Eric Schmidt’s failed Jack Smith trap exposes Republican propaganda

Republicans are often very good at turning events into scandals, even when no events were discovered at all. They have a keen understanding of the fundamental mechanisms by which contemporary political media reward conflict. The modern conservative machine often makes a concerted effort to create reality TV confrontations designed to galvanize the Republican base.

First, a Republican made a dramatic allegation. Conservative influencers and right-wing media then appropriately amplified the allegation until it became a viral “gotcha” moment. Republican politicians and operatives later repeated the accusation on podcasts and on Fox News. By the time anyone examined the underlying evidence, the original accusation had become a classic among conservatives.

That was clearly the ambition behind Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmidt’s performance Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with former special counsel Jack Smith. Even the title of the hearing has this in it: “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Power and Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters.” The committee, convened by 93-year-old committee chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, aims to reshape Smith, Prosecutors prosecuting Trump He became a villain who weaponized the Justice Department amid accusations he sought to overturn the 2020 election results and allegedly mishandled classified documents. Smith supported his view, emphasizing: “Our investigation proves beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump committed serious crimes against our country.”

But with the midterm elections less than a month away, Republican senators made the calculated decision on January 6 to dig through Smith’s record, desperately trying to find something — anything — to galvanize their base. They found the game of basketball confusing.

Before Tuesday’s hearing began, Schmidt looked like a man whose plans were falling into place. Earlier that morning, Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei publish A fawning announcement placed Schmidt at the top of a speculative shortlist to be Vice President J.D. Vance’s 2028 running mate, quoting admirers of the senator. “We heard that the Vice President found Schmidt trustworthy, smart, articulate and a skilled political operator,” Vandehei wrote. The rollout appears to be an effort to boost Schmidt’s national image and comes as a televised grilling of MAGA’s public enemy number one is about to begin. What happened instead was one of the most embarrassing missteps in recent Senate hearings.

Near the end of the questioning, Schmidt asked Smith if he watched the February 3, 2024, NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks. Smith looked genuinely confused and asked what city that game would be in. Schmidt said Atlanta. No, Smith replied. Schmidt then offered a hint, noting that the day before, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis acknowledged her close relationship with special counsel Nathan Wade, who is helping lead her racketeering case against Trump in Georgia. The unspoken implication was that Smith sneaked into Georgia to coordinate with Willis under the cover of a basketball game.

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Schmidt said he received a series of text messages from Smith’s team placing prosecutors on the game, and then he gave the former special prosecutor some time to think about it: “I’m going to give you a moment to process it so you don’t, you know, perjure yourself.” A staffer held up a poster board showing the alleged text, then photos of Smith, Willis and Wade and a photo of State Farm Arena, then pulled it back next to it at breakneck speed. Schmidt claimed that Smith may have committed perjury and dismissed him as a “total asshole.”

Atlanta was not mentioned at all in the newsletter. They mentioned the Eagles game. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., backtracked later in the hearing and methodically dismantled the exchange. The whole thing failed because Schmidt or his staff apparently never considered the possibility that Smith might have attended a women’s basketball game, and only one men’s basketball game corresponding to the date in question was found. game smith Attend In fact, it was a women’s college basketball game in College Park, Maryland, between the Maryland Terrapins and the Iowa Hawkeyes, a team led by Caitlin Clark. Schmidt’s entire conspiracy theory is based on basic factual incompetence.

It would be easy to dismiss this episode as pure humor. It is absurd in itself that a U.S. senator would attend a televised hearing convinced that he had caught a former special prosecutor committing perjury, only to discover that the central thread in his conspiracy theory was just a shared bird mascot. The speed with which Schmidt’s crew pulled down the poster told the entire story on camera. Realizing instantly that they have walked into a trap, the Senator’s team attempts to bury the evidence and move on before anyone notices.

But right-wing influencers are clearly a pre-planned chorus with talking points ready to deploy a second Schmidt trap. Fox News’ Sean Hannity initially applause Before Schmidt deleted his post on X, Benny Johnson claimed that Schmidt had discovered that Smith had committed perjury. Other conservative commentators circulated the video as evidence that Smith had been caught lying, but then quietly recanted that claim.

Rather than own up to the mistake, Schmidt doubled down. Later appearing on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” where hosts Andrew Corvette and Blake Neff pushed him to tell the novel in its entirety, the senator continued persist in It makes sense for him to ask this question. when face Later, TMZ reported that Smith was actually at Iowa State’s game against Maryland, to which Schmidt responded: “It’s my job to ask that question.”

According to an official, this is an extraordinary charge and is based on material Report Written by MS NOW Republican Judiciary Committee staff explicitly described it as “uncensored.” Political editor at KSDK-TV in Schmidt’s hometown of St. Louis, laugh at He openly admitted his mistakes.

Even within the senator’s own party, the embarrassment was palpable. one video Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt’s expression of utter horror quickly went viral. “There’s something about the staff that needs to be verified before we do something like this publicly,” said Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst. Tell Original story. An unnamed Republican senator suggestion Bad intelligence comes directly from the White House. Reports soon emerged that Schmidt’s general counsel, Ethan Harper, was standing behind him, holding up the infamous poster, and that he saw his potential White House staff position in immediate jeopardy.

But since many conservatives would never let such a thing as the truth get in the way of self-promotion, Schmidt came full circle after standing on the rake and emerged victorious.

There is a common pattern in refusing to feel shame. When Vance was caught spreading false claims about immigrants eating pets in Ohio, he argued he would Creating and repeating fiction for the sake of a greater truth. Schmidt’s defenders are doing the same thing, treating the false perjury charge as admissible because its purpose is to expose alleged corruption.

To take a step back, the strategic outlook is bleak for those who orchestrated this failure. Senate Republicans chose to refile the lawsuit on January 6, embarrass themselves on national television, and then double down rather than move forward. This is the generation of propaganda and law. Poor execution does not change the intent.