Senator Lindsey Graham was very angry that he and fellow Congressmen were forced to flee the Senate floor when a mob overran the Capitol on January 6.
“What are you doing?” he yelled at the Senate sergeant-at-arms, according to the Post. “Take back the Senate! You’ve got guns. Use them!”
This message apparently didn’t sink in, so Graham reportedly repeated it: “We give you guns for a reason — use them.”
Graham also begged Ivanka Trump to get help from her father.
“You need to get these people out of here,” he told Ivanka. “This thing is going south. This is not good. You’re going to have to tell these people to stand down.”
A Capitol Police officer did shoot Ashli Babbitt at 2:44pm as she attempted to force entry into the Speaker’s Lobby adjacent to the House chamber.
And in the final hour of the insurrection, Graham met Vice President Mike Pence just before he gaveled the Senate back to order. Graham took Pence aside and said: “You’re doing the right thing. I’m proud of you.” The two men hugged.
Graham refused to join his GOP colleagues that day who would object to certifying Biden’s win.
“Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey,” he said. “I hate it to end this way. Oh, my god, I hate it. From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president. But today… all I can say is count me out, enough is enough.”
But Graham changed his tune soon afterward.
“It’s impossible for this party to move forward without President Trump being its leader, because the people who are conservatives have chosen him as their leader.”
The original source is the massive story at the Washington Post. If you can bypass the paywall and have an hour to spare, it’s a highly detailed account of the before, during, and after the insurrection of January 6.