Biden condemns Tennessee Republicans for ‘shocking’ move to expel Democrats who joined Nashville gun protest

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President Joe Biden condemned Tennessee Republicans on Thursday for pushing to remove three Democratic lawmakers who participated in a gun violence protest on the statehouse floor last week following the recent Nashville mass shooting that killed six people at an elementary school.

“Three kids and three officials gunned down in yet another mass shooting. And what are GOP officials focused on? Punishing lawmakers who joined thousands of peaceful protesters calling for action,” the president wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “It’s shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.”

The Tennessee house voted on Thursday to expel one of the three lawmakers who joined the protest, Rep Justin Jones of Nashville, while declining to expel another, Rep Gloria Johnson.

Legislators were then considering the fate of the final member of the floor protest, Rep Justin Pearson.

Mr Biden, who as a senator helped pass a sweeping assault weapons ban, has continued to call for national action on reducing gun violence after the Nashville shooting.

“I have gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns,” said Mr Biden last month, who added that the legislative branch “needs to act” if the US is to have any new laws governing the availability of firearms, particularly the military-style rifles that have become the weapon of choice for mass shooters in recent years.

“The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre. It’s a crazy idea. They’re against that. And so, I think the Congress should be passing the assault weapons ban,” he added.

So far, however, Congress has either ignored or been unable to pass legislation responding to his nearly 70 public calls for more gun reform, according to an Independent analysis.

On Capitol Hill, congressional Republicans have largely shrugged off calls for new gun laws after the Nashville shooting.

Instead, some, like representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia have used the killing of six people in Nashville as an occasion to attack transgender people. (Police and family members have described the Nashville gunman Audrey Hale as transgender.)

The remarks have inspired fierce condemnation from Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“It’s absolutely disgusting and she should be looking into a mirror as to why she’s defending and posing with the same weapons that are being used to kill children, teachers and educators,” she told The Independent.