'It borders on insurrection': SWFL leaders, political minds weigh in on DC Capitol chaos

As a Trump rally at the Capitol boiled over, Southwest Florida politicians both at home and in the thick of it weighed in.

Hours after he officially objected to the electoral college certification in several states, Naples Congressman Byron Donalds condemned the chaos.

“Americans have the right to peacefully protest and demand their government works for them,” Donalds posted on social media from Washington, D.C. “That doesn’t mean we resort to violence. Rule of law must stand during our nation's brightest and darkest hours, and that includes right now. We are better than this. There is no place for anarchy."

Previously:Byron Donalds plans to object to Electoral College count for President-elect Biden

Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann, the region’s longest-serving elected official, was shocked by the turn the day took. “I never dreamed that I would live long enough that I would see our Constitution and our democracy under direct attack … In the nation’s history, this is worse than 911; this is worse than Pearl Harbor. It is an attack on our institution of government, absolutely frightening and I’m just sitting here and I’m just pale. This is America experiencing something we never experienced before.”

More:Trump supporters from Southwest Florida in D.C. as U.S. Capitol stormed

Mann, who’s been at the Commission offices earlier Wednesday, learned what happened when he got home.

“I just walked in the door,” he said, “and my wife, with a horrible expression of her own, said, ‘Are you watching what’s going on?’

“I’m still stunned in horror. It is a sad day for the United States of America that, to borrow a phrase from Roosevelt, will live in infamy.”

Republican Heather Fitzenhagen of Fort Myers, who represented District 78 in the Florida Senate from 2012 until last November, said she's "overwhelmed by grief and anger over what occurred at the Capitol. As an American, I am disgusted by the leadership that allowed, condoned and even encouraged the mob violence that attacked our Democracy.

"It’s not merely the buildings but the sacred core of our beliefs that have been breached putting our country in inconceivable danger."

U.S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican whose District 25 spans much of South Lee and Collier counties as well as south Miami-Dade, was among those supporting what USA Today calls a “longshot lawsuit” asking the Supreme Court to invalidate election decisions in several key states in hopes of overturning Joe Biden's win over President Donald Trump.

Wednesday afternoon, Diaz-Balart wrote on social media: “We must protect and revere  our enforcement officers who put their lives on the line each day for our safety. While peaceful protests are an integral part of our democracy, lawlessness and violence are NOT acceptable.”

More:Trump supporters from Southwest Florida tear-gassed in siege on U.S. Capitol, returning safely

Earlier that day, Lee County Commission Chair Kevin Ruane had been checking up on  COVID vaccinations and not watching the news.

As he was talking with people there, “Someone said, ‘They’re storming the Capitol,’ and I said, ‘What!?'

“I know emotions now are high right now,” Ruane said. “I think that the easiest thing that we can agree upon is that 50 percent voting for one group and 50 percent voting  for another group, we were pretty divided in the United States … that’s the tragic thing.

“I hope that as elected bodies we can start to bring people together. We’re  just divided and that’s unfortunately where we are today.”

'A colossal failure':How were pro-Trump rioters able to breach Capitol security?

More:National unrest spreads to Naples; Trump supporters call for sit-ins

Peter Bergerson, a political science professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, called the scene “unbelievable … It borders on insurrection,” he said “There’s been nothing in 240 years that comes close to this at all.

"Unfortunately, it looks like there’s a new normal … because you really have a 50/50 country and the Constitution and law will never persuade these people differently. They’re beyond that.”

Florida Senate Majority Leader Kathleen Passidomo sees the day’s events through the eyes of a history major (which she was), as well as someone  for whom the Capitol is the physical symbol of our democracy.

“To see someone randomly break one of these – I assume – historic windows, probably over 100 years old with total abandon is very distressing,” said the Naples Republican. “It goes beyond the political differences. For the people who feel like the election was stolen or there’s fraud, that’s one thing.

"But to desecrate one of the nation’s symbols … That’s what affected me the most, the desecration of one of the greatest symbols of democracy.”

"It’s disgusting," said Republican former U.S. Congressman Porter Goss of Sanibel, “and certainly so far out of bounds, it’s almost breathtaking.”

Even so, Goss, who served from 1989 until 2004, when he was nominated to direct what’s now the Central Intelligence Agency, thinks the explosion was building for a long time. “After what we saw all summer, with what started out as peaceful protests being hijacked by a few people who knew how to turn them into violence and create rioting, damage and destruction to underscore their cause,” he said. “But to have that happen in the national Capitol is beyond disgraceful.”

For Goss, the day’s events brought to mind a 1950 speech by Senator Margaret Chase Smith. As McCarthyism gained momentum, she exhorted her colleagues not to “ride to political victory on the ‘Four Horsemen of Calumny: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.’ "

Goss sees Wednesday’s events as a similar perfect storm of those elements converging. “We are a country divided about what direction we should go and what’s the most important part of our value system,” he said. “The way to solve the problem is not through violent confrontations, obviously, it’s through civil discourse, which is what the founding fathers had in mind. Fault all of our institutions – our leaders, our political players, our media," Goss said, for replacing that with what he calls the “gotcha game.”

“I don’t care which channel you turn to, you can tell right away which side they’re on, whether it’s Fox News or CNN ... everybody’s been stirring up outrage on both sides, and today we saw the outpouring of that outrage.”