United States Senator Eric Schmitt's conduct during and after the September 29, 2026 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with former Special Counsel Jack Smith fell far below the standard Missourians should expect from someone entrusted with the powers of his office.

During the hearing, Senator Schmitt attempted to place Smith at an Atlanta Hawks basketball game in Atlanta on February 3, 2024. He suggested that Smith's presence there might connect him to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and warned Smith against perjuring himself before declaring, “I think you've already perjured yourself.”

The premise was wrong. Smith had attended a basketball game that day, but it was a University of Maryland women's basketball game against the Iowa Hawkeyes in College Park, Maryland. Senator Amy Klobuchar identified the apparent confusion between the Hawkeyes and the Atlanta Hawks during the hearing and said Schmitt owed Smith an apology.

Senator Schmitt was subsequently given an opportunity to acknowledge the error. Instead, when a reporter asked how the mistake had occurred, he insisted, “It's not a mistake!” When confronted with evidence that Smith had in fact been at the Hawkeyes game, Schmitt continued to characterize his conduct as simply asking questions. In a subsequent appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show, he similarly defended the exchange rather than acknowledging that the factual premise underlying his accusation had been wrong. 

This matters for reasons far more serious than confusing the names of two basketball teams.

A United States senator used a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to suggest that a witness testifying under oath had committed perjury, a serious federal crime. Senator Schmitt did so while presenting evidence that did not establish what he claimed it established. Once the error became apparent, he had an opportunity to correct the record. He chose instead to defend his conduct.

Senator Schmitt is not only an elected official. He is an attorney and a former Attorney General of Missouri. The authority of those positions carries a particular responsibility to distinguish evidence from assumption and accusation from proof.

Vigorous questioning of witnesses is an essential part of congressional oversight. Accusing a witness of a crime on a demonstrably faulty factual premise is not. Refusing to acknowledge that error after it has been established compounds the failure.

For these reasons, we call on Senator Eric Schmitt to resign from the United States Senate.

Missourians should be able to expect their senators to approach evidence with care, correct the record when they are wrong, and accept responsibility for serious mistakes made in the exercise of public power. When an elected official demands accountability from others while refusing to accept it himself, public trust suffers.