Klobuchar on Schmitt: Glad one of us knows difference between Hawks, Hawkeyes

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) mocked Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) for appearing to confuse the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s college basketball team with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks while questioning former special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday.

“Before calling someone a ‘dirtbag,’ the Senator should have had his facts straight. An apology is in order,” Klobuchar wrote on the social platform X .

She also quipped, “Glad one of us knew the difference between the Atlanta Hawks and the Iowa Hawkeyes!”

While questioning Smith during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Schmitt asked the former special counsel whether he attended a game on Feb. 3, 2024, between the Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors in Atlanta.

Smith denied attending the game, to which the Missouri Republican said he had texts from the former special counsel’s staffers indicating he was there. While questioning Smith on his probes into President Trump, Schmitt called the longtime prosecutor a “dirtbag.”

The Warriors-Hawks game, which Atlanta won 141-134, took place the day after Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis (D) admitted to having a relationship with Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor on her office’s case against Trump involving his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Smith said he did not recall going to Atlanta during that time and did not meet with Willis, a scenario Schmitt raised.

“It’s possible I flew through the Atlanta airport on the way to Florida, but I do not have a recollection of going to Atlanta. I definitely did not go to a Hawks game,” Smith remarked.

The former special counsel then recalled attending a University of Maryland women’s basketball game against the University of Iowa, who then featured star guard Caitlin Clark.

Iowa won that contest over Maryland 93-85 , with Clark scoring 38 points en route to sweeping National Player of the Year honors for the second straight year.

While Schmitt questioned Smith, Klobuchar interjected and said there “might be confusion” over the basketball games considering Hawks and Hawkeyes are similar words.

“And I would just say, for a U.S. senator to have false information and imply, based on a confusion about the name of a team, which I knew, knowing my Midwestern sports, and imply that you were in another city that you were somehow involved that day in what was happening in Georgia and then call you a dirtbag is something that deserves an apology,” the Minnesota Democrat later said, referring to Schmitt.