Chants of ‘fascists’ as Tennessee House Republicans try to expel Democrats for protest over shooting

Three legislators are facing expulsion from the GOP-dominated chamber

Three Democrats are facing expulsion from the Tennessee House of Representatives after supporting a protest for stricter gun control measures following a mass shooting at a Nashville school.

Reps Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Pearson are all facing battles to hold onto their positions in the legislature after Republican colleagues filed resolutions to remove them for their participation in a heated protest at the state capitol in Nashville last Thursday following a mass shooting that left six people, including three children aged nine, dead at a Christian school in the city.

During that protest, thousands of people packed the capitol grounds to call for stricter gun control measures in the wake of the shooting. As part of the protest, demonstrators filed into the House chamber where Mr Jones and his colleagues led them in chants from the floor.

The Republicans, who have a supermajority in the chamber, have not expressed any willingness to revisist the state’s lax gun laws. They have, however, set their sights on expelling the three legislators who, according to a resolution filed Monday, “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives.”

The Republicans who filed the resolutions calling for the expolsions, Reps Bud Hulsey, Gino Bulso, and Andrew Farmer, successfully lobbied to have the voting process expidited so that the full Tennessee House is now slated to vote on the expolsions on Thursday. The three members have already been removed from their committee assignments.

As some observers pointed out, the rush to expel the three members stands in stark contrast to the Republicans’ unwillingness to take up a vote on expelling a Republican member of the House accused of sexually assaulting multiple teenage girls.

Whether the Democratic representatives calling for gun control measures in the wake of a mass shooting brough “disorder and dishonor” on the House of Representatives is a matter of political opinion.

When the House moved to schedule the expolsion vote, furious onlookers in the House gallery chanted “Fascists!” at the Republican legislators, after which Rep Cameron Sexton, the House speaker, called on state troopers to clear the gallery.

Two of the legislators facing explosion are Black. All three represent cities in a heavily gerrymandered state, with Ms Johnson representing Knoxville, Mr Jones representing heavily-Democratic Nashville, and Mr Jackson representing heavily-Democratic Memphis. Mr Jones is a student at Vanderbilt Divinity School, while Mr Pearson is an environmental organiser. Ms Johnson is a retired special education teacher.

Democrats are opposed to the expulsions of three of their lawmakers, but have little power to stop the Republicans should they choose to move ahead. Despite the fact that Donald Trump only won 61 per cent of the vote in Tennessee in the 2020 presidential election, Republicans control some 76 per cent of House seats.