Democrats rally around Tennessee lawmakers after expulsion for gun protest
Emily Jacobs
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Leading House and Senate Democrats are rallying around the expelled Tennessee lawmakers who were removed from their positions for protesting in favor of gun reform on the state House floor.
State Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both Democrats, joined hundreds of demonstrators at the state Capitol late last month to call for gun control legislation after the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, late last month. The resolution to expel Jones passed Thursday with a 72-25 vote, and the resolution to expel Pearson passed 69-26. A resolution to expel Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson failed to pass. Congressional Democrats decried the expulsions as “racist,” “fascist,” and “undemocratic.”
BIDEN RESPONDS TO EXPULSION OF DEMOCRATIC TENNESSEE LAWMAKERS: ‘UNDEMOCRATIC’
“Apparently Tennessee Republicans care more about stopping CERTAIN Democrats from speaking than they do about stopping America’s kids from getting shot to death in schools,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tweeted Thursday.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a longtime supporter of expanding gun control, called the expulsions an “extraordinary moment” for the nation, writing on Twitter: “MAGA Republicans now aren’t content to simply block efforts to stop school shootings. Now they are going to use their power to silence anyone who dares to even speak up for our kids.”
“The kids in Nashville were just trying to get a bill passed to stop school shootings,” he said after lambasting comparisons of the lawmakers’ actions to rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Murphy said he had been working with ActBlue, the Democrats’ primary fundraising platform, to raise more than $250,000 for Jones and Pearson’s reelection efforts. He tweeted that “the Republicans can kick them out, but they can’t stop them from running in the special election.”
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) decried the expulsions as both “racist” and “fascist” in a series of tweets Thursday and questioned why Tennessee lawmakers felt comfortable removing Pearson and Jones, two black men, but not Johnson, a white woman.
“In the past, members were only expelled for criminal behavior or sexual misconduct. Standing up for kids safety is forbidden to them,” Schatz tweeted. “Kicking someone out of office who is duly elected is fascist, and it clarifies for all of us how the leading edge of MAGA operates.”
“This whole thing seems racist,” he said in a later post on the social media platform. “Why kick out two young black legislators out of office?”
Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Alex Padilla (D-CA) all argued that the move served as a threat to democracy.
“I am deeply troubled and angered by what is happening in Tennessee. It is one more flashpoint of the undemocratic forces at work in our country,” Warnock tweeted Thursday. “Craven politicians shouldn’t be able to subvert the PEOPLE’S voice. It is undemocratic. It is un-American. It is unacceptable.”
“Make no mistake: what Republicans in the Tennessee House did today is a brazen attack on democracy,” Van Hollen wrote. “Expelling democratically elected officials for speaking out after a shooting killed 3 kids & 3 adults — while doing NOTHING to address gun violence — is outrageous and wrong.”
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A number of Democratic lawmakers also spoke out on the House side to condemn the expulsions, including the Congressional Black Caucus, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who serves as assistant Democratic leader, the fourth highest-ranking party leadership position, and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), the sole Democrat in Tennessee’s congressional delegation who represents the Nashville area, where last month’s school shooting took place.
“I am deeply disturbed by what’s unfolding in Tennessee. Instead of focusing on how to protect children from gun violence, Republican lawmakers have mobilized to suppress those urging action,” Clyburn wrote on Twitter. “These baseless, undemocratic expulsions of duly elected representatives must not stand.