By Maegan Vazquez, Kevin Liptak and Nikki Carvajal | CNN
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with three Democratic Tennessee lawmakers at the White House on Monday, after the trio faced expulsion votes over their act of protest advocating for gun control.
In the Oval Office, Biden told the Tennessee lawmakers, “If you stand up for kids, you’re standing up our communities and democratic values.”
The three Democrats — Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson — were each subject to an ouster vote by Tennessee Republican lawmakers earlier this month over their protest on the state House floor to advocate for gun control, where they used a bullhorn to address those in the room. The lawmakers’ act of protest and rare expulsions from the body’s Republican supermajority came days after a mass shooting at a Nashville Christian school that left six people dead, including three 9-year-old students.
Following the White House meeting, the lawmakers told reporters they discussed red flag laws, safe storage laws, an assault weapons ban and strengthening background checks during their time with the president.
Pearson said the meeting focused on “the need to have more gun violence prevention” at the federal and state levels.
In a resolution, state Republicans had accused the trio of “knowingly and intentionally” bringing “disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives” without being recognized to speak, CNN affiliate WSMV reported earlier this month.
Jones and Pearson, who are Black, were forced out of the GOP-controlled legislature. Johnson, who is White, was not expelled. The expelled representatives called the expulsions undemocratic and racist.
Jones and Pearson were each sent back to the Tennessee House on an interim basis after local boards in their constituencies voted to reappoint them.
Biden on Monday called the Republican legislature’s actions “shocking,” “undemocratic” and “without any…
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