Lindsey Graham told former police officer that Capitol rioters should be shot in head, new book says

Republican senator Lindsey Graham told a former police officer who was severely injured in the attack on the Capitol that he should have shot Trump-supporting rioters in the head, according to a new book.

The claim is one of a series of stunning revelations contained in former Capitol police officer Michael Fanone’s upcoming memoir Hold the Line.

Mr Fanone writes that he met Mr Graham, a key Trump ally, four months after the deadly siege in May 2021.

According to Politico, who obtained an advanced copy of the book, the South Carolina senator told him: “You guys should have shot them all in the head. We gave you guys guns, and you should have used them. I don’t understand why that didn’t happen.”

A spokesman for Mr Lindsey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr Fanone reportedly told Mr Graham that laws covering the use of deadly force prevented them from opening fire on the crowd, Politico writes.

Mr Fanone suffered a traumatic brain injury and had a heart attack after being beaten and repeatedly shocked with a stun gun on January 6. He has since quit the police and become a CNN contributor.

He writes that the meeting with Mr Graham was attended by former Capitol officer Harry Dunn and family of slain officer Brian Sicknick to try to secure support for from Republican senators for a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection.

Mr Fanone secretly recorded a meeting with Kevin McCarthy around the same time in which he told the House GOP leader that his attempts to play down the Capitol riots were “not just shocking but disgraceful”, according to Politico. 

Republicans eventually filibustered legislation that would have created an independent panel to investigate the attack.

In an interview last week with Rolling Stone, Mr Fanone blasted Mr McCarthy as a “f**king weasel b***h”

A judge in Washington DC sentenced a rioter who assaulted Mr Fanone to seven years prison on Wednesday.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Kyle Young he was a “one man wrecking ball that day” as she handed down one of the longest sentences yet arising from the Capitol riot.

Hold the Line will be released on 11 October.