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
