Drama surrounding the disciplining of three Democratic lawmakers after they used the House Floor to indulge in activism has taken attention away from grieving families and from finding answers for what led a disturbed woman to take the lives of three adults and three children in a recent Nashville tragedy.
In what some say was a coordinated stunt, Democrat Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville-District 52), Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville-District 90), and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis-District 86) egged on the mass of protestors that inundated the Tennessee State House of Representatives in the wake of the Covenant School shooting, with Jones utilizing a bull horn to shout along with them.
Last week, Jones and Pearson were expelled from their seats while Johnson retained hers by one vote.
Yesterday, the Nashville Metro Council voted to appoint Jones to fill the vacant seat from which he was expelled. House Rules state that no member can be expelled twice for the same violation.
Representative Susan Lynn (R-Mount Juliet-District 57) called the three “defiant and disrespectful.”
“While we are all grieving the Covenant School tragedy, they choose to raise themselves up, making themselves higher than the poor victims and their families. They used the victims to repeatedly get on the news to score political points for themselves,” said Lynn. “They should be ashamed of their actions.”
The three appeared on Good Morning America yesterday and were visited by Vice President Kamala Harris. Their plight was used as an excuse to fundraise by Knox County Democrats.
Meanwhile, despite interest and public demand, the manifesto that MNPD found among the Covenant shooter’s belongings has yet to be released.
