The real reason Lindsey Graham has gone off the deep end
Things are not going well for Lindsey Graham. Back in May of 2016, Graham tweeted “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.” During the run up to the 2016 presidential campaign, Graham also stated, “Donald Trump is a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.” While Graham’s political rhetoric certainly appears to have changed, following a golf outing with Donald Trump on October 9, 2017, the reasons for such a swift pivot are not yet known, despite a massive amount of speculation.
During the 2016 campaign, Graham was a vocal opponent to Trump, and even admitted to encouraging his friend and Senate colleague John McCain to give the FBI the Steele Dossier. So what could have happened to turn Graham from an opponent to Trump’s treason into a full-blown supporter of treason? This question has been asked numerous times, and was even the topic of a New York Times article, which called Graham “the saddest story in Washington.”
So what could possibly be the explanation for the sudden flip-flop in Graham’s feelings towards Trump? As someone who was so close to Senator McCain for so many years, the quick flip-flop to strongly supporting Trump appears to be emotional more than strategic. While Graham is up for reelection in 2020, such a vast change in political position does not follow his political history. The only seemingly possible explanation is one out of fear. So what is Graham so afraid of?
One popular theory is that Graham is being blackmailed and that the Russians “hacked the D.N.C. and the R.N.C., and conspicuously released no documents” from the Republicans. While the possible blackmail material of Graham is the subject of much social media conversation, it appears to clearly be something damaging enough to make him suddenly go from a strong opponent of Trump to one of Trump’s most vocal proponents. As Graham tweeted in 2015, “Donald Trump gets his foreign policy from watching television – the Cartoon Network,” it now appears that Graham gets his political commentary from Russia Today, as he’s clearly owned by whatever the Kremlin has on him.
I’m a ceramic engineer living in Central New York, avid sports fan but find myself more interested in politics lately.