Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday that he doubted whether the man who fired at a Philadelphia police officer was directed by Islamic State terrorists in Syria but that "you're going to have more of this as long as they're perceived as winning.
"People don't pledge allegiance to losers," Graham, the South Carolina Republican who last month suspended his campaign for the presidential nomination, told John Berman on CNN.
He said that the alleged shooter in the attack, Edward Archer, 30, was "probably a guy, just nuts, who wanted to do this in the name of ISIS and not directed by people in Syria."
Archer, who pledged allegiance to Islam and ISIS after he was shot and arrested by police, ambushed police officer Jesse Hartnett, 33, as he sat in his marked patrol car.
Hartnett received a broken arm in the shooting.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said that Archer used a
gun that was stolen in October 2013 from a police officer's residence.
"Hats off to the cop," Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN. "He did a great thing. I'm glad he's alive. And I'm glad he fought back."
He said the ambush reflected two threats posed by ISIS, which is also known as ISIL.
"The organization itself that can recruit people and plan sophisticated attacks like Paris," Graham said. "And something like this, somebody inspired.
"It's no accident that there's been an uptick in these kind of attacks, as ISIL is seen to have done well against the West and beginning to accumulate power.
"The day that you take the caliphate down and destroy it, a lot of this goes away," Graham said.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.