Editorial: Senators behaving badly -- Missouri deserves better than this

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Oct 5, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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Diligent news consumers might have noticed a story recently about a MAGA Missouri senator who humiliated himself before the nation by spinning a slanderous and easily debunked lie against a prosecutor.

No, we’re not talking about Sen. Eric Schmitt — though the description definitely applies there as well. The whole country has been laughing at how the junior senator’s malicious, buffoonish attack Tuesday on former special counsel Jack Smith exploded in his face because of sloppy staffing.

What’s gotten far less attention is that, just hours after that epic face-plant, Missouri’s senior senator, Josh Hawley, took to Fox News to allege that Smith “went through Melania Trump's personal drawers, clothing, items very personal to her.” As with Schmitt’s clown show, it turns out Hawley was alleging something that a quick Google search confirms to be impossible.

As laughable as these punchlines are, it’s important not to trivialize the disturbing disconnect with ethical and constitutional reality that Schmitt and Hawley display in their animus toward Jack Smith. In their minds, the unprecedented attack on democracy that Donald Trump launched as the sitting president on Jan. 6, 2021, isn’t the problem; the problem is that Smith tried to hold Trump accountable for it, as was his duty after being appointed special counsel for the Justice Department in 2022.

As the whole world now knows, Schmitt tried to set a perjury trap for Smith during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, asking him whether he attended an NBA game in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2024, then accusing him of lying when he said he hadn’t. Schmitt was trying to prove that Smith was in Atlanta to secretly collude with Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis, who was also pursuing charges against Trump.

Problem: Smith wasn’t in Atlanta watching the NBA Hawks that night — he was 800 miles away, watching an Iowa Hawkeyes NCAA women’s basketball game. Schmitt’s staff minions had placed him at the wrong game.

Most people understand an honest mistake, even one as dumb as that. What has brought such universal and well-deserved derision down on Schmitt was his utterly classless reaction to seeing his trap fail in real time, in front of the whole country. Having called Smith a “total dirtbag” before his mistake was exposed, Schmitt lashed out and doubled down on the insult even afterward. Obviously, no apology was forthcoming.

Americans are sick of the toxic, scorched-Earth tone our politics has taken these days and Schmitt’s behavior epitomized it. Earlier talk of Schmitt becoming a 2028 running mate for Vice President JD Vance appears to have evaporated in a matter of minutes. Even long-time Fox News analyst Brit Hume piled on, saying Schmitt “brought this on himself.”

If Hume watches his own network, he might want to consider what Missouri’s other senator said there just hours after Schmitt’s implosion. Because it hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention.

In an interview with host Sean Hannity, Sen. Hawley gnashed and glowered about the investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified federal documents upon leaving office in 2021, which included an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida home and resort.

"Let's not forget,” Hawley fumed, “he (Jack Smith) went through Melania Trump's personal drawers, clothing, items very personal to her. … This guy was totally out of control and I hope he's held accountable for it."

Problem: When the Mar-a-Lago search took place in August 2022, Smith was, literally, on the other side of the world, serving as a chief prosecutor in the Netherlands investigating Kosovo war crimes. He wasn’t appointed as DOJ special counsel for the Trump cases until November of that year, some three months after the Mar-a-Lago search.

Of course, this is by no means Hawley’s first trip down the MAGA rabbit hole. There would have been no Jan. 6 melee without Hawley, who was the first senator to raise an objection to the valid 2020 election results, thus ensuring there was an unnecessary floor debate for the mob to target. Then there was his infamous raised-fist salute to the mob before it attacked. Then his comical sprint from the Capitol after it started.

What this all illustrates is how much Hawley and Schmitt don't actually represent regular Missourians; they represent Trump. They're his senators, not ours.

Still, Missourians voted them both in. Until those voters get out of their partisan silos and actually start considering the person rather than just the party, these won’t be the last humiliations for our state.