FORT LAUDERDALE-HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - Supporters of President Donald Trump began returning home to South Florida from Washington one day after the Capitol Building was overrun by a mob.
Those who spoke to 7News on Thursday said they were not part of the violence, did not storm the Capitol and were only in the nation’s capital to support the president.
“We were there to send a message, and we sent a message,” a man who identified himself as Patriot said.
“We saw all the speeches. We entered into the walk,” Iris Torres said. “We entered, actually, into the front steps of the Capitol, and we were able to witness everything being in the middle of everything. It was phenomenal. It was amazing.”
Some returning South Floridians reiterated they did not participate in the storming of Capitol Hill, but instead, they blamed others.
“I was there. We were at the Capitol, one of the first people at the Capitol, and it was Antifa,” one woman said. “Those people infiltrated a bunch of peaceful protesters that were patriots, and they stormed the Capitol.”
However, 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by authorities, was not part of Antifa. She was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, and her husband called her a Trump supporter.
Tyler Smith also supports the president and attended the rally, but he said he left before the violence began.
“It’s kind of shameful,” he said. “You know, we’re not that kind of people because I’m a Trump supporter, and I didn’t think that we were that kind of people.”
Smith said he watched as millions of others did: on his television in his hotel room.
“We’re our own people. We have our own brands,” Smith said. “Let’s use them. Let’s not go up and try to tear into a building that we know we’re not supposed to tear into.”
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