Their removal was widely criticized by leaders across the country, including President Joe Biden, who tweeted, “The expulsion of lawmakers who engaged in peaceful protest is shocking, undemocratic, and unprecedented.” Expulsions have previously been used to remove members accused of serious offenses, like soliciting a bribe or allegedly committing sexual misconduct.
Though House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who leads the GOP’s supermajority, tried to compare the lawmakers’ actions to those of the Jan. 6 rioters at the US Capitol, no protesters broke into the building, damaged any property, or were arrested. Also unlike the 2021 insurrection in Washington, DC, the demonstrators were allowed in the building after going through security screening, the Tennessean reported.
Prior to Jones’s reappointment, Doug Kufner, a spokesperson for Sexton, said in a statement provided to BuzzFeed News that whoever is appointed to the vacancies by the Nashville and Shelby County governments “will be seated as representatives as the constitution requires.”