People have long speculated that Donald Trump is blackmailing Lindsey Graham, and that’s why the antigay senator from South Carolina has been such a loyal lapdog to him. While there’s no evidence to support the rumors, they’ve continued to swirl for years. And they just got kicked up about five notches by Steve Bannon.
Related: Lindsey Graham is being a total drama queen again
In a recent episode of his War Room podcast, Bannon railed against Graham, calling him a “scumbag” and a “slimeball” for allegedly turning his back on Trump.
Bannon was responding to remarks President Biden made when he said there are five Republican senators who privately told him they want to support his agenda but can’t do so out of fear of being primaried by pro-Trump candidates.
“The five traitors–and this is the scumbags and slimeballs you have here in the nation’s capital– he got five Republican senators have told him they agree with what he’s doing,” Bannon raged. “They agree with what he’s doing and they would vote and support him, but they’re afraid of, wait for it, the War Room Posse.”
“Have enough guts to step up and tell us, Lindsey Graham, who you are. We need you guys to step up to the plate, Lindsey Graham!”
That certainly sounds… ominous.
Newsweek reports:
Graham has blasted Biden repeatedly during the first year of his presidency. He said he would “never forgive” the president for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan during a Fox News interview last November, maintaining that he believed Biden had “blood on his hands.” His assessment of Biden was far different in a 2015 Huffington Post interview.
“The bottom line is if you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, you’ve got a problem, you need to do some self-evaluation,” a teary eyed Graham said during the 2015 interview. “What’s not to like? … He’s the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics. He is as good a man as God ever created.”
Graham’s statements on Trump have also wildly differed over the years. Although he relented on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results after the January 6 attack on the Capitol last year, he said that the Republican Party would not be able to “move forward without President Trump” during a May 2021 interview with Fox News Host Sean Hannity.
Related: Oops! Lindsey Graham might’ve just accidentally screwed over Ivanka Trump
Bannon is known for playing dirty–very dirty–against people he doesn’t like. In 2020, for example, he was linked to the Chinese website that published x-rated photos of Hunter Biden. If the blackmail rumors about Graham are true, and if Graham has, in fact, turned on Trump as Bannon suggested, then we suspect things in MAGA land are about to get very ugly very fast.
Here’s what people are saying on Twitter…
Steve Bannon just called Lindsey Graham "scum" and a "slimeball" for being "a traitor to Trump." Which is strange, since Lindsey and Bannon were once very close, as seen here last weekend at Mar-a-Lago pic.twitter.com/vzVodRllpY
— Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) January 21, 2022
Headlines:
"Steve Bannon rails against 'scumbag' Lindsey Graham for supposedly being secret MAGA 'traitor'"
When rats run out of food they'll turn on themselves..— David W Pippy (@DWPippy) January 20, 2022
I’ve suspected blackmail has been part of Trump and his allies mode of operation. How else do you explain Lindsey Graham?
— julie brough (@juliebrough7) January 21, 2022
Stock up on popcorn now. It's gonna get good!https://t.co/M18oCzoNHP
— The End Justifies the Memes (@Upsidasium) January 21, 2022
As the J6 committee gets closer and closer to the truth about the attempted coup MAGA world is eating its own. Today Steve Bannon called Lindsey Graham a traitor and a scumbag. And now I feel compelled to actually agree with Bannon on something. I don't even know who I am anymore
— Mindy Fischer Writer (@mindys4Biden) January 21, 2022
Steve Bannon is a disgusting puke, and Lindsey Graham is an ugly old woman.
— Ceil Buckner #BeTripleVaxed and Wear an N95 Mask! (@CeilieKayOGM) January 20, 2022
For Steve Bannon to come out and attack Lindsey Graham on his podcast as one of the 5 republicans who support Biden, tells me that Bannon is aware of what Lindsey is being blackmailed with by Trump, and reminding him he better stay in linehttps://t.co/XuVEIGFcrJ
— Andre Robinson (@AndreTrades) January 21, 2022
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
Mister P
I do not believe Steve Badman is of good character.
SFMike
Wow! Your powers of deduction are just supernatural.
Ronbo
Graham, is the rumor true that you posted multiple false stories attacking gay progressive, Alex Morse, to elect a conservative?
Oh… that was true. Did you apologize? Did you get paid?
Heywood Jablowme
That controversy was rampant on local social media in MA-1 and then reported by the Hampshire Daily Gazette, the Springfield Republican, the Berkshire Eagle, and eventually by the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe, all of which have quite a bit more influence in the boondocks of Massachusetts than Graham and Queerty do. And Graham probably found out about it from the Globe.
What’s with your monomania on that subject? Even Morse doesn’t mention it in interviews anymore.
Jack
The fact that Steve Bannon’s liver is still functioning is literally a miracle. Take a bath you dirt ball. When I have to chose Lady Graham as the protagonist of an article, you know shit’s bad.
Joseph1971
Whatever happened to the story that Lady Graham was going to be “outed” by a porn star he allegedly paid for sex, as well as multiple other male sex workers that had sex for cash with Lady Graham. I personally emailed that porn star and he put out a statement that he was talking with attorneys as to how to proceed. Then the story disappeared. So what’s going on, because allegedly, there were over 50 men who work in the sex industry who were either photographed leaving Graham’s residence or willing to talk to a verified news outlet. What is the scoop on that?
Kangol2
This reminds me of how years ago Mike Rogers ran a blog, Blogactive, that repeatedly outed numerous hypocritical anti-gay DL Republicans, sometimes before they were publicly outed (Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Ed Shrock, etc.), I believe. He even outed sitting Republican right-wing US Senator John Barrasso, but few non-gay sites would dare touch it and Barrasso has never sued or even mentioned his outing. Just before Rogers shuttered Blogactive, he was on the cusp of outing Lindsey Graham, and allegedly had receipts, but then effectively went silent, wound down the blog, etc. It always made me wonder, who or what entities are out there protecting Graham?
Kangol2
Why does fascist Bannon assume Miss Lady G is one of the five?
I’d say they were: Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski (up for reelection), Mitt Romney, Rob Portman (who’s retiring), and Richard Burr (who’s also retiring). Of course all five generally opposed Democratic policies but all five also probably would back more Biden initiatives if they weren’t in threat of being viciously attacked by the Don the Con/MAGA loons and their media apparatuses.
Phillip
The question is:
“Where did Drumpf get his blackmail information against Lindsey?”
Was it from his stolen private emails? Who stole them? Is Pootie- Poot involved in this?
Stay tuned . . .
Jaquelope
Isn’t Bannon calling him a “scumbag” and a “traitor” a case of the pot calling the kettle black?
Fahd
Bannon makes his money from lying and spreading lies and disinformation. Graham is an easy target. What’s he going to do?
fredk3
that’s the coke pot calling the pink kettle black.
CNY1983
the 5th person just left bannons podcast and now there are only 4 listeners.
johncp56
Pot calling the kettle lol
Tombear
Everyone in the gay communities of Georgia knows Ms. Graham is a big ol bottom boy. Ask his escorts. They will all talk if you pay them enough.
MikeInWeHo
It’s hard to find much sympathy for Lindsey Graham. That old closet case really needs to retire.