Sen. Eric Schmitt's badly fumbled line of attack against former special counsel Jack Smith has drawn widespread mockery and denunciation — and now even the Missouri Republican's own local news program has joined in, eviscerating his "clown-show" argument in a recent segment.

On Tuesday, Smith sat for questioning once again at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Republicans sought to portray his investigations into President Donald Trump as corrupt. At one point, Schmitt, aided by posters, tried to accuse Smith of colluding with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in the investigations, basing the claim on Smith supposedly attending an Atlanta Hawks basketball game in February 2024. Testimony at such oversight hearings is given under oath, which is why the factual grounding of the accusations carried real consequences.

It turned out that Schmitt had mixed up his teams: Smith had actually attended an Iowa Hawkeyes women's college basketball game. Before he was corrected, the senator went so far as to accuse Smith of perjury when he denied attending the Hawks game. With Smith placed at a women's college game in Iowa rather than an NBA arena in Atlanta, the factual premise of the collusion claim did not hold up. The incident was widely criticized, by pundits and some of Schmitt's own colleagues, as an embarrassing flub.

On Tuesday evening, prolific left-wing commentator Christopher Webb shared a segment from Schmitt's own local news program that dug further into just how grossly inaccurate the senator's information was.

"This is priceless. Check out how local news is reporting on Sen Eric Schmidt's clown-show grilling of Jack Smith," Webb wrote in his post.

"It's the kind of moment senators dream about," the reporter in the segment explained. "Sen. Schmitt had his stage, and hey, shooters shoot. He knows ball, right? So he took his shot."

The segment continued, following a clip of the exchange between Smith and Schmitt: "We did find the broadcast video, though, Fox Sports, courtesy of them, and we do find Jack Smith. You can see him yourself, top corner up here, section 109, row 1. In fact, that seat itself doesn't even exist in Atlanta. Marv Albert would call this an airball. Like any intense game, we had some trash talk too, Sen. Schmitt called Smith, quote, 'a dirtbag,' and 'a villain.' He quickly made the rounds on conservative podcasts where these influencers praised his appearance for taking Jack Smith down a peg."

The reporter noted that the network had reached out to Schmitt's office for an explanation or an apology but did not hear anything back. He added that when a witness lies under oath, they can face punishment up to and including prison time, but when a senator like Schmitt gets his facts wrong, "he's just asking questions." As of Tuesday evening, Schmitt's office had not responded, leaving whether he offers the explanation or apology the network sought an open question.

This is priceless. Check out how local news is reporting on Sen Eric Schmidt's clown-show grilling of Jack Smith. They found Jack Smith at the game… "Top corner, section 109, row 1. In fact, that seat doesn't even exist in Atlanta." — Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) September 30, 2026