As former Capitol police officer Mike Fanone prepares to release a book chronicling his experiences during and after the January 6 riots in Washington, D.C., new revelations continue to come to light.
On Friday afternoon, Politico reported that a passage in the upcoming release includes a chat Fanone had with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in which Graham told Fanone he should have employed deadly force that day on the more violent elements of the crowd.
"You guys should have shot them all in the head," Graham said, according to Fanone's book. "We gave you guys guns, and you should have used them. I don’t understand why that didn’t happen."
Fanone's response was to tell Graham he appreciated the Republican senator's enthusiasm but that there are rules for the use of deadly force for law enforcement officers.
The encounter occurred in May of 2021 when Fanone and other members of the Capitol police force were looking to engender support for a bill that would have created a bipartisan investigative commission to investigate the events of January 6.
That bill would ultimately fall to a Republican-led filibuster.
Graham's office has so far declined to comment on his appearance in Fanone's book, but the comments described by Fanone are of a piece with other comments Graham has made regarding the rioters.
Fanone was brutally beaten by perpetrators of the violent insurrection of January 6 and was subsequently a key subject in an HBO documentary about that day's events. He has since become a contributor at CNN.
Fanone's book Hold the Line will be released on Tuesday.
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