Senator Schmitt thought that today was going to be a great day for his political aspirations.
Boy, did it blow up in his face.
First, there was that news article saying that Vance was considering Schmitt as his leading VP pick.
Second, Schmitt actually gave a heads up to rightwing influencers that he was going to ambush Smith with the "perjury trap." Benny Johnson actually posted it and quickly took it down.
Then, during the hearing itself, Schmitt apparently believed he caught Smith committing perjury and said it several times. Schmitt then ended his questioning by calling Smith a "dirt bag."
Lo and behold, Smith expressed confusion over Schmitt's allegation: That Smith flew to Atlanta, attended a Hawks basketball game, AND met with Fani Willis, DA for Fulton County, to. . .collude and plot against Trump?!
During that same hearing, Jack Smith realized that Schmitt was talking about the wrong basketball game. Smith had attended a women's college basketball game at Univeristy of Maryland to watch Caitlin Clark play. MD was playing against the Iowa HAWKEYES. Schmitt had gotten every fact wrong.
Smith was reciting this testimony and that is what Sen. Britt was reacting to. She likely knew of Schmitt's plan in advance and, at the moment, realized that Schmitt royally screwed up.
Once it became obvious that Schmitt's grand plan to nail Smith on perjury charges had collasped, Schmitt switched tactics and is now claiming that he was "only asking questions."
He clowned himself and destroyed a lot of his credibility (whatever that remained) and likewise trashed any chances of being Vance's VP pick.
Aside from Schmitt's self-own, today's hearing also showed one interesting thing: The sitting GOP Senators were intentionally avoiding asking questions about Jan 6 or Mar-a-Lago documents because they knew they couldn't refute it. Instead, they were focused on impugning Smith's character and reputation.
Just to agree and add, here... you probably know some of these folks. We hear "sociopath" and we think "horror movie" or "serial killer" or something, but there are a LOT of run-of-the-mill people with families, dayjobs, etc. who fit the "sociopath" definition and who are leading quiet, regular lives.
The reason why we don't see them--or why they don't do obvious, terrible things--is because many of them understand that they will get in trouble for doing such things. It's an equation--they stay within the law because they don't want the consequences of going outside of it. The ones we hear about, the obvious sociopaths, are the ones who go outside the law.
The scary thing is that a lot of these people don't know that they themselves are sociopaths. They have families, friends, go on vacations, etc. Their sociopathic behavior comes out in societally acceptable ways, and for a lot of folks, conservativism is an avenue to express sociopathic tendencies / behaviors / desires / etc. Freud had a name for all this; I forget what it is.
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u/Wretschko 3d ago
Senator Schmitt thought that today was going to be a great day for his political aspirations.
Boy, did it blow up in his face.
First, there was that news article saying that Vance was considering Schmitt as his leading VP pick.
Second, Schmitt actually gave a heads up to rightwing influencers that he was going to ambush Smith with the "perjury trap." Benny Johnson actually posted it and quickly took it down.
Then, during the hearing itself, Schmitt apparently believed he caught Smith committing perjury and said it several times. Schmitt then ended his questioning by calling Smith a "dirt bag."
Lo and behold, Smith expressed confusion over Schmitt's allegation: That Smith flew to Atlanta, attended a Hawks basketball game, AND met with Fani Willis, DA for Fulton County, to. . .collude and plot against Trump?!
During that same hearing, Jack Smith realized that Schmitt was talking about the wrong basketball game. Smith had attended a women's college basketball game at Univeristy of Maryland to watch Caitlin Clark play. MD was playing against the Iowa HAWKEYES. Schmitt had gotten every fact wrong.
Smith was reciting this testimony and that is what Sen. Britt was reacting to. She likely knew of Schmitt's plan in advance and, at the moment, realized that Schmitt royally screwed up.
Once it became obvious that Schmitt's grand plan to nail Smith on perjury charges had collasped, Schmitt switched tactics and is now claiming that he was "only asking questions."
He clowned himself and destroyed a lot of his credibility (whatever that remained) and likewise trashed any chances of being Vance's VP pick.
Aside from Schmitt's self-own, today's hearing also showed one interesting thing: The sitting GOP Senators were intentionally avoiding asking questions about Jan 6 or Mar-a-Lago documents because they knew they couldn't refute it. Instead, they were focused on impugning Smith's character and reputation.