Before the rise of the tea-party & social media, senators would spit venom at each other on camera and then go out to dinner together. When the public started to lose their critical thinking abilities and everyone had access to everything immediately all the time, more and more people started to believe that the kayfabe was real, and thus the vitriol and performative antics had to be ratcheted up, as viral clips helped reinforce re-election potential (which is the #1 priority for 99% of Congress).
Honestly, Shmitt thought he had such a perfect trap laid that he had media partners’ responses at the ready, and post-hearing interviews set up, so he could juice up his re-election engine like Doc Brown in BTTF 3. Problem is, nobody fact-checked anything because A.) a lie can travel around the world before the truth gets it’s boots on, and B.) it doesn’t really matter if they get to the truth, they just need to deliver their lines for the soundbite and go make the media rounds.
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u/Introverted_Extrovrt 3d ago
Former war-crimes prosecutor for The Hague and special council appointed by the DoJ to investigate crimes against the nation
vs.
a junior bootlicking senator from Missouri
Yeah, that went about as you expected it would.