Former special counsel Jack Smith appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday for testimony that quickly became a showcase of Republican distraction and dysfunction. What was supposed to look like aggressive oversight instead produced an avoidable and deeply embarrassing faceplant for the GOP.

The ugliest moment came courtesy of GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, who arrived with a conspiracy theory laden question and called Smith a “dirtbag.” Schmitt appeared convinced that he had evidence contradicting Smith’s testimony about whether he had visited Atlanta while serving as special counsel.

“Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 3, 2024?” Schmitt asked. Smith clearly did not know what incident or supposed evidence Schmitt was referencing.

Schmitt’s aides briefly displayed a posterboard that purportedly showed text messages between Smith and members of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ staff. Schmitt claimed the messages indicated that Smith had been in Atlanta, despite Smith’s testimony that he had not visited the city during his time as special counsel.

The posterboard was not displayed long enough for others to examine it. Democrats attempted to interrupt and demanded that Schmitt give Smith an opportunity to review the material being used to accuse him.

“This is my time,,” Schmitt responded indignantly. “If you wanna use your time to criticize my question, go ahead.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota took him up on that invitation. At the beginning of her allotted time, she made Schmitt show the purported evidence to Smith, allowing him to see what had been flashed before the committee.

Smith then offered an explanation that quickly dismantled Schmitt’s dramatic setup. The basketball game he remembered attending did not involve the Golden State Warriors, the Atlanta Hawks, or Atlanta at all.

“If this is the correct basketball game, I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing, right around that time, and the Marshals Service was there with me,” Smith said. “You could check if that was the exact date. It was Maryland playing Iowa.”

That answer exposed the apparent mixup at the center of Schmitt’s accusation. Iowa’s athletic teams are the Hawkeyes, while Atlanta’s NBA team is the Hawks, a distinction that Schmitt apparently had not examined carefully before launching his attack.

“Could it then be that University of Iowa is the Hawkeyes ? Could that be it?” Klobuchar asked Schmitt, who was red in the face. “Perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully.”

Klobuchar then delivered the rebuke that Schmitt had earned. “I’m going to begin my questions now, but I think that people should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a ‘dirtbag.’”

Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama had an expressive reaction as her fellow Republican’s attempted gotcha collapsed in real time. The episode left Republicans looking rattled after Schmitt’s supposed evidence instead highlighted how poorly his accusation had been researched.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey later excoriated Republicans for using the committee to gaslight Americans. He contrasted the hearing with concerns about gas prices and accused Republicans of continuing to promote lies about the 2020 election.

“Thirty days before an election where people are demanding their gas prices go down, we’ve got a whole lot of hot wind energy and gaslighting continuing to perpetuate the big lie in America that Donald Trump was somehow cheated out of the 2020 election,” Booker said.

Booker continued by condemning the use of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s time to advance that narrative. His criticism put Schmitt’s failed stunt within the broader Republican effort to relitigate Donald Trump’s defeat rather than address the concerns Americans were raising.

“We are using precious time of one of the most vaunted committees in American history, the Judiciary Committee, to perpetrate one of the biggest gaslighting attempts we have ever seen in our 250 years as a country: that somehow Donald Trump won the 2020 election”.

Schmitt had tried to corner Smith with a supposed contradiction, an insult, and evidence that others were initially prevented from examining. Once Klobuchar forced the material into the open, the entire performance crumbled over a basic failure to distinguish the Atlanta Hawks from the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Instead of damaging Smith’s credibility, Schmitt demonstrated the danger of charging into a public hearing without getting the facts straight. Republicans wanted a spectacle, and they certainly got one, just not the kind Schmitt had planned.