Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of Washington Secrets. Today, we ask the question: What’s in a question when you won’t believe the answer anyway? Plus, we reveal (sort of) what President Donald Trump will say in his Thursday speech and explain why there is good news for the brains who thought Graham Platner was such a great Democratic candidate that he didn’t need to be vetted…
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) hinted at the problem in his Sunday statement.
“You all know how folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older,” he said as he finally explained the fall that led to his long public absence. “Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct – I can’t help it.”
The damage was already done. The information vacuum had been filled by a swirl of conspiracy theories — the senator was “brain dead,” his wife had left for China, the flooring had been replaced at his residence to hide the evidence, and so on.
A “proof of life” photograph showing McConnell in a hospital bed, his hand on Sunday’s Washington Post, only offered more ammunition for the online sleuths armed with questions but never facts.
“Why does the text on the newspaper McConnell’s staff claim he’s holding look AI generated?” asked Laura Loomer, the right-wing influencer with a direct line to the Oval Office. “The text is blurry and the tag on his shirt is blurred.”
“Also, if he’s in the hospital, why is there no IV connected to him to monitor his health?”
Does anyone even read the Washington Post any more, she could have asked?
It was a classic piece of conspiracy theorism, or Loomerism. Why, why, why? What’s wrong with just asking questions?
Of course, Loomer is not asking in order to elicit information. There is no satisfactory response to any of her questions. Each question plants doubt and propagates a theory — it is a technique that has made its way to the top of the Trump administration.
Consider the other huge Senate news from the weekend and the fact that the McConnell photo was released on the same day that Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death was announced. Graham had just returned from Ukraine, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, toured military facilities, and promoted fresh sanctions on Russia.
There was no shortage of people who might have wanted Graham dead. Alexander Dugin, an adviser to Vladimir Putin, once called for his assassination in a now-deleted post on X. Just last week, mourners at the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei carried posters with a bullseye over Graham’s face.
FBI Director Kash Patel weighed in quickly on X. After sending prayers to the Graham family, he said: “The FBI is assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available.”
Patel said nothing about evidence or motives or methods or foreign actors, but just the fact of the FBI taking an interest was enough for conspiracy theorists.
Patel must know something, ran the reasoning. And of course, Patel has form.
PATEL SAYS FBI HELPING LOCAL AUTHORITIES AFTER LINDSEY GRAHAM’S SUDDEN DEATH
Before taking office, Patel was one of the key drivers of a theory that the FBI was protecting a powerful cabal of abusers connected to Jeffrey Epstein. He dropped the theory once in a position to do something about it, creating an audience that is ready to parse every statement and weigh every word for hidden clues.
In the end, the explanations were mundane. An overweight 71-year-old man, whose family had a history of heart disease, died from heart disease. McConnell, a frail 84, had ended up in hospital after falling over.
That won’t be the end of the story. If you don’t want to believe the explanations, you can keep on asking questions in the vein of Steve Bannon’s catchphrase: “There are no conspiracies, but there are no coincidences.”
Unfounded claims have found fertile territory on X ever since Elon Musk took over the platform in 2022, removing trust-and-safety staff and reinstating banned accounts. The result is a documented rise in misinformation.
“An algorithm that rewards controversy and shock value means this sort of thing is amplified and there’s not much you can do about it,” said a former McConnell staffer.
The only question worth asking when confronted by a shocking death, an unexplained absence, a mystery is: What is the least implausible explanation?
Cock-ups are always more plausible than conspiracies. And heart attacks in old men are more common than Russian assassinations.
Then, on Monday afternoon. NBC News reported that FBI agents were seen at Graham’s Washington home.
“I didn’t realize 20 FBI agents were needed to convince everyone that Lindsey Graham died from an Aortic Dissection,” Loomer posted on X, citing the official explanation of his death.
And then of course, there comes the question: “Did the toxicology report come back? 2 things can be true at once.”
The rumor mill cranks up
In unrelated news, Donald Trump is planning what he called a “Speech to the Nation” on Thursday evening.
In other times, these would be for extraordinary, defining moments in a presidency. Yet Trump has already delivered several of them, listing his administration’s achievements or delivering an update on Iran.
There is already a string of rumors or reports (depending on your view) about what he might be about to say. Most theories coalesce around questions about Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.
Here is a rundown: Trump will lay out newly declassified intelligence on the 2020 election, suggesting foreign interference. (There was, of course, a March 2021 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence laying out evidence that Iran and Russia tried to fiddle the outcome.)
Trump will announce that the elections of Georgia’s two senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, are illegitimate because of fraud. (The White House has already denied this.)
Trump will lay out details of vulnerabilities in voting machines used in the 2020 election.
Will he announce that Nicolas Maduro, the deposed leader of Venezuela, currently held in a New York detention facility, is ready to testify that his nation was behind it all, possibly pointing the finger at his predecessor, Hugo Chavez (reigniting a conspiracy theory that the voting machine companies were set up by the late dictator to rig elections)?
Or as Axios has it, perhaps it will be a “potpourri” of achievements, updates on Iran, and some of the above. We’ll find out on Thursday.
Quote of the day
Last week, we asked the question: What will happen to the brains who tried to turn scandal-ridden Graham Platner into Maine’s next U.S. Senator? He dropped out of the race after being accused of rape, which he denies.
How could there be a future for the advisers, such as rising Democratic Party star Morris Katz, who had apparently not thought a Nazi tattoo, a history of heavy drinking, and intemperate social media posts might be red flags.
On Monday, we received an answer when Zohran Mamdani, who counts Katz as one of his closest political advisers, was asked whether he could continue to work with him.
“I will continue to work with Morris Katz,” he answered. “He remains a top adviser of mine.”
Lunchtime reading
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, ruler who transformed Qatar, dies at 74: Qatar is now a major player in geopolitical strategy, and this is the man who made it possible.
Who is Darline Graham Nordone? She is South Carolina’s newest senator and the sister of Lindsey Graham.
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