After Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed that he will seek his members' support later this year, hoping to remain the top GOP member in the chamber, the Kentucky Republican received quick support from his colleagues. Donald Trump continued to push for McConnell's ouster, but rank-and-file GOP senators said they didn't much care.
There was one notable exception. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina announced he might withhold support for McConnell unless the Republican leader proves he has a "working relationship" with Donald Trump.
Three weeks later, it's an open question as to whether Graham has a "working relationship" of his own with the former president.
One day after Trump raised the prospect of issuing pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, the South Carolinian conceded that such talk was "inappropriate." The former president wasn't pleased. Trump sat down with Newsmax yesterday and said:
"Well, Lindsey Graham's wrong. I mean, Lindsey's a nice guy, but he's a RINO [Republican in name only].... Lindsey Graham doesn't know what the hell he's talking about if he says that."
In the same interview, the former president went on to say that some of the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol were "patriots" and are "not guilty" of crimes.
This comes on the heels of a related incident from the fall, when the public learned that Graham personally reviewed Trump's voter fraud allegations and found them to be pitiful, more suitable for "third grade" than national politics. The former president soon after lashed out at Graham, saying the senator "should be ashamed" for not doing more to advance his lies.
On the surface, it's difficult to get too excited about the state of the relationship between Trump and Graham, but just below the surface, I think there's a little more to this story.
Part of what's notable is the degree to which the former president expects his lackeys to abandon independent thought. He doesn't care how much sycophantic loyalty they show; if they step out of line, they immediately get the "RINO" label.
In 2019, for example, the Republican senator expressed disagreement with the then-president about U.S. policy in Syria. If Graham thought his displays of servility would shield him against a backlash, he was quickly reminded otherwise.
"I am the boss," Trump reminded Graham.
It was a notice to Republicans everywhere that Trump effectively sees them as employees, who are expected to follow their superior's lead. As we've discussed, he sees loyalty as a one-way street: It's something Trump expects to receive, not bestow.
But the specifics of this intra-party dispute are relevant, too: This dust-up, after all, is about protections for insurrectionist rioters.
Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall made the case this morning that the former president "is increasingly demanding that all Republican officeholders become explicitly pro-insurrection rather than just saying it's time to move on."
And that's a dynamic that'll be worth watching in the coming weeks and months.
