What do YOU hear? Tampa legislative aide is accused of calling city council chairman an ‘a**hole’ under her breath during meeting – but she insists it was just a cough and a sneeze
- Aide Carrie Henriquez spurred controversy at Tampa council meeting Thursday
- She coughed as she walked behind council chairman Luis Viera, her boss’s rival
- But many in the room heard the word ‘a**hole’ uttered beneath the cough
- Henriquez strongly denied cursing and said it was a cough and sneeze
- Video of the city council meeting captured the controversial moment
Tampa city council aide Carrie Henriquez denies that her cough covered up a curse
A legislative aide in Tampa, Florida has provoked controversy with an ambiguous cough at a city council meeting, with some accusing her of calling the council chairman ‘a**hole’ under her breath.
Aide Carrie Henriquez was caught on video at the council meeting on Thursday, walking behind Chairman Luis Viera – her boss’s arch rival on the council – just as she breaks into a coughing fit.
Henriquez continues out of the council chambers, coughing again. Viera turns in shock to council member Guido Maniscalco, Henriquez’s boss.
‘Did she just say something?’ Viera says to Maniscalco.
Henriquez vehemently denies that she said anything, maintaining that she was trying to stifle her coughing until she could get out of the council chambers so as to not disrupt the meeting.
Tampa city council aide Carrie Henriquez coughs as she walks directly behind City Council Chair Luis Viera at a meeting on Thursday
Viera looks shocked and asks ‘Did she say something?’ as Henriquez leaves the chamber
‘I said no words. I coughed. I sneezed. I coughed. I sneezed,’ she told the Tampa Bay Times.
‘I can be salty sometimes, but I would never do anything to jeopardize the council member’s (Maniscalco’s) reputation or my husband’s good name,’ she added.
Henriquez is married to Hillsborough County Property Appraiser Bob Henriquez.
City hall watchers point to possibly animosity Henriquez might have for Viera, who outmaneuvered her boss Maniscalco in a contest for the chairmanship earlier this month.
Henriquez would have been in line for a salary bump if Maniscalco had taken the chairmanship, leading some to speculate a case of sour grapes.
Maniscalco told the Times that he himself at first though the heard ‘the a-word’ when Henriquez coughed.
After the meeting, he said he confronted his staffer, but she denied saying anything.
‘She looked at me like I was crazy,’ he said.
Henriquez’s boss Guido Maniscalco (left) challenged Viera (right) for the chair position earlier this month, but lost – and Henriquez lost out on a pay bump in the process
Maniscalco said that at first he didn’t believe her, but then remembered how easily things can be misheard sometimes.
Elton John’s 1971 song Tiny Dancer came the councilman’s to mind, the lyrics of which many have misheard through the decades as ‘Hold me closer, Tony Danza.’
‘I’ve heard that song hundreds of times and I still misunderstood it,’ Maniscalco said.
‘There’s several Beatles songs like that, too. I believe her. Sometimes we hear a song and we think we know the lyrics.’
Viera declined to comment, saying the incident is under investigation.
However, Henriquez told the Times on Tuesday that she had not been notified of an investigation, and the city’s Human Resources director refused to confirm or deny whether the ambiguous cough was under investigation.
‘If the City were investigating such a matter, we would not comment nor would there be any public records to release during an active investigation,’ Crum wrote in an email response to the Times’ public records request.