VOA News – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is making a trip to the Southern U.S. state of Tennessee Friday, a day after Republican state lawmakers took the rare step of expelling two Democratic lawmakers from the state legislature because they participated in a protest at the State Capitol calling for more gun control.
Harris is expected to meet with state lawmakers as well as young people calling for gun reform, according to a tweet from her spokesperson, Kirsten Allen.
The vice president will also meet with the expelled lawmakers — Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson — along with a third lawmaker who avoided the ouster by one vote, according to The Associated Press.
U.S. President Joe Biden called the expulsions “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent,” in a twitter post Thursday.
The expelled lawmakers took part in a protest last week at the State Capitol calling for more gun control in the aftermath of a recent deadly school shooting in Nashville that left three adults and three 9-year-old students dead.
During the protest, the three Democrats approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn and participated in a chant, violating the legislature’s rules of decorum. However, the extreme punishment of expulsion has seldom been used in the past and only for more serious transgressions.
“We called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy,” ousted politician Jones said.
Biden also commented on Twitter: “Three kids and three officials gunned down in yet another mass shooting. And what are GOP officials focused on? Punishing lawmakers who joined thousands of peaceful protesters calling for action.”
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