Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Nashville Friday afternoon to meet with the two former Tennessee Democrat state House lawmakers who were expelled on Thursday over their actions that included leading chants from the chamber, disrupting the floor session.
Harris joined a host of other Democrats in condemning the expulsion, including President Joe Biden, Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), and former President Barack Obama, who claimed that America was founded on “peaceful protest.”
“Six people, including three children, were killed last week in a school shooting in Nashville. How did Republican lawmakers in Tennessee respond? By expelling their colleagues who stood with Tennesseans and said enough is enough. This is undemocratic and dangerous,” Harris tweeted on Friday.
It is unclear if Harris will visit any of the families of the victims of the recent shooting at The Covenant School, a Christian school in Nashville, where a woman who identified as transgender murdered six people. The Daily Wire reached out to the White House for comment and attempted to reach the vice president’s media office by phone, but was told by a White House switchboard operator that the numbers for her office were not connecting.
Victims of the shooting include Evelyn Dieckhaus (9), Hallie Scruggs (9), William Kinney (9), Cynthia Peak (61), Katherine Koonce (60), and Mike Hill (61).
Harris will also use the trip as an opportunity to call for increased gun control. “While in Tennessee, the Vice President will make clear what happened in Nashville, continue to call on Congress to renew the assault weapons ban, and ensure that in Tennessee and across the nation, the voices of our young people are heard,” one White House Official told Fox News.
On Thursday afternoon, Nashville Democrat Rep. Justin Jones was expelled from the House in a vote of 72-25 and Memphis Democrat Justin Pearson was expelled in a vote of 69-26. During debate on his expulsion, Jones admitted to sneaking a bullhorn into the chamber under his coat, after which he led chants with people sitting in the balcony.
A third Democrat, Knoxville Rep. Gloria Johnson, escaped expulsion by one vote. Throughout the day of the expulsion votes, leftist protesters, mainly younger people and women, chanted and screamed from outside the chamber, including things like “F*** you fascists.”
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Biden called the expulsion “shocking, undemocratic, and unprecedented” while J.B. Pritzker suggested racism was to blame.
Republican Majority Leader William Lamberth told The Daily Wire on Tuesday that the disruption from the Democratic lawmakers was unprecedented. “It’s never been that three state representatives attempted to incite a riot in the middle of the House floor. It’s dangerous, it’s inappropriate, and it silences the other 96 members,” he said.