Former House stenographer describes outburst: ‘I did not lose my mind’

The former House stenographer who interrupted the floor proceedings during the government shutdown last year said in a video posted Saturday she only vaguely remembers her words that night and similar things had happened three times in the past.

Dianne Reidy, who no longer works in the House, and her husband appeared to post a 38-minute video on YouTube explaining the incident, which she described as “basically the fourth time I’ve had an experience like this, where the lord has put on my heart to speak.”

Reidy was ushered out of the House chamber in October while shouting “praise be to God” and a “House divided cannot stand,” while making reference to Free Masons.

“I remember just getting up to the podium,” Reidy says in the video. “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.”

She maintained that she did not have a breakdown.

“I got up, and I do 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.”

{mosads}She said she knew well in advance “God was going to speak through me” during an important vote.

“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. “I mean, who could I share that with without anybody thinking I’ve had some kind of breakdown.”

In the video, she described three other similar incidents — at a friend’s funeral, while reuniting with her dad and while speaking to a homeless man in Washington, D.C.