Tennessee GOP seeks to expel 3 House Democrats after school shooting protests
Tennessee House Republicans have moved to expel three Democrats from their seats in the Legislature after the representatives joined protesters demanding gun control last week.
On Monday, Republicans in the House filed resolutions to expel Reps. Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson and Justin Pearson, saying they disrupted proceedings last Thursday when hundreds of people came to the state Capitol to protest after the March 27 mass killing at Nashville’s Covenant School.
Three 9-year-old students and three adults were killed in the attack, which has since heightened tensions among politicians in Tennessee and across the United States who remain divided on gun regulations.
Students in Nashville had walked out of their classes Monday morning and gathered at the Capitol to protest for gun control.
The fiery evening session adjourned without a vote on the resolutions, which will be on the legislative agenda Thursday. But not before Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton called for the galleries to be cleared and for state troopers to remove hecklers.
The rare move to oust the three Democrats came shortly after Mr. Sexton stripped Mr. Jones and Ms. Johnson of their committee assignments, the Tennessean reported. Mr. Pearson did not have any committee assignments. According to the newspaper, Ms. Johnson also told journalists on Monday that her badge to access the legislative office building had been deactivated.
Last week, Mr. Jones, Ms. Johnson and Mr. Pearson brought a House session to a halt during the protests.
Mr. Jones, who held a sign that read “Protect kids, not guns” while on the House floor Thursday, led the crowd on the chamber balcony in a chant, shouting “No action, no peace!” into a megaphone.
On Thursday, crowds flooded the capitol to urge lawmakers to address gun violence. People of all ages - including children “from strollers to high school,” according to Ms. Johnson — attended the protest, packing the rotunda and overflowing outside the building.
“Nashville is speaking right now, loudly and clearly,” Ms. Johnson said during a video she took of the crowd. “They want gun sense legislation in Tennessee.”
During the session that day, she, Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson stood on the House floor. After Jones led the first chant with those in the gallery, Mr. Pearson spoke through the megaphone about gun violence and began chanting “Enough is enough.”
“There comes a time when you have to do something out of the ordinary,” Mr. Jones tweeted Thursday. He added that the lawmakers “could not go about business as usual as thousands were protesting outside demanding action.”
That same day, Mr. Sexton — the House speaker — referred to the three Democrats’ actions as an insurrection. He said they had committed “multiple violations.”
“They were making the day about them and not about the issue, in my opinion,” Mr. Sexton said on “The Hal Show Podcast,” adding that the consequences could include being removed from committees, censured, expelled or a combination.
Addressing Mr. Sexton’s comments, Ms. Johnson wrote Sunday on Twitter that there was no danger on the House floor or in the rotunda last week.
But Mr. Sexton on Monday tweeted that Mr. Jones, Ms. Johnson and Mr. Pearson had broken “several rules of decorum and procedure.”
The resolutions to expel the three representatives say that each lawmaker “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions,” according to photos of the documents posted by Mr. Jones and Ms. Johnson.
The measures were introduced by Republican Reps. Andrew Farmer, Gino Bulso and Bud Hulsey. The Tennessee House has only made the rare move of expelling representatives twice since the Civil War, according to the Associated Press.
After the House session adjourned Monday, Mr. Jones posted a video of people in the gallery who were chanting.
“This is a sad day for Tennessee,” he wrote.