Two Tennessee Democratic state lawmakers may have been kicked out of their statehouse, but they have an invitation to the White House.
President Joe Biden spoke to former Tennessee state Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis on Friday afternoon, one day after their state’s House Republican supermajority voted to expel them from the legislature, according to the White House. State Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville — who survived the vote, held after the trio disrupted their chamber’s proceedings with their megaphone protest for gun control — was also on the conference call.
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“The president thanked them for their leadership in seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for our democratic values,” a White House spokesperson said. “The officials thanked the president for his leadership on gun safety and for spotlighting the undemocratic and unprecedented attacks on them this week in the Tennessee statehouse.”
“The president invited the three leaders to the White House in the near future,” the spokesperson added.
Vice President Kamala Harris made an impromptu trip to Nashville on Friday to meet with the lawmakers two weeks after a 28-year-old transgender former student killed three children and three adults at the Covenant School, a private Christian school in Tennessee’s capital.
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After her private discussion with the politicians at Fisk University, Harris rallied Tennessee’s Democratic caucus as well, according to her press secretary, Kirsten Allen.
Jones was expelled in a resolution that passed 72-25, while Pearson was expelled with a 69-26 vote. Johnson’s resolution did not pass by one vote.
