Why are Republicans calling it an insurrection?
Sexton, the House speaker, and several other Republicans have compared the protests Thursday to events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after several conservative media outlets suggested protestors attempted to "take over" or storm the Tennessee Capitol.
On Monday, Sexton walked back some of his remarks, saying his "intent" was misrepresented and he meant to differentiate between the protest and the three Democratic lawmakers.
I don’t know if you heard what happened today, but there were three Democratic lawmakers, one from Knoxville, who basically tried to take over the House floor and cause an insurrection on the House floor today," Sexton said in his radio comments.
“So we were in between bills, and Rep. Justin Jones, Rep. Justin Pearson, and Rep. Gloria Johnson came to the well. We had protestors that had been vocal in the balcony. We had given them warnings. They were out in front of the chamber, being very vocal, yelling and screaming, which we are used to, at one point during session, to come up out of order and try to take over the House floor. Started pulling out a megaphone and shouting at members, and incite riots or violence. You had people outside the chamber who rushed the state troopers to try and get inside the chamber. They weren’t successful. So now we have multiple violations by those three.”Sexton released a social media statement on Monday after receiving public pushback about the characterization.
"My comments on Thursday were not directed toward the peaceful protestors; they were solely directed toward the actions of three Democrat lawmakers who rushed the well and those who led a protest on the House floor with a bullhorn," Sexton said.
"There were a lot of protestors and the vast majority of protestors were peaceful, they were there with their parents, they were there with their other classmates. They were peaceful," Sexton later said. "There were videos that showed that in some instances, a few may have acted out. Unfortunately, some people will take that to be representative of the whole when it's not."
What are Democrats saying?
Democrats clashed with the three lawmakers on the floor of the House as leadership decided how to respond to the unprecedented situation.
Veteran Democrats were seen loudly arguing with Jones before they all went into an antechamber. House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, later said the trio was making "good trouble" and said sometimes different lawmakers approach situations differently due to their backgrounds, referring to both Pearson and Jones' rise through advocacy circles.
"I want to apologize to the mothers, the fathers and the children who came to our state Capitol yesterday to speak and demand action. You had parents take their kids out of school — a lot of schools let their students out — they came up here, they took time out of their schedules to come up to the Capitol to make their voices heard,"
state Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, told reporters a day later. "And less than 24 hours later, members of this body, members of the supermajority Republican Party are referring to those families as insurrectionists."
(full article online)
No demonstrators broke into Capitol, no one was arrested or injured, and no property was damaged at the March 30 protest.
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