On Wednesday, following Senate Republicans’ failed attempt at cornering former Special Counsel Jack Smith into perjury, longtime conservative commentator Charlie Sykes — who broke with the GOP over its embrace of President Donald Trump — explained why this “epic political faceplant” will backfire in the midterms. According to Sykes, the “humiliating” incident only proved to voters that Republicans are incompetent and slavishly devoted to their historically unpopular president.
Smith was appearing before a Senate hearing in which Republicans intended to expose the partisan nature of his investigations into Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election and mishandling of classified documents, but as Sykes explains, the whole thing fell apart “spectacularly” on live television. “Even the most cynical longtime observers of performative senatorial idiocy were gobsmacked,” writes Sykes. “And the remarkable thing is that it was even viler and dumber than it looked.”
As the New York Times explains, “It was meant to be a dramatic confrontation, a public accusation of perjury against Jack Smith, the special counsel who investigated Donald J. Trump. Instead, Senator Eric Schmitt’s amateur sleuthing into basketball led him to the wrong game, league and state.” According to Sykes, “Strutting and smug, Schmitt tried to make the case that Smith perjured himself when he said he had not gone to an Atlanta Hawks basketball game to meet with Fani Willis — the Fulton County DA who also prosecuted President Donald Trump… Schmitt unveiled what he thought was his smoking gun,” claiming he had text messages that revealed Smith was in Atlanta at a Warriors-Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024. Schmitt even had a big poster board displaying the messages, which Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) helped hold up with a defiant glare on his face. “I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself,” a smirking Schmitt said. But he was already confident that he had cornered Smith, declaring, “I think you’ve already perjured yourself,” and calling Smith a “dirtbag.”
“Within moments, with stunned fellow senators looking on, it became clear that it was Schmitt himself who was the ‘total dirtbag,’” writes Sykes. “Because, as it turned out, Schmitt had gotten the entire story wrong. He had confused the Atlanta Hawks with the University of Iowa Hawkeyes….Schmitt’s entire gotcha crumbled.”
In Sykes’ estimation, this “humiliation” hurts the GOP in several regards. “By holding this hearing, the GOP dramatically reminded voters that their party leader had engaged in ‘serious crimes against our nation,’” writes Sykes. “The hearing also reminded people about the GOP’s priorities and its slavish devotion to defending their convicted-felon master. With Trump’s approval rating sinking toward the Nixon Line, Republicans formed a phalanx of rationalizations, conspiracy theories, and smears to justify Trump’s campaign of retribution.” What’s more, notes Sykes, “The hearing was also a reminder — weeks before midterms — that every vote for a Republican is a vote to put the gavel in the hands of these guys.”