A move to expel Democratic State Representatives Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Pearson brought chaos Monday night on the House floor.
Moments after Republican Representative Andrew Farmer made his motion to expel Pearson, the galleries above erupted into chants of “fascist” so loud House Speaker Cameron Sexton ordered both cleared.
During the chaos, Representative Jones recorded a physical confrontation between him and Knoxville Representative Justin Lafferty.
Jones tweeted out the video that appears to show Lafferty push the Nashville representative and grab his phone while he recorded.
Tonight as Tennessee House Republicans push forward to schedule vote on our expulsion, Speaker Sexton orders the gallery cleared as crowd chants “fascists.”
Media forced out at as well.
Then, Rep. Lafferty (R-Knox) pushes me and grabs my phone.
This is a sad day for Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/Lh08Ma5kdS
— Rep. Justin Jones (@brotherjones_) April 4, 2023
“This is a sad day for Tennessee,” wrote Representative Jones on his Twitter page. “It’s morally insane that a week after a mass shooting took six lives in our community, House Republicans only response is to expel us for standing with our constituents to call for gun control. What’s happening in Tennessee is a clear danger to democracy all across this nation.”
Representative Lafferty released a statement to media following the incident, blaming Jones for the confrontation.
“Representative Jones came to my desk and as I turned he shoved his phone in my face in a threatening manner. I reacted as anyone would. Attempts to characterize this as anything else are misleading and false. The three members who are in danger of losing their jobs are desperate to deflect attention away from their actions,” wrote Lafferty in the statement.
The move to expel the three Democratic representatives is a response to last week’s breach of chamber rules when all three participated in an impromptu demonstration on the House floor with a bullhorn. The representatives were protesting for gun reform in response to a shooting earlier that week at Covenant School.
Republican Caucus leader Representative Jeremy Faison addressed those chamber rules Monday night before the expulsion resolutions were presented.
“I want to remind us on this House floor that the reason we have rules, honoring our rules in our constitution is that if we don’t then whoever can yell the loudest, whoever can build the biggest mob—whether it’s on the right or the left or middle, that’s what rules,” said Representative Jeremy Faison. “We have 99 right here in the house to speak on behalf of the people and we follow the rules of decorum.”
Calls for expulsion have brought pushback from Democratic leaders across the state and Memphis Representative Antonio Parkinson called for the House to come together on this issue.
Representative Parkinson says everyone is hurting because of the shooting.
“I’m looking. I’m concerned. I’m looking at all of this that’s happening right here in this chamber, the activity from all of us, we’re all involved. Every one of us whether you were in the scuffle or whether you were part of creating martyrs out of other members. This is not us. This is not us. We’re bigger than this. We’re better than this,” said Representative Parkinson. “I know feelings have been hurt, temperatures are raised, emotions are high, but you know all of it, honestly, all of it stems from all of us hurting because we lost three babies and three adults in a tragedy. Everyone is hurting. All of us. And all of our people out there in the state of Tennessee are hurting. We can work through this.”
Representatives Jones, Johnson, and Pearson will have the opportunity to defend themselves at the hearing on Thursday.
