Biden Weighs In on Expulsion of Tennessee Lawmakers, Pushes for Gun Control

U.S. President Joe Biden holds a meeting with his science and technology advisors at the White House in Washington, on April 4, 2023. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Thursday criticized the ousting of two lawmakers in Tennessee.

“Last week, three more students and three school officials were gunned down in yet another tragic mass shooting in Nashville. On Monday, 7,000 Tennesseans, many of them students, marched to their state capitol to call on their lawmakers to take action and keep them safe,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

The statement came after two Tennessee House lawmakers were expelled Thursday from the state’s general assembly in a vote by the Republican supermajority-controlled state House. There was a third House lawmaker who was also facing expulsion but hung on to her seat by a margin of just one vote.

The resolutions to expel them were introduced on April 3, after the three lawmakers led a group of people to protest at the statehouse to call for tighter gun control laws on March 30. It came days after a tragic shooting at Covenant School in Nashville on March 27 that killed three 9-year-old children and three staff members of the school.

Republican state Reps. Andrew Farmer (R-Sevierville), Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), and Bud Hulsey (R-Sullivan), who filed the three resolutions on April 3, said their Democrat colleagues Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville), Justin J. Pearson (D-Memphis), and Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) had broken decorum by leading the demonstration in the well of the House floor, onto which hundreds of protesters flooded.

According to the Nashville Tennessean, the Democrats took to the podium on the House floor with a bullhorn in hand and cheered on the crowd of demonstrators, without being recognized to speak. This marked a breach of chamber rules.

Protesters gather inside the Tennessee State Capitol to call for an end to gun violence and support stronger gun laws in Nashville, Tenn., on March 30, 2023. Seth Herald/Getty Images

The resolution to expel the three Democrats said they knowingly and intentionally brought “disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives” through their individual and collective actions over a roughly one-hour period.

Johnson, unlike Jones and Pearson, did not use a megaphone to lead chants during the protest, which may have been why she was spared from expulsion.

Biden on Thursday said the Democrat lawmakers had merely “engaged in peaceful protest” and called their expulsion “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.”

“Rather than debating the merits of the issue, these Republican lawmakers have chosen to punish, silence, and expel duly-elected representatives of the people of Tennessee,” said Biden in the statement.

“A strong majority of Americans want lawmakers to act on commonsense gun safety reforms that we know will save lives,” Biden said. “But instead, we’ve continued to see Republican officials across America double down on dangerous bills that make our schools, places of worship, and communities less safe. Our kids continue to pay the price.

“Congress must ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, require safe storage of firearms, eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and require background checks for all gun sales, and state officials must do the same.”

In a Twitter post on April 3, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said the actions of the three Democrats “are and will always be unacceptable, and they break several rules of decorum and procedure on the House floor.”

“Their actions and beliefs that they could be arrested on the House floor were an effort, unfortunately, to make themselves the victims,” Sexton said. “In effect, those actions took away the voices of the protestors, the focus on the six victims who lost their lives, and the families who lost their loved ones.”

The Republican added that the House has “always welcomed peaceful protestors to the capitol to have their voices heard on any issue” but that it cannot “allow the actions of the three members to distract us from protecting our children.”

In a statement on Monday after the vote, the House Democratic Caucus said it “stands firmly united” with the three lawmakers, adding that it has “unanimously, formally voted to oppose the baseless resolutions for expulsion & will zealously oppose them should they come up for a vote on the House floor.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Sexton and the three lawmakers for further comment.

Chase Smith contributed to this report.