Tipsheet

Senator Eric Schmitt Goes Absolutely Nuclear on Mazie Hirono

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  June 05, 2026 8:30 AM

Senator Eric Schmitt absolutely blasted his colleague, Hawaii's Mazie Hirono, in a Senate hearing after Hirono went to bat for fraudsters and criminals, including murderers and rapists, from being deported.

"Your comments are astounding, Senator," Schmitt said. "You mention a few words: horrific. I think, to the American taxpayer, that's been ripped off by people who came to this country to rip them off, that's horrific."

"You talk about bizarre," Schmitted continued as Hirono tried to interrupt him. "No, no, no. It's my time now. It's my time. You went over time. It's my time. Bizarre is the idea that you would be here in this committee defending violent murderers from being deported. That you would be defending violent rapists from being deported. That you would defend people who took advantage of the good people of this country, their taxpayer dollars. That is bizarre."

"A terrorist who kills American citizens. You know what's bizarre is your defense of that," Schmitt said. "So forgive me if you're 24 million ... naturalized citizens should be afraid. That's ridiculous."

"You have nothing but fear-mongering here. What I'm saying in this bill is, if you do those things to the American people, if you take advantage of taxpayers — you're not recognized," Schmitt went on, dismissing Hirono's lame objections, "if you comitt a terrorist act, if you commit wholesale welfare fraud within ten years you're damn right we're deporting you. If you're convicted. It's not being accused of anything. If you're convicted in a court of law of these crimes, absolutely we should not only convict you but we should deport you. Gone."

"And if you think that's some sort of like negative assertion towards me, I'll take it. I love it," Smith said. "That's what we should be doing more of in this country. Because people are coming here and they're ripping off taxpayers. And I, for one, don't want to see it anymore. And if you want to have that debate in public, we can do it, but that's what this hearing is about, to examine the SCAM Act, so I just like to expose a few of your lies in your most recent dissertation on the dias here."

Earlier this week, Michigan Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga introduced the 'Deport the Terrorists' Act, which would shorten the process of denaturalizing and deporting those convicted of acts of terrorism. The SCAM Act that Sen. Schmitt mentioned is the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation Act, which expands grounds for denaturalization to include naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes within a decade of naturalization. This includes 'substantial fraud,' defined as more than $10,000 against federal, state, local, or tribal government programs, including but not limited to SNAP and Medicaid.

This is true, but it's still fun to watch.

Democrats have decided to go all-in on defending criminals, both American citizens and immigrants — legal and illegal — instead of protecting the innocent, law-abiding American people. It's who they are.