Tennessee GOP Goes Through With Absurd Purge of Anti-Gun House Dems
Tennessee’s Republican-held House of Representatives managed to oust two of the three Democratic lawmakers who led chants for gun control at the podium of the state House last week—both of them Black—but narrowly failed to expel a third, despite the Republican House Speaker likening their protest to an “insurrection.”
Last week, Democratic Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson were accused of violating decorum rules for their use of a bullhorn and signs to call for gun control in the wake of the mass killing of children and staff at Nashville’s Covenant School by an assailant toting two AR-15s. The three Democrats only led the protest when they hadn’t been recognized to speak under House rules.
Republicans, in turn, vowed to override the three members’ election by holding a vote to expel them. The move has shocked many Americans, who questioned a legislature that had, until Thursday, expelled just two members since the Civil War, and had failed to take action against other members accused of sexual harassment or violating campaign finance laws.