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Tennessee GOP Moves to Expel 3 Democrats Amid Gun Gun Protests
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April 5, 2023
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0:56Now PlayingRepublicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives took moves toward expelling three Democratic lawmakers on Monday, April 3, after they took part in demonstrations at the State Capitol in Nashville on Thursday calling for more gun controls.
On Monday, GOP representatives filed resolutions calling for Reps Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis to be removed from the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton said their “actions are and will always be unacceptable, and they break several rules of decorum and procedure on the House floor.”
Speaking on Monday outside the Capitol, Rep Jones said he and his two colleagues had already been removed from committees and said their “representative ID badges” had been shut off. Later, Jones stood alongside students protesting inside the legislature.
The three Democrats have called the moves an attack on democracy.
Tennessee House Republicans branded the protest as a “Tennessee Capitol Insurrection,” aiming to draw parallels to the attack on the US Capitol carried out by Trump loyalists on January 6, 2021.
US Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who served on the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, rejected the comparison, tweeting on Sunday: “TN Speaker equates peaceful student rally w/Jan 6 insurrection but (1) no officers injured in TN, 150 wounded in DC; (2) no effort in TN to coerce Speaker to abdicate power and turn state over to usurper; (3) no 5-hour disruption of business to block transfer of power. Nice try!”
According to The Tennessee Star, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security said “no arrests” were made in relation to Thursday’s protests and there were “no investigations or criminal charges pending.”
On Tuesday, Jones tweeted “It’s morally insane that a week after a mass shooting took six lives in our community, House Republicans only response is to expel us for standing with our constituents to call for gun control.”
Pearson posted a letter he said he had sent to all representatives explaining his decision to join the protest.
Johnson accused Republican lawmakers of hypocrisy, noting that in 2020 they refused to expel Rep David Byrd after he was accused by three women of committing sexual assaults against them in the 1980s when they were underaged.
“They would not expel an admitted child molester, but are now going to expel three members who spoke without permission,” Johnson tweeted.
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