Congress
Eric Schmitt defends mix-up that led to viral gaffe during Jack Smith’s hearing
Sen. Eric Schmitt expressed no remorse Wednesday for falsely accusing Jack Smith of lying to Congress about attending a basketball game as a guise to investigate President Donald Trump — and for creating a viral moment that critics have seized on to undercut the GOP’s case against the former special counsel.
“He has lied before to Congress,” Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, said in an interview about whether he regretted calling Smith a liar for denying he was at an event he never attended.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning, Schmitt was gearing up to deal what he thought would be a crushing blow to Smith, a longtime GOP target for his handling of two criminal prosecutions against Trump during the Biden administration.
Armed with an elaborate poster displaying text messages where Smith and a colleague discussed seating arrangements for a basketball game, Schmitt was attempting to prove that Smith secretly traveled to Atlanta to watch a home game between the Hawks and the Golden State Warriors as a guise to conspire with Fani Willis — a disgraced local prosecutor who was also pursuing criminal charges against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Smith was flummoxed by the accusation, with Schmitt saying he would give the witness “a second to process it so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself.”
But the attempt backfired when Smith soon realized he had in fact gone to a basketball game the night of Feb. 3, 2024, but not an NBA game in Atlanta, rather a women’s game in College Park between the Maryland Terrapins and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
“It’s because Caitlin Clark was coming to Maryland to play,” said Smith of the star women’s basketball player who was then playing for the Iowa team.
Schmitt said in an interview Wednesday that the mix-up was due to the fact that there were no other NBA games that same night with a 7:30 p.m. starting time.
“Well, we had text messages from [Smith’s] team that he was at a basketball game, and the only game at 7:30 tip-off in the NBA was in Atlanta,” Schmitt said, adding, “I didn’t know he was a Caitlin Clark fan. Now we know.”
Ken Paxton, the Republican Texas Senate nominee, announced a new $20 million ad buy in the state ahead of November’s crucial election.
The ad — which will begin running Friday in Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio before expanding statewide — is one of the largest-ever single media investments in a Texas Senate race.
“This major media buy is about one thing: making sure every Texan in every corner of this state knows exactly what’s at stake in this race,” said Nick Maddux, senior strategist for the Paxton campaign, in a statement. “We built this campaign to go up early, stay up, and never go dark, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
The Senate race between Paxton, Texas’ attorney general, and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico is quickly becoming one of the most expensive races in the history of the Lone Star state. Earlier this month, AdImpact found collective spending on advertising by the two campaigns and supporting groups totaled more than $153 million.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a top GOP super PAC closely aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, has committed millions to Paxton. Meanwhile, Senate Majority PAC, aligned with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, announced only Tuesday it would begin running ads hitting Paxton, though the PAC did not provide a figure for the campaign.
Still, Talarico has garnered support through other means. He raised a record-breaking $30 million from April to June.
The race remains tight. Recent polls show Talarico up by anywhere from 1 to 6 percentage points over Paxton.
A House-passed bill to restrict members of Congress from buying and selling stocks failed on the Senate floor Wednesday in a party-line vote, with Democrats insisting it would not do enough to curb lawmakers’ trading.
Senators voted 53-47 on advancing the Stop Insider Trading Act, short of the 60 votes needed. Every Democratic and independent senator voted to reject the measure, which would prohibit members and their spouses from purchasing individual stocks and institute new reporting requirements.
Among other criticisms, Democrats argued the bill would not require lawmakers to sell stocks they already own.
“The Republican toothless stock trading bill is as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor Wednesday. “This bill has no reform, no accountability, no substance.”
Most Democrats also refused to support the bill because of voter ID requirements that were added into the bill, including some that are part of the GOP’s stalled SAVE America Act. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) called those “a poison pill” in his own floor remarks Wednesday.
Other Democrats also wanted to see the bill’s trading restrictions extended to White House personnel, including the president.
Thirteen House Democrats joined Republicans to pass the legislation in July. The White House issued a statement of support for the legislation at the time.
The stock-trading measure was among the final items of Senate business before the chamber adjourns for the midterms. Congressional stock trading has emerged as a campaign talking point in both parties as allegations of insider trading garner significant public scrutiny. Calls for a member trading ban have become a fixture of campaign ads and stump speeches and were even seen at the GOP’s September convention in Dallas.
Republicans were ready to champion the bill’s passage on the campaign trail, but they are now likely to attack Democrats for blocking the measure. GOP Sens. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Jon Husted of Ohio, both in tight reelection races, helped roll out the legislation.
“We need to restore the faith of the American people in the House and in the Senate,” Ricketts said on the floor Wednesday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday progress on a new party-line spending bill is an “option” after the midterms — but cautioned that he still didn’t see a path to getting 50 votes.
Thune spoke with Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Wednesday morning.
“Obviously we’re continuing to track and see what what is achievable and what we can get the votes for,” Thune said, adding that it’s “difficult.”
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