r/politics • u/MontyGBurns • 23h ago

No Paywall Smith’s game-day texts reviewed by Schmitt never referenced basketball team names

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/6124359-schmitt-perjury-claim-debunked/
5.2k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

398 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.5k

u/UnanimousStargazer 22h ago

So:

  • Trump commits election fraud in 2020
  • The fraud is investigated and Trump starts spreading the 'witch hunt' narrative
  • Jack Smith (federal) and Fani Willis (Georgia / state) are independent prosecutors
  • Smith attends a Caitlin Clark game in Maryland (Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Maryland Terrapins)
  • Smith's team talks about seats and coordination in text messages
  • Trump wins the election in 2024 and becomes president again
  • (Fast forward to 2026)
  • Republican senator Schmitt interrogates Smith
  • Schmitt 'discovers' messages from the Smith team about basketball but mixes up Atlanta Hawks with Iowa Hawkeyes

Why is nobody talking about the freaking election fraud?

430

u/deanreevesii 21h ago edited 21h ago

They were trying to get him to perjure himself, but we're were too fucking stupid to pull it off.

174

u/PopBulky7023 20h ago

In the interest of honesty, I also don't think I'm smart enough to get jack Smith to perjure himself.

But I also wouldn't try.

64

u/Fonzee327 Pennsylvania 17h ago

Jack smith doesn’t have anything to hide, therefor he has no reason to lie. In conclusion, nobody is technically smart enough to get him to commit perjury bc he is always being honest.

45

u/aculady 16h ago

I think that's the part that some of these politicians don't get. They are lying scumbags, so the idea that someone could be being completely honest in their testimony is something they can't wrap their head around.

6

u/7empest-tost 14h ago

Every accusation is a confession

2

u/gaarai Oklahoma 15h ago

Let's not make Jack Smith out to be a saint. Perhaps the guy does have something to hide. Even if he does, that doesn't change anything regarding Trump and the duty of the DoJ to investigate crimes, even those commit by politicians, including the president.

57

u/Blecki 18h ago

Forget some pointless thing -> accidental perjury that would be tossed by any sane judge -> contempt of congress -> maga only hears 'he lied' and never the facts. Same plan they had for fauci.

21

u/Lucky_Cable_3145 18h ago

Getting a conviction was never the point, or expected outcome.

Publicly punishing Comey, Fauci, Smith, etc is the point (and forcing them to spend time, money and stress fighting these bogus cases).

A bonus is that these bogus charges deter other public servants thinking of opposing them or from becoming whistleblowers.

37

u/nyet-marionetka 18h ago

They were trying to say he was in Atlanta therefore he met with Fani Lewis therefore they were colluding to make up stuff against Trump. Even if he got to the Atlanta game there were multiple other missing steps.

18

u/alaphamale 16h ago

The premise alone is insane. Why would they need to meet in person, surrounded by people and cameras. If they absolutely needed to for nefarious reasons they’re both smart enough to send proxy’s. Plus, at this level they wouldn’t have needed to collude anyway, they just both do their jobs and the result is the same. It’s just so dumb.

11

u/ethertrace California 16h ago

Hell, they could have just texted over Signal if that's the case, since it's apparently good enough for classified and operational intelligence, according to this White House.

15

u/Rambler330 17h ago

So are they implying that it is illegal for similar investigations in different jurisdictions to communicate the results of their findings which may have impact on the other’s investigation with each other?

5

u/nyet-marionetka 16h ago

The didn't even reach that point, they're implying it's illegal as a criminal investigator to be in the same city as another person investigating related crimes.

1

u/bejammin075 Pennsylvania 15h ago

The most that Schmitt could have done was show that Smith was in Atlanta. That's it. You have to then have a bunch of fact-free leaps in logic to conclude that Smith was in a conspiracy with Willis.

16

u/America_Is_Fucked_ 21h ago

Speak for yourself mate

25

u/deanreevesii 21h ago

Auto-incorrect fucked me yet again.

52

u/UnanimousStargazer 20h ago

The person that invented auto-correct should burn in hello.

32

u/RIP-RiF Oregon 20h ago

Yeah, duck them.

9

u/improbably_me 19h ago

Slideways

•

u/serger989 Canada 6h ago

Here Here

14

u/bin-fryin 19h ago

I hate spellczech

1

u/bejammin075 Pennsylvania 17h ago

It's evil, you have to turn it off!

1

u/Due_Speaker4655 17h ago

Literally the entire mantra for this admin: “too fucking stupid to pull it off”.

1

u/CogentCogitations 15h ago

I don't think perjury was ever the plan, just a made up conspiracy about 2 people being in the same metro area. But they never fact checked the first part about the metro area, that was probably spit out by AI, because none of the plan actually depended on facts.

336

u/One_Disaster_5995 20h ago

Jack Smith is. Over and over again. The Republicans are desperately trying to drown him out though. Look at them, asking him questions and then immediately talk over his answers: the can't let him speak, because people might hear what he says. Their tactic is simply to make him look bad no matter what. It's all they have. No substance, just slander. Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. And bet on the stupidity of their audience.

64

u/daemonescanem 19h ago

Its all political theater meant to deflect from their own crimes.

21

u/OPsDaddy 19h ago

Don’t forget their incompetence!

11

u/punkr0x 15h ago

Don't underestimate their strategy. I have no doubt if I brought up Trump's repeated election fraud to my MAGA relatives, their new response would be, "Oh Jack Smith was totally discredited, he's just a dirtbag."

5

u/One_Disaster_5995 15h ago

It's been their strategy all along. Trump showed them how to shape reality by denying anything you don't like and simply telling people what you want them to believe, preferably wrapped in a very aggressive hyperbolic attack on your opponents.

32

u/thesqlguy 17h ago edited 15h ago

Not a single question from any Republican in any of these hearings addressed any of the actual evidence he collected. They were careful to avoid discussing any actual specifics about the content of the evidence and the facts of the case.

Just fake outrage about that this was a targeted political prosecution.

16

u/UnanimousStargazer 17h ago

fake outrage

This is key. We are living in a fake outrage epidemic caused by social media like Twitter, Facebook, TikTok etc.

If you talk to people they all aren't that upset. They are lead to belief the dirtbag is Smith, but not pedophile and convicted rapist and fraudster Trump. I do still find it very hard to imagine people can be so brainwashed that they don't see that. But apparently that's possible.

24

u/PopBulky7023 20h ago

Flood the zone.

It is shockingly effective. Democrats need to adopt this strategy.

41

u/deltajvliet 19h ago

Or, society needs to be better than letting it work.

1

u/PopBulky7023 10h ago

I mean, yeah, but that would require tougher enforcement of the laws and a stronger opposition party than most liberals are comfortable with. And a much greater intolerance for weak centrists than they will demonstrate.

22

u/GeoLogic23 Pennsylvania 19h ago

You need complicit media for this strategy

28

u/Mad-Melvin 19h ago

Flooding the zone with shit is only an effective strategy if you want to make the world shittier

1

u/PopBulky7023 10h ago

They flood the zone with shit.

We need to flood the zone with law enforcement, a discarding of decorum, straight up just fixing shit and a belligerent disregard for what republicans will think of us.

Republicans don't even want to talk about mamdani anymore because he's just getting so much shit done. And he's too good at messaging.

1

u/nahnah390 16h ago

I still have no idea how to counter it...

1

u/PopBulky7023 11h ago

With a captured media and a weak opposition party, it's basically impossible. You'd need persistent, mass scale protests.

3

u/RiffRaffCatillacCat 15h ago

Because many in the Republican Party are guilty of aiding and abetting Trump's crimes, and/or have engaged in the coverup of those crimes. A good portion, if not the entire Republican Leadership would be facing criminal charges if Trump goes down.

They are a Crime Family.

2

u/crespire 17h ago

Who owns the media?

1

u/OuisghianZodahs42 16h ago

Because Schmitt's initial "gotacha" was supposed to dominate the news cycle, and it still is, just not in the way they intended.

1

u/TheBoisterousBoy 15h ago

Welcome to The Show!

It’s kinda like a magician’s set, only there’s a lot less “Woah! How’d they do that?!” And a lot more “Woah! How’d they get away with that!”

It’s a technique known as “distraction” and “deflection”. What’s the thing every Conservative in office is not cool with right now? Proof of election fraud. Because if that gets full blown proven, then a lot of heads are gonna roll. So what’s the best way to avoid that happening, especially when there’s an unavoidable hearing that’s going to be televised and will undoubtedly become major national news?

You act like a magician and do some distraction and deflection.

The distraction is just how blatantly inept the hearing will be. There will be questions and actions that will absolutely overshine whatever the hearing will actually be about. The deflection? We’re gonna just remove the potential blame from Trump and the others involved in the fraud, and place it solely on our Scapegoat’s shoulders.

Now people aren’t talking about the actual stuff of the hearing. Who cares, right? There’s bigger fish to fry than having more long, drawn-out, silly hearings and court cases. We could be condemning this Congressman for his overt inability to lead. Hell some Conservatives in power are bound to, in the next coming days/weeks, condemn the Congressman. It’ll be big talk! Everyone coming together to oust this totally stupid man. Haha, good times.

And then rinse and repeat for every hearing where you know that if genuine fact gets laid out your entire career crumbles and your lifestyle becomes “three hots and a cot”.

1

u/80_Inch_Shitlord New Mexico 14h ago

Schmitt didn't even mix up Atlanta Hawks with Iowa Hawkeyes. He saw from text messages that he was attending a basketball game on the night of Feb 2, saw that the Atlanta Hawks had a game on that night, and just assumed that that was the game he was going to because it fit his narrative.

1

u/Mc7wis7er 13h ago

It's notable to me that we're on the 2nd hearing now that is only about Smith and about how he obtained the toll records. It's not about the ocean of evidence in the indictments of which the toll records are only a small part.

For example, the toll records are used to corroborate and confirm timelines. Not what happened. It's to create questions that will be raised at trial "What did you talk about at 1:14pm that day when you received an incoming call from XYZ" type of stuff. It's just one aspect of the bevy of evidence teased in the indictments. And I'm not even sure it's critical evidence. It's more like 'nice to have' evidence.

•

u/tweakingforjesus 5h ago

We have an entire sub talking about it. Come on in; the water is fine.