Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told police officers that he didn’t understand why they didn’t open fire on rioting Donald Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol last year, according to a new book.
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“You guys should have shot them all in the head,” Graham is quoted as saying, per excerpts shared by Politico on Friday. The senator, who is often a key ally to the former president, reportedly made the remarks at a meeting with law enforcement four months after the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington.
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“We gave you guys guns, and you should have used them,” Graham reportedly added. “I don’t understand why that didn’t happen.”
Michael Fanone, a former D.C. Metropolitan Police officer who was badly beaten by Trump supporters during the riot, recalled the exchange in the book “Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul,” due out Tuesday.
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Fanone also recalled Graham threatening to end a meeting with the bereaved mother of a Capitol Police officer — Brian Sicknick, who died after the riot — “right now” if she continued to speak badly of Trump.
Graham has not commented on the claims.
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Fanone, a one-time Trump voter, has become a fierce critic of Republican hypocrisy over the riot and GOP attempts to downplay the violence. He resigned from the police last year and is now a CNN contributor on law enforcement issues.
Graham routinely condemned Trump before his 2016 election victory but went on to become one of his staunchest supporters. After the riot, Graham said “enough is enough” on the Senate floor and appeared to cut ties with Trump — but he’s since cozied back up to the former president.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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