MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle suggested this week that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., may have been blackmailed into supporting President Trump’s agenda. As if that idea weren’t stupid enough already, the conspiracy theory upon which it is likely based makes it much worse.

The moment occurred Tuesday as Ruhle and former Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., discussed Graham’s support for Trump.

“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.”

Ruhle responded, “Or it could be that Donald Trump or somebody knows something pretty extreme about Lindsey Graham.”

She concluded, “We’re going to have to leave it there.”

For a network whose programming consists almost entirely of anchors and guests detecting and decrying perceived dog whistles, it’s extremely amusing that one of its daytime hosts would whistle so.

Look, Ruhle may not have said explicitly, “Trump might be blackmailing Graham with proof that the senator is secretly gay,” but she’s not kidding anyone. Ruhle is well aware that such rumors and attacks have followed Graham for as long as he has been Congress. That's certainly what Ruhle was alluding to on Tuesday.

It would be bad enough if Ruhle were just winking at the rumors alleging Graham is a closeted gay man. It's much worse that she credited these rumors as an explanation of the senator's words and actions.

It couldn’t be that the senator is solidly in Trump’s corner because South Carolina is a state the president carried by 14 points in the 2016 presidential election. It couldn't be that the senator merely changed his mind after he saw what Trump sought to accomplish in office. For Ruhle, Graham must be behaving the way he is because he's gay.