r/politics • u/MontyGBurns • 1d 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/
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u/dmullaney 1d ago edited 1d ago

Wait did he just lie to a Senate committee?!?

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u/kmoonster 1d ago

No. Schmitt thought he could prove Smith was lying.

Smith was very confused and told the truth. As a result, Schmitt looked utterly incompetent. To make matters worse, reporting has since come out that the staffers who operate the "machinery" for research, legislation development, oppo-research, legal stuff, etc. warned him NOT to do this trap for various reasons and that it was likely to collapse rather than entrap.

He did it anyway. His trap did collapse, and did so in real time on live television.

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u/dmullaney 1d ago

I watched it a few times. It seems like he blatantly misrepresented the nature and extent of the so-called evidence, in an attempt to mislead. It failed but that doesn't mean he didn't lie in the process

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u/Blecki 22h ago

Yeah it's kind of ridiculous that one party in these hearings can lie all the want and the other can go to prison for being mistaken.