A 2016 Election Conspiracy Theory That Could Top Trump’s

I’ve been mulling the decision by U.S. Senators Lindsay Graham and John Cornyn to call for a special counsel to revisit Russia’s role in the 2016 election.

Trump just renewed his bizarre accusation that Barack Obama and others are guilty of treason for trying to “rig” the 2016 election against him by creating a “hoax” that the Russians helped his campaign. But that conspiracy accusation has been so thoroughly discredited by earlier investigations, why would Graham, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Cornyn, a long-time Texas U.S. Senator and former Texas Supreme Court justice, give it credence? They both must realize Trump is talking nonsense.

At first I assumed that both Graham and Cornyn, facing serious right-wing MAGA challenges for re-election, were cozying up to Trump for political self-protection.

What If a New Investigation Exposes More Trump-Russia Ties?

But then I reminded myself that the Republican right wing these days is a steamy caldron of conspiracies. Why would Graham and Cornyn humiliate themselves this way? What if Graham and Cornyn actually had a more devious motive than helping Trump? Instead, maybe they see it as an opportunity to bring him down. Ridiculous, you say? Follow the logic.

It’s well documented that in 2016 it was Trump himself who publicly called for Russia to intervene by hacking Hillary Clinton’s files. “Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” Remember?

Within five hours, the Russian intelligence agency GRU did exactly what Trump suggested. They hacked into and stole Clinton's emails and released 200,000 of them, timed to cause her maximum embarrassment.

Trump was right. The press did “richly reward” the Russians…and Trump…by making Clinton’s emails a very big deal that lasted right up to election day.

Then, Trump’s chairman Paul Manafort shared the campaign’s most sensitive internal polling data with a man tied to Russian intelligence. This data gave the Russians a valuable road map of how best to exploit Clinton’s vulnerabilities. And Russian intelligence certainly knew how to use them, carrying out a sophisticated internet media campaign using bogus entities and misinformation.

After the election, former FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel to take a deep dive into the extent of Russian interference. The result, 33 indictments, and an unequivocal conclusion: “I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments, that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election.”

In 2020, the Republican run Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by none other than Trump’s now Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, came to an identical conclusion: “We found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling.”

Is There a Political Conspiracy Behind the Scenes Here?

Against that backdrop, Trump now claims that accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 election are a total hoax, “the crime of the century,” organized by Obama and abetted by the Clintons and Joe Biden. In other words, Clinton was behind a plot to kill her own chance to be president, helped by those two other notorious conspirators, Obama and Biden.

This is what Trump wants us to believe. And Graham and Cornyn have signed on to help him try to prove it. Why? Why, when the most likely outcome would be another opportunity to remind voters how tightly wound Trump and the Russians were, how they were misled by expert Russian hacker manipulation, and how ridiculous Trump sounds by playing the victim.

This is why I smell conspiracy on the part of Graham and Cornyn.

Both are heading for reelection in a year when Trump’s poll numbers are rock bottom. He has only 28% support among independents in the latest Gallup poll. And it’s only going to get worse as tariff-driven prices rise and the economy takes a hit because of the deportation purge.

Republicans tied tightly to Trump will not be in an enviable place in 2026. But not showing total fealty now risks angering the Republican base voters. However, the more politically toxic Trump becomes, the more Graham and Cornyn may be able to get some separation from him by next year without backlash from their party’s base, either in their primaries or their November elections.

Convoluted, yes. But giving Trump as much room as possible to self-destruct may be the most logical strategy for them and other Republican office holders who need to squirm out from Trump’s smothering embrace.

If my conspiracy theory is right, I tip my hat to Senators Graham and Cornyn. Devious, but rational. Very clever indeed.

Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net

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