Klobuchar calls out Schmitt sports mix-up at Jack Smith hearing

A YouTube video posted by the channel MS NOW carries Sen. Amy Klobuchar calling out Sen. Eric Schmitt’s sports-team mix-up during former special counsel Jack Smith’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the channel’s description says.

At the Sept. 29 hearing, Schmitt, the Missouri Republican, accused Smith of perjury after Smith denied attending an Atlanta Hawks game against the Golden State Warriors in early February 2024, The Washington Post reported. PEOPLE magazine recounted Schmitt asking, “Did you go to an NBA game against the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 3, 2024?” and pressing whether Smith had been in Atlanta the day after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis acknowledged a relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade. Smith said he did not recall going to Atlanta, denied meeting Willis, according to The Hill. He recalled instead attending a University of Maryland women’s basketball game against the Iowa Hawkeyes featuring Caitlin Clark, with the Marshals Service there with him, PEOPLE reported.

Schmitt’s staffers displayed a poster board of texts between Smith and Willis, then took it down, The Hill said. The senator called Smith a “villain” and a “dirtbag” during the exchange, multiple outlets reported. Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat, interjected that there might be confusion over the similar team names. “We have confirmed that, in fact, you are right, Mr. Smith,” she said, according to The Hill. “The Iowa Hawkeyes played Maryland on Feb. 3, 2024. The final score was 93-85. Iowa won, and Caitlin Clark scored over 30 points, so it must have been a pretty good game.” Klobuchar and Schmitt briefly argued over debate time before the matter was resolved, PEOPLE said. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama was among those present during the confusion, The Hill noted.

On X after the hearing, Klobuchar wrote, “Before calling someone a ‘dirtbag,’ the Senator should have had his facts straight. An apology is in order,” The Hill reported. The MS NOW description says she told Jen Psaki that Schmitt’s attacks were a distraction from what was really at stake.

Schmitt defended the exchange afterward to Nexstar affiliate KTVI St. Louis and to TMZ. “We had information, of course, about him being at a basketball game,” he told KTVI, according to The Hill. “The only NBA game going on that night was in Atlanta on Feb. 2 of 2024. His team had talked about that. He answered the question.” He added, “My job is to ask the questions, and his job is to answer the questions.” To TMZ he said it was “not a mistake,” adding: “I asked him if he was in Atlanta. The only NBA game going on –– actually, the only NCAA men’s game or NBA game with a 7:30 tipoff was in Atlanta, so I asked him if he was in Atlanta that night.” Pressed on images of Smith at the Hawkeyes game, he replied, “For that night? Great. Well, then he was at the Hawkeyes game. I just asked him if he was in Atlanta.” He also told KTVI, “But I guess the one thing that Jack Smith and I can maybe agree on is that we’re a fan of college sports and college basketball.”