“I got a few messages saying ‘you messed up,’ actually it was a little more colorful than that,” said Smith, a Democrat who has represented Montgomery County in the General Assembly since 2015.
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Smith, who chairs the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, is in the final weeks of a busy 90-day legislative session. His committee has taken up the weighty issues of reforming the juvenile justice system, banning untraceable firearms — commonly known as ghost guns — that are assembled from parts and sold in kits on the Internet without background checks, and allowing felons to serve on juries.
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Last week, after criticism of Smith became public, the Maryland Senate president praised his leadership and he received a standing ovation from his colleagues.
“The act of violence was sad and unacceptable,” the senator said. “And I think there was a missed opportunity to address alopecia in a constructive way. And then I thought about what personal stuff someone must be going through to do something like that.” (The actor Will Smith was apparently reacting to Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia.)