On Thursday, the Legislative Board of Republican in Tennessee took the extraordinary step of expelling two democratic members of the state for their role in protesting weapons control in the room last week after shooting Nashville’s deadly school.
Hours after the discussion, the legislators voted 72-25 to expel MP Justin Jones from Nashville and 69-26 to expel MP Justin Pearson from Memphis after they led chants from the platform on the ground on March 30 using loudspeakers, while hundreds of children and their parents fill the participants exhibition to contact weapons.
Voting failed to expel a third member of the state of the state, Representative Gloria Johnson from Noxisfil, with one vote. I have argued that the decision that the Republicans wrote to expel her did not describe their behavior accurately; While she was standing with Person and Jones to support their protest, vocal actions were not disrupted by screaming in Polan.
The third majority vote is required to remove legislators. Republicans currently control 75 seats out of 99 seats in the country.
Pearson and Jones are both black men, 27, who in his first term in the state of the state, while Johnson, 60, is a white woman in her fourth term. “It may have a relationship with our skin color,” Johnson He said outside the room After voting.
The attack on January 6 on the American Capitol Building, Speaker of Parliament Cameron Sixon, a Republican who is leading the surrounding republican party in the room, He said the actions of the trio “At least equivalent, and perhaps worse depending on the way you look at it, than to rebel in the Capitol.”
Although the demonstration caused the speaker to temporarily freeze from work in the state, any demonstrators stormed the building, harmed any property, or were arrested. Unlike a rebellion in 2021 in the capital, they were allowed to enter after the security examination had passed. Tenisi The newspaper mentioned.
The Republicans have argued that the trio had violated the rules of procedures in the room by approaching the platform to speak without being called.
Laborized lawmakers can run again for their seats, and if they are re -elected, they will not be expelled for the same crime.
When legislators voted on Thursday, the demonstrators met again inside and Outside From the Capitol to support the so -called Tennessee three. The chants can be heard outside the room for hours where the lawmakers met, but the Democrats asked supporters at the general exhibition to remain calm so that they can see the events. However, as soon as Person’s final voting occurred, people in the exhibition erupted to “shame on you!”
Before voting, both the target Democrats were given the opportunity to address the room. In his speech, Jones told his colleagues that he had taken unusual measures to break the decoration in order to defend his components. He criticized the vote against him as “the” lynch mobs gathering so that it does not cry for me but rather our democratic process. “
“The world is watching Tennessee because what is happening here today is the farce of democracy,” Jones said.
“The justice movement can never die, because the heart of justice can never be killed because it lives and strikes everyone from us.” Person said in his speech.
On Thursday, expulsions attracted great national interest, including from the president Joe Biden. “The expulsion of legislators who participated in a peaceful protest is shocking, unclear, and unprecedented,” He said on Twitter.