Sen. Schmitt’s Failed Attack on Jack Smith

Mike Warren is joined by Jonah Goldberg and Kevin Williamson to discuss Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt’s failed attempt at setting a perjury trap and the Trump administration’s AI luncheon. The Agenda: —What happened to Capitol Hill staff? —The GOP’s victory lap —The superintelligence rebrand —Trump’s AI luncheon Michael Warren is politics editor at The Dispatch and is based in Washington, D.C. A former on-air reporter at CNN and a senior writer at The Weekly Standard, he has spent more than 15 years covering lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the White House and the executive branch, the conservative movement, and political campaigns. When Mike is not reporting, writing, editing, and podcasting, he is probably spending time with his wife and three sons. Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Dispatch, based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, enormous lizards roamed the Earth. More immediately prior to that, Jonah spent two decades at National Review, where he was a senior editor, among other things. He is also a bestselling author, longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times, commentator for CNN, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. When he is not writing the G-File or hosting The Remnant podcast, he finds real joy in family time, attending to his dogs and cat, and blaming Steve Hayes for various things. Kevin D. Williamson is national correspondent at The Dispatch and is based in Virginia. Prior to joining the company in 2022, he spent 15 years as a writer and editor at National Review, worked as the theater critic at the New Criterion, and had a long career in local newspapers. He is also a writer in residence at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. When Kevin is not reporting on the world outside Washington for his Wanderland newsletter, you can find him at the rifle range or reading a book about literally almost anything other than politics. The podcast transcription below was generated using artificial intelligence and may include occasional errors or misspellings. Mike Warren 0:00 [instrumental music] Welcome to the Dispatch Podcast. I'm Mike Warren. On today's roundtable, we discuss Senator Eric Schmitt's attempt to catch former Special Counsel Jack Smith in a perjury trap during Capitol Hill testimony this week, and President Trump's meeting with artificial, sorry, super intelligence business leaders and their pact with the administration to, quote, "self-regulate," unquote. And then, not worth your time, dinner parties? I'm joined today by Dispatch Editor-in-Chief, Jonah Goldberg, and National Correspondent, Kevin Williamson. Let's dive in. [instrumental music] Okay, gentlemen. Well, it feels like it's been a long time since we've had a congressional hearing that has turned into some kind of, I don't know, sensation, internet meme. I mean, when, when I have normie friends of mine who have nothing to do with politics, who have actual real jobs, where they, they can't just pay attention to the conversation of what's going on every day in Washington on Capitol Hill, when I'm getting texts from them saying, "Have you seen this congressional hearing?" you know it's a good one. Of course, I'm talking about the Senate Judiciary hearing earlier this week, which was intended to be a kind of Republican grilling of Jack Smith, the former special counsel who was leading the investigations into Donald Trump during the Biden administration. And this was, I think, in a lot of ways set up to give Republicans something to crow about, to be able to go on cable news and say, "See, we really stuck it to, you know, enemy number one at this point for Donald Trump." And I, I think that's what Eric Schmitt, the Republican senator from Missouri, thought he was doing when he was in his line of questioning of Jack Smith. I think he was hoping for something viral. I don't know if he was going for virality in this way. Can we roll the clip of what exactly happened, and then we'll explain a little bit more if it needs explaining. Audio 1 2:19 Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024? Audio 1 2:30 So your testimony today is that you did not go to a Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024. Is that correct? Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like