(ConservativeSense.com) – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has asked the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the expulsion of Democrats from the Tennessee State Legislature.
Justin Jones (D) and Justin Pearson (D) were expelled from the Tennessee House when they joined with protestors demanding gun control laws in the wake of a fatal shooting at a school in Nashville. On March 30th, days after the shooting, hundreds of activists descended upon the House, and the Representatives repeated their chants on the chamber floor.
Both Pearson and Jones have since been reinstated. Gloria Johnson (D), who also supported the protestors, was not expelled, and critics swiftly blamed racism. Johnson is the only white participant. However, as noted by the Washington Examiner, she was less disruptive to proceedings than her colleagues.
A letter from Schumer to US Attorney General Merrick Garland states, “Silencing legislators on the basis of their views or their participation in protected speech or protest is antithetical to American democracy and values.”
The remarks are starkly different from those he delivered following Washington, DC, protests on January 6th, 2021. On that occasion, he referred to protestors as “domestic terrorists” who should be “punished to the full extent of the law.”
President Biden, who also referred to the January 6th protests as a “deadly insurrection,” has invited the three Tennessee lawmakers to the White House. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was proud of the three “for speaking out and for standing their ground.” The President has not met with the families of the victims of the Nashville shooting. A transgender individual, who appears to have sought revenge against the Christian institution where she was once a pupil, carried out the attack.
Vice President Kamala Harris has not consoled the victims’ families, despite her visit to Tennessee to support the disruptive lawmakers. Harris traveled to the Volunteer State on April 7th, where she warmly greeted Jones and Pearson and delivered a speech urging national gun control laws.
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