Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael and attorney Gino Bulso to comment on former State Representative Justin Jones’ vitriolic attack on Tennessee House members and the media’s misrepresentation of the Capitol riot.
Leahy: In studio, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael is with us as is State Representative Gino Bulso. Gino, you’re a freshman member. You represent Williamson County in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
It was a very surreal day yesterday at the Tennessee House of Representatives. Two Democrats were expelled for violating House rules, and my words, inciting a riot a week ago today. I think very clearly, they violated the House rules. They took this up.
One barely escaped, Gloria Johnson. But you were there in the chamber. It seemed surreal there. What was the sense as you listened to Justin Jones at the very beginning when he had his opportunity to give his 20 minutes?
That was the most bizarre, radical attack on the honor of the Tennessee House of Representatives I’ve ever seen from a guy who is trying to do in his annunciation, his impression of Jesse Jackson. He’s a radical anarchist in my view. I might even call him an American Bolshevik. You’re sitting there, what was that experience like for you?
Bulso: I think your description, Michael, is a good one. It was a bit surreal. I was honored to be a co-sponsor of the resolution to expel former Representative Justin Jones and to be the prime sponsor of the resolution to expel Representative Gloria Johnson.
We had two of our chairmen, chairman Andrew Farmer of our Civil Justice Committee, who was the chief sponsor of the resolution against Justin Pearson, and Bud Halsey, the chairman of our Criminal Justice Committee, who was the prime sponsor of the resolution regarding Justin Jones.
So you had two chairmen and me as a freshman being the prime co-sponsors. It was surreal because I was there with some very seasoned legislators doing what needed to be done to protect the integrity of the House of Representatives. And Resolution 63, the one regarding Justin Jones, came up first.
And obviously, you heard Michael his 20-minute diatribe to open the proceedings, and what struck me the most about it was that even though we had on videotape that he and his two colleagues effectively committed a mutiny, a hijacking of the house proceedings on March the 30th, he got up there and effectively defended his actions.
He, at no point, ever concluded that what he had done was wrong. In fact, he was asked directly whether what he did was wrongful and he defended what he had done as being an appropriate course of action.
And as you pointed out, he proceeded to describe the entire body as a dishonorable House. And during that time, I had to make comments about Justin Jones; it was appropriate to point that out.
Leahy: And I think you said, well, obviously, by your conduct here, you want us to expel you.
Bulso: Yes.
Leahy: I think that seemed to be obvious because all he did was he insulted the Tennessee General Assembly, the House of Representatives called them dishonorable, and the speaker repeatedly a liar, which is, I think in itself a violation of House of rules. But then also called virtually every Republican in the Tennessee House of Representatives a racist.
Bulso: Basically is a word you could remove. He did call everyone in the House a racist.
Leahy: It was a very vitriolic attack, a very personal vitriolic, attack. Crom, you wanted to add something here.
Carmichael: The media coverage was for the people who were thrown out. I don’t if throw out exactly the right word.
Leahy: Expelled.
Carmichael: Expelled. That’s a more appropriate word too. They were expelled for reasons, and the media essentially didn’t spend as much time on why they were expelled as supporting their speeches and saying that these speeches are relevant and what the positions they stand for are relevant. It was really quite interesting to watch the way the media portrayed the proceedings. You all have your hands full.
Bulso: We do, and I’ll confess that I really have not kept up with the media’s reports on the expulsion proceedings. (Chuckles)
Leahy: That’s a good thing because you would say, a bunch of misrepresentations of what actually happened.
Carmichael: Here’s what’s interesting. If an employee at any of those TV stations that reported on this interrupted their broadcast because they felt strongly that the station, for whatever reason, wasn’t covering a story correctly, would fire that employee as fast as they could. These two people who were expelled broke the rules just, and they were disrespectful to the body.
Just as the example that I gave in a TV studio would be, but yet they don’t hold your body to the same August standard as they hold their TV studio. They can fire somebody for being disrespectful. You cannot expel somebody for not only being disrespectful but for calling you terrible names in public.
And they say we must consider whether or not that’s true. That’s the way the media has portrayed this. So you guys really have your hands full. I have no recommendations on what to do about that because, as I said, I think right before you arrived, if somebody did, if the mayor was holding a meeting and one of the members in the meeting all of a sudden blew up and disrupted the entire meeting, and that person was a member of the mayor’s staff, the mayor would fire that person.
But the rule does not apply. The rules of decorum that I’ve just given examples of don’t apply to the state legislature according to the people who apply the rules differently within their own organizations.
Bulso: According to some, apparently, that’s the case. For me, this was not a difficult decision because you look back at our 227-year history as a state and something like this has never happened.
Leahy: Never in 227 years.
Bulso: There has never been an occasion where one, much less three representatives, took to the well without being recognized and effectively hijacked the business of the Tennessee House of Representatives. And we had representatives by all accounts, who thought their actions were appropriate and would just as likely do this again.
Leahy: But that’s a key point. And they are just as likely to do it again.
Carmichael: Yes. And the way the media portrayed it was it is about time somebody did something. That’s the way that the media was portraying it. But they wouldn’t put up with it in their own establishment.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this commentary:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Gino Bulso” by Gino Bulso. Background Photo “Tennessee Capitol Riot” by Clay Travis.
What is going to be done about this situation?
Its time for the right to unleash hell right back at the radical leftists. Not appease or “take the moral high road”. First order of business Commie Billy Lee, McNally, and Sexton need to be removed ASAP, there is no room for surrender in this battle.
Most of us including myself do not want to get involved in politics, however we MUST act now while peaceful solutions, at least on a state level, are still possible. If we fail to act right now the situation does not go away but instead will force action very soon that involves lots of blood defensively. There is no option to sit this one out and turn the other cheek, we must enter the era of Eye for an Eye.