Exclusive — Florida State Rep. Scott Plakon: Orlando Terrorism ‘Symbolic Attack’ Of The Country

Republican Florida State Rep. Scott Plakon declared Sunday the Muslim terror attack on a gay Orlando nightclub that killed over fifty people and wounded dozens more represented a “symbolic attack” on the entire nation.

“Today’s the day to mourn the families,” said Plakon. “This is an unspeakable tragedy. I’m sure just about everybody in Orlando knows somebody connected to this and that’s where the main focus should be. But it’s becoming more clear that radical Islamic terrorism is a threat to our civilization.”

“Orlando I see as sort of a melting pot of the rest of the country. We joke around that there’s not a lot of people born in central Florida, they all come here from somewhere else. So an attack right in the heart of Orlando… seems to me to be a symbolic attack on every area of the country.”

“Evil has come to our door, right here, and we’re going to have to see how we deal with it. And I think the start is calling it what it is, radical Islamic terrorism,” he said.

While he hadn’t seen comments from the terrorist’s father saying the terrorist’s religion had nothing to do with the mass murder, Plakon stated there’s a “pattern” of “people of the Islamic faith becoming radicalized.”

“This appears to be the latest example,” he said.

Reports indicate there were numerous signs Mateen had radicalized, Plakon said, adding that lawmakers should examine federal, state, and local laws on how to combat Islamic terrorism.

“This is truly an existential threat to our freedoms and our way of life.”

Plakon called on politicians to stop dancing around the issue of terrorism and identify the enemy.

“I’m hoping that our political leaders in Washington, like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, will now start to use the words radical Islamic terrorism. To keep us safe, we at least have to identify the enemy by what it is as a start. And good start would be today for them to start referring to it by what it is, so we can attack this evil before it attacks us.”

Follow Breitbart News’ live updates on the deadliest Muslim terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 on the Breitbart News liveblog.