NASHVILLE — Tennessee's Republican-controlled House is expected to take up resolutions Thursday to expel three Democratic lawmakers for "disorderly behavior."
The trio led a gun policy protest last week from the chamber floor with hundreds of students, parents and others in the gallery chanting in protest of GOP pro-gun policies and demands for change following a mass shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville in which three children and three school staffers were killed.
The rarely invoked procedure was last used in 2016 when most Republicans and Democrats joined together to oust then-Rep. Jeremy Durham, a Franklin Republican, on a 70-2 vote over allegations he had sexually harassed at least 22 women, including sending unwelcome suggestive texts.
Three resolutions introduced by Republicans on Monday seek to expel Democrats Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis. They have become known on social media as the Tennessee Three.
Their removal from office would require a two-thirds vote — 66 of the 99-member House. Republicans have 75 members.
House Republican Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and many other Republicans were incensed after Johnson, Jones and Pearson marched to the House well last week and used a bullhorn to lead people in the House gallery in protests. Sexton in a later interview with a conservative talk radio host likened it to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol by rioters.
Chattanooga-area Republicans said they either outright support the three lawmakers being expelled or indicated they were leaning toward voting for the expulsion resolutions.
"I plan on voting yes, because of what happened on the House floor, that's completely the reason," Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes, R-East Ridge, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press during a hallway interview in the Cordell Hull Building. "Not because of protesters being in the gallery or being in the Capitol, but because of what (Johnson, Jones and Pearson) were trying to accomplish. I think they were trying to incite some anger in people."
She said she thinks that merits removal.
"I think so," she said. "They disrupted our whole session. They know they're not supposed to do that. They've been warned about that many times in committees. I felt unsafe, truthfully I did. And I still do."
Please click here to upgrade to a newer browser.
Helton-Haynes said she isn't going as far as likening it to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"But I think it could have ended up that way, possibly," Helton-Haynes added.
Rep. Greg Vital, R-Harrison, said outside a committee room Wednesday that he was undecided on removing the three Democrats.
"I was personally afraid on the floor for a few moments because of the unraveling of the situation, and I saw something spiraling, just like if you were in a serious car accident," he said. "You know something's getting worse, but you have no control over it. I just observed. I just was flabbergasted to take it all in and didn't know where it was going to go.
"I haven't been swayed either way," Vital said of punishing Johnson, Jones and Pearson, noting he will listen to Thursday's debate in which the three Democrats will be allowed to speak in their defense. "There is appropriate behavior, and people need to remember the appropriateness of where they are and how they conduct themselves and how they get things done."
'OVER REACTION'
Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, said the three Democrats' move to the well last week and leading a protest took him by surprise.
"I can see where the majority wants to respond to that," Hakeem said in an office interview. "But I think it was overreaction on the part of the majority to want to expel these members. And I think both sides of the persons involved in that lost sight of the central issue — which is the deaths that took place at Covenant School and the trauma it has created for a lot of our children."
Citizens need to be "encouraged" to voice their interest and concerns to the legislature, Hakeem said.
"And I feel that was done," he said. "The vast majority of those present last Monday expressed themselves without any incident."
The Chattanooga lawmaker said he hopes that on Thursday "calmer heads will be in the majority of us in the legislature. I think we have to look at some sanctions to my colleagues, but I think expulsion only exacerbates the concerns that we have now. It takes away from the central issue."
Hakeem said if there had been a response to the shootings beyond prayers and expressions of sympathy, such as "real discussions on gun safety and gun laws," he questions whether the three Democrats would have taken the actions they did.
Rep. Dan Howell, R-Cleveland, said he was in full support of the vote to put the expulsion resolutions on Thursday's calendar.
"I think their actions were deplorable," Howell said in a hallway interview, adding that Johnson, Jones and Pearson disrupted the chamber's proceedings.
"This was not a disagreement on policy. This was an outright disruption, a violation of the House rules and even members of their party, anonymously, told me they're embarrassed by it all as we all should be," Howell said. "So, it reminds me of children who have never been told no in their lives. And they just pitched a fit. And so we have to have order, and I intend to support leadership's position to restore order to the House of Representatives.
"It doesn't matter to me which side of the aisle is doing it. If somebody in my party did what they did, I would want them to be chastised too. We still have rules."
Prior to Durham, the last House member to be expelled was Rep. Robert Fisher, R-Elizabethton, who was kicked out of the House in 1980 after being convicted of soliciting a $1,000 bribe in exchange for trying to squash pending legislation. The House voted 92-1 to oust Fisher. Before the vote, a select committee heard testimony in the Fisher case and voted unanimously for his removal.
Further back, six lawmakers were expelled during Reconstruction.
One of them was a Chattanooga representative, James R. Hood, a co-editor of the Chattanooga Gazette who was elected as a "pro-unionist." At issue was Hood's effort to thwart proceedings.
According to the Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly, Hood had "on several occasions insulted this Body by taking up his hat and cane and leaving the House in order to reduce its numbers below a quorum and when sent after and brought back by order of this House refused to answer to his time with utter disrespect of this body."
His seat was declared vacant. The Memphis Daily Post made its opinion known at the time.
"We are glad to learn that the renegade Hood has been expelled from the legislature," the newspaper wrote. "He was elected as a Republican Union man, after having lustily proclaimed, for months, his devotion to the government and his hatred for traitors."
"Hardly had he got warm in his seat before he manifested his treason to the party which elected him, and from thenceforth he did all in his power to thwart its measures, even to the insulting conduct which caused his expulsion."
GUN PROPOSALS
Nashville police have identified the shooter at The Covenant School in Nashville as a 28-year-old who had been a student at the school. The shooter had been under treatment for mental health issues, police have said.
Democrats told reporters at a Wednesday afternoon news conference that they still hope to press gun safety measures such as an extreme-risk protection order bill, commonly known as a "red flag" law, that would allow a family member or police to seek a judicial order barring the person from having firearms. They also are advocating for more requirements that people with guns in their vehicles have them locked securely. The measure also applies to boats.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee announced earlier this week that he planned to add $140 million to the state's pending budget bill to pay for school resource officers in all public schools and to aid private schools interested in having them.
Asked whether he would consider red flag legislation, Lee would only say he was willing to consider various proposals brought by legislators.
Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, the Republican Senate speaker from Oak Ridge, has said lawmakers might consider that. But the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, said last week following the shooting that no more gun bills would be considered until next year.
On Tuesday, Gardenhire moved all remaining gun bills, including gun-carry expansion measures, to 2024.
Sens. Jeff Yarbro and Heidi Campbell, both Nasvhille Democrats, urged the measures be considered this year at a news conference with other Democrats.
"I haven't talked to Lt. Gov. McNally about reopening that committee, but I have seen him say that committees can be reopened; that was the comment he made yesterday in public, and I certainly have had conversations with the lieutenant governor and others about extreme risk protection order," Yarbro later told the Times Free Press. "And I think there are at least some members of the Republican leadership who are interested in either safe storage legislation or in extreme risk legislation. And as long as there is a glimmer of life, we're going to do whatever we can to turn it into a window of opportunity."
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-285-9480.