by The resolutions accused each of the Democratic lawmakers of engaging in “disorderly behavior” and willfully bringing “disorder and disgrace to the House of Representatives” during anti-gun violence protests on the House floor last week.
The votes drew attention to the party divisions that have irritated the Tennessee General Assembly in recent months.
Chants from the protesters, many of whom carried signs defending the “Tennessee 3,” rang out throughout Thursday’s legislative session. organizers saying hundreds were present.
Amid the cacophony of protesters outside the House, Republican lawmakers began removal proceedings against the three Democrats on Thursday afternoon.
Early in the proceedings, House Republicans moved to play heavily edited video showing some of the events from last week’s protests, despite Democratic objections.
That quickly led to votes to oust. In a process that feels a lot like a trial, the House allows all members to defend themselves with a 20-minute speech. The House members then debate the resolution, and then each member can answer questions about the lawmakers’ allegations.
“What is happening here today is a situation where the jury has already publicly announced the verdict,” Jones said in a speech on the floor. “A lynch mob gathered not to lynch me but our democratic process.”
Jones said his participation in the protests amounted to his “advocacy for these young people…many of whom can’t even vote yet, but all of whom are terrified of the continuing trend of mass shootings sweeping our state and ravaging this nation.” .
in a interview with MSNBC after his ouster, Jones said the House was setting a “dangerous” precedent.
“What the nation is seeing is that we don’t have democracy in Tennessee, and if we don’t act, very dark days lie ahead. So we have to respond to this with mass movements, non-violent movements,” she said.
“Expelling voices of opposition and dissent is a sign of authoritarianism,” he added, suggesting that Tennessee’s action should “sound the alarm across the country that we are entering very dangerous territory.”
During the March 30 protest, the trio targeted supporters in chants calling for stricter gun safety after a mass shooting at a Nashville school that killed six people, including three 9-year-olds. A megaphone was used, in violation of House chamber rules, and lawmakers gathered in an unacknowledged area on the House floor to speak. House leaders at the time called his actions “an insurrection.”
“They tried to tear up our constitution with a megaphone,” Rep. Gino Bulso, who introduced one of the resolutions, said Thursday.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who tweeted earlier this week that the Democrats’ actions were “unacceptable,” he said after the ousters that he was concerned “to follow the process and the procedures that are laid out and that you have to follow, and not have a protest, as outlined here, on the floor of the Chamber”.
As members debated the resolution to recall Johnson Thursday, she said she participated in the protest because she felt she had to “raise the voice of the people in my district,” adding: “I did what I felt those people wanted me to do. did”. ”
“I did it for the kids in my district, for the kids in my state, for the kids in this community,” he said.
“All my friends at school called me Little Miss Law and Order because I’m a rule follower. And I know sometimes you have to break the rules and sometimes you have to get yourself into a good mess,” she added.
She also said the resolution charge that she “began to scream without recognizing her” was untrue, insisting that while she protested in the part of the chamber known as the well, she did not scream.
Seven Republicans voted against the motion to oust Johnson, three opposed the ouster resolution for Pearson, and one voted against Jones.
Addressing his supporters after the vote, Johnson said: “America should be concerned,” adding, according to the tennessean Nashville newspaper, that the failed vote to expel her “could have to do with the color of my skin.”
In a strongly worded statement, the Congressional Black Caucus said Thursday’s votes made it “clear that racism is alive and kicking in Tennessee.”
“The GOP-led House chose to silence dissent not only from black representatives in the chamber, but also from the voices of their constituents,” the CBC said. “Not only is this movement racist and undemocratic, it is morally bankrupt and out of step with the overwhelming majority of Americans who believe we need commonsense gun control reforms to save lives.”
Pearson alluded to race when referring to Lois DeBerry, the second black woman elected to the Tennessee General Assembly, who later served as speaker pro tempore.
He suggested that DeBerry, first elected in 1972, abided by strict rules of decorum and presentation because “otherwise blacks wouldn’t be respected, because whites wouldn’t respect them, they’d call them ‘boy,’ they’ll call them ‘girl. ‘ instead of ‘president’ or ‘interim spokesperson’”.
Republican Rep. Andrew Farmer, who sponsored the resolution to oust Pearson, described the trio’s March 30 protest on the House floor as a “tantrum.”
“Just because you don’t get away with it doesn’t mean you can come to the well with your friends,” he said Thursday.
Pearson responded by saying: “He called a peaceful protest a tantrum. It’s not a tantrum to say that children should go to schools that are really safe.”
The proceedings drew criticism from Democrats across the country, including the White House. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the scheduled ouster votes “legislative harassment.”
“The fact that this vote is taking place is shocking, undemocratic and unprecedented,” he said at Thursday’s briefing at the White House.
President Joe Biden chastised Republican lawmakers for their votes Thursday night.
“Last week, three more students and three school officials were shot dead in another tragic mass shooting in Nashville. On Monday, 7,000 Tennesseans, many of them students, marched on their state capital to call on their lawmakers to take action and keep them safe,” Biden said in a statement.
“Instead, Republican state lawmakers called for a vote today to oust three Democratic lawmakers who stood in solidarity with students and families and helped raise their voices. Today’s ouster of lawmakers who participated in peaceful protests is shocking, undemocratic and unprecedented. Rather than debate the issue on the merits, these Republican lawmakers have chosen to punish, silence, and expel the duly elected representatives of the people of Tennessee.”
Former President Barack Obama also commented: tweeting that the nation was built on peaceful protest.
“No elected official should lose their job simply for speaking up, especially when they do so on behalf of our children,” Obama wrote.
He called Thursday’s proceedings the “latest example of a broader erosion of civility and democratic norms.”
“Silencing those who disagree with us is a sign of weakness, not strength, and will not lead to progress,” he added.
In a post-vote press conference, all three Tennessee Democrats were defiant. Johnson vowed to help his two now-former colleagues return to the legislature, and Pearson led the crowd in a chant: “We will never quit.”
in a interview with MSNBC Before his ouster vote, Pearson said: “We are losing our democracy. This is not normal. This is not OK”.
“We broke a House rule because we were fighting for children dying from gun violence and for people in our communities who want to see an end to gun proliferation,” Pearson said.
“No one should want to operate as if this isn’t happening, as if we’re not living in an epidemic of gun violence in the state of Tennessee,” he added.
Tensions flared this week when removal proceedings began. Monday with the introduction of resolutions. Over the screams of the protesters who had once again filled the chamber, each proposal was approved in a party-line vote.
A protester was arrested on Monday during the chaos that, according to reporters in session, included a physical altercation between Jones and Republican Rep. Justin Lafferty. Jones accused Lafferty of stealing his phone and trying to “incite a riot with his coworkers.” The Tennessee reported.
The Tennessee Constitution It allows any of the legislative chambers to expel a member with the support of two-thirds of its members.
With Republicans holding the supermajority needed to carry out the ousters on Thursday, Democrats had no tools to put up meaningful resistance.
Jones and Pearson will be able to run in special elections for the seats from which they were ousted.
Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, has 30 days to set a date for the special election. Meanwhile, interim representatives selected by county commissions in the counties where the seats are located will take the place.
Johnson’s district includes parts of Knoxville, Jones’s includes parts of Nashville, and Pearson’s includes parts of Memphis.
