Alternately, she could claim to be the Trumpiest by virtue of being the one Trump actually picked, without having to actually do anything Trumpy. And if she does get primaried, she’d be free to vote her conscience during the lame duck session, and who knows what that would be (but again, can’t be worse than Lindsey).
This seems elegantly logical and thus a non-starter in MAGAland.
Based on an expose from Trump’s first term, I think Lindsey and Trump were legitimately friends. This probably allowed Lindsey more freedom for his “causes”. This shows in the respectful way Trump has spoken about Lindsey.
Darline running for a full Senate term without any experience makes me think she is getting encouragement and support, maybe even pressure, from Lindsey’s staff and financiers as well as their social circle.
This could be good for aid to Ukraine, but bad for everything else. However, I would be surprised if Darline could maintain the same relationship with Trump; she is starting with a big strike against her.
All speculation, of course.
Wouldn’t take much, the dude was a human Slinky.
I don’t think Trump really has friends. He has people that are useful to him and those that aren’t. If someone is useful, he’ll speak well of them. If they aren’t, he’ll speak poorly of them.
I seem to remember that Graham’s support for Trump changed sharply after they went golfing one time. My guess is that Trump had dirt on Graham, showed him what it was, and basically told him to get in line or he’d release it.
Absolutely. And that can change from one minute to the next.
Maybe. Or Lindsey just fell in line like the good pilot fish he was.
As Beni (in The Mummy) sagely notes: Better to be the right hand of the devil than in his path.
This, exactly. I strongly suspect that Trump has no friends, in the sense in which any person with a semi-normal psyche would define a “friend.” He has people whom he “likes,” for the moment, because (a) they can do something for him, and/or (b) they actively flatter him.
Graham demonstrated that he would unswervingly support Trump, and no longer speak ill of him, and that was enough to make Trump “support” Graham.
And Trump praises Graham for his own purposes, not out of friendship.
She already is by the two knuckledraggers quoted up thread.
I mean, if someone beats her in the primary.
The closest thing he has to friends would probably be his children. He does actually try to do things on their behalf, I think. But as his oldest daughter put it once, it was clear when they were all children that “Dad first, then us.”
He helps them, has feelings for them, but he definitely has always been first.
For him, this is as close as he can get to having people to care about. His wives? Passing fancy, imitation of love, then done with them.
Moderating:
I’ve modified the title of this thread to note the expanded discussion about Graham’s potential replacement in the Senate because I think that discussion is contemplated in the OP. However, there are plenty of other threads in which to bag on Trump. Whatever relationship Graham had with Trump is moot at this point.
Let’s leave off with that discussion in this thread, please.
Why does anyone think she can’t handle the job? She’s got a huge staff to do the day to day grunt work, and the party’ll be sure to tell her how to vote.
New Republic: Darline Graham Tries to Bury Her Only Political Donation on Record
My guess remains that she isn’t at heart a right wing extremist. Whether she is any good at faking far-right authenticity remains to be seen.
There’s plenty of evidence that faking RW extremism for PR purposes is a very potent drug that quickly converts most users into actual frothing RW extremists. Only takes a few months, tops.
This is plausible.
But she doesn’t have months. The make-up primary is August 11.
Consider:
Axios: Republicans skeptical Darline Graham can win a full Senate term
And the reason for the above is NOT their thinking the Democrat will win in November.
The election timeline is immaterial. If the question is whether she’ll make a reliable trumper, she will be faking it full bore until she seamlessly becomes one full bore.
Now you’re right that if she loses the election her transition may be interrupted. But her political attitudes at that point will also immaterial to our government since she won’t be in it.
But if she wins, her transition will complete. And whether she’s still a work in process or has grown (metastasized?) into a True Believer still doesn’t matter. In either case her behavior as candidate or as elected official, will be full on trump-sycophant.
Now you do have a point that the real question is whether the R primary voters believe she’s a frothing MAGAt or not. Because that seems to be what they want. And they need to decide in the next 2-3 weeks. In that sense the short term matters greatly.
Getting elected is hard. Getting stuff done is sometimes hard. “Being” a Senator isn’t hard.
Because she has never held public office, at any level, and her only experience in politics has been as a supporter of her brother’s campaigns. Her career has been in advocacy and rehabilitation for the disabled, particularly the blind. To be entirely fair, she’s served in management roles for such organizations, so she probably is (a) smart and (b) competent, but that alone doesn’t nearly prepare one for what it takes to serve in a very high-level political office.
Yes, having a good staff makes a Senator’s job easier, but being a rubber stamp for the GOP and doing what her staff tells her she should do isn’t nearly enough to make her an effective, or even passable, Senator – though it may well make her exactly what Trump wants in that job.