It’s sometimes said that the Trump administration operates on the motto: “Shoot first, aim later.”
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administration → say → motto
So it was in the US Senate on Tuesday as Republicans tried to incriminate Jack Smith, the Joe Biden-era special prosecutor who twice charged Donald Trump with criminal offences while the now-president was out of office.
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president → try → office
Smith was hauled before a Senate hearing on his alleged “abuse of authority and targeting of Republicans”.
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Smith → haul → Republicans
The GOP senators brought props and everything.
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senators → bring → props
What they didn’t bring, however, was adequate preparation.
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bring → bring → What
Eric Schmitt, a Republican senator from Missouri, pursued Smith over whether he attended an NBA basketball game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Golden State Warriors in Atlanta, Georgia on February 3, 2024.
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he → pursue → February
The timing was significant because the game took place the day after Fani Willis – then the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia – admitted to an intimate relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
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Willis → take → Wade
Willis, a Democrat, had also brought charges against Trump, alleging that he and others entered a criminal conspiracy to fraudulently overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
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he → bring → Georgia
Those charges eventually collapsed, in part because Willis was disqualified from the case after her affair with Wade was exposed.
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affair → collapse → Wade
At Tuesday’s hearing, Schmitt implied that Smith might have colluded with Willis and Wade because he was supposedly in Atlanta at the time their relationship became public.
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relationship → imply → time
But Smith denied attending the basketball game.
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Smith → deny → game
“I definitely did not go to a Hawks game, I’m sure of that,” he said, mystified.
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he → go → that
He also emphatically denied ever meeting Willis and Wade in his time as special prosecutor.
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He → deny → prosecutor
Schmitt, a twinkle in his eye, said he believed Smith had just perjured himself.
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Smith → say → himself
His team had gone as far as to prepare a large cardboard poster depicting the text messages that purportedly proved Smith was in Atlanta for the Hawks game that day.
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Smith → go → game
Staff members held up the sign during the hearing.
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members → hold → hearing
Once Smith was able to read the messages, his memory was apparently jogged.
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memory → read → messages
He realised the basketball game he attended around that time was between the University of Iowa Hawkeyes – not the Atlanta Hawks – and took place at the University of Maryland, not Atlanta.
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he → realise → Maryland
The game featured Team USA member Caitlin Clark, who is widely considered the best known and most popular women’s basketball player of this era.
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who → feature → era
A Democratic senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, pointed out that Schmitt had likely confused the two team’s names to accuse Smith of being somewhere he wasn’t.
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he → point → Smith
“You are calling a witness a ‘dirtbag’,” Klobuchar told Schmitt.
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Klobuchar → call → Schmitt
“I think that people should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag – and not get the teams wrong.”
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teams → think → someone
The mistake was amplified with Meidas Touch, a progressive media outlet, unearthed footage that appeared to show Smith in the bleaches at the Hawkeyes game in Maryland on the night in question.
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that → amplify → question
On the face of it, the attempted “gotcha” had all the hallmarks of a co-ordinated political hit.
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gotcha → attempt → hit
That morning, US news site Axios carried a short item speculating that Schmitt was looked upon favourably by Vice President JD Vance as a possible 2028 running mate.
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Schmitt → carry → mate
Just as Schmitt made his clumsy case against Smith in the Senate, high-profile MAGA media commentators including Sean Hannity and Benny Johnson pumped the content out to their millions of online followers.
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commentators → make → followers
In the ordinary run of events, a howler like this – played out in such a public forum – would warrant a sincere apology and retraction.
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howler → play → apology
But in the “shoot first, aim later” era of US politics, that’s not what occurred.
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what → shoot → politics
Schmitt went on right-wing, pro-Trump channel Real America’s Voice, where he was praised for his so-called gotcha moment – with no recognition that the encounter was based on a factual error.
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encounter → go → error
“You caught him out on this NBA game, by the way, in Atlanta,” the host of The Charlie Kirk Show, Andrew Kolvet, told Schmitt on the air.
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host → catch → air
Later, when questioned on the street by entertainment news site TMZ, Schmitt did not relent.
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Schmitt → question → TMZ
“It was not a mistake,” he insisted.
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he → insist → ?
“He gave his answer and I guess that’s his answer … we’ll take him at his word that he wasn’t in Atlanta.”
And so what if Smith was in Atlanta that night?
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Smith → give → Atlanta
The whole spectacle was based on the notion that his very presence in Atlanta – a metropolitan area of 6.5 million people – was somehow a smoking gun suggesting collusion with Fani Willis.
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presence → base → Willis
As bows go, they don’t get much longer.
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they → go → ?
But such is the conspiratorial streak running through US politics that this was considered a legitimate line of inquiry – even a potential masterstroke – at a Senate hearing.
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this → run → hearing
As Democratic Party chairman Ken Martin concluded on X: “Eric Schmitt spent all that time rehearsing his big Jack Smith ‘perjury’ gotcha and forgot to check whether the Atlanta Hawks and Iowa Hawkeyes were the same f---ing team.”
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Hawks → conclude → gotcha
For his part, Smith stood by his decisions to bring criminal charges against Trump.
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Smith → stand → Trump
He said his investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump “engaged in serious crimes against our nation”.
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Trump → say → nation
Smith said if he was asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, he would – regardless of the person’s party.
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he → say → party
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
