When two Democrat lawmakers joined a mob of left-wing insurrectionists who took over the Tennessee Capitol last week, they were rightfully expelled from the state’s general assembly.
Nashville Rep. Justin Jones and Memphis Rep. Justin Pearson violated the Tennessee General Assembly’s decorum requirements when they held up a protest sign and shouted into a bullhorn, encouraging left-wing rioters who were illegally disrupting legislative proceedings last week.
Eventually, the noise coming from Jones, Pearson, and insurrectionists grew so raucous members of the General Assembly were forced to exit the chamber and suspend legislative business.
Democrats have responded to the insurrection instigators’ rightful expulsions in hysterics, claiming the assembly’s decision to expel Johnson and Pearson was undemocratic and racist. Some even claimed the expulsion signals that Tennessee is less free than North Korea.
Leftists claim Jones and Pearson were expelled simply because they are black, given that Gloria Johnson, another representative who is white, stood next to the two men during the Tennessee insurrection but was not expelled.
“I feel like North Korea has more democracy than we do in the state of Tennessee, and it’s terrifying to me that we’re in this march to fascism,” said Johnson, who later credited her continued standing position in the assembly to the fact that she’s a “60-year-old white woman.”
However, Johnson’s own lawyer separated her from Jones and Pearson, pointing out Johnson did not shout, let alone scream into a bullhorn during the Tennessee insurrection. Instead, Johnson stood silently next to the other two men. Johnson survived the expulsion by only one vote but was stripped of her committee assignments.
Ironically, the only example of real racism came from Jones, who described his former colleague, Rep. Sabi “Doc” Kumar, as “a brown face” because Kumar is an Indian immigrant who happens to be Republican. This week, while pretending racism was the cause of his expulsion, Jones found time to double down on this bigotry, saying Kumar is only a Republican because he’s “confused.”
President Joe Biden characterized the Tennessee insurrection as “peaceful” and described Jones and Pearson’s expulsion as “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.” Former President Barack Obama issued a similar statement on Twitter. To be clear, a mob of insurrectionists halting Tennessee’s legislative process with the aid of assemblymembers is actually undemocratic, as was the politicians’ decisions to egg them on. Jones and Pearson are simply facing the consequences of subverting American democracy.
Further, Democrats, notably Biden and Obama, have spent the last decade targeting their political opponents and eroding democratic norms and standards in the process. Obama’s Internal Revenue Service infamously targeted conservative organizations, and his administration spied on the Trump campaign under knowingly false pretenses.
Under Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ), Jan. 6 demonstrators, many of whom were truly peaceful, were thrown in jail for two years without due process and slandered by a months-long Congressional show trial that maliciously hid exculpatory surveillance footage from the public and the defendants’ lawyers.
Despite the similarities between what happened on Jan. 6, 2020, and March 30, 2023, Biden, Obama, and the rest of the Democrats, insist the Tennessee insurrection was peaceful, but Jan. 6 was an affront to democracy and a national tragedy akin to Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and the Civil War.
Moreover, the same Democrats who are describing the expulsions as unprecedented and undemocratic called for the expulsions of U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley for objecting to the certification of the 2020 election after Democrats rigged the outcome.
Jones, Johnson, and Pearson are not victims. They instigated an insurrection at the Tennessee State Capitol and have been justifiably punished for their bad behavior. The real victims are the six Christians who were murdered by a transgender shooter, whose deaths are now being used by Democrats for political gain.
Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to travel to Tennessee to visit with Jones, Johnson, and Pearson, but not the families of the six slain Christians. Harris plans to further discuss restrictions on Americans’ Second Amendment rights but not the mental health crisis instigating the barbaric actions of the transgender shooter, whose gender dysphoria leftists have falsely labeled normal and brave.
Democrats haven’t just exploited the Christian victims, they’ve disrespected their memories by claiming the transgender murderer is a fellow “victim” of the shooting. Last week, the Tennessee insurrectionists held up seven fingers for the supposed “seven victims” in the shooting, referring to the killer as “victim.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press conference after the shooting that “our hearts go out to … the trans community” who is “under attack right now,” instead of the murdered Christians. Further, Biden’s Department of Justice does not plan to investigate the shooting as a hate crime despite Nashville law enforcement suggesting the killer specifically targeted her victims and that the attack was linked to the killer’s transgender identity.
Jones and Pearson seized on a national tragedy and exploited it for political fame. They are not martyrs or heroes. They are morally bankrupt former members of the Tennessee General Assembly who have been rightfully removed from positions they do not deserve to hold.
Evita Duffy-Alfonso is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, and her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com.
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