Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) says that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) “screamed” at an officer for not doing “enough” to protect senators as the U.S. Capitol was being breached last week.
Brown shared the detail during an interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber on Monday.
“I heard when the 75 senators were confined in a room with about 75 staff people, Lindsey Graham with his mask off started screaming at one of the officers — I think it was one of the captains — saying, ‘How come you didn’t protect us? It’s doing your job,’ ” Brown said of the account.
“He was screaming at an officer,” Brown added later. “He had his mask off screaming at this officer from 5 feet away — I was maybe 10 feet on the other side — that the officer, the police, didn’t do enough to protect us.”
A spokesperson for Graham’s office told The Hill that he was familiar with Graham “letting the sergeant-at-arms know his thoughts” but wasn’t aware of other comments. Brown’s office did not provide any additional information.
Brown knocked Graham and other GOP senators in the interview, during which he was asked if he felt Republicans were afraid of political backlash from some of President Trump’s supporters.
“This is the same Lindsey Graham that for five years — or for four years, he didn’t do it in the beginning — defended and argued for and encouraged and aided and abetted this president and all of his followers,” the Democratic senator said.
The account comes as lawmakers vow to investigate how rioters were able to breach the Capitol in the first major attack on the building in over 200 years.
Graham backed a pledge from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to fire Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger when Democrats take over the upper chamber. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) asked for Stenger’s resignation last Thursday.
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund is also resigning later this month following the riot, and House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving is also resigning.