That could
be offered
either way to make this not go down.
And when I was talking
to the Democratic leaders,
they said they thought
this was already figured out
before they entered the floor today.
So they really felt
at this point that it was
it was going to be over.
You can hear the good people yelling
and the by line
with listening
to what's happening on the right.
So let's take a listen
That's out of order.
Out of order.
Resident Representative Farmer,
you are recognized in the well.
Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
I moved off of House Resolution 63
to farmers
announcing the House
resolution 63 brought me seconded
Chairman Farm.
We are one state.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I requested the clerk read the resolution
about Mr.
13 to the resolution.
House Resolution Six The
Dream of Chairman former resolutions bill
just in to be seen
as a member of the House
representing 131 entities selected by
Rio Grande as Article 36
and 12 anticipates
that each House may determine
the rules of its proceedings,
punish its members
for disorderly behavior,
and with concurrence of two thirds,
expel a member, but not a second time
for the same offense,
and shall have all the powers necessary
for branch of the legislature
of a free state.
And.
Whereas, all members
of the House of Representatives
must comply
with the permanent rules
of Order of the Tennessee
House of Representatives
for the General Assembly. All right.
We are seeing Maria
Johnson there
getting hugs on the floor
of the Tennessee State House.
Brian Young, I want to go back to you.
Do you have a sense
of what just happened there?
It seems that
they are celebrating,
let's say, on March 30th,
so the crowd is celebrating.
And tell me why
we believe that Gloria
made it by one vote.
Since we get to this
or what we understand
is it takes two thirds.
We have a 99 member house.
It takes 66 votes to expel.
I'm a little confused about that voting
and whether it's
66 of the whole House
or two thirds of what's present.
But right now
it looks like Gloria survived
that is feel that the size.
That's huge.
I mean it sucks
that they took out Justin
and they may take out
Justin Pierson later,
but for them to not have a clean
sweep is big for us.
We're going to listen to Gloria Johnson,
who has just left the floor.
Let's take Elizabeth to keep this up.
We saw what that body looks like
when there are cameras in there,
when there's national news saying
what's going on in Tennessee
When they didn't
stifle our voices at all today.
But this is the first time
that that's ever happened.
And we did what we needed to do
And I
can't I can't feel good too good,
because my colleague Justin Jones,
who was an amazing
human being,
who cares so deeply about his community.
So I hope every one of you
will do
everything you can
to help make sure he comes back here.
We want
so it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
Where are you from?
Doesn't matter where you're from.
Knoxville, Nashville, whatever.
You can always help.
There'll be special elections.
There'll be appointments.
No matter where you are.
Help! Help! Help!
And register to vote. Right.
There will be no action.
No peace. That's right.
And what that means is, until you act,
we will show up
and stand up and speak out.
And that's what you all are doing.
And don't doubt for a second
that the reason they're
talking about gun legislation right now
is because you are here today.
You are here yesterday,
you are here Monday,
and you'll be back here again.
Keep showing up, standing up
and speaking out,
and we will be with you.
All right.
Representative Gloria
Johnson there of Knoxville,
speaking with supporters and activists
at the Tennessee State House
after just narrowly
surviving her expulsion vote
by, we understand, one vote
calling on those activists to keep coming
and keep protesting
keep showing up
and asking them to try to help.
Let's go back to Ryan Young,
who's speaking
with Representative Johnson.
But at least they tried to allow debate
that is more debate than we have
ever had in the last four years.
So just no, keep watching.
But to the nation, keep watching.
We are losing our democracy.
We need to make sure
that we stamp out this march to fascism.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
And we cannot forget that.
Eyes on everything, folks.
Should America
be worried about what
we've seen here today?
America should absolutely be worried
about what we've seen here today.
They have expelled one member.
I need to get in there and
stand with my colleague.
Yes.
And we're going to fight
hard to get him back.
Why do you feel like
there's a difference in the U.
I will answer your question.
I might have to do
with the color of our skin.
If this doesn't look like he's done
with me,
Yeah.
Just so this is happening
now that you representatives
hugging each other
in front of this crowd of enthused people
so you can see the two members together.
One was expelled
and one was narrowly kept in
All right, Ryan Young, stay with us.
We've also got Representative
Karen Camper
back on the line of Representative.
If you're there, could you
What do you think of the fact
that Gloria Johnson
has just narrowly survived
this expulsion vote?
She's she just made the point
that it could be
about the color of our skin.
She is white.
And as you can see there,
Justin Jones,
the representative who was expelled
earlier, is black.
How much is that playing into this?
Hi.
Thank you so much.
Sorry I had to jump off the air,
but I could miss that vote.
I did hear her comments.
I feel that she made
a very compelling argument.
I think she
reached the consciousness of people.
And I would hope that
that is not a true statement.
I hope that we are honored to
rely on the fact that you made
a compelling argument
and that compared to,
you know, she reached their consciousness
as some of them had
the courage to break ranks
and do what they knew was
no was the right thing.
We watched what just happened there.
What emotions are running through you
right now?
Because obviously this is played out
across the country.
Everyone's focused on this
Are you broken at all
or do you feel
sorry about what's happened?
I'm not I'm not broken.
You know, I stood firm in that well,
because we need to let the nation
know that what's happening in
Tennessee is a danger to the nation.
What we saw today was authoritarianism.
What we saw
today was the undoing
of the will of my voters,
of my constituents,
of 78,000 people
my district, where silence is still
one of the most diverse districts.
I'm the youngest black lawmaker in this.
I was the youngest
black lawmaker in this body.
And so what we're seeing
is a very dangerous step in Tennessee.
That should signal to the nation
that this is
if it can happen
here, can happen anywhere.
So, Gloria Johnson, look at you.
It's a moment that we all watched
with her hugging you
as she remarked about the idea
that maybe it's the color of your skin,
the reason why you're out.
She's still in.
And I see a lot of people
who don't look like you
shaking your hand.
What was that
moment like to have her reflect
maybe on your race being the reason
why you're no longer in that house?
I mean, is that Representative Johnson?
Sister
Gloria has always stood with us
and knows
that we have been challenging
systemic racism.
We have a KKK statue in the Capitol.
She stood with us when I was a
community organizer.
And so, I mean,
you cannot deny what you heard today
were my colleagues telling me that I'm
a uppity, basically
uppity Negro and that,
you know, I didn't bow down
and I won't bow down
because what what
this is too important
for the next generation.
And so what they're doing today
is simply devastating to the world
that we don't have the moxie
in Tennessee, that this system
that there is
there is a system of systemic racism
that governed Tennessee.
And Cameron Sexton,
the speaker of the House,
should be ashamed of himself.
I can't leave here
without asking you this,
because the reason why you went out
there was because
babies lost their lives.
So what should people know
about the fact
that you have a new about gun violence
and what you want to see changed?
I mean, from the time
Trayvon Martin was killed in 2013
you know protesting in 2013.
I've been fighting to address
a for common sense gun laws
and so
I mean that's what brought us to the well
with those nine lives
lost including three
those six lives lost
including 39 year olds.
And that's what I was
think about when I went to the
well the thousands of young people here
who are saying
we are scared for our lives
for our future
who begged this body to act.
That's why I stood up there in the well
and I will continue.
I will do it again
and I'll continue to stand for them
because this is an issue of life
or death.
We need to remove these weapons of war
from our community
and we need to make sure
that our schools are zones
that our children can flourish,
not just survive,
but thrive and flourish.
That's what I'm fighting for.
And so I would
I would stand that well again.
I would fight for
no titles worth the future.
I want my kids to live in
what is a safety
from from this proliferation
of militarized guns in our community.
When you
try to get your seat back,
you plan
to fight to be back in this same house.
I mean, what they did
is unconstitutional, I believe.
So we'll fight legally.
But but you know what?
They did today was not try and expel me.
They're trying to expel our movement.
And that's they're unsuccessful.
If you look around at all
these young people
and so whether I'm inside the chamber,
outside the chamber,
we will continue to fight.
We'll continue to push the issue
because today demonstrated for the nation
that we in Tennessee are not a democracy.
And that should scare us all.
If you were talking to a Republican
who may not agree
with everything that you're saying,
you know, people,
especially in the South. Love of guns.
Is there anything
that you can say to them
that you would want to change, that
you could see that
maybe both sides
could come to some sort of agreement?
I think,
I mean,
the majority of Americans
support common sense gun laws,
universal background
checks, red flag laws.
I mean, these are commonsense
things that we need.
We can act for
But there's this extreme group,
an extreme faction
who is beholden to the NRA,
like my colleagues in here,
like the speaker of the House,
Cameron Sexton.
And so what we need to hold them
accountable to is to say,
let's do the will of all the people
and not of these special interest groups
who are
who don't have the
interest of our children.
My child's
life is not going to be worth a gun.
And so that's what we need to say.
And that's what I hope
my colleagues
on its side of the aisle see.
Thank you for taking the time.
Thank you for stepping out
and talking to us. I appreciate it.
Thank you.