Senator reveals the moment she knew viral Jack Smith gotcha was a slow-mo train wreck
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) revealed to The Independent what was going through her mind as she watched her Republican colleague, Sen. Eric Schmitt’s (R-Mo.), attempt to catch former special counsel Jack Smith in a potential perjurious lie — only to see it all go off the rails and become a viral embarrassment.
Smith, the former special counsel charged with investigating Trump by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
During that time, Schmitt attempted to catch Smith in a lie by proving he had been in Georgia on Feb. 3, 2024 to watch the Atlanta Hawks game against the Golden State Warriors. Schmitt was trying to prove that Smith was in Atlanta at the same time that Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis, who had indicted Trump, disclosed her affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
But the moment quickly devolved into chaos when Smith said he did not recall and then later realized he had been in College Park, Maryland to watch the University of Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team play the University of Maryland Terrapins. The moment immediately went viral, as did the reaction from Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.),who had a shocked, jaw-agape look frozen on her face as the gotcha tables were turned.
“The minute I heard when they said Hawks and when Jack Smith said I never was at an Atlanta game, when you're from the Midwest, the Hawks also mean the Hawkeyes,” Klobuchar told The Independent. She also took exception to Schmitt calling Smith a “dirtbag.”
Klobuchar would later chastise Smith and confirm that the Hawkeyes led by Caitlin Clark played in Maryland and that the Hawkeyes won. The senior senator from Minnesota who is running for governor said she knew immediately how the mishap came to be.
“Because I was just going to ask some questions about January 6 and everything,” the Minnesota Democrat said. “So when I started asking Smith questions, and then he said that he remembered that he was at the Maryland game because Iowa came, I knew immediately what it was, and so that's when I explained that I believed that they were confused, and it was the Hawkeyes.”
Klobuchar’s father was Jim Klobuchar who covered sports for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Klobuchar traveled to Iowa frequently when she ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
“And I think it does show two things: one, don't ask a question unless you know the answer, and when a prosecutor tells you that that never happened, maybe you should start doubting your chart,” Klobuchar said. “The second thing is the whole reason they did this hearing was to distract from what is going on right now.”
Prior to being elected to the Senate, Klobuchar served as the chief prosecutor for Hennepin County.
“I believe this, you know, costs are up, chaos is up, corruption is up, and instead of doing a hearing on health care or on prescription drug prices, they go and decide to do this one,” she said.
“Well, I guess they got their comeuppance.”
