Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Eagerness to bolster Trump conspiracy theory led humiliated MAGA senator to ignore warnings

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Eagerness to bolster Trump conspiracy theory led humiliated MAGA senator to ignore warnings · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It has been a rough 36 hours for Republican Senator
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Eric Schmidt ever since this happened.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: What would you say if I had a series of
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: text messages from your team that said you were in
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Atlanta at a Warrior Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: the day after Willis and Wade announced their affair? You
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: can respond. I think you've already perjured yourself.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: right around that time. And the Marshal Service was there
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: with me. You could check if that was the exact date.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: It was Maryland playing Iowa. Could it then be that
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: University of Iowa is the Hawkeyes? That deserves an apology.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, Katie Britt, the look. Folks, even that brief summary
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: doesn't capture the humiliation Senator Schmidt faced during that exchange.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: And he has been struggling to answer questions about it
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: ever since. It just looked like you had a gotcha
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: for him.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Like, are you going to purge yourself?
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Are you lying now? You had the wrong game. He
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: was at a basketball game.
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: But there was a different one.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: How did that mistake happen?
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  Speaker 2: It was not a mistake. I asked him if he
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  Speaker 2: was in Atlanta.
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  Speaker 5: So that wasn't like an embarrassing moment or something from
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: where you're standing?
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  Speaker 2: No, I asked questions. I suppose that the Department of
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Justice can ask him really where he was that night.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Hawkeye.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: The Hawkeye game. What's that?
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: The Hawkeye game, wasn't he?
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: That's what he says.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, no.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: We can see in the audience that he's in that section.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I've seen him in the section that night. That night?
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Great. He was at the Hawkeye game. I just asked
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: him if he was in Atlanta.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: OK, because there's text message of him at a game
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and the only NBA game that night was in Atlanta.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Well, that's not even true. A simple Google search. Y'all
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: know the Google in his office, right? Would tell you
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: there were actually six NBA games that night in cities
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: across the country because it's a big country and their
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: games played everywhere, not just in Atlanta. It turns out
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Eric Schmidt has believed this harebrained conspiracy about Jack Smith
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: for a very long time now, and he's been on
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a wild goose chase for any evidence to back it up.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Now take a look at this clip from November of
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: last year.
• 2:09
  Speaker 6: Jack Smith is still saying that he wants to come
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  Speaker 6: and testify in open hearings, open congressional hearings. He obviously
• 2:16
  Speaker 6: thinks he's got the goods on somebody, but... If he
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: does testify, Republicans like you, with a lot of cross-examining experience,
• 2:24
  Speaker 6: could cross-examine him. So is that something that's going to happen?
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I hope so. I do think, though, that the thing
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: that has to happen first, though, is, and I mentioned
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: these kind of Watergate-style hearings, we need to get all
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of the information. I think we need to understand what
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: kind of coordination was happening with Jack Smith, with these
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: other prosecutors. There's a lot more there. I think we
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: need a lot more information before we have those hearings, though.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, so for nearly a year, the senator has wanted
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to accuse Jack Smith of somehow colluding with other prosecutors.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: He just needed more information. And thanks to brand new
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: reporting tonight from MSNOW, we now know exactly what happened
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: when Eric Schmidt thought he found the smoking gun he'd
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: been looking for all along. Here's the headline. Eric Schmidt
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: was warned about the Jack Smith texts. He used them anyway.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Joining me now, MSNOW congressional reporter Michael Schnell, who helped
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: break that story, and former U.S. senator from Missouri, Claire McCaskill. Michael, welcome.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Let's start with your reporting. Explain to us exactly what
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: happened here. Smith's team was warned about it, but he
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: wanted to go and use it anyway.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, Michael, when this all went down during
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: yesterday's hearing, which, as you rightly point out, not even
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: about 36 hours ago, the two main questions that folks
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: had were, where did this information come from, this tip
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: about Jack Smith being Atlanta and potentially meeting with Fannie Willis?
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: Where did that come from, and how did it end
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: up in the hands of Eric Schmidt? And we're starting
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: to understand just exactly where it came from. So we
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: have learned, my colleagues Carol Lennig, Ken Delaney, and I
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: have learned, this information originated with the DOJ. The DOJ
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: then passed it on to Senator Chuck Grassley's office. He's,
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  Speaker 5: of course, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Worth noting,
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  Speaker 5: it's not completely unfounded for the DOJ to send over
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  Speaker 5: information to the Judiciary Committee if they're working on particular investigations.
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  Speaker 5: And then it ended up in the hands of Eric Schmidt.
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: And the way that that happened was Schmidt's team had
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: gone to the Judiciary Committee staff and said, we're interested
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  Speaker 5: in any information that you may have that potentially connects
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: Jack Smith's investigation with Fannie Willis's investigation into... Potential election
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: tampering in Georgia. So then the Judiciary Committee looked at
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: all the materials it had, found these text messages and
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: said to Eric Schmidt's team, we have these text messages.
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  Speaker 5: I want to note they are unvetted and it is
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  Speaker 5: your due diligence to make sure that they are true
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  Speaker 5: and corroborate them before you go to air with them.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: When I say unvetted, meaning that the significance of those
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: text messages to the situation at hand, that was in question.
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  Speaker 5: Eric Schmidt took the information, and as we are now learning,
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  Speaker 5: he went forward with it without fact-checking it. And it's
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: also worth noting that Eric Schmidt had been looking for
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  Speaker 5: information about some sort of nexus between the Arctic Frost
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: investigation and Fannie Willis' Georgia investigation. For a while, his
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: select committee of the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: that matter earlier this year. So this was not an
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: unfounded area that Eric Schmidt was looking into. But we're
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: now learning that he was given a warning that his
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: team had to do to his due diligence on this
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: piece of information. Obviously, we are now learning they did
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  Speaker 5: not considering. They said he was in Atlanta when he
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: was just in Maryland.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Amazing. Claire, you just you can't when you watch that clip.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: You sit there and I think Senator Britt's face sort
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: of just explained a lot for a whole lot of us.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: You served in that chamber. You represented Missouri in the U.S.
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: Senate.
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  Speaker 1: What does this blunder say to you about preparation? What
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: does it say about staff work? And what does it
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: say about if you really want to as a prosecutor,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: former prosecutor, of which you both are, about, you know,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: not asking a damn question that you don't know the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: answer to?
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  Speaker 4: Well, first, he's very thirsty. This is a guy who
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: is so anxious to get a viral moment. And remember,
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: you know, his idol at this point is a guy
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: who's never met the truth. So Eric Schmidt wasn't about
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: to let something that was a lie get in his way.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: He wasn't interested in determining whether it was true or
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: false because to him it didn't matter. But he didn't
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: know he was going to get caught like that. And
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: then let me correct the record about one thing. In
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: that Fox interview, they said, well, you've cross-examined witnesses. Just
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: keep in mind, Michael, as you know, in most states,
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: the attorney general does not have original jurisdiction on criminal cases.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: They don't in Missouri. Those cases are prosecuted by elected
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  Speaker 4: prosecutors in the counties across the state, not the attorney
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: general's office. You know what Eric Schmidt did? I'm pretty
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: sure one time... He sat at the table when the
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: AG's office had a conflict case, gave an opening statement,
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: and did one direct examination. I don't think Eric Schmidt
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: has ever cross-examined a witness in his life in front
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: of a jury, ever. Now, I'm anxious for him to
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: prove me wrong. I'm willing to look at the cases
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  Speaker 4: and look at the transcripts. But this guy calling himself
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: a prosecutor is like me calling myself a diva ballerina.
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  Speaker 4: You know, I don't think this guy understands that when
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: you are going at a witness, you've got to have
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: the facts. And it wouldn't have been hard to vet this.
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  Speaker 4: There isn't even a row one in the Atlanta Hawks arena.
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  Speaker 4: It starts with row AA and in the text it
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: references row one. There isn't even a row one. It
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  Speaker 4: wouldn't have been hard to figure out that it was
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: not happening in Atlanta.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Amazing. It's one of those things, I think, in many respects,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: that really kind of keeps you— it just makes you look
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: at politicians and go, why? You've got Michael's reporting, noting
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: that the chairman of the committee— Chuck Grassley did not
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: share the text materials with Democrats on the committee. Any
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: sense of why he didn't do that? And is that
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: really kind of the protocol or an optional protocol in
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the Senate?
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  Speaker 4: Well, thanks to Michael's reporting, we know not only did
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  Speaker 4: he not share it with the Democrats, he didn't put
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: it in the memo.
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  Speaker 7: To the Republicans.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: He did not include those text messages in the memo
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: to the Republicans. So that tells you that the staff
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: and Judiciary Committee did not have confidence in those text
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  Speaker 4: messages as to being revealing of anything. So this is
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: just this is just a wild show, a clown show
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: by Eric Schmidt desperately trying to grab attention. You know,
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: they planted a story about him being considered for VP
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  Speaker 4: that morning. He teased this the day before. They saw
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: this as his moment in the sun. As it turned out,
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: he ended up in a pile of Schmidt.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Leave it to the senator. To close us out, Michael Schnell,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Claire McCaskill, thank you both very, very much. Really appreciate it. Hey,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: it's Rachel.
• 9:45
  Speaker 7: I am so glad to see you at the end
• 9:47
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• 9:48
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• 9:51
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• 10:00
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• 10:03
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• 10:08
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• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Thanks.