Nashville city council reinstates expelled state Rep. Justin Jones
The Nashville City Council met on Monday to vote to reinstate state Rep. Justin Jones, one of two Black Democrats that Republicans expelled from the Tennessee House after a group of three spoke out in support of crowds protesting gun violence in the Assembly gallery.
The Shelby County Commission has not indicated whether they will move to forward to do the same with Rep. Justin Pearson, the second Democrat to be expelled.
The special meeting held Monday announced the vacancy, suspended the house rules, then reelected an "interim successor' – the existing Assemblyman that was expelled last week.
The Nashville council voted unanimously to support Jones for the position.
Republican lawmakers in the state have become the butt of jokes among late-night comedians. But it was John Oliver who took it a step further, saying on his Sunday night show that one of the Republicans, state Rep. William Lamberth, was "lying" when he said ethnicity wasn't considered when the lawmakers were expelled.
"We literally don't see color is the universal tell for people who spent all day thinking about how they'd like to see less color," Oliver said.
Watch the proceeding live in the video below or at the link here.
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