Tennessee House speaker calls for expulsion of Democrats who led gun protest
Tennessee State House Speaker Cameron Sexton says the three Democratic lawmakers disrupted proceedings on the House floor to lead the protest.
Three Tennessee state Democrats were pulled from committee assignments after disrupting the state House floor in Nashville last Thursday during protests for stricter gun control measures, but the three activist lawmakers could soon face expulsion altogether.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R., says Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson will have their chance for due process at an upcoming House vote where they will face expulsion from an overwhelmingly Republican majority for disrupting House floor proceedings to lead protesters in the overhead balcony.
"I want to make sure everybody knows this has nothing to do about the protest outside the House chamber or the protests outside the Capitol," Sexton told Fox News' Bill Hemmer on Wednesday.
"This is about these three members' actions on the House floor, how they shut us down, and how they led protests from the House chamber to those [people] in the balcony," he continued.
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A protestor is detained temporarily during a protest encouraging stricter gun laws and to reduce gun violence inside the Tennessee State Capitol on March 30, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Seth Herald/Getty Images)
Sexton told Hemmer he will vote in favor of expelling the three Democrats behind the upheaval, arguing their actions rose to a level of misconduct that necessitates removal.
Rep. Jones, responding to Republicans' calls for his expulsion, alleged in a Tuesday tweet it is "morally insane" for his GOP colleagues to respond to the Covenant School shooting by pushing back against his gestures of solidarity with constituents by calling for stricter gun control measures.
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"What's happening in Tennessee is a clear danger to democracy all across this nation," he wrote in part.
Sexton fired back against the complaint on-air: "He's trying to make this about the protesters. He's trying to make this about what people were protesting about. Their voices were not silenced. This has nothing to do with anything that happened outside the House chamber," he said.
"These three individuals stormed up to the well where you speak from without being recognized, did not display decorum, they disrupted the proceedings where we had to shut down, pulled out a megaphone and started to lead the balcony in protest for the next 30 to 45 minutes.
Three Tennessee Democrats face expulsion after leading an anti-gun protest on the House floor. (America's Newsroom/Screengrab)
"Their actions on the House floor rise to the level of expulsion. We cannot allow these types of things to take place in the people's House," he added.
Republicans voted Monday to strip the three lawmakers of their committee assignments, a move to which Jones responded with a separate tweet, writing in part, "We’ll not be intimidated. THE PEOPLE are demanding we act to stop kids from being murdered in school."
Anti-gun protests at the Capitol followed the tragic shooting at Nashville's Covenant School during which 28-year-old transgender gunman Audrey Hale opened fire, killing six inside the building, three of whom were children.
