Trouble In Tennessee As House GOP Expels Two Democrat Representatives
Reacting to the on-the-floor protests in the Tennessee General Assembly, two of the three lawmakers up for expulsion votes were removed. The Tennessean:
Ten days after a shooter unloaded 152 rounds inside a Nashville school and killed six people, Tennessee House Republicans on Thursday expelled two Democratic lawmakers for breaking House rules and mounting a gun-reform protest on the chamber’s floor.
After hours of fiery debate, the House expelled Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, on a 72-25 vote, and Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, by 69-26, in a move that put the nation’s eyes on Tennessee and its politics.
But the House failed by one vote to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to kick Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, out of the chamber. The effort to expel Johnson failed on a 65-30 vote, as chants of “Gloria! Gloria!” rang out in the House chamber.
Republicans removed two of the youngest Black lawmakers from the General Assembly, further reducing an already small minority caucus.
Still, the expulsions have elevated the two lawmakers’ political profiles, with little long-term gains for Republican leadership as Pearson and Jones could be reappointed to their seats within days or weeks.
The historic, partisan expulsion process has roiled political tensions as the state continues to grapple with the deadliest school shooting in its history.
“What is happening here today is a farce of democracy,” Jones said at the beginning of his 20-minute defense. “What is happening here today is a situation in which the jury has already publicly announced the verdict. What we see today is just a spectacle. What we see today is a lynch mob assembled to not lynch me, but our democratic process.”
Lawmakers considered the fate of the three Democrats steps away from hundreds of protesters whose chants permeated the House doors, while more than 200 people stood in silence in the House galleries. Protesters continued to call on Republican lawmakers to pass gun reform and slammed the efforts to expel the lawmakers, who have been dubbed the “Tennessee three.”
The expulsion proceedings threatened to strip more than 200,000 Tennesseans of their elected representation and mark just the fourth time since the end of the Civil War in which the House ousted sitting lawmakers. No House member has ever been removed from elected office for simply violating decorum rules.
Republicans insisted expulsion, the most extreme sanction available, was the right move to protect the integrity of the House and its rules.
Republicans refuse to protect your kids from being shot, but they will punish you for speaking out about it.Report
Do I have some good news for you!
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Assuming Biden v Trump in 24, Biden may get more Black vote then Obama did. No one other then hardcore partisans are going to buy this as anything but racist.Report
Coming on the heels of the high school student protest the day before, and the shoulder shrugging indifference shown by the Republicans, this will help cement the GOP brand.Report
Right on the heals of a Dem Wisc Supreme winning by 10 with a huge youth vote lots of R’s can see what they are doing to themselves with giant swaths of citizens.Report
They can see it but it won’t stop them. Tennessee’s gerrymandered super majority doesn’t have to care what voters actually think. Which is sort of the point.Report
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Tennessee_House_of_Representatives_expulsions
Hmm… looks like “the three” weren’t actually protesting inside the build but just joined the march on the capital building?
Sorry, that’s not enough.Report
It appears they may have been explored in violation Tennessee’s constitution:
Article 2, Section 27.
Any member of either House of the General Assembly shall have liberty to dissent from and protest against, any act or resolve which he may think injurious to the public or to any individual, and to have the reasons for his dissent entered on the journals.Report
As impeachment is a political thing, so is expulsion. The votes were there, they just needed any sort of excuse.Report
Clearest description yet from the Beeb, with a good picture:
So it’s for using a megaphone at the lectern instead of some other prop? What do you want to bet some yahoo legislator in the past has brought actual weapons to use on the floor as a props in a pro-gun speech? And before you answer, remember this: it’s Tennessee.Report
IMHO it’s for pissing off the GOP majority with unprofessional behavior and labeling them child killers in what is supposed to be a work place.
They’re both had these roles for 2 (ish) months. Jones was sworn in Feb 9th, the protest was between March 28th and April 3rd.
If you’re a House member and looking at needing to deal with this every month or two, maybe you decide you don’t want to deal with them.Report
Wait, they got expelled for making the GOP uncomfortable? How on brand of the supermajority.
Snowflakes. Cowardly snowflakes.Report
The yardstick I use is “whether or not I would be fired for doing it”.
“Protesting” in general is fine, marching up and down on a street is something my employer would only care about if I were wearing a company shirt.
Shutting down my place of employment via unprofessional behavior should have a word other than “protest” (or “uncomfortable”); and my expectation is I’d be fired pretty much instantly.
Given the optics, there’s an argument for not doing this… although given these guys have only been there two months and they’ve managed to ring the “unprofessional” bell more than once, it was probably going to happen sooner or later.
My expectation is we’ll have another election for their areas pretty soon, they’ll win again, and resume their offices. They can only be thrown out once for a specific action.
The question then becomes whether this culture clash between the politicians and the protesters continues.Report
The “cultures” which are clashing are “Democracy” versus “Authoritarianism”.Report
Here, in this context?
No.
These guys are in their late 20’s and have spent a decade protesting. That’s an effort to seek redress from the gov and get politicians to pay attention and/or stick it to them when they don’t.
However now they are the government. They have access to the inner circles and the floor of the house. Using that access to shut stuff down until their demands are met makes sense if your background is pure protester but it’s also a problem.
Me using my access to my workplace to do something like this instantly gets me fired and that access removed. An intern who has been on the job for a month would have it happen even quicker. IMHO the same thing happening to other people doesn’t seem unreasonable.
The counter argument is politicians are known for behaving badly and for creating self seeking self serving political drama. However doing it right out of the box implies it’s more the rule than the exception.Report
Yup. They’ve both vowed to run in the special election. Their home political groups are supporting them and will probably return them to fill their “old” seats until they win the election again.
They’ll run against “anti-democracy” and all this political theater has increased their stock.
House gets a few weeks without them, they get a vacation and a higher profile, maybe maybe maybe when they come back they’ll be less disruptive (although having been soundly rewarded for that once I have my doubts), so everyone wins. If we ignore the tax payers who have to pay for a special election.
Nothing will happen on gun control, but as usual, none of the proposals would have prevented the crime.Report
I believe that the replacements are appointed by local government in those districts rather than holding an election. State rules for such things can be odd.
I thought I saw something yesterday, although I can’t put my finger on it today, that some of the Tennessee House Republicans were threatening financial retribution against those districts if they return the expelled members.Report
One of the local govs said they’d send him back. The other hadn’t officially decided as of the time the info was written.
I do wonder how serious everyone is in all this.
It’s possible the House is just really fed up with these two. They’ve been there an amazingly short time to have multiple entries, although I gather one of them started before he was in office.
It’s also possible the politicians would rather have this conversation than gun control.
Zoom in on the shooting and we have a functional 28 year old with no criminal record and no known history of mental illness plan this for years. The voters want the politicians to “do something”, but mechanically IDK what is supposed to happen here.Report
Yep. Called it. First one is back, with unanimous support from his local council.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/nashville-council-expected-consider-reinstating-ousted-former-rep-just-rcna78924Report