‘Why don’t you just bite the bullet and come out’: Broadway legend Patti LuPone is heavily criticized for a personal attack on Lindsey Graham
- LuPone hurled the attack against the Republican senator on Twitter Thursday
- Many reacted in shock calling the remark homophobic
- Graham has been a staunch defender of Trump during recent controversy
- The lifelong bachelor has previously denied claims that he is gay
Broadway legend Patti LuPone has drawn harsh criticism for an attack on Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, insinuating that he is gay.
‘Lindsey Graham you are a disgrace. On a personal note, why don’t you just bite the bullet and come out. You might just come to your senses,’ LuPone tweeted on Thursday.
LuPone, who won a Tony in 2008 for her leading role in the musical Gypsy, drew swift backlash from critics who called her remark ‘homophobic’.
‘Wow! Patti LuPone is homophobic! Who knew?’ one Twitter user commented.
Broadway legend Patti LuPone (left) has drawn harsh criticism for an attack on Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (right), insinuating that he is gay
‘I’m guessing twitter won’t consider this homophobic because it’s directed at a republican,’ another wrote.
Graham, a lifelong bachelor, has flatly denied rumors that he is gay in the past.
‘To the extent that it matters, I’m not gay,’ Graham said in October, responding to a tweet from comedian Chelsea Handler implying that he was gay.
Graham, a close ally of President Donald Trump who golfed with him over the weekend, has remained a staunch defender in Trump’s recent battle with Rep. Ilhan Omar and her ‘squad’ of freshman Congresswomen.
Nevertheless, Graham advised Trump to ‘aim higher’ during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s ‘Fox & Friends,’ even as he accused the four Democrats of being ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘anti-American.’
It is hardly the first time that liberals have sneered that Graham must be hiding sexual preferences.
In January, an MSNBC anchor implied without evidence that Trump is somehow blackmailing Graham – and suggested the lawmaker has a ‘pretty extreme’ secret.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, got in on the act at the time, responding to a remark on Twitter about Graham with: ‘They got to him, he is compromised!’
Jon Cooper, chairman of the Democratic Coalition super PAC, made an explicit accusation on Twitter, saying that he had spoken with ‘a Republican’ who believed that Graham was being blackmailed over ‘some pretty serious sexual kink.’
Cooper, who is gay, called Graham’s sexual orientation ‘an open secret’ and asserted, without evidence, that ‘there’s a strong likelihood that he’s being blackmailed by the Russians.’
Not everyone was impressed with the speculation that Graham is being blackmailed, however.
‘Many MSNBC hosts & pundits are trapped in a Tom Clancy novel, where everyone is an ‘asset’ & ‘has been turned’ & is being blackmailed,’ wrote journalist Glenn Greewald, who is openly gay, on Twitter.
‘It’s fine on MSNBC to baselessly muse that Lindsey Graham is being blackmailed with ‘something pretty extreme’ (gee, I wonder what she means),’ Greenwald wrote.
Journalist Matt Taibbi also tweeted: ‘I’m no fan of Lindsey Graham, but this practice of casually suggesting that disliked public figures are being blackmailed has gotten so far out of hand – it’s gone from being a major ethical taboo to commonplace.’