If you’re going to accuse somebody, get your facts straight

I started Tuesday’s show saying I was tired of the hearings.

How many hearings do we need?

Ted Cruz was going after Jack Smith. John Kennedy was going after Jack Smith. Chuck Grassley was going after Jack Smith. There were questions about subpoenas, Republican lawmakers, donors, phone records and the investigation that followed the 2020 election.

I’m ready for the handcuff stage.

Then Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri gave me a reminder of why hearings still matter — and why you’ve got to be awfully careful when you’re sitting behind that microphone with the whole country watching.

I like Schmitt. He’s a former prosecutor. He’s no dummy.

He started questioning Jack Smith about February 3, 2024.

Were you at an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks?

Smith looked perplexed.

No recollection.

Were you in Atlanta?

Didn’t believe so.

Did you ever meet Nathan Wade or Fani Willis?

No.

Then came the Perry Mason moment.

Schmitt said, essentially: What would you say if I had text messages from your team showing you were in Atlanta at that Warriors-Hawks game?

Now we’re cooking.

Except there was a problem.

A pretty big one.

Smith said he remembered going to a University of Maryland basketball game around that time where Caitlin Clark was playing. Amy Klobuchar started checking the details.

And sure enough, Iowa played Maryland on February 3, 2024.

In Maryland.

Caitlin Clark scored more than 30 points.

Suddenly that Perry Mason moment wasn’t looking quite so Perry Mason.

That’s when I said something that shouldn’t be remarkable, but apparently is these days.

If somebody on Schmitt’s team gave a United States senator bad information and sent him into a nationally televised hearing with it, there needs to be accountability.

Public accountability.

Find out who gave him the information. Find out how it got through. And if somebody screwed the pooch that badly, that person needs to go.

Now, I also said something else.

If it eventually turns out Schmitt was right and Jack Smith really was in Atlanta, then Smith has some explaining to do.

But based on what we had in front of us Tuesday, it looked like somebody on Schmitt’s side may have screwed this up. I’m not going to pretend otherwise just because there’s an R after the senator’s name.

And that’s the larger point.

These hearings involve serious allegations. Senators questioned Smith about obtaining records involving Republican lawmakers, organizations and donors. Kennedy hammered him over records involving Republicans and the Speech or Debate Clause. Grassley questioned him about financial information and communications gathered during the investigation.

If you’re going to pursue those questions, pursue them. If you’ve got the documents, show them. If you’ve got the evidence, put it on the table.

But don’t hand the other side an escape hatch because somebody couldn’t tell the Atlanta Hawks from the Iowa Hawkeyes.

That’s not a minor typo. That’s Atlanta versus Maryland. NBA versus college basketball. Golden State versus Caitlin Clark. Those are some fairly substantial clues.

And somewhere in the middle of all this, Karolos finally came back from Greece.

I welcomed him back and said I’d heard he got married.

“I went to a wedding,” he corrected me.

He didn’t get married.

Well, that was useful information to have.

Because apparently Tuesday was the day for everybody to double-check their facts.

That’s what I’d like to see more of in Washington.

There was enough serious material in that hearing without anybody needing to manufacture a dramatic gotcha. Cruz opened with questions about whether being a Republican or writing checks to Republicans was a crime. Kennedy had his own memorable exchanges with Smith. Grassley pressed him on the information his investigation obtained.

Plenty to argue about. Plenty to investigate. Plenty to demand answers about. So get those answers right.

I don’t care whether you’re a Republican senator, a Democratic senator, a prosecutor, a reporter or some guy sitting behind a radio microphone named Bo Snerdley. If the facts don’t fit your argument, you don’t get new facts. You get a new argument.

And if somebody on your team screws up? Say so. That’s not weakness. That’s how people might actually start believing you when you tell them you’ve got the goods.

— Bo