Salon: "...interesting theory about Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham's relationship"

[Pluvious]

Of all the theories we've pondered, this is the most intriguing...

...

The theory was broken down by former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who was interviewed on MSNBC to answer questions about Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hiring racketeering expert John Floyd for the investigation into whether Donald Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, may have violated the law with efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia.

...

"And here Trump does have a defense," he continued. "What he's going to say is 'I wasn't falsifying information, I genuinely believed I had won the election.' Now ordinarily, that kind of defense wouldn't pass the smell test, but when you're dealing with delusion of grandeur Donald, maybe he's got a defense there."

"The investigation is not just about Trump. It's also about Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani, the former U.S. Attorney, Mr. Byung Pak and some others," he said. "And any of those folks can flip on Trump."

"And I heard you in last segment talking about Lindsey Graham, why is he still palling around with Donald Trump? Well, one shouldn't rule out . . . the possibility that he might be palling around with Donald Trump, because he's hoping Trump will let something slip that Lindsey Graham can use in exchange for a deal."

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/09/a-washington-insider-has-an-interesting-theory-about-donald-trump-and-lindsey-grahams-relationship_partner/

[marble falls]

1. Or pay him off.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

2. What a lovely bunch of people.

Sooooooo jealous I'm not in their kool kids klub!

[dem4decades]

3. Graham is too afraid of the Trump base to turn on him. Lindsay is no hero.

[spooky3]

18. That's the simplest explanation and is consistent with evidence.

So parsimony says you’re right.

[Bev54]

35. I agree but what Neal Katyal just did was put some doubts into

the former guy's head, should he hear about his comments. That will put them both on egg shells. The Lincoln Project split Pence and former guy maybe this will split him and Graham.

[soothsayer]

4. Doesn't explain why he fell for drumpf in the first place

[Mike 03]

6. Thank you!

This isn't "the most intriguing" theory -- it doesn't even rise to the level of being a theory.

[Taylor Picker]

8. Exactly. And Graham changed his tune about Trump LONG before the 2020 election

or the attempts to overturn Georgia.

[leftieNanner]

22. If T***p has any kompromat on Lindsey

Then the inference here is that he is keeping his ears open so he can negate that kompromat and free himself.

That's the way I read it.

[soothsayer]

23. If drumpf and v putin have kompromat on Lindsey, he already knows what it is

Plus, in the case at hand, Lindsey’s attempts to interfere in the election aren’t on tape, and Drumpf’s are. So drumpf needs Lindsey, and not vice versa.

Idk why Linds is dazzled by a guy he used to badmouth. Simping fanboy. It’s embarrassing.

[leftieNanner]

25. Good Point

I don't know why ANYONE likes Drumpf, but one would think that Lindsey is smart enough to know that #45 is a toxic lunatic.

[soothsayer]

27. Great point. I'd love to know his motives here

[The Wizard]

29. Remember back to 2016

when Trump broadcast Graham's cell phone number on TV. that was a shot across the bow.

[soothsayer]

32. He's a real a-hole isn't he

[DENVERPOPS]

26. I have a feeling that

the reason Trump, Lindsay, and several other of them are all complicit in this mess, is that Putin has 8 x 10 Color glossies of THEM ALL involved in the "same activity" at some point in the past. Putin has Kompromat he has been collecting for decades on Trump and other potential politicians that he felt he might be able to use in the future.

[uponit7771]

38. +1, ... or worse, Graham is a true believer

[Trueblue1968]

31. they are more than golf buddies. They are bearded dragon breeders.

say isn't this darling ..... i found it yesterday on twitter. now i want a beared dragon !!!!!
what a sweet little lizard dude. lol lol lol

Link to tweet

[DENVERPOPS]

41. It's a horny toad !!!!!!!!!!!!!

At one time, about 60 years ago us kids could go to any vacant lot in Denver, catch one, play with it and then let it go.

I haven't seen one since, anywhere around Denver........Horny Toads and a bunch of other nature things that are long gone......

[Trueblue1968]

45. ha ha ha ... donnie and lindsay are horny toads. lol

[DENVERPOPS]

47. Nah

HORN DOGS, not horny toads.......

[uponit7771]

37. +1, Graham was hugging on Putin's Whore from the start

[DENVERPOPS]

40. Sorry,

but up until that weekend with Trump, he was known for totally trashing Trump more than any other RepubliCON at that time.

He went to golf and dinner, and on Monday about the time of the first impeachment getting ready for a vote, he was shouting Trump being wonderful, with every ass kissing adjective you can think of in front of the entire press corps and hasn't stopped since.

At first I thought that he was shown a color glossy of him with someone of the same gender. But then I thought, and that would't be enough, everybody knows he's gay.....Then I thought, it's not only Graham but a whole bunch of Repub Senators willing to go out of their way to kiss Trump's ring. What one thing could make them all so overwhelmingly subservient and submissive to Trump. What Kompromat could Putin possibly have on all of them.....something that would immediately destroy them ...Think about it..............

[Mike 03]

5. That's all there is.

Katyal doesn't elaborate in any way beyond that speculation.

In four years, Graham hasn't come into any knowledge he can use to make a deal? So he's hoping Trump will slip up now?

I really like Katyal but this sounds like more wishful thinking. Also, it doesn't explain the last four years of the relationship between Graham and Trump. I think Woodward is right that the pilot fish theory of Graham is going to turn out to be correct.

[UTUSN]

7. "let something slip" - if Lindsey flips for *any* reason, Drumpf will unload on him in an INSTANT!

[FoxNewsSucks]

9. That would be a nice theory,

but it's far more likely that Putin shared enough dirt on Leningrad Lindsey with MF45 to keep him in line.

[Mike 03]

10. Salon is kind of getting embarrassing

Lindsey Graham is a lot like the character Tom Ripley in the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley.

He selects people he thinks are powerful, idealized figures and wants to become them and vicariously share their power by hanging around them and becoming their best friends.

[Hortensis]

11. Well, Katyal's speculation that Graham could be trying to increase his value

to the feds definitely seems interesting coming from him.

So does the theory of ex- fed prosecutor Glen Kirschner that when Russia hacked Graham's own emails it found kompromat used to compel Graham's allegiance to Trump. It was apparently after the hack that Graham did an about face and turned into a Trump sycophant.

Steve Schmidt's "pilot fish" analogy seems too apt not to be true.

Quite possibly they're all true.

And who knows what else? It seems likely that Russia, and other adversaries, developed kompromat on almost any person they chose in the Trump and McConnell/McCarthy's circles, and a good number in the media.

[OAITW r.2.0]

12. The turning point for Graham's about face on Trump seems to have come on a visit to Mar-a-Lago

to play golf with Trump. It would be interesting to see a review of tweets/public comment by Graham before and after this meeting. It was a pretty abrupt change in his tune, as I recall.

[Hortensis]

17. Hm, yes. Graham was only one of several who abandoned his

dignity, reputation, and legacy to put on bizarre public displays of support. Abrupt personality changes that astonished all who knew them.

Some, like Jonathan Turley, maintained superficially respectable postures for those who didn't care what they were saying, but others, like Dershowitz and Giuliani, and of course Graham, behaved more like frenetic circus dogs forced to do tricks in clown costumes.

[greenjar_01]

13. Fanciful nonsense

None of these people are going to see a criminal charge ever.

[Goodheart]

14. I don't buy it. I don't think Lindsey is that clever.

He's just a pathetic suckup. It's FAR more likely that trump has kompromat on that disgusting creature.

[Wounded Bear]

15. Meh...my only "interest" is in taking them both down...

along with all of their co-conspirators.

[keithbvadu2]

16. Whatever dirt Trump has on Lindsey must be spectacular.

Whatever dirt Trump has on Lindsey must be spectacular.

[DENVERPOPS]

30. There is only ONE thing

that Putin and Trump could have on all these Republican Senators that would doom the Senators and Trump in an instant................And the Senators would do absolutely anything on earth to appease Trump and keep it from being revealed.........

[ScratchCat]

33. And they have it

Its very obvious. They have it. On Graham for sure. Trump showed him when they played golf. Then LG went from NeverTrump to Lap Dog in the after press conference like you flipped a switch. They invited all those other guys to Moscow to get to them to. No doubt. Underage hookers are the calling card of Russian blackmail schemes.

[DENVERPOPS]

42. Bingo, your last line

Pictures of all the Senators in compromising photos with underage girls, (OR BOYS) is the only thing that could frighten them that much......THAT would destroy them immediately. Period. "Adult" Hookers are no big deal, as Trump and others have proven.

I can't remember the master pervert's name who was the "child/minor female entertainment organizer" for everyone important who was recently whacked in prison? What video, photos, or diary do you think he kept as insurance to protect himself in case he ever needed it.....
His perverted female accomplice is hidden away by the Feds, but I am sure she is keeping her knowledge and participation as insurance to avoiding prison for life and a bargaining chip for no prosecution, and witness protection...........

[FlyingPiggy]

46. Epstein. They are all pedophiles. They don't hang out together

Bc they love golf so much. It is sickening.

[Escurumbele]

19. That makes sense because I believe trump has the goods on Graham, his 180 degree after one round

of golf is too suspicious, something happened during that round of golf that caused that "change of heart" in Graham...so, Graham may be trying to find something where he can make the situation even so that neither crook can spill the bean on the other.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

20. So a delusional person can act on whatever delusion beliefs they have?

Seems like those who hear voices telling them to kill some one ought to be let off, based on that.

[oldsoftie]

21. I think everyone looks for a lot of stuff that just isnt there.

Graham is looking out for Graham; wanting more followers. Trying to get trumpers to like him. If there was really anything super salacious on him, SOMEONE would've found it out by now. Trump is no sleuth & none of the really good ones would work for him

[msfiddlestix]

24. Yes, I heard Neal Katyal say that last night.

It's actually something I've considered in the past, maybe wearing a wire or some sort of undetected recording device.

But then, he'll say and do something so freakin' lame and assassine that it just can't be true.

[Salviati]

28. To repurpose a meme in response to these theories:

[lagomorph777]

34. Probably both are trying to gather Kompromat.

Such lovely guys.

[Disaffected]

36. It's a Burns/Smithers relationship

more than any other IMO.

[karynnj]

39. It is hard to figure out a logical reason for Graham's actions

I thought I understood the reason he would be a toady before the election - though it means that he was completely willing to sell any integrity he had for over 3 years to avoid being primaryed. However, once he won AND Trump lost, one would think just staying quiet would be the best position for someone who cynically supported Trump for political reasons.

Oddly, it may be that he honestly belief his strange comment that there was both a dark side of Trump and magic. Magic that he did not see in other Republicans (and likely not Democrats.) I don't get the attraction, but a cursory look at RW Trump "art" that has been posted in threads here, there seems to be a prism that renders Trump into something he isn't - noble,strong, handsome, fit etc. I wonder if a similar prism exists that transforms his actions, personality and values to something acceptable to the people who follow him. I guess, as Graham did, you can call those prisms, magic. I prefer words like distortions, illusions or hallucination.

Just like others who fall prey to a cult, he seems to have forgotten everything he once claimed to believe in. All sacrificed to follow Trump.

As to getting something to "use" - I doubt it. How do you explain taking illegal actions after the election. It is true that having something to use might keep someone out of jail, but he could be censored or even pushed out of the Senate. Everything he did post election had to be for Trump - not a Senator just reelected for a 6 year term.

[Tommymac]

43. Nah. Graham is just a stupid racist two faced southern 'gentleman'.

Knew a lot of males like him growing up in that part of the country back in the 1960's and 70's.

Stupid lazy narcissistic sycophants who pose under the false colors of 'old southern gentry' but in reality are modern self-serving southern white privileged stupid racist bigots.

[Lucinda]

44. Trump knew they were going to lose before election day - that's why they cancelled the

election night party at the DC Trump hotel...