South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Florida lawmakers reveal eyewitness accounts of “the day that our democracy almost died.”
It’s a day the history books will remember.
Florida’s members of Congress watched as a mob supporting President Donald Trump overran the U.S. Capitol and attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
One Central Florida lawmaker recalled the look he received from rioters being detained by Capitol Police, staring at him as if they wanted him dead.
A South Florida congresswoman made a makeshift barricade with chairs in a small room in the Capitol and turned off the lights, a tactic taught in activeshooter drills that have become an unfortunate fixture of 21st Century American life.
“Jan. 6, 2021, is a day that will live in infamy, a day that our democracy almost died.”U.S. Rep. Darren Soto
In the wee hours of the morning Thursday, Congress certified the results of the election. Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president on Jan. 20.
But Jan. 6, 2021, is a day that will long be remembered by those who experienced it firsthand. It’s a day that will fill pages in the story of America.
Here is what they saw.
Rep. Darren Soto
Soto, a 42-year-old Democrat from the Orlando area, sat in the House gallery when he received an alert that the mob had breached the Capitol’s defenses.
As rioters invaded the Capitol, he heard people banging on the doors and tear gas canisters and flash grenades exploding. He retrieved a gas mask from underneath a seat at the instruction of Capitol Police. Just before he was ushered out of the gallery, he saw officers with guns drawn standing guard at the barricaded entrance to the House chamber.
Soto said he was shocked to be prone on the floor, having to seek shelter in what he considered to be one of the most secure buildings in the United States.
“I was absolutely concerned I could be shot,” he recalled. “I knew they were on the other side of that door trying to breach the House chamber,”
As he was escorted to a secure location, he saw Capitol Police detaining rioters.
“They had several domestic terrorists down on the ground, and they looked at me as if they wanted to kill me,” Soto said.
Asked how he would describe the day to future generations, Soto put it this way.
“This was the first insurrection of the Capitol since 1814 — over 200 years ago during the War of 1812,” he said. “Folks were armed with guns and weapons, bear repellent and all sorts of dangerous devices. This was an attempt to stop the transfer of power. A few heroic staffers had the wisdom to remove the Electoral College votes. Jan. 6, 2021, is a day that will live in infamy, a day that our democracy almost died.”
While there have been other violent breaches of Capitol security, including a 1954 shooting when four Puerto Rican nationalists wounded five members of Congress, nothing had occurred as widespread as Wednesday’s intrusion since the War of 1812 when the British burned the Capitol.
Rep. Charlie Crist
Crist, a former Florida governor now in Congress representing the Tampa Bay area, said he was initially at the Rayburn House Office Building to get a new identification card made.
When he returned to the building where his office is, police stopped him from entering because a pipe bomb had been found across the street.
He decided to return to his apartment. While en route, he saw a crowd of Trump supporters rushing toward the Capitol. He watched what unfolded next on television with a mob busting into the Capitol and reaching the Rotunda and the Senate floor.
“It was pretty much a nightmare,” said Crist, 64. “Shocking. Disturbing. Unconscionable. Something you never would imagine would occur. If not for the irresponsibility of our president, it wouldn’t have.”
Crist, who quit the Republican Party in 2010 and is now a Democrat, said he doesn’t recognize the party he once belonged to.
“I was thinking I can’t believe this is what this country has come to,” Crist said. “This is happening. It was mind-blowing.”
Rep. Lois Frankel
The 72-year-old Democratic congresswoman from West Palm Beach spent five hours behind a barricaded door in a small room in the Capitol, along with one of her colleagues, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng of New York City.
She recalled listening to the mob stampeding outside the room. Frankel and Meng piled chairs against the door and watched the news on a muted television while waiting to be rescued by the Capitol police.
“We tried to keep very quiet,” Frankel recalled. “I was calm. It was scary at first. I found myself being very calm, and we just waited.”
In an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Frankel said she wasn’t intimidated and would stay as long as it took to certify the results of the presidential election. Congress certified the results shortly before 4 a.m.
Rep. Brian Mast
A 40-year-old veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Mast objected to the election’s result and spoke on the House floor against certifying the results in Arizona just before the mob broke in.
In an interview with
WPTV- Ch. 5, Mast, a Republican, said he walked back to his office about the same time the mob breached the Capitol. When he made it to his office, he saw the Capitol’s security had been overrun.
Mast told WPTV he stood by his objections to the election results, but he condemned the mob that stormed the Capitol.
“This is un-American,” said Mast, who represents northern Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. “This is putting our law enforcement officers at risk. It needs to come to an end immediately. It is so counter to the democratic process that was literally taking place as the Capitol was broken into.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Wasserman Schultz’s day started with Trump supporters screaming curse words at her as she left a coffee shop. She has long been a target of conservatives. Her name and address were listed on packages containing mail bombs sent by Cesar Sayoc in 2018.
When the Capitol was breached later in the day, she spent hours locked in her office. Because of social- distancing rules, the number of members who could be on the House floor was limited, which is why some members weren’t in the legislative chamber when the breach happened.
She said she was glad she left the Capitol early Thursday morning knowing that Congress had done its job and certified the election.
“My grandchildren will be learning about it in history class,” said Wasserman Schultz, 54. “This will be one of the dark days of democracy, but it finished with light. This mob incited by the president and enabled by colleagues of mine attempted to overthrow the will of the people and the duly elected government. That effort has failed.”
Rep. Val Demings
The f ormer Orlando police chief was in the gallery of the U.S. House chambers when she learned the Capitol had been breached.
Demings, 63, told Orlando’s News Channel 6 she went into “police mode,” calming down other members of Congress. Demings served as an impeachment manager in proceedings against Trump.
“I was looking into the eyes of my colleagues,” she told the television station. “We all were not sure how it would end.”
“Democracy is going to stand,” she recalled telling those around her.
Skyler Swisher can be reached at sswisher@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6634 or @SkylerSwisher.