Rev. Al Sharpton slammed Republican lawmakers in Tennessee after they voted to expel two Black Democratic legislators on Thursday who joined a protest on the House floor last week – while permitting a white colleague who partook in the same protest to stay.
Democratic Reps. Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson and Justin Pearson led a chant of “power to the people” after a group of protesters gathered at the state capitol on March 30 calling for gun control legislation in response to a deadly school shooting in Nashville that killed six people, including three children.
The GOP supermajority, which accused Jones, Johnson and Pearson of breaking House rules on conduct and decorum, voted 72-75 to expel Jones and 69-26 to expel Pearson, who are both Black. But the resolution to expel Johnson, who is white, failed by one vote, with the final tally coming in at 65 to 30.
The split votes sparked accusations of racism, but Republican leadership has denied that race played a factor.
Sharpton argued during a Friday appearance on “Morning Joe” that the decision to remove Jones and Pearson says that “many of those that are bigots and have become racist have lost their shame and they feel emboldened.”
“Some of it I think was symbolized by Donald Trump. I think he didn’t create it, but he certainly gave it a sense of ‘let’s come on out and say and do what we want,’” Sharpton said. “And I think that what it will do will cause an uprising of Blacks and Whites to really fight back because they’re so caustic.”
Sharpton warned that “this kind of blatant racism” is going to backfire on the GOP.
“Let’s not forget right there in Tennessee we’re not only dealing with the energy from them dealing with this gun legislation, we’re still dealing with the whole Tyre Nichols case of a man beat to death on tape in the same state,” he added. “This is going to energize voters across racial lines and generations because people are seeing things that are being blatant and then seeing a legislature that’s trying to go back to the 1940s.”
According to a report by the state attorney general, the Tennessee House of Representatives has only used its power to expel three times in its 157-year history: six members were expelled in 1866 “for the contempt of the authority of this House,” a member was expelled in 1980 for seeking a bribe in exchange for tanking a piece of legislation, and a representative was expelled in 2016 amid state and federal investigations of sexual misconduct. Under the Tennessee Constitution, lawmakers cannot be expelled for the same offense twice.
County commissions in each of the expelled lawmakers’ districts will choose replacements to serve until a special election can be held, according to the Associated Press. The commissions could choose Jones and Pearson, letting them return to the Capitol. The expelled lawmakers also would be eligible to run in the special elections to fill the seats.
At a rally following their expulsion, Pearson and Jones said they would continue to advocate for gun control measures and urged protestors to return to the Capitol on Monday.
“They thought they won today, but they don’t realize what they started,” Jones said. “They started a movement they can’t stop.”
Watch the “Morning Joe” clip with Sharpton in the video above.
