An MSNBC anchor has implied without evidence that Donald Trump is somehow blackmailing Senator Lindsey Graham - and suggested the lawmaker has a 'pretty extreme' secret.

Stephanie Ruhle made the extraordinary suggestion on Tuesday during her 9am slot, on a panel discussion with former U.S. Rep. David Jolly about Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who is new head of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.

'Before Don got elected, Lindsey Graham called Donald Trump a racist, xenophobic bigot. Those are Lindsey Graham's words,' Jolly said. 'I doubt Lindsey Graham could tell you Donald Trump has had a change of heart in the last 24 months, I bet the change of heart has been with Lindsey Graham, not the president.'

'Or it could be that Donald Trump or somebody knows something pretty extreme about Lindsey Graham,' Ruhle replied with a smirk. 'We're gonna have to leave it there.'

MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle (above) suggested with a smirk that 'Donald Trump or somebody knows something pretty extreme about Lindsey Graham'

Graham, the new head of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, is seen on Wednesday. A number of liberals, including a fellow Congresswoman, speculate that he is 'compromised'

New Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, got in on the act with a Tweet

Ruhle is hardly the only liberal figure to read something sinister into Graham's change of heart between the presidential primary, when he was running against Trump, and the present day.

New Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, got in on the act with a Tweet later on Tuesday, responding to a remark about Graham with: 'They got to him, he is compromised!'

On Sunday, 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.'

Graham shocked observers by unleashing his fury on Democrats at the Kavanaugh hearings

Graham, a lifelong bachelor, has flatly denied rumors that he is gay.

'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.

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.'

During the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Graham said that while he opposed Trump in the Republican primary, Trump won while he failed to reach one percent.

The senator also explained his change of heart in a June interview with the Weekly Standard, the now-defunct Never Trumper magazine of neocon Bill Kristol.

'One, I got to know him,' Graham told the magazine of warming to Trump. 'I've played golf with him. You know, play golf with somebody for three or four hours, you get to know them better. He's funny as hell. He's got a great sense of humor. There's a method to the madness.'

'He's nobody's fool,' Graham adds. 'Very smart. And he asks a lot of good questions.'

Graham has also split with Trump on key issues, including in recent days sharply criticizing the President's plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.