Caught
misrepresenting the truth, Speaker Mattiello turns off Representative Tanzi’s
microphone
On January 22, Representative Teresa Tanzi (Democrat, District 34, Narragansett, South Kingstown) rose on the House floor to make a simple request of Speaker Nicholas Mattiello (Democrat, District 15, Cranston). Could her communications about her absences from the House the week before be read into the record, as is traditionally done for other legislators?
Mattiello denied Tanzi’s
request.
Tanzi missed the two days
of House sessions because she was traveling for her in-laws 50th wedding
anniversary. She noted that Representative Marvin
Abney (Democrat, District 73, Newport) had his excuse read into the
record, when he missed a session while attending the National Conference of State
Legislatures.
As reported by The Public’s Radio‘s Ian Donnis in his never
miss weekly column, “House Majority Leader Joseph
Shekarchi then moved to approve the journal as printed, House
Minority Leader Blake
Filippi (R-Charlestown) seconded, and the House voted in favor, 48 to 19, with
the Reform Democrats lined up in
opposition.”
Mattiello and House
spokesperson Larry Berman said
that “if representatives miss session due to activity related to the
legislature, the reason is specified, but not if the absence is due to a
personal or family-based reason.”
Turns out Mattiello and
Berman were being less than truthful about that.
Rising on a point of
personal privilege this week, Tanzi, referencing the Donnis piece, came
prepared with a slew of examples of excuses for absences being read into the
House record that have nothing to do with “activity related to the
legislature.”
Tanzi said that
Mattiello and Berman’s response to Donnis, “rang untrue to me, and I did a
quick bit of research, and in fact it was untrue, and I’d like to correct the
record.”
“No, I’m sorry. That’s
not a point of personal privilege, Representative,” said Mattiello,
interrupting Tanzi. “If the media was reporting incorrectly or offensively,
that’s a point of personal privilege. If you’re suggesting that… hold on one
second…”
When Tanzi responded,
she found that her microphone had been turned off. You can’t quite hear what
she says in the video below.
“If you’re suggesting
that the policy is wrong and that you’re somehow right, then that’s an internal
discussion,” said Mattiello.
Of course, that’s not
what Tanzi was suggesting. She was suggesting that Mattiello and Berman
intentionally misled Donnis about the rule concerning communications regarding
absences in the House record.
Tanzi read some of the
15 reasons she had collected detailing the reasons her fellow legislators gave
for missing session. None of the reasons had to do with legislative activities.
Mattiello interrupted
again. “Okay Representative, I’m, all right, thank you. You are arguing
internal policy. That’s not a point of personal privilege.”
Mattiello said that
since the media reported what Tanzi said and what he said accurately, there was
no point of personal privilege to be made.
“What the spokesman for
the House of Representatives said, Mr Berman, was inaccurate, and it was
reported in the media inaccurately as to what our policy is so I am correcting
the record that I was wrongly ruled out of order last Tuesday,” said Tanzi.
Tanzi read more of the
previous excuses for being absent used by other legislators. My favorite: “Rep
Mendonca is unable to attend due to an unforeseen commitment.” That excuse
doesn’t even make sense. How is a commitment unforeseen?
At this point, perhaps
an apology from the Speaker was in order.
Instead, the Speaker
doubled down. “We’re going to clarify the House’s policy so we all know what it
was,” said the Speaker, looked confused. Mattiello blamed Larry Berman for not
being consistent with the policy.
When Tanzi tried to
interject, Mattiello said, “This is not a debate. This is a statement of our
policy. Debate has ended.” Tanzi’s microphone was turned off.
Mattiello refused to let
Tanzi be heard, and never acknowledged that she had been treated differently or
unfairly. Tanzi spoke from the floor and Mattiello responded to some of what
she said, but he declared her out of order, and kept her microphone turned off.