President Biden has formally invited three Tennessee lawmakers who disrupted legislative proceedings with a pro-gun control protest last month to the White House — but has no plans to meet with victims of the school shooting that prompted the demonstration, his top spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president will meet Monday with state Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville), Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) and Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), a little more than two weeks after Jones and Pearson were briefly expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives over their March 30 demonstration.
The White House flack said the trio “were subjugated to expulsion votes in the Tennessee state House for peacefully protesting in support of stronger gun safety laws.”
The so-called “Tennessee Three” joined hundreds of students, parents and teachers in a march into the state Capitol to demand firearm restrictions after a March 27 shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville left three adults and three 9-year-old children dead.
When asked whether victims or families who were affected by the Covenant School shooting had been invited to Washington, Jean-Pierre declined to comment.
I sure hope he doesn’t croak before we put him in jail.