April 7 (UPI) — In a surprise trip to Nashville on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris met with the two Democratic state representatives who were expelled from Tennessee’s legislature for protesting gun violence on the House floor.
The vice president met with the two and other Democratic Tennessee state caucus lawmakers at Fisk University, a private historically black liberal arts college.
According to a report by The Tennessean, Harris met privately with both expelled lawmakers and with Rep. Gloria Johnson, the white lawmaker who had joined the pair in protesting gun violence on the House floor and who narrowly escaped being expelled from office herself. The three lawmakers have come to be known as the “Tennessee Three.”
Afterward, in a closed-door meeting, Harris meet with Tennessee Democratic lawmakers, too.
The report also said President Joe Biden spoke to Jones, Pearson and Johnson via conference call and invited all three to the White House at a later date.
The lawmakers’ protest came in the wake of a school shooting that left six people dead in Nashville in March.
Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson chanted “no action no peace,” on the House floor, prompting the legislative body to vote to expel them on the premise that they “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives.”
Jones and Pearson, who are both Black, were expelled by a House vote Thursday. In contrast, Johnson, who took part in the protest and is white, was not expelled in the 65-30 vote against her on Thursday, which was one vote shy of the measure’s passage, allowing her to keep her seat in the House.
Earlier Friday, the vice president spoke out on the topic on social media.
“Six people, including three children, were killed last week in school shooting in Nashville. How did Republican lawmakers in Tennessee respond? By expelling their colleagues who stood with Tennesseans and said enough is enough. This is undemocratic and dangerous” Harris tweeted.
President Joe Biden also condemned the move from Tennessee lawmakers in a statement Thursday.
The “expulsion of lawmakers who engaged in peaceful protest is shocking, undemocratic and without precedent,” the president said Thursday.