WASHINGTON — And just when it seemed as if things could not get any more bizarre in the Capitol, a House stenographer, shouting and protesting, was dragged off the House floor as the House voted to pass the Senate deal, 285 to 144, late Wednesday night.
According to members who witnessed the incident, the stenographer, who many lawmakers and aides said they recognized, got up on the dais in the front of the chamber and began shouting. At first, lawmakers and aides thought she was a protester, and the presiding member used the gavel to try to bring the House back to order.
“The greatest deception here is this is not one nation under God. It never was,” the stenographer said as she was carried off the House floor, through the speaker’s lobby and into the hall. “It would not have been. The Constitution would not have been written by Freemasons that go against God.”
House staff members and aides were visibly shaken as they tried to calm her down. “Come on, sweetheart,” one said as a group tried to get her into an elevator and Capitol police officers came streaming toward the House floor.