Delegate Patrick Martin, R-Lewis, stands to request that one of the bills up for passage Monday be read in its entirety. (Photo Courtesy/WV Legislative Photography)

CHARLESTON — Actions since an anti-Muslim display during last Friday’s state Republican Party Day at the Legislature continue to reverberate into the final week of the legislative session.

On Monday, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, removed House Minority Whip Mike Caputo, D-Marion, from his committee assignments for the remainder of the session, which ends Saturday, March 9.

Caputo serves on the House energy, government organization, industry and labor, and rules committees.

For some Republican House members, this was not punishment enough. In protest, Delegate Patrick Martin, R-Lewis, requested that three bills on the House calendar Monday be read in their entirety, a constitutional provision which is normally waived in favor of shorter explanations of the bill’s contents.

Martin said Democratic House members had threatened to have bills read in full if Caputo received any punishment, though Caputo was removed from committees before the start of Monday’s floor session with no protest from members of the Democratic caucus.

“The other party, the minority party, has made several threats saying they were going to have all the bills read if something was going to be done to Delegate Caputo for his actions,” Martin said. “I was just making a point that if we have to come in here at 3 a.m. to have bills read we should do what’s right in this situation and not what we’re threatening to do.”

For Martin, doing what is right would involve the Democratic caucus removing Caputo from his position as minority whip. He also thinks the matter should be discussed by the entire House.

“I think we should at least have it brought up in here in discussion,” Martin said. “I think he should at minimum be stripped of his position from the Democrat leadership. I’m very shocked that the Democrat leadership hasn’t commented on it aside from the fact he said sorry.”

On Saturday, Caputo went before the House Republican caucus to apologize for actions Friday resulting from an anti-Muslim display that Democratic House members found offensive. Caputo is accused of kicking the door to the House Chamber open between the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, injuring a House door keeper.

The state Democratic Party criticized Hanshaw for stripping Caputo of his committee assignments while not disciplining Delegate Eric Porterfield, R-Mercer, who made derogatory remarks against gay, lesbian, and transgender people during a committee meeting several weeks ago.

“Speaker Hanshaw’s hypocrisy by stripping Delegate Caputo of his committee assignments is unreal, while Republican Delegate Porterfield was never reprimanded,” said Belinda Biafore, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party. “Delegate Caputo has been remorseful and apologetic for the accidental injury that occurred on Friday, while Delegate Porterfield continues to double down on his verbal violence and attacks.”

Caputo admitted to kicking the door open in a floor speech Friday, citing his anger at seeing the display and the exchanges between the table’s representative, Brenda Arthur, and delegates. The table was part of WVGOP Day at the Legislature and was set up alongside displays from county Republican executive committees, though the state party distanced itself from the display in a statement Saturday.

The display included anti-Muslim and anti-refugee literature, plus a poster showing a picture of the World Trade Center attack above a picture of U.S. Rep. Iihan Omar, a Somali refugee and a Democrat representing Minnesota.

ACT for America, which has been called out for its rhetoric by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, has disavowed the anti-Muslim display at the state Capitol, even though there was an ACT sign present, Arthur was wearing an ACT T-shirt, and she has presented on ACT’s behalf in West Virginia before.

“This was NOT an ACT for America display; ACT for America was not aware of the display, the poster, or the event itself; and ACT for America did not have any staff in the state of West Virginia at the time,” according to a press release from ACT. “Anyone who claimed to be with ACT for America was doing so without the permission and approval of ACT for America.”

Leading up to the kicking of the House Chamber door by Caputo, several delegates got into a heated argument over the display’s content. During the exchange, Delegate Mike Angelucci, D-Marion, got into a verbal fight with House Sergeant-at-Arms Anne Lieberman when she allegedly told him that all Muslims are terrorists, causing him to yell at Lieberman and demand her removal. She resigned her position Friday afternoon.

In a statement to the media on her Facebook profile Sunday, Lieberman disputed Angelucci’s account of the Friday incident. Lieberman is Jewish with a daughter and son-in-law who reside in Israel.

“I know for certain that I said — verbatim — that ‘Not all Muslims are terrorists,’ but that THOSE (9/11) terrorists WERE all Muslim, trying to bring the discussion back to his original complaint,” Lieberman said. “Perhaps he misheard or misunderstood me. Or given his agitation, he may have heard what he expected or wanted to hear.”

Addressing the controversies during a press conference Monday, Gov. Jim Justice said it gave the state a black eye.

“We need to stop blowing our own legs off and becoming a national story,” Justice said. “We have worked too hard to have goodness, and we’ve got goodness and we become the national story in a negative way, and it will either drive more people away or keep more people from coming. That’s no good.”