Chuck Todd: Hawks, Hawkeyes gaffe ‘just an embarrassing moment for GOP Sen. Schmitt’

Former “Meet the Press” moderator and political pundit Chuck Todd mocked Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) over an apparent mix-up relating to a basketball game former special counsel Jack Smith attended in 2024.

“Just an embarrassing moment for GOP Sen. Schmitt. What a disaster,” Todd wrote on social media Tuesday after the hearing. “Confirmation bias virus runs deep with Schmitt.”

Todd was referencing the Republican senator’s questioning of Smith , during which he attempted to tie the special counsel to Fani Willis, a top prosecutor in Atlanta, and others who brought charges against President Trump once he left office.

Republicans repeatedly suggested Smith’s special counsel investigation was biased against Trump and he should be discredited.

After Schmitt asked Smith if he recalled attending a 2024 Atlanta Hawks game, Smith replied, “I really don’t think so. 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.”

Moments later, when it was her turn to question Smith, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) suggested that Schmitt may have confused the Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes, who played at the University of Maryland the same day as the Atlanta Hawks game Schmitt asked about.

“That might be the confusion over the names of the team. But perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully,” the Democrat said, prompting Schmitt to shoot back, saying Klobuchar was attempting to “rehabilitate the witness.”