Last week, Republican lawmakers in the state legislature
in Tennessee voted to expel two out of three Democratic
lawmakers who took part in a protest calling for gun control.
Now, it's understandable why they would do this.
This followed the mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.
And so the two lawmakers who ended up getting expelled were Justin Jones and
Justin Pearson, unsurprisingly two black lawmakers in the state of Tennessee.
The one Democrat who did not get expelled was a white woman so
there's a racial component to it.
But there is an update to the story that I think is pretty fantastic.
So the Nashville Council has voted overwhelmingly to reappoint
Justin Jones to the state legislature.
And as the story develops and as we learn more about
what Justin Pearson's fate will be we will of course fill you in.
But let's do a little refresher and fill in the blanks, okay?
So after this vote happened and these two Democratic lawmakers were expelled,
essentially having the state legislature go against the will of the people.
The voters in these districts who voted in these lawmakers.
A Tennessee RNC member by the name of Oscar Brock spoke out and
was like, what are you guys doing?
This is a really bad idea and
it's not because he's worried about the anti-Democratic component of it.
He's worried about the Republican brand.
>> Yes. Okay, so he says quote,
if my job along with other members of the RNC is to protect the brand of
the Republican Party, this didn't help.
You've energized young voters against us.
Worse than squandering support, you've made enemies where we didn't need them.
He continues to say,
even in Tennessee we have swing districts in the State House and Senate.
And if you've angered tens of thousands of students and presumably their parents,
you could theoretically expose yourself to a united front.
And I think his take there is accurate, I think what the Republicans did in
the state of Tennessee was disgusting and absolutely undemocratic.
But Jake, what are your thoughts?
>> Yeah, look, there's a couple of smart Republican politicians and
consultants in the country.
Not a lot but a couple and they're beginning to panic.
So what's the panic about?
The panic is about younger voters.
So you heard him mention in there, you're alienating all the year.
Tennessee is a 75 out of the 99 seats are Republican.
It's not even close but that guy is still sweating, why is he sweating?
Okay, let me show you Scott Walker's comment.
This is the last graphic.
So Scott Walker was of course a former governor of Wisconsin.
They just recently had an election for the Supreme Court but
they had an election before that too.
And this is what he said recently.
To me the larger issue here is we've seen it in Wisconsin but
across the country is younger voters.
In Wisconsin last fall, we saw about 40-point margin that younger voters gave
to the Democrats running for the senate and governor.
>> Wow, that's amazing.
>> So look guys,
the chapter six in my book this is the main point that I'm making.
You have no idea how progressive younger voters are.
You've certainly heard me say it 20 times.
But the reason why you have trouble believing it is
because the mainstream media keeps that information from you religiously.
They don't want you to find out there's a tsunami of progressives coming.
So the guys who are most worried about is Frank Luntz, the top Republican pollster.
Back in 2016 he did a poll and he rips his hair out.
He's like, but he wears a toothpaste so that's easier.
But anyway, he's like, no, we're losing them by gigantic margins.
Noam Chomsky says the same thing.
Now, here's Republicans panicking, Scott Walker this guy in Tennessee going,
you guys don't get it.
We're all gonna lose, God damn right you are.
Young people, throw all the bums out, throw them out.
And by the way while you're at it, make sure you throw out Democratic incumbents
too cuz 9 out of 10 times they never do what they're saying either.
Get young guys like Justin and Justin here both in their 20s and
look at it, they fought for you, right?
And that's why you're in this situation.
Get young people progressives that are willing to fight for you.
>> Now, as I mentioned earlier,
Justin Jones has been reappointed thanks to the Nashville Council.
The Memphis Council will make a decision about Justin Pearson but apparently
Republican lawmakers in the state of Tennessee are not apologetic at all.
In fact, they are making threats and they are doubling down and
in the next video you'll understand exactly what I'm referring to.
So representatives Justin Pearson also spoke about the effort to basically
keep him out during an NBC interview, let's watch.
>> So you may get reappointed.
Will you accept the appointment?
And do you plan on running in the special election?
>> Yes, I would be honored to accept the appointment
of the Shelby County Commission and to run in a special election.
And I've already heard that people in the state legislature and in Nashville
are actually threatening our Shelby County Commissioners to not reappoint me.
Or they're gonna take away funding that's in the governor's budget for
projects that the mayor and others have asked for.
And this is what folks really have to realize, the power structure in the state
of Tennessee is always wielding against the minority party and people.
>> So understand that Republicans are threatening to strip these districts of
incredibly important funding that pays for schools, that pays for
services in these districts.
If these two men end up getting reappointed.
>> Yeah, look, Republicans don't believe in democracy.
Do we really have to go over that again?
We saw January 6th.
In this case, one of the representatives made a great speech.
We probably covered it last week when I wasn't here where he said, so
one of the representatives in Tennessee urinated on another representative's seat.
>> What?
>> Yeah, another one was a child molester.
There's they didn't get expelled.
Neither one of them got expelled.
Two of them are under federal investigation not expelled.
These guys they said, well, they joined protesters for
a minute and they loudly thumped on their desk, expelled.
You're not allowed to be a state representative anymore.
It's insanity, come on.
>> No, no, let's actually describe what they did.
For a little less than an hour they were on the house floor with bullhorns with
other protesters demanding that something be done in response to gun violence,
common sense, gun reform.
I don't give you those specific details to say like they deserve to be expelled.
I give you those specific details because that protest was needed.
>> And it was peaceful.
They didn't break into anything,
they didn't threaten to murder anyone unlike the right wingers.
>> The Republican politicians are calling this a Democrat insurrection.
>> How is it an insurrection to do a protest?
No, but that's the thing.
Look, right wingers man, they can't make distinctions.
A protest is a wonderful thing.
And I've said this about January 6th, the people that did not enter the building,
they didn't do anything wrong.
They went to a speech and a protest, that's totally fine and totally American.
The people who said they were gonna come out and support Trump and protest,
nothing wrong with that.
It's only when you do the violence is it a problem.
And by the way, it's also a problem the left wing does violence when you throw
the bricks to the windows and something that's stupid.
It doesn't make any sense.
But this was a perfectly peaceful protest.
It's the most American thing you could do.
And so that's like, yeah, how dare you defy us?
Get these two young black men out of here, okay?
You're banned now.
The old South is back.
Well, younger voters don't agree so go ahead.
See how it turns out for you.