He made quite the error with Jack Smith, and he is getting lambasted for it. This time, it comes from Missouri’s biggest newspaper. That’s going to sting. When a newspaper in the state for which you were elected talks about someone, it should make them stop and think about what they’ve done. At this point, he needs to do some serious damage control. The best thing would be for him to put out something saying he made a mistake, but they never take the simple and embarrassing path, which would let this scandal die down. Instead, it just gets piled higher.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) valiantly (ha) tried to link the Georgia scandal to Jack Smith. Schmitt insisted Mr. Smith had been at a basketball game in Atlanta, which he was not. He was at a ball game in another state. Schmitt wouldn’t give it up. He was very quiet in his position, which says something right there, and then chose this as his hill to die on. Dude, enough already. You’re embarrassing Republicans, constituents, and Congress. Let’s hear from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editors via, and with appreciation for, Raw Story:
“Wrong teams, wrong league, wrong state,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editors wrote. “It was based entirely on that sloppy staffing that Schmitt furiously accused Smith of perjury.” “Eric Schmitt couldn’t possibly embarrass himself and his constituents any more than he already has,” the editors continued, before laying out what he’d actually done, calling it a “loony right-wing conspiracy based on some misunderstood text messages; falsely accuse a prosecutor of perjury; call him a ‘villain‘ and a ‘total dirtbag‘ — and then stand by that playground-level pejorative even after the whole thing turned out to be a lazy mistake on the part of Schmitt and his staff regarding, of all things, a basketball game.”
If you follow the link above in the paragraph, you will get a reporter’s take on what Schmitt did, which is quite entertaining. This was a huge faceplant on the part of Schmitt. And this is another one where you wonder how he keeps staff. He’s an idiot. They don’t check their sources. That’s beyond sloppy. And it’s stupid. They should have had more than one person check their information.
Schmitt obviously has no idea what he was facing with Jack Smith. Sure, Mr. Smith didn’t remember the game at first, but then stated the game he went to see. Dude wouldn‘t give up on trapping Mr. Smith. When a political writer remembers something from years ago, before becoming a political writer, he should have known about him. Jack Smith is a BIG DEAL. Holy cow, what a blunder.
And holy cow to the state that put this man in the Senate. We can hope that they read the paper, watch tv, or while away the time on social media, to kick this guy to the curb in his next election. How about a little humor before closing this column?
The editorial also took aim at how Schmitt handled the fallout. As Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) chided him for his recklessness and his “dirtbag” comment, Schmitt growled: “I stand by that statement.” The Post-Dispatch’s editors left it to readers to judge who actually earned the “dirtbag” label in the episode — “let alone ‘villain.'”
It’s constantly amazing to find out that people who are this dumb are in the world. Or this narrow-minded. Or can’t apologize. It’s not amazing to find out about MAGA. That’s been done to death. Schmitt needs to get better staff, if he can. No one may want to work for him after this little debacle. He needs to learn to say he was wrong, but he won’t. No Republican will do it, and that’s sad. One statement will make the whole episode die down. Otherwise, everyone can and will pile on. It will last longer. Great! We can get behind that.
Friends, I know everybody begs you for money. I promise you that, of all the outlets bugging you for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a bunch of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. But the rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the ability to continue our quest to tell the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
The problem comes down to the primaries, every single time. Especially when we’re talking about the Republiscum Party.
It’s ALWAYS the “die-hards” who turn out for the primary with barely any of the more casual party members turning out. So the most extreme candidate, the one who can “out-conservative” his opposition winds up getting the primary win. Then, all the more casual voters turn out in November and vote for “the guy with the ‘R’ by his name” without doing any actual research into that candidate or his worth.
And as I just said to Denis, that’s what worries me, a surprise glut of casual voters who choose whoever has the letter “R” in front of their name.
Schmitt and his staff: ‘Hawks, Hawkeyes… whatever.’ Idiots the lot of them and clearly they don’t know basketball history. Schmitt looks to be fifty years old or so, and for him his basketball knowledge is probably such that he doesn’t think there was an NBA prior to Michale Jordan. And Magic Johnson and Bird. His staff maybe know those names and that they were supposed to be ‘pretty good’ but to them the NBA wasn’t a thing prior to Lebron James.
I’m not just an old fart but once a true student of the game. Having learned so much about and modeling myself after legendary Bob Petit, and having grown up in southern IL close to the Mississippi I know the history of the Atlanta Hawks. Let’s take a trip down Irony Lane. Prior to 1968 they were the ST. LOUIS HAWKS and a top team in the NBA in the latter 1950s and early 1960s before the ascendancy of the Boston Celtics dynasty. The St. Louis Hawks won the NBA championship in 1958 and made it to the finals the following three years if memory serves. They moved to St. Louis in 1955 (I think) having joined the NBA in a merger with the old NBL where they played out of Moline, IL as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks.
They moved to Atlanta in 1968. While his staff is mostly a lot younger Schmitt is old enough if he’s the sports guy he probably portrays himself to be back home he should know at least that the Hawks used to be in his rooting territory. More to the point with no pro basketball in Missouri the most prominent basketball team in his states and to the north and west was the Iowa Hawkeyes WOMEN’S team due to Caitlyn Clark.
We don’t know what the ACTUAL text messages said (if you look at that poster they put up it wasn’t screen shots) or the context as in texts before and after but it’s a safe bet the team name Hawkeyes was in there. No doubt the text string was shown to Schmitt and while his staff idiots probably didn’t know jack HE should have noticed HawkEYE vs. Hawks and done a bit of research. AND since Smith was under threats by then and had a security detail via the U.S. Marshall’s Service checking on Smith’s whereabouts would have taken a phone call to sort out. Lazy. Sloppy. Stupid. Take your pick.
One state to the north in Iowa he pissed off a lot of Iowans who are justifiably proud of the attention Clark brought to their state. If, when her basketball career is done if she wanted to run for office she’d be a shoo-in. Given how a REPUBLICAN Senator dissed them with this fiasco might cost them at least the Senate seat up for grabs and perhaps the Governor’s Mansion too.
Schmitt has tried to maintain a smug braveness but he, and Hawley too (Hawley was also on the Judiciary panel trying to take down Smith) are likely ripping him a new one. Other Senators too for making them ALL look bad and at a time when Democrats have a real shot at regaining control of the chamber because this went viral. In the wrong way for the GOP. It’s another thing those outside the MAGA cult will have to think about as voting is getting underway.
‘Lazy. Sloppy. Stupid. Take your pick.’
You don’t have to take your pick, they’re republicans, so it’s obviously all of the above.
Your comment came up first! Fortunately, I had just swallowed my mouthful of coffee. You made me stop dead for a moment, and then laughter ensued.
I started hating Hawley on January 6, 2021, with that fist pump to the rioters. My opinion of him has gotten worse over time. He needs to lose his cushy position, and Schmitt does too. Unfortunately, I can’t express my actual thoughts because people monitor the site, as I had to change something before.
I’m worried about MAGA voters. If they come out in red states, it could be a very big problem. But with Trump begging them to vote as if he’s on the ballot, he may be convincing them to stay home, because he’s BEGGING. And that convention he tried to do only made things worse. What a debacle that was, and I’m glad.