You may recall that last week, Franklin Graham asked whether it was possible that God, not Russia, had hacked the presidential election in Donald Trump’s favor. It was a question that he himself had answered on the morning after Trump’s shocking victory, when he declared that it was nothing less than divine intervention. This latest tweet made me wonder if there was any chance that Graham fils would remember what happened when his daddy, Billy Graham, got too close to Richard Nixon.
Well, it turns out that a few days after that tweet, the chances of Graham fils coming to his sense any time soon dwindled to around zero. On Saturday, Trump closed his self-aggrandizing “Thank You Tour” with a stop in Mobile, Alabama. That city, for those who don’t know, was the scene of a rally in August 2015 that, by most accounts, proved his campaign was real. He brought along a very special guest–Franklin Graham.
Graham fils quadrupled down on his claim that God hacked the election for Trump. He claimed that the Donald beat Hillary Clinton because “God showed up” in answer to prayers from “hundreds of thousands of people across this land.”
Now, I’m a charismatic/Pentecostal Christian. I know that God uses people whom we don’t expect to be used. But Graham fils is asking us to believe that God hacked into the campaign to intervene on behalf of a guy who plastered a private cell phone number on social media, mocked the disabled, condoned violence at his rallies, gloried in disrespecting women, turned a blind eye to blatant anti-Semitism, and revealed that he himself was a stone-cold anti-Semite. We also have to believe that God told several FBI agents to engage in behavior that was unprofessional at best and criminal at worst in order to derail Hillary’s campaign. If you find that hard to swallow, don’t worry–so do I.
Trump himself returned the favor, saying that thanks to Graham fils and the rest of the religious right, “we won so big with evangelical Christians.” He then went out of his way to praise Graham fils, saying, “anybody that has anything to do with the great Billy Graham, I love.”
If there was any doubt that Graham fils has bowed down before the golden–or rather, orange–calf that is Trump, it should have been dispelled with this tweet.
Great to be in Alabama to pray for #PEOTUS @realDonaldTrump, @Mike_Pence, and the future of our nation today. Prayer makes a difference. pic.twitter.com/E4J0TKXsd9
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) December 17, 2016
You better enjoy this, Franklin. You may have convinced 81 percent of your followers to go for Trump in the election. But in doing so, you have irrevocably tied yourself to every bit of fail that is likely to come from the Trump/Ryan/McConnell gang in the next few years. This latest appearance, complete with a photo op, only underlines this. Mark our words, Franklin–this blog, and everyone else who is standing against Trump, will ensure that you and the rest of the religious right own every bit of that fail. And when he goes down, you will go down with him.
For now, we’ll remember Mobile as the city where Trump took off. If there’s any justice, we’ll also remember it as the city where Graham fils ultimately began his downfall.
(featured image courtesy Graham fils’ Twitter)
