Biden Invites Tennessee Democrats Who Disrupted House Proceedings to White House

President Joe Biden has invited three Tennessee Democrats to the White House who had earlier disrupted state House proceedings with a gun control protest, but is maintaining silence on whether victims of the school shooting incident that triggered the protest would be invited.

Biden will be welcoming Tennessee state Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville), Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), and Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) to the White House on Monday, April 24, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during an April 19 press briefing. The protest led by the Democrats took place on March 30, after the shooting incident at The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, which took the lives of three 9-year-old children and three staff members. The protest disrupted proceedings in the state’s House of Representatives and two of the representatives were subsequently expelled from the House.

When a reporter asked whether any of the victims or victims’ families have been invited to the White House, Jean-Pierre replied, “I don’t have anything to read out to you about any invite.”

During the questioning when the reporter asked about the lawmakers who led the protests, the press secretary interjected and insisted that they had “peacefully protested.”

“Earlier this month, the president spoke to them by phone after they were subjugated to expulsion votes in the Tennessee statehouse for peacefully protesting in support of stronger gun safety laws following the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville,” Jean-Pierre said.

“During that call, the president thanked them for their leadership in seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for the democratic values. And the three lawmakers thanked the president for his leadership on gun safety and for spotlighting the undemocratic and unprecedented attacks on them in the Tennessee statehouse.”

Biden is looking forward to “continuing that discussion” when he meets the Democrats on Monday, Jean-Pierre stated.

The Raucous Protest

On March 30, Jones, Pearson, and Johnson had broken decorum by leading hundreds of protesters to the well of the House floor. Protestors chanted and displayed anti-gun slogans on the House floor, which resulted in the chamber deliberations being halted. The chamber then went into recess.

Jones shouted “No action, no peace” through a bullhorn while he held up a sign that said, “Protect kids, not guns.”

The Republican-controlled House subsequently voted to expel Jon