OM DENNE EPISODE
Jack Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today for the first time since the January 6th prosecution was shut down. Republicans had hours to ask questions about one of the most consequential legal investigations in American history. Here's what they chose to do with that time.
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana went after Smith's wife for a documentary she made about Michelle Obama. Kennedy asked questions he openly acknowledged Smith couldn't answer about what Merrick Garland did or didn't do, about whether Smith lobbied for the special prosecutor job, about things that have already been contradicted by text messages and emails under oath. He wasn't after the truth. He put Jack Smith's wife at risk. Grant calls it one of the most unacceptable exchanges he's heard from a sitting senator in a long time.
Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri (R) showed up with what he and Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) s held up as a smoking gun: a poster board with three text messages between Smith's staff and Fani Willis's staff that Schmitt claimed proved coordination between the two prosecutions. The poster was held up for about two seconds, not long enough for Smith to put on his glasses to read it. When Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asked Schmitt to put it back up so anyone could actually see it, it turned out the game referenced in the texts was the Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball game on February 3rd, 2024. Jack Smith went to see Kaitlin Clark play. Not the Atlanta Hawks. Schmitt either didn't know his basketball or didn't care.
Before all of this: the White House is running a taxpayer-funded propaganda ad during NFL games, $1.5 million so far from a DHS slush fund account, that directly copies a 2024 Trump campaign ad with the campaign logo removed. Legal experts across the political spectrum say they're illegal. The song used in the first ad was not licensed. Grant got a White House response calling it "unapologetically patriotic."
Grant's framework for what the hearing actually was: DARVO -- Defend, Attack, Reverse Victim - Offender. Every accusation is an admission. And a kind of sadness about what a life lived entirely in Trump's political climate does to a person's ability to imagine that someone else could simply be doing their job.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Everything that happened over the weekend: weapons offered to Xi, blocked funding, education cuts
2:00 The taxpayer-funded Trump ads: $1.5M from a DHS account, aired during NFL games, copied from a 2024 campaign ad
4:30 The unlicensed song, the facial drooping on the wrong side, and what an intern with TikTok could have done better
6:30 Why legal experts across the spectrum say these ads are illegal and what the propaganda law actually says
8:30 Jack Smith comes to the Senate: why this hearing is happening now and what Republicans actually wanted
10:00 Smith's opening statement: what he said and why it's been consistent every time he's testified
11:30 The phone records: what investigators actually collected, why it was standard procedure, and what Republicans claimed
13:30 The Speech and Debate Clause — and why investigating a conspiracy to overturn an election fits possible treason
15:00 John Kennedy goes after Smith's wife: what he asked, what he knew he couldn't get, and what it cost
17:30 Blumenthal and Klobuchar: what it was like to be in the Capitol on January 6th, told by people who were there
19:30 The poster board: Schmitt's smoking gun, two seconds of visibility, and how Kaitlin Clark ended up in a Senate hearing
22:00 DARVO explained: Defend, Attack, Reverse Victim Offender — and why Grant says it's gaslighting on jet fuel
24:00 Every accusation is an admission: what the hearing reveals about how these senators actually do their jobs
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