By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden met three Tennessee lawmakers at the White House on Monday after they faced expulsion for participating in gun control protests at their statehouse, calling the decision to remove two of them “shocking” and “undemocratic.”
“You’re standing up for our kids, you’re standing up for our communities,” Biden told state Representatives Justin Pearson, Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson during an Oval Office meeting.
Jones and Pearson – two young Black legislators – were expelled earlier this month but were later returned to office by their localities. Johnson, who is white, narrowly survived an expulsion vote.
The Republicans who control the Tennessee legislature called for their expulsion because they disrupted House proceedings.
The three lawmakers, also known as the “Tennessee three,” joined children, parents and others protesting at the state Capitol days after a Nashville school shooting killed three 9-year-old children and three school staff members.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week that Biden appreciated the three state representatives calling for stronger gun restrictions, particularly a ban on so-called assault weapons – an issue the president has continued to push for.
Vice President Kamala Harris also attended the meeting with Biden. Harris traveled to Nashville to meet the three lawmakers earlier this month and echoed their calls for change.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
