Sen. Eric Schmitt Cancels C-SPAN Appearance After Questioning Jack Smith
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Senator Eric Schmitt withdrew from a scheduled C-SPAN program following a Senate hearing in which his line of questioning of former special counsel Jack Smith was widely criticized.
Sen. Eric Schmitt postponed his appearance on the C-SPAN show "Ceasefire" after a Senate hearing on Tuesday in which he asked former special counsel Jack Smith about his whereabouts during a women's college basketball game. Schmitt suggested Smith might have been at an NBA game in Atlanta, but Smith indicated he was attending a Maryland Terrapins women's game against the Iowa Hawkeyes, which featured star player Caitlin Clark.
During a later interview on CNN, Schmitt said the committee had information that Smith was at a basketball game and explained that his question was intended to verify the former prosecutor's location. He added that Smith had previously provided false statements and that the answer he received was the one Smith gave.
C-SPAN host Dasha Burns noted that Schmitt was originally slated to appear on the program alongside Sen. Chris Coons but withdrew a day after the hearing. Burns said the episode will instead feature attorneys Bob Bauer and Ben Ginsberg, as well as political strategists Joel Payne and Doug Heye, to discuss voting-rights and election-administration issues.
When approached by a reporter outside the Capitol, Schmitt reiterated his line of questioning, stating that he asked Smith whether he was in Atlanta for the NBA game and accepted Smith's response that he was not.