US President Joe Biden invited three deputies in support, two of whom were expelled over protest from the Tennessee House of Representatives but later reinstated.
“You stand up for our children, you stand up for our local communities — to be safer and for democratic values,” Biden told Justin Pearson, Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson during a meeting in the Oval Office. Biden called the decision to expel them “undemocratic”, “shocking” and “unprecedented”.
Young African-American lawmakers Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were kicked out of the Tennessee state legislature for participating in a protest outside the state capitol building days after a shooting at a Nashville school that killed three nine-year-old children and three school employees.
Pearson and Jones called their expulsion “undemocratic and racist.” Lawmaker Gloria Johnson, who protested with them, was not expelled.
Republicans have a majority in the Tennessee House of Representatives. The constituencies of Jones and Pearson voted to rename them, and the exiled lawmakers returned on an interim basis.
After the meeting at the White House, the three lawmakers told reporters that they had discussed with the president the gun conservation law, a ban on assault weapons and increased vetting. antecedents.
In turn, Biden pointed out that Democrats have already succeeded in passing numerous laws to restrict the use of guns, including extensive background checks on gun buyers. But at the same time, Biden said “much remains to be done,” noting that “democracy gives no guarantees” and that “every generation must fight for it.”
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