gonna watch it again, is to watch the staff behind the Senator Schmitt. Because you can tell they're like, whoops, we got this one wrong, or he got this one wrong. Because they just start looking at each other like 'ohhhh.'"
Associated Press reporter Thomas Beaumont contributed to this story.
Sen. @Eric_Schmitt (R-MO) says Jack Smith perjured himself after questioning him about being at a basketball game, insinuating that during that time he was actually meeting with a district attorney who prosecuted President Trump, calling him a "total dirtbag." pic.twitter.com/czh5Huof4P
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 29, 2026
