Tennessee House Majority Whip Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) said the Democrats in the Tennessee General Assembly are “frustrated” and “divided” by the actions and conduct of a select few of its own members.
“What’s interesting to see is how frustrating, how divided they are over the antics of a few that want to do nothing,” Garrett explained on Thursday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy. “There are Democrats down there that are elected by their district that want to get something done…They work hard and they want to reach out.”
“Their own leadership is frustrated with what these yahoos are doing because it’s not dignified. It’s not what people expect of your representative,” Garrett added.
Leahy, noting how some Democrats – including State Representatives Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville), Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), and Justin Jones (D-Nashville) – see the General Assembly as a “performative theater,” Garrett explained how there is a “script” among radical Democrats being read “over and over and over again.”
Garrett added that “nobody is listening” to the Democrats who use the General Assembly as a performative theater, including constituents and members of the Democratic Party.
“This is a script over and over and over again, and their people are hearing this too, right? The people on the other side are hearing this too and they’re tired of it,” Garrett said. “So let them sit out there, shoot themselves in the foot. It’s what they’re constantly doing because they say nobody’s listening, but their own democratic caucus, their own democratic constituency is not listening.”
Garrett cited Democrat Justin Jones’ recent comment on the House floor comparing the General Assembly to a meeting of neo-Nazis as an example of the type of behavior being shunned by the leadership of the Democratic caucus.
Garrett said Jones insulted “7 million Tennesseans that everybody represents inside that chamber, including the folks of his own party” with his neo-Nazi comment.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Johnny Garrett” by State Representative Johnny C. Garrett.
