New York Daily News
Former House stenographer who interrupted shutdown vote with outburst says she ‘did not have a breakdown’
Dianne Reidy interrupted the Oct. 16 House vote to end the government shutdown when she began yelling about God and the Freemasons. In a YouTube video posted over the weekend she claimed she barely recalled the strange incident.
BY ADAM EDELMAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2014
Dan and Dianne Reidy said they filmed the YouTube video to “explain what took place in Dianne’s life” last fall.
The unhinged woman who interrupted last year’s congressional vote to end the government shutdown with a screaming rant about God says she barely remembers the bizarre incident and claims she “did not have a breakdown.”
Dianne Reidy, a former House stenographer who started yelling wildly during an Oct. 16 vote to reopen the federal government, posted a 38-minute video on YouTube over the weekend explaining what she recalled from the odd night.
"I remember just getting up to the podium, and after saying, 'God will not be mocked,' I don't have a memory of anything else that was said that evening until I was escorted off the floor,” said Reidy, who appears alongside her husband in the video. “I got up, and I remember walking to the dais and speaking, and standing at the podium where the president speaks as God would have it, but I did not lose my mind. I did not have a breakdown."
RELATED: THE ‘HOLY SPIRIT’ MADE HER DO IT: STENOGRAPHER OFFERS GODLY EXCUSE FOR BIZARRE HOUSE RANT
Reidy, who longer holds her stenographer job, said she had a feeling before the proceedings that “God was going to speak through” her during a critical moment in Congress.
Video showed Reidy continuing to yell after she was escorted from the chamber during a vote to end the federal government shutdown.
Video showed Reidy continuing to yell after she was escorted from the chamber during a vote to end the federal government shutdown.
“And I knew that it was going to be during the vote, raising the debt-ceiling level and ending the government shutdown, but I had to keep this to myself,” she said.
Later in the video, Reidy said her October diatribe wasn’t an isolated incident.
"This is basically the fourth time I've had an experience like this, where the Lord has put on my heart to speak,” she said.
Former House stenographer Dianne Reidy is escorted from the House dais after the outburst.
Reidy said that after the outburst, she was taken to a local hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with what she called “a religious experience and anxiety.” But during a psychiatric appointment the following day, she said her diagnosis had been changed to “psychosis.”
The YouTube post comes nearly five months to the day after Reidy was ushered from the House dais after started ranting into an unattended microphone about God and the Freemasons.
"This is not one nation under God. It never was," she said. "Had it been ... the Constitution would not have been written by Freemasons, they go against God."
"You cannot serve two masters!" she yelled, leaving members of Congress and their staffers stunned.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/house-stenographer-interrupted-shutdown-vote-outburst-breakdown-article-1.1724496
