CBS, NBC Finally Cover Smith Hearing....But Bury Substance Under Viral Flub

After their flagship evening newscasts ignored late Tuesday the explosive Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with former Special Counsel Jack Smith, CBS and NBC emerged Wednesday with full segments on CBS Mornings and Today, but they joined ABC’s Good Morning America in burying the entire point of the hearing under the hoopla surrounding a viral moment involving one Republican senator’s explosive claim about Smith.

However, all three still refused to mention the most explosive revelation in the entire hearing about Smith having obtained communications from 18 different news organizations.

CBS Mornings covered the heated hearing in its second hour, but featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers couched it through the lens of what Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said:

On Capitol Hill, Jack Smith, who tried to prosecute President Trump, faced Senate Republicans who say he unfairly targeted GOP. One senator went as far as to suggest that Smith was lying, but he was the one who was wrong. Ed O’Keefe has more from the White House. Ed, that was a jaw-dropping moment.

Following a brief diversion about Duthiers being named a nominee by People for sexist news anchor, O’Keefe quipped, “Let’s just say, Vlad, that Senator Eric Schmitt thought he was going to dunk on a witness, but instead, he missed and completely messed his shot.”

“Schmitt accused Smith of attending an Atlanta Hawks game in February 2024. He alleged it was to collude with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was investigating the President's alleged meddling in Georgia’s 2020 elections. The only problem? Later testimony revealed Smith was hundreds of miles away at an Iowa Hawkeyes women's college basketball game,” O’Keefe added ahead of the clip.

O’Keefe concluded by remarking that “Democrats slammed Schmitt, saying he should have been more careful before making those accusations” even though “Schmitt still stands by the overall message.”

Only at the very end did O’Keefe himself mention what the hearing was actually about: “Smith also defended his decision to charge the President, saying Trump had engaged in criminal activity. Gayle, a bit of a flub by the senator. Let’s put it that way. Doesn’t know ball.”

“Oh, Huge flub. I wonder who’s going to take the fall for that because somebody gave him all that information. It was very interesting to watch, and Amy Klobuchar certainly came through in that moment,” gushed co-host and former Democrat donor Gayle King.

NBC’s Today had it in the tease. Co-host Savannah Guthrie admitted it was a “fiery hearing” about Smith “defend[ing] his investigations of President Trump, and Republican lawmakers pil[ing] on,” but tacked on the Schmitt as an “attempt at a gotcha moment” that “appeared to fall flat when more facts came out.”

Guthrie and longtime correspondent Kelly O’Donnell also led with the whole reason Smith surfaced before moving to their partisan celebrations.

“Now to that contention hearing on Capitol Hill. Republican lawmakers grilling the former special counsel who charged President Trump in connection with separate federal criminal investigations,” Guthrie declared.

O’Donnell picked it up from there (click “expand”):

O’DONNELL: President Trump has long criticized and called for action against former Special Counsel Jack Smith. Senate Republicans argued that Smith’s investigation of President Trump that led to felony charges was politically motivated, allegations Smith denied. That divide turned personal. Weeks before the coming midterms, Senate Republicans turned up the heat, unloading their anger on a frequent target of President Trump’s fury: former Special Counsel Jack Smith.

SCHMITT: You will go down as a total dirtbag.

SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): You make me want to throw up in my mouth.

O’DONNELL: The President and some Republicans say the former prosecutor should be prosecuted himself, arguing Smith abused his power and sought to hurt Mr. Trump politically. Smith standing his ground.

SMITH: And I will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution from the President or others.

O’DONNELL: Smith also defended his investigation that led to two felony indictments against Trump back in 2023, related to retaining classified documents and attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

SMITH: Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes.

O’DONNELL: Republicans tried to demonstrate Smith’s investigation was political.

The next minute concerned the Schmitt incident, with O’Donnell saying the “exchange...went viral” as the Missouri senator “attempt[ed] show that Smith was in Atlanta on a certain date, apparently trying to link him to a Democratic prosecutor there who had charged Mr. Trump.”

All told, O’Donnell spent just over a minute (63 seconds) parading before viewers the embarrassing moment:

O’Donnell returned to the non-theatrics in her last two sentences, but ran cover for Smith:

Republicans also argued that it was improper that Smith’s investigation subpoenaed phone log records for a number of Republican lawmakers. Smith said those records were obtained to corroborate what witnesses had told them about phone calls made between lawmakers and President Trump on January 6, and he had not called Democrats.

Not to be left out, the most virulent Trump-hating broadcast network was more blunt.

ABC’s Good Morning America had co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos hype in a tease the “failed perjury trap” has “everyone...talking.”

Later, co-host Robin Roberts cued up chief Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas: “Now to the fiery hearing on Capitol Hill. Former Special Counsel Jack Smith spent hours before the Senate committee...Pierre, there’s one moment so many people are talking about.”

Thomas complained that “Tuesday’s hearing was a political fistfight with name-calling and a curious debate about a basketball game” as Smith endured “an often volatile hearing, defending the two cases he brought against President Trump, accusing him of trying to overturn the 2020 election and for bringing classified documents to his Florida home after leaving office.”

The rest of his report (nearly 90 seconds) was about Schmitt’s error (click “expand”):

THOMAS: But the hearing quickly devolved when one Republican attempted to prove Smith lied under oath about a basketball game. Republican Senator Eric Smith calling Smith a dirtbag and claiming to have text messages proving Smith attended a Hawks basketball game in Atlanta in 2024 during the time Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis was investigating Trump.

SCHMITT [TO SMITH]: Did you ever go to Atlanta during your time as special counsel?

SMITH: 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.

THOMAS: On that day. February 3, 2024, Smith said he was at a Maryland college basketball game.

SMITH: I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing — right around that time.

THOMAS: Senator Amy Klobuchar calling out Smith.

SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Could it then be that University of Iowa’s Hawkeyes? Could that be it?

THOMAS: And calling on him to apologize.

KLOBUCHAR: I think that people should have their facts straight —

SCHMITT: Didn’t know we had bonus time around here.

KLOBUCHAR: — before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag and not get the teams wrong. 

SCHMITT: I stand by that statement.

SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): Klobuchar —

KLOBUCHAR: You have the teams wrong, sir.

GRASSLEY: — Senator!

THOMAS: Senator Schmitt refusing to say he was wrong, but Special Counsel Smith saying that the U.S. Marshals were with him at the college basketball game and that he can prove it[.]

Because ABC seems to encourage its co-hosts to editorialize, co-host Michael Strahan scoffed, drawing verbal nods of agreement from Roberts and Stephanopoulos: “Alright, Pierre. Little embarrassing there.”

To see the relevant September 30 transcripts, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).