Tennessee’s lawmakers at the state and federal level Wednesday marked the year anniversary of the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, which claimed six lives.Â
Tennessee’s House Republicans shared the following message on X.
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A bill advancing in the Tennessee House of Representatives would prohibit local governments from returning lawmakers to the General Assembly after they have been successfully expelled from office.
HB 2716 by State Representative Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) seeks to amend Tennessee law to mandate that any local government body must “elect a successor to fill a vacant seat” in the General Assembly due to a vacancy caused “due to the expulsion of a member for disorderly behavior, then the local legislative body shall not elect the expelled legislator to be the successor to fill the vacant seat.”
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A group of masked, anonymous demonstrators who waved Nazi flags at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville on Saturday are apparently part of the same Blood Tribe neo-Nazi group as Kent “Boneface” McLellan, the American neo-Nazi who gained notoriety in 2023 after he claimed to fight alongside a Ukrainian military unit that regularly uses fascist imagery and is accused of harboring neo-Nazi views.
Media reports suggest the group of individuals who were holding Nazi flags in the viral video recorded by Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) on Saturday are affiliated with the Blood Tribe, which the Anti-Defamation League explains is a “growing neo-Nazi group” that purportedly has chapters in the United States and Canada.
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A member of the Tennessee Three indicated on Friday that he may back a primary challenger against State Representative Johnny Shaw (D-Bolivar) for a seat in the Tennessee General Assembly that Democrats have held for nearly 25 years. The remarks came after Shaw refused to join other Democrats in an ineffectual vote against rules in the Tennessee House designed to prevent chaotic speeches and insults.
Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), one of the three members of the Tennessee House who faced expulsion last year, told The Tennessee Lookout on Friday that, while he respects Shaw as a “black American in this country” born in an “era in American history of legalized subjugation of black people,” he will nonetheless seek to find and support Democratic candidates who “align with the vision of a more just Tennessee” in 2024.
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Despite repeated claims that Republicans seek to silence them in the Tennessee General Assembly, the members of the “Tennessee Three” collectively spoke more than seven hours in 2023, making them three of the four most loquacious Tennessee lawmakers over the year.
The Tennessee General Assembly began its 2024 regular session on Tuesday, but Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) claimed in repeated statements outside the House chambers that Republicans are trying to silence him.
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Three of the most prominent Tennessee Democrat lawmakers who used Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s mass shooting at The Covenant School to push a left-wing gun control agenda offered no response to Monday’s revelation that Hale’s crime was motivated at least in part by anti-white racial animus.Â
State Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville), Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) and Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) did not return The Tennessee Star’s Monday comment requests seeking a reaction to the manifesto’s partial release.Â
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A State Representative who was expelled from the General Assembly for his role in a gun control riot at the Capitol Building in Nashville will host town halls in Memphis to discuss the same topic with his constituents ahead of August’s special session of the General Assembly.Â
State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) was expelled from the General Assembly in April alongside colleague State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville). Both men led a protest-turned-riot at the State Capitol in March, just after the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.Â
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The Tennessee Faith & Freedom Coalition (TNFFC) called on Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) Monday to cancel his proposed August 21 special session of the Tennessee General Assembly.
“We are writing you because you have made it clear that you are planning to use your authority to officially call an ill-advised special session of the Tennessee General Assembly on August 21st to address gun issues in the aftermath of the Covenant School shooting tragedy, a heinous and despicable act committed by a mentally ill individual who claimed to be on the transgender spectrum,” the TNFFC said in a letter sent to the governor. A copy of the letter was also sent to all members of the Tennessee General Assembly.
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Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey returned to her alma mater Saturday to deliver fiery, racially-charged commencement remarks to the graduating class of 2023.
Winfrey, who skyrocketed to fame and fortune with the success of her 90s-area television hit, The Oprah Winfrey Show, lamented to the audience that “you are the generation that is forced to depend on body cams to obtain justice;” “books are being banned, and history is being rewritten;” and that “children are being gunned down by military-grade assault rifles.”
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On the same day that State Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) were expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives, they voted, along with State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knox County), against a school safety bill that overwhelmingly passed the legislative body.
The trio and State Representative Torrey Harris (D-Memphis) were the only House legislators that voted against House Bill 0322.
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A video circulating the web appears to show that newly-reappointed State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) ran on a platform of unity among Republicans and Democrats during a bid for Bowdoin Student Government President at his alma mater Bowdoin College just a handful of years ago.Â
“How can we represent all voices in a conversation?” asked Pearson in a campaign video. “I want to do this by partnering with Democrats from the Bowdoin Democrats to the Bowdoin Republicans. I want to bring together different voices, dissenting voices. Voices that might be more liberal or more conservative, in order [so] that we can reach the point of sort of the ‘radical middle.'”Â
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After being expelled from the Tennessee State legislature last week for inciting a riot at the Capitol in Nashville, Democrat lawmaker Justin Pearson has been appointed as his own interim replacement.Â
“Keep representing us to the best of your ability, and know that you all have support from this body,” said Shelby County Commissioner Mickell Lowery before turning the floor over to Pearson for remarks.Â
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The Nashville and Davidson County Metro Council is scheduled to meet Monday evening for the purpose of voting on an interim successor to former State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville).
Jones was expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday in a 72 to 25 vote for breaking numerous rules of the House one week earlier on Thursday, March 30, the day over a thousand protestors rioted at the State Capitol and attempted to enter the chamber of the House of Representatives by force.
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In the wake of the expulsion of two Tennessee lawmakers who led a riot obstructing a lawmaking session, left-wing activists and politicians have responded with fury.Â
“After a tragic mass shooting in Tennessee, state Republican lawmakers called votes to expel three Democratic legislators who stood in solidarity with students and families. The expulsion of lawmakers who engaged in peaceful protest is shocking, undemocratic, and unprecedented,” said President Joe Biden.Â
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A left-wing news outlet labeled the expulsion of two Tennessee state lawmakers as an act of partisanship.
“Breaking news: In a historic act of partisan retaliation, the Republican-led Tennessee House voted Thursday to expel two Democratic lawmakers who halted proceedings last week to join protesters demanding gun-control legislation after a mass killing,” said The Washington Post on Twitter, linking to a news story the outlet wrote on the subject.Â
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Aaron Gulbransen, the Tennessee state director for the Faith and Freedom Coalition, in studio to give his position on the expulsion of State Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville), Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), and Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville).
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Tennessee State House members were shown a seven minute video Thursday taken on March 30 that shows State Representatives Justin Pearson, Justin Jones, and Gloria Johnson take over the Floor session in order to demand gun control. The trio face expulsion over their outburst that came in the wake of mass shooting of three children and three adults at The Coventry Presbyterian School.Â
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As Tennessee Republicans move forward with the attempted expulsion of three state representatives who led last Thursday’s riot at the State Capitol, questions linger about what will happen if those representatives are indeed expelled.
State Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville), Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), and Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) helped lead the riot, which was thwarted by the Tennessee State Troopers who guard the state capitol just before rioters could push their way out of the Capitol gallery and into the Tennessee House chamber, where state lawmakers have their offices.
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