House, Senate Democrats rally behind expelled Tennessee lawmakers: ‘We all lost today’

Democratic lawmakers are decrying the expulsion of two Tennessee legislators Thursday, calling their removal a threat to democracy.

“All of this in the wake of children—9-year-olds—being killed at school. Every American should be on the side of democracy. We all lost today,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) tweeted.

The Tennessee Republican-controlled House voted Thursday on whether to expel a trio of Democratic lawmakers after they participated in a protest against gun violence on the House floor. The lawmakers voted to expel both state Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and state Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) from the House, but Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) survived her vote.

The three lawmakers had participated in a protest against violence on the House floor in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville left six people dead, including three 9-year-old children. The lawmakers were stripped of their committee earlier this week before the vote to remove them took place Thursday.

A wave of Democrats has now rallied behind the lawmakers, as many have denounced the move as “racist” and “fascist,” as well as undemocratic. The two lawmakers expelled, Pearson and Jones, are both Black men and Johnson, who is a white woman, survived her vote.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a strong advocate for gun reform, blasted Tennessee Republicans for saying the participants in the protests were trying to start an insurrection.

“MAGA is trying to coopt the term used for Jan. 6. But the criminals on Jan. 6 were LITERALLY trying use force to overturn the election,” he tweeted. “That’s the whole reason they were there. Insurrection. The kids in Nashville were just trying to get a bill passed to stop school shootings.”

Rep. Steve Cohen, the only Democratic congressmen from Tennessee, also posted on Twitter that he views the expulsion votes as a “provocative and disproportionate response” to violating House floor rules.

“Debate on the proper response to gun violence is an essential part of the democratic process,” Cohen said in his statement. “Today’s vote is an embracing stain on an important democratic institution.”

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) wrote that the lawmakers had the right to protest, calling it an “assault on democracy.” Reps. Jimmy Gomez (D-Ca.) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) both accused the vote to expel the lawmakers of racism in their statements Thursday.

“I’m not going to mince words. What we saw in Tennessee today was fascism & racism on full display,” Gomez said in a statement. “Three democratic lawmakers put on trial for protesting gun violence. Only two were expelled — both of whom were Black men. A dark day for our children, democracy, and our country.”

“It’s also not lost on anyone that of the three members threatened with expulsion (for attending the same protest) it was the two young Black men who were punished for exercising their 1st Amendment rights,” Coleman said. “This in-your-face racism is disgusting and dangerous.”

Nashville Mayor John Cooper said that Nashville and Memphis were “disenfranchised” after Pearson and Jones were expelled Thursday. He said in a tweet that the Nashville city council will meet Monday to fill the vacancy, saying he believes that they will vote to send Jones, who represents Nashville, right back to the House.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a critic of former President Trump who served on the select committee investigating Jan. 6, also voiced his concerns, calling the move “fascist.”

“The GOP kicked out legislators for protesting guns. Not censure, fine etc. expelled. This is facist in nature,” Kinzinger tweeted.