US vice president meets ousted state lawmakers from Tennessee

WASHINGTON 

US Vice President Kamala Harris met three Democratic lawmakers Friday, one day after two, who are black, were removed from the Tennessee state House of Representatives chamber’s floor by Republican lawmakers for protesting gun violence.

“Today, I stood with parents, students, and the Tennessee Three,” Harris wrote in a tweet about the three lawmakers who faced expulsion from the chamber.

“They won’t be silenced and their demands for gun reform must be heard. In Congress and in state legislatures around our nation, leaders must have the courage to act,” she said.

During her meeting at Fisk University, Nashville, Harris praised the three lawmakers and said they chose to lead and show courage.

“And they understood the importance of standing to say the people will not be silenced, to say that a democracy hears the cries, hears the pleas,” she said.

The House expelled Justin Jones and Justin Pearson on Thursday after they participated in a gun control protest following last week’s shooting at a school in Nashville, which killed six people, including three children.

The third lawmaker, Gloria Johnson, who is white, took part in the protest but was not expelled.

President Joe Biden spoke to the three lawmakers earlier Friday and thanked them for their leadership and courage “in the face of a blatant disregard of our nation’s democratic values.

“Our country needs to take action on gun violence — to do that we need more voices like theirs speaking out,” he said.

Biden also invited them to the White House.

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