Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham encouraged Capitol police to use their guns to regain control of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“What are you doing? Take back the Senate! You’ve got guns. Use them,” Graham told Capitol police, according to an extensive report that described Graham as “irate” because senators were forced to leave their chambers during the Capitol riot.
“We give you guns for a reason,” he said. “Use them.” The quotes were reported by an unnamed Republican senator with knowledge of the incident.
Graham’s office confirmed the quotes are true and “accurate” in a statement Monday.
“Graham was quite clear on this point, noting that the backpacks and other items brought into the Capitol could have contained bombs and explosives. The damage could have been much, much worse,” Graham’s communications director, Kevin Bishop, said.
Graham also called Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump’s oldest daughter, multiple times and suggested what the then-president Trump should say, according to the report.
“You need to get these people out of here,” he reportedly told her. “This thing is going south. This is not good. You’re going to have to tell these people to stand down. Stand down.”
Graham came out strongly against the storming of the Capitol, saying on Jan. 7 that “warning shots” and “lethal force should have been used once they’d penetrated the seat of government.”
“Yesterday they could have blown the building up. They could have killed us all,” he said at the time. “People coming through the windows had backpacks, as big as my desk on the Senate. They should have been challenged, warning shots should have been fired and lethal force should have been used once they’d penetrated the seat of government. Those backpacks could have had bombs, chemical agents, weapons. We dodged a major bullet yesterday.”
He also cited the rioting at the courthouse in Portland, Oregon, in 2020, saying violence “gets worse” if it is not addressed and managed by the legal system and local leaders.
“We’ve lost our will and our determination to stand up for law and order. When you let a courthouse be attacked and nobody gets prosecuted, the next thing you know, it gets worse. To all the mayors out there who have discord and unlawful behavior in your city, get on top of it,” he said.
Trump called out Graham, as well as Sen. Mike Lee, in September as “unwilling to fight for the presidency of the United States,” after reports that Graham was “unpersuaded” by Trump’s claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Graham, however, has continued supporting a potential 2024 presidential run by Trump.
“I don’t think Trump is listening,” Graham said at the Michigan Republican Party’s leadership conference at the end of September. “He might be. I hope President Trump runs again.”
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