That’s a quote of the Republican US Senaytor from Soutrh Carolina to a Capitol Police Office from a new book…
Eyes emoji: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told police officers who responded to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, that they should have shot rioters “in the head,” according to a new book by former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone.
“You guys should have shot them all in the head,” Fanone recalled Graham telling the group of officers during a May 2021 meeting. Fanone, now a CNN contributor, had been describing his battle with pro-Trump rioters in a Capitol tunnel on Jan. 6.
“We gave you guys guns, and you should have used them,” he recounted Graham saying. “I don’t understand why that didn’t happen.”
The response: Fanone said he told Graham he appreciated the enthusiasm but noted the officers had rules governing the use of deadly force. The group had been going office-to-office asking Republican senators to support a bipartisan Jan. 6 investigative commission. Republican senators ultimately filibustered the bill that would have established that independent panel.
Attending the meeting were Fanone; Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn; and Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza, the mother and partner, respectively, of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after responding to the siege on Jan. 6.
Spokespeople for Graham, whose calls to use force on the rioters have been previously reported in other contexts, did not return requests for comment on his presence in Fanone’s book.
More on the tome: Fanone’s memoir Hold the Line is set for release Tuesday. POLITICO reviewed a copy in advance of its publication. Fanone was brutally beaten by rioters on Jan. 6 and has since become a vocal critic of those downplaying the brutality of the insurrection….