The homophobic smears against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) continued uncontested this week with actress Bette Midler, who bizarrely suggested on Twitter that the senator has a secret love relationship with openly gay Ambassador Richard Grenell, the recently appointed director of national intelligence.
Referring to the senator as “Linseedy Graham” and a “Southern Belle,” Midler waxed poetic about this secret love affair between the two government figures, cryptically suggesting that “the truth is coming out soon.”
Linseedy Graham, that Southern ham,
Has got a secret, oh yes ma’am
The truth is coming out and soon,
Seed’s in love with a Trumpy goon!
That brand new hack? Head of Intell?
Lindsey’s such a Southern Belle!
And just to be sure that nobody would be confused about the identity of this “Trumpy Goon” that she referred to, Midler included a photo of both Graham and Grenell:
Linseedy Graham, that Southern ham,
Has got a secret, oh yes ma’am
The truth is coming out and soon,
Seed’s in love with a Trumpy goon!
That brand new hack? Head of Intell?
Lindsey’s such a Southern Belle! pic.twitter.com/Q7Jwyio7Fh— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) February 27, 2020
People cheered Bette Midler’s smear against Lindsey Graham and even piled on.
“He made it out about five steps before Trump caught him and put a penile bracelet on him. That ‘smile’ you see in the picture is what happens when Lyndsey girl reaches the end of his leash,” tweeted one user.
“Have ya’ll seen Lindsay Graham lately? Man on man this administration is doing a number on him. He looks drunker, gaunt and unkept the [sic] ever before. Wonder what they got on him,” tweeted another.
The homophobic smears against Lindsey Graham have been overtly prevalent during the Trump administration and saw an upsurge shortly after the Republican senator publicly torched the Democrats as unethical, power-hungry swindlers that would destroy anyone and anything to maintain control during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
In January of last year, the anti-Trump super PAC Democratic Coalition cited a Republican “source” to spread the conspiracy theory that Graham was being blackmailed with dirt about “sexual kink” into supporting the president.
“A Republican just told me that he doubts [Lindsey Graham] is kowtowing to Trump (and indirectly Putin) because he’s being blackmailed over his sexual orientation (an open secret) or even financial corruption. Rather, he thinks it probably involves some pretty serious sexual kink,” tweeted The Democratic Coalition chairman Jon Cooper at the time.
After politicos from all different sides of the aisle denounced Cooper’s assertions as “homophobic gutter trash,” Cooper doubled-down.
“By the way, as an openly gay man myself, I couldn’t care less about Lindsey Graham’s sex life (gay, straight or otherwise),” said Cooper. “However, Graham is the Senate Judiciary Chair and there’s a strong likelihood that he’s being blackmailed by the Russians. If so, that needs to be revealed.”
Prior to that, comedian Chelsea Handler posted a graphic tweet in March 2018 suggesting that Lindsey Graham’s alleged sexuality was being used as blackmail fuel.
“Holy, f**k f**k. I just [sic] the video of Trump’s bipartisan ‘meeting’ yesterday,” she tweeted. “Hey, [Lindsey Graham] what kind of d**k sucking video do they have on you for you 2 be acting like this? Wouldn’t coming out be more honorable?”
Handler’s tweet was “liked” 21,900 times and retweeted more than 4,700 times. The tweet was never deleted despite massive blowback on social media.
Also in March 2018, the sit-com “Will & Grace” suggested that Lindsey Graham and the late-Senator John McCain (R-AZ) had “sexual tension.”