Dear Everybody:
The big news today is that Jack Smith (as promised) testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the word “clusterfuck” doesn’t even begin to describe it:
–The hearing was about subpoenas Jack Smith had gotten back during his investigation of a bunch of Senators who had communicated with Trump on or just before January 6.
–For starters, the purpose of this hearing was to entrap Jack Smith into committing perjury, and instead he calmly walked the committee–and the TV audience–through all of Trump’s crimes, including his attempted coup on January sixth and this: “After leaving office in January of 2021, President Trump illegally kept classified documents at his Mar-a-lago social club and repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents. He kept highly classified national security information in a bathroom and a ballroom at an event space.”
–Also Jack Smith: “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation…rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 election. He engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.”
–Adam Parkhomenko: It seems really dumb to bring up how Trump is a scumbag who tried to overturn an election.”
–First Senator Joe Kennedy, who occasionally manages to sound sane, asked Jack Smith: “Do you believe in the Tooth Fairy?” Smith: “I do not.” Kennedy: “How about the Easter Bunny?” Smith: “I no longer believe in the Easter Bunny.” Kennedy: “Do you think Jimmy Hoffa died of natural causes?” Smith: “I do not.” (Me, neither, but what does this have to do with anything?)
–Lindsay Graham’s sister Darline accused Jack Smith of all sorts of terrible things, and then got egg all over her face when Jack Smith said, “I believe your brother was a patriotic servant. He was not a target of our investigation, and in fact, he likely would have been a witness in our case. Your brother investigated the claims that Donald Trump was making (about the 2020 election.) he found them to be false. He said so on the House floor.”
–Ted Cruz asked Jack Smith, “Do you have any evidence whatsoever to believe that I and 20% of Republicans in the Senate will engage in destroying or tampering with evidence or intimidation of potential witnesses?” Jack Smith: “No, we had powerful evidence that Donald Trump and his associates would.”
–Ted Cruz: “You signed subpoenas like you signed Denny’s menus.” (What on earth are they talking about? Denny’s? Jimmy Hoffa The Easter Bunny?)
–Allison Gill: “What the fuck does that even mean?” (Note: MuellerSheWrote is now using her real name, Allison Gill, on her bluesky account, so I’m going to use it from now on. But it’s still the same old MuellerSheWrote.)
But the truly glorious part of the hearing was when it was Senator Eric Schmitt’s turn:
–The senator accused Jack Smith of going to the Hawks basketball game in Atlanta on February 24, something he is sure is going to trap Smith in a lie and thus perjury.
–“Senator Eric Schmitt briefly displays a poster board that Schmitt claims contains evidence that Jack Smith committed perjury–but then takes it down before anybody can read it, and refuses to show Jack Smith or anybody else what it says.”
–Then Schmitt concocted an elaborate conspiracy theory in which Jack Smith had gone to Atlanta, supposedly to attend a basketball game, but really so he could meet secretly with Fani Willis and conspire with her against Trump.
–To this end, he showed some texts sent by Smith and his people for about ten seconds on a giant poster board. (The texts didn’t really corroborate the conspiracy theory but that didn’t seem to matter, and anyway he had taken the poster board down already and was refusing to let anyone see it.)
–Schmitt began grilling a clearly bewildered Jack Smith, “You were never at this game?” “You were never in Atlanta” etc. in a tone of voice that clearly said, “Aha, I clearly have you now!” while Jack Smith said stuff like, “I don’t think I was at that game,” and “I may have flown through Atlanta and been at the airport, but I don’t think I was ever in Atlanta,” and said he had never even met Fani Willis, as Schmitt got more and more excited, calling Jack Smith a dirtbag an accusing him of just having committing perjury.
–And then Amy Klobuchar leaped in to clarify the situation, saying, “You have your teams wrong.” She explained that Jack Smith hadn’t been at the Atlanta Hawks vs. the Golden State Warriors game. He had been at the women’s basketball Iowa HAWKEYES vs. the Maryland Terrapins game in Baltimore on that day to see the women, and specifically Caitlin Collins, play. Oops.
–But instead of saying, “Oops,” or “Never mind,” or something Schmitt began yelling at Amy Klobuchar. “Whose questioning is this, by the way? Are you using your time, Senator? Is this what this is? Are you just trying to rehabilitate the witness, but it’s not your time!”
–Klobuchar kept trying to say that she was just trying to clarify what had happened, but Schmitt kept throwing a fit, and it wasn’t until it was her turn for questioning that she was able to ask Jack Smith the questions that sorted it all out.
–Amy Klobuchar posted: “As a Gopher fan, I know the difference between the Hawks and the Hawkeyes.”
–Marcy Wheeler: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
–Sam Stein: “A completely humiliating moment for Senator Schmitt just now.”
–Bensman33: “So Schmitt planted this story expecting a big moment today at the Jack Smith hearing, and it completely blew up in his face. You love to see it.”
–Huffington Post: “Yikes! GOP Sen Steps in Schmitt! The attempted slam dunk, which the former state prosecutor boasted amounted to perjury, turned into an embarrassing miss by Schmitt, who had mixed up the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes’ women’s basketball team.”
–Gary Legum: “These conspiracies the right convinces itself are the truth always die the instant they meet reality anyway, but this is next level.”
–Aaron Rupar: “This gaffe should follow Eric Schmitt around for the rest of his political life.”
–And now, somebody has found footage of the Hawkeyes game (because this is the age of video and the internet) and posted it, and there is Jack Smith sitting in the audience. Schmitt’s people clearly didn’t bother to do ANY research before making their accusation.
–Helen Kennedy: “Someone on IG found video of Smith in the stands at the Maryland game. This guy is cooked.”
After the hearing, Schmitt refused to back down and admit he was wrong:
— Instead, he said, “Jack Smith has lied before!”, called Smith a liar and a dirtbag and said, “You can quote me on that!”
–He then went on the Charlie Kirk Show, where the host, Andrew Kolvet, said, “You caught him out on this NBA game, too, by the way, in Atlanta. It was a great moment, so good for you on that!”
–Schmitt: “It was the only game. Atlanta was the only NBA game or men’s college baseball game that night at 7:30.” (Right, but it was a women’s game.)
–John ODTE: “That’s the thing. Republicans and their supporters do not care if accusations are true or not, they run with them as if they are true and the base loves them for it.
–The best part was that Jim Vanderhei had just written a story (clearly timed to coincide with the hearings) that Schmitt was being considered by JD Vance as his running mate in 2028. (Why do I think that plan could have just gone smash?)
–Ron Filipkowski: “Just as Schmitt’s staff was likely booking Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity for tonight where he would launch his campaign to be JD Vance’s 2028 running mate, Senator Amy Klobuchar made an observation that unraveled his entire premise and made him look like the sad, pathetic, incompetent jerk that he is.”
–Meidas Touch: “The internet is erupting in mockery after Eric Schmitt’s spectacular Jack Smith faceplant. Now people are openly speculating: Did his team plant the glowing 2028 story AND coordinate with MAGA influencers in advance, expecting a victory lap that blew up in their faces?”
–Part of the reason Schmitt is able to do these shows is that Fox did NOT cover any of this part of the hearing on their network.
–(Note: Schmitt may be making the rounds of MAGA shows claiming his ploy worked like it was supposed to, but there’s a photo of him and his aides at the hearing that shows they know perfectly well how badly Schmitt got schooled. One of the versions of the photo is captioned, “Two Schmitt staffers realizing this might be their last day.”
Other great moments of the hearing:
–Jack Smith: “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation. Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.”
–Jack Smith: “It’s inconceivable to me how you can pardon people who beat police officers…and then vilify the officers.”
–GOP Senator Thom Tillis: “Can the classified documents case be brought again in the future?” Jack Smith: “We dismissed it without prejudice.” (So, yes.)
In election news:
–Guess what has shown up, just in time for the midterms? Yes, a huge caravan of immigrants, heading for the US to do horrible things. Sound familiar? That’s because the Republicans pull this out every single election cycle, use it to scare people, and then after the election never mention it again. Till the next election cycle.
–Earational1: “The Magic Scary Caravan from the past that appears to move at about 0.0002 mph and then evaporate the day after the election? Twice?”
–Even former Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene isn’t buying it: “We have not seen a caravan headed to the US southern border in several years. Why now? Oh, yeah, there is an election coming and the GOP needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working.”
–And there’s another problem. ICE posted a video about this caravan, using clips from NFL Hall of Fame safety Brian Dawkins to promote ICE’s policy. The clip has Dawkins chanting, “The time has come,” alongside highlights of a migrant caravan heading to the US border.
–NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy officially asked the DHS to take down the unauthorized video. So did Dawkins.
–The DHS initially refused or ignored the request to remove the footage, and it remained online. Stay tuned…
In AI news:
–The Trump administration has a new AI assistant (like Grok) at America.gov, and people immediately started asking it questions:
–Kamala Harris asked it, “Is Trump a convicted felon?” and it answered, “Yes. A New York jury found Donald J. Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.” It then listed the court summary of the case.
–She then asked, “Is President Trump mentioned repeatedly in the Epstein case files?” It answered: “Yes. Official materials say President Trump’s name appears in the released Epstein-related files. A mention is not proof of a crime.”
–Michael Dominic: “A mention is not proof of a crime, true. But what about 38,000 mentions, a creepy birthday letter, a cushy new deal for Ghislaine Maxwell, a cover-up led by your personal lawyer, and a pointless war started as a distraction? Is that proof? Or merely overwhelming signaling of guilt?”
–Netty Bo Betty: “According to Congressional documents, was Donald Trump mentioned in the Epstein Files over 38,000 times? Yes or no?” AI assistant: “Yes.”
–They Call Me Gary: “Who won the 2020 election? AI assistant: “Joseph R. Biden won the 2020 presidential election.”
–But the absolute best was when Helen Kennedy asked, “Can the president rename Artificial Intelligence?” AI assistant: “No. Official sources do not show that a president can rename the term ‘artificial intelligence’ itself.”
–The AI assistant has now been reprogrammed so it does not answer political questions.
–Patric Reynolds: “I mean, if your own propaganda bot calls you out on your bullshit.”
–The Mr. Neutron: “Man, that IS some Super Intelligence!”
In They’re All Perverts news:
–Actor Russell Brand is headlining a Make America Healthy Again summit with RFK, Jr., Doctor Oz, JD Vance, and health and tech industry leaders.
–Onstage at the conference, he yucked it up with Dr. Oz and the Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. Dr. Oz: “Russell Brand was backstage hugging the Secretary of Agriculture.” Russell Brand: “She initiated that contact.” Dr. Oz laughed and slapped his knee.
–Russell Brand is currently charged in the UK with three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault, and is due to start trial in London in two weeks.
–Podcaster Hemant Mehta: “Hahaha it’s funny because Brandon is a sex pest but he was invited to a Republican event anyway.”
–Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, who was convicted of rape in 1992, was also scheduled to take part in the summit.
–Dr. Angela Rasmussen: “Including alleged rapist Russell Brand and convicted rapist Mike Tyson certainly sends a message to women about what this administration thinks about their health.”
In Not Everybody’s a Jerk news:
–TV star Rick Steves bought a Seattle-area community center that was closing. The Lynnwood Hygiene Center had been supplying homeless people with hot showers and hot meals, and Steves bought it so it could keep doing that.
In promising news:
–A bunch of Republican candidates are starting to actively criticize Trump and his policies.
–Florida’s Ashley Hinson criticized Trump’s plan to import more beef and says she can work across the aisle. (Note: There is no organized Democratic Party in Florida, but Democrats are tied with Republicans in both the governor and Senate races.)
–Nebraska Senators Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts criticized Trump’s beef plan and Canadian trade war.
–Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate GOP Rep and election denier Tom Tiffany criticized Trump’s tariffs, data centers, renaming of Lake Ontario, and admitted Joe Biden won.
–Iowa Reps Zach Nera and Marionette Miller-Meeks both voted to end the Iran war.
–Paul Waldman: “We’ve crossed a key line, where the calculation for many Republicans has shifted. Now the greater risk lies not in departing from Trump, incurring his wrath, and alienating his cultists; the greater risk is in sticking with him.
In other news:
–The Supreme Court let Trump continue his deportations of immigrants to a third country where the immigrant has never been, has no contacts or family, and does not speak the language.
–Trump’s and Hegseth’s new pick for Army Secretary, Sean Parnell, is having trouble getting confirmed by the Senate because of “credible evidence” that he had verbally and physically abused his wife and children. Parnell has also been caught puffing up his resume. (Sounds like a shoo-in to me.)
–In ICE news, an affidavit unsealed Tuesday said that the ICE officer who shot Venezuelan delivery driver Wilber Garces Perez in Austin was not wearing a body camera and that another officer turned his camera off.”
In good news:
–The Texas Tribune has identified the ICE agent who witnesses say fired through an open van window and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston three months ago. The agent’s name is Gregory Feathers. (The federal government had refused to identify him. The Tribune identified him through investigative reporting work.)
–A federal court blocked a Tennessee law making it a crime to aid minors seeking abortions.
–A brown pelican showed up at NOAA’s Southeastern Fisheries Science Center in Panama City and knocked on the door seeking help. It had become entangled in heavy-duty fishing line, had a double-barbed treble hook deeply embedded in its right wing, and had cactus spines in its left foot. The scientists there got it disentangled and got the hook and the spines out, and the pelican flew away. (He definitely knew the right place to come.)
Best comment of the day, from old GOP war horse Haley Barbour, who knew a thing or two: “In wave elections, good gets better and bad gets worse.”
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis
