For Republicans trying to outrun a blue wave, the verdict is in: The Dallas midterm convention was a stinker.
asserted
convention → try → wave
“To be honest with you, the numbers—when we did that convention—it dropped our numbers,” Paxton said in leaked audio reported today by the New York Times.
asserted
Paxton → do → Times
“Everybody’s numbers dropped.
asserted
numbers → drop → ?
Paxton, who made the remark at a private fundraiser, was answering the question: “Do you feel like he’s a little bit of a drag?”
asserted
he → make → drag
Who might “he” be, one wonders.
uncertain
one → wonder → ?
It had all been going so well.
asserted
It → go → ?
The junior senator from Missouri had been working hard building a MAGA-pleasing brand as a staunch Trump ally who wasn’t afraid to play footsie with the blood-and-soil right.
asserted
who → work → right
Just yesterday, Axios reported that Schmitt was “seen as a top prospect to become a potential 2028 running mate” for JD Vance.
asserted
Schmitt → report → Vance
Then, just hours later, his big break seemed to have arrived—the moment that he thought he was about to launch his MAGA brand into the stratosphere.
asserted
he → seem → stratosphere
And then it all fell apart.
asserted
it → fall → ?
The Senate Judiciary Committee had hauled former Special Counsel Jack Smith in for questioning.
asserted
Committee → haul → questioning
Republicans’ goal going in was clear: to harass and belittle a man in the top tier of Donald Trump’s enemies list, and to catch him in a perjury trap if they could.
uncertain
they → go → trap
When Schmitt’s time came to question Smith, he embarked on a bizarre line of questioning intended to link Smith with another Trump enemy: Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis.
asserted
he → come → enemy
Hadn’t he traveled to Atlanta in February 2024, just as a scandal was engulfing Willis’s parallel election-fraud prosecution of Trump?
asserted
scandal → travel → Trump
Hadn’t he attended an Atlanta Hawks game that very same week?
asserted
he → attend → game
Was it possible he had gone there to meet with Willis, no doubt for some nefarious purpose?
asserted
he → go → purpose
But Smith did something Schmitt hadn’t expected.
asserted
Schmitt → do → something
He denied having attended the Hawks game in question at all.
asserted
He → deny → question
The senator couldn’t believe it.
asserted
senator → believe → it
He and his colleagues had hoped to catch Smith in some lie that could be used as a pretext to prosecute him.
uncertain
that → hop → him
And now, he thought, he’d been the one to catch him.
asserted
he → think → him
Schmitt could barely conceal his smug glee as he proceeded: “What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warriors–Hawks game on February 3, 2024?” he asked, a grin tugging at his mouth.
uncertain
grin → conceal → mouth
“I don’t think you know that we have this stuff, so I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t perjure yourself.
asserted
you → think → yourself
I think you’ve already perjured yourself.”
asserted
you → think → yourself
A few minutes later, he wrapped up his testimony by calling Smith a “dirtbag.”
asserted
he → wrap → Smith
He’d been in Maryland, watching the Terps women’s basketball team take on the visiting Iowa Hawkeyes.
asserted
team → watch → Hawkeyes
Minutes later, a visibly furious Schmitt was blustering wildly as Sen. Amy Klobuchar icily rubbed his nose in it: “I think people should get their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag, and not get the teams wrong.
asserted
teams → bluster → someone
You had the teams wrong, sir.”
asserted
teams → have → ?
Amazingly, Schmitt refused to apologize, insisting he’d just been asking questions.
asserted
he → refuse → questions
I’ll be honest: It was all highly enjoyable to watch.
asserted
It → watch → ?
(If you want to watch us having fun watching it, Sam and I did a video breakdown after the fact yesterday.)
asserted
Sam → want → fact
JVL likes to say it’s great to watch bad things happen to bad people.
asserted
things → like → people
Sometimes I see what he means.
asserted
he → see → what
But to understand just how bad of shape we’re in as a country, consider this: It’s not clear that this humiliation will hurt Schmitt’s aspirations to higher office in the slightest.
asserted
humiliation → understand → slightest
On one side of our great informational divide, Schmitt’s blunder is already going down in infamy.
asserted
blunder → go → infamy
It was extraordinarily viral all day yesterday, with many Hill reporters at a loss to remember the last time a lawmaker had whiffed so hard during testimony.
asserted
lawmaker → remember → testimony
For most of professional Washington and for most people with a mainstream-to-liberal information diet, it will likely be their first association when they think of Schmitt for years to come.
asserted
they → think → years
Over the divide, however, things look very different.
asserted
things → look → divide
Schmitt’s apparent “gotcha” moment buzzed quickly around right-wing media.
asserted
moment → buzz → media
Podcaster Benny Johnson tweeted that Schmitt1 had “pulled out the receipts” and “CAUGHT Jack Smith perjuring himself.”
asserted
Schmitt1 → tweet → himself
…and 93 more, not listed.
The Aporia
