President Joe Biden met Monday with three Tennessee state legislators on the White Home, two of whom have been quickly expelled from the Tennessee Home of Representatives after staging a raucous protest within the chamber.
Their colleagues expelled state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson after they interrupted a legislative session by shouting via a bullhorn. The 2 have been joined in interrupting the session by state Rep. Gloria Johnson, who later barely survived an expulsion vote.
“You’re standing up for our youngsters, you’re standing up for our communities,” Biden informed the three Democrat state legislators of their Oval Workplace assembly, referring to the lawmakers’ gun management advocacy.
“What the Republican legislature did was stunning, it was undemocratic,” Biden mentioned of the GOP-controlled Tennessee Home of Representatives’ votes on whether or not to expel the three lawmakers.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Tennessee lawmakers solely got here out in entrance of the media’s cameras for about 5 minutes.
Of their protest, the three rabble-rousing politicians demanded that the Tennessee Normal Meeting cross extra gun controls after a shooter at The Covenant Faculty in Nashville killed three kids and three faculty staffers on March 27. Police mentioned the shooter, who was fatally shot by responding officers, was a organic lady who claimed to determine as a person.
Biden has faced criticism for inviting politicians to the White Home however not inviting members of the family of these killed within the faculty taking pictures in Nashville.
Harris joined the Oval Workplace assembly.
Though the Tennessee Home voted to expel Jones and Pearson, it fell in need of the votes wanted to expel Johnson. Each Jones and Pearson have been reinstated to the Legislature by their native governments.
In a 2020 video, Jones is seen climbing atop a police automotive throughout a Black Lives Matter protest.
Pearson turned recognized for an older video that popped up on social media exhibiting his look in school, trying like a mainstream, average younger politician. That’s in comparison with at the moment, when Pearson casts himself as a extra polarizing, radical politician.
Tennessee didn’t impose new gun management measures after the college taking pictures, however did cross a school safety package. It requires colleges to lock exterior doorways, develop annual security plans, and implement larger requirements for personal safety guards. It additionally requires faculty districts to ascertain menace assessments.
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