Reinstated Tennessee lawmaker reveals conversation with Republican who forced him out over gun protest

Justin Jones says a Republican lawmaker told him he was asked by leadership to file the resolution to expel him

Rep Justin Jones, the Tennessee state legislator who was expelled for his gun control protest and then reinstated by the Nashville metro council, said the Republican who introduced the resolution to expel him from the chamber last week claimed he did so at the behest of the chamber’s Republican leadership.

Mr Jones said on CNN on Tuesday that he spoke to Rep Bud Hulsey in an elevator at the state capitol.

“I greeted him and I also asked him, ‘Did he learn anything from this experience?’ He said that it was part of leadership’s decision to kind of ask him to file this, and besides that was very quiet,” Mr Jones said.

According to Mr Jones, Mr Hulsey said he was the person asked to file the resolution to expel Mr Jones because he is the chair of the Criminal Justice Committee in the state house. Mr Hulsey, a Republican, has represented an area of northeast Tennessee in the state house since 2014.

The Republicans’ attempt to expel Mr Jones and his colleagues Rep Justin Pearson and Rep Gloria Johnson from the state house for their participation in a gun control protest at the state capitol in the aftermath of the mass shooting that claimed six lives at a Nashville Christian school garnered national attention as a symbol of American democratic decline.

Republicans ultimately did expel Mr Jones and Mr Pearson, who are both Black, while failing to expel Ms Johnson, who is white, by a single vote. The Nashville metro council then appointed Mr Jones to the open seat created by his explusion, which led to him being sworn back in earlier this week.

But the fallout from the expulsions is ongoing. Officials in Shelby County may reappoint Mr Pearson as well, but have reportedly been threatened with a loss of state funding for civic projects if they do so.

“The Republicans are at a point of reflection here in Tennessee,” Mr Jones said on CNN. “What they did they thought would happen without any resistance, but it has the world watching what is happening here. The Speaker of the House is trying to backtrack now, but like I said today, we are calling for his resignation. He is an enemy of democracy, and he doesn’t deserve to be in that office as Speaker of the House any longer.”

Mr Jones, whose future as a legislator at this point seems secure, has promised to introduce all the bills he’s allowed to introduce for the remainder of the current legislative session on gun reform.

“That’s what these young people are begging us to do,” Mr Jones said.