McHenry County officials, residents across political spectrum condemn storming of U.S. Capitol

Elected leaders representing McHenry County and local residents from both major political parties condemned the unprecedented breeching of the U.S. Capitol while Congress was in session Wednesday, even as some Republicans were careful not to blame President Donald Trump for inciting the rioting while Democrats did.

State Reps. Dan Ugaste and Steve Reick, as well as state Sen. Craig Wilcox, all Republicans who represent portions of McHenry County, spoke out against the protesters storming the Capitol.

“It is absolutely disgusting,” Reick, whose jurisdiction includes the western and northern halves of McHenry County, said of the breech. “We’re a nation of laws. What’s going on in the Capitol building right now is nothing short of anarchy. People ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

Ugaste agreed. None of the three state lawmakers implicated Trump’s rhetoric and refusal to accept the results of the November election showing he lost the presidency to Joe Biden as a cause of the chaotic scene at the Capitol.

“With this many government agencies involved in the process, I have no doubt there are problems with the election process. But point them out, and rebuild the system. Don’t insist that you’re going to force someone’s hand to do something,” said Ugaste, who represents Kane County and a southern sliver of McHenry county. “If there is fraud, we have a system for taking care of that. That’s through the courts, through our various agencies, whether it is the Attorney General, FBI or state’s attorneys general.”

He added that it should be pointed out to protesters that Trump tried to use litigation to challenge the presidential election results in several states, so far to no avail.

“I don’t agree with all the president’s rhetoric, never did, never will. I don’t follow it enough to know whether or not it has contributed,” Ugaste said.

Wilcox said the depth of investigations into allegations of election fraud has been inadequate to satisfy the protesters behind the Capitol takeover. He said the same thoroughness should be used to probe such questions of election integrity as is employed for reviews of police conduct.

“If allegations of election fraud aren’t given the same courtesy look as a police action, then we have two sides arguing the same thing but being treated differently. They both are worthy of a significant investigation. What you’re seeing now in D.C. is the failure of the system to prove there has not been fraud,” Wilcox said.

John Sarff, a member of the McHenry County Democratic Party, said Republicans should have spoken out sooner to rein in Trump and to quell the emotions of his supporters before they disrupted Congress while the presidential election results were being certified.

“This snowball has gone down the hill into an avalanche. They didn’t stop it. There [were] congressional representatives and senators who were inciting this and just having their pleas go out now is very weak,” Sarff said.

Illinois Senate GOP Leader-Designate Dan McConchie, a Hawthorn Woods resident whose district includes parts of McHenry, Lake, Kane and Cook counties, said in a statement the rifts in the country over politics must be bridged.

“This violence does not reflect the United States that generations of Americans have fought so hard to build,” he said, adding that he would “do my part here in Illinois to repair the devastating divide that has been created in our country.”

Sarff said he thinks the law enforcement response to the protesters outside the Capitol before the breech was inadequate and not on par with how Black Lives Matter protesters were treated across the country during the summer last year.

The Republican lawmakers interviewed for this story did not address the claims of there being discrepancies between how Washington, D.C., and Capitol law enforcement treated protesters supporting Trump and those who were opposing police policies and shootings by officers last year.

“It saddens me to know that some of the people I am watching protest in D.C. have been terribly misled by the Trump administration,” said Lisa Arvanites, a Democrat and school board candidate for Huntley School District 158. “... As I watch the news coverage, I remind myself in times of crisis, we the people have a history of coming together.”

Mike Turner, Woodstock’s deputy mayor who is the only candidate on the April ballot vying to succeed Brian Sager as mayor, also spoke out against the protesters who entered the Capitol.

“The unruly and destructive actions in D.C. today are abhorrent to the principles of democracy. Protests are absolutely part of the democratic process, but actions which disrupt government and business, that are violent and destructive, or that threaten other people, are patently unacceptable,” Turner said. “Whether in D.C., Portland, Chicago or anywhere in the U.S., unruly and violent demonstrations are wrong and weaken our country.”

McHenry Mayor Wayne Jett said he most feared, not the actions taken in Washington by the mob of Trump supporters, but rather the effect they would have on the future, including locally through social media discourse on Wednesday’s historic events.

“This crap in D.C. will end soon, but I’m afraid the aftermath of these posts or comments made on both sides will impact relationships forever,” Jett said, adding that what happened at the Capitol is unacceptable.

To illustrate his point, he shared an anonymously sent email he received Wednesday in the aftermath of the Capitol breech calling him a “Republican scumbag” and a “traitor,” as well as a sexually explicit insult, over his support of Trump in the November election.

Jett encouraged the community to “pray for our nation,” which the Rev. Susie M. Hill, the pastor at Nativity Lutheran Church in Wonder Lake, said she was already doing Wednesday evening.

“The current division is dreadful,” Hill said. “We are created good in God’s image, but many are living in fear and hatred. It is painful to see and hear. ... May we all find an end to violence and interact with one another in peace.”