Tennessee GOP caucus chair cuts interview with CNN short

Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Faison, who chairs the Republican Caucus in the Tennessee House of Representatives, cut his interview with CNN short on Thursday while discussing the controversial expulsion of two Democratic lawmakers from the chamber.

Faison, who represents Cosby, Tenn., left the interview as CNN’s Kaitlan Collins attempted to ask him another question.

“Representative, I know you’ve got a long drive home, one final question for you,” Collins said as Faison walked off camera, adding, “Alright, well, Chairman Faison has left us.”

The Tennessee Republican walked out after a contentious exchange with CNN’s Sara Sidner.

After Sidner suggested that the crowd at the Tennessee statehouse was “already riled up” on Thursday, Faison pushed back, claiming the Democratic lawmakers were “getting the people incited and worked up into a frenzy.”

“Unfortunately, you weren’t here. You didn’t see it. That’s exactly what they did,” he said.

Sidner responded by saying that CNN had reporters at the statehouse who talked to members of the crowd.

“Some of them were teachers, who were so distraught, they were near tears because they could not believe that their lawmakers were doing this, as opposed to dealing with the biggest issue at hand,” she said. “The number one killer of children is gun violence, and they wanted y’all to do something about that instead of wasting time, in their mind, when it comes to this.”

Faison maintained that the lawmakers were directing the crowd “like a choir leader would,” before noting that he had to go.

“And I’ll tell you this — and unfortunately, I’ve got to go, I’m 3 and a half hours from home — it’s not possible for us to move forward with the way they were behaving in committee and on the House floor,” he said. “There’s got to be some peace.”

Tennessee lawmakers voted to expel state Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) on Thursday, after they protested gun violence on the House floor last week. A similar effort to expel state Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) failed to reach the necessary two-thirds majority.

Jones, Pearson and Johnson led chants on the House floor in the wake of a shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville that killed three 9-year-old students and three staff members.