As the Tennessee House of Representatives prepared to vote on Thursday to expel three Democratic lawmakers for disrupting proceedings by leading demonstrators with megaphones inside the House chamber, CNN Inside Politics host John King came running to their defense, claiming that “They were trying to get a discussion.” At the same time, chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny argued “no one cares about the rules of the Tennessee House.”
King began the panel discussion by suggesting expelling the lawmakers is excessive, “Now again, they broke the rules in speaking up. The question is okay, six people were shot and killed in your community. Emotions are raw. Do you expel them for speaking up?”
NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid agreed, “I mean, I think there's a question to of these lawmakers were democratically elected and are you essentially superseding the will of the people by expelling them? I mean, that's a rather harsh, I think fairly unprecedented and people see, partisan move as a result of this.”
King then teed up an audio clip of Tennessee Speaker Cameron Sexton and pre-emptively sought to rebut him, “And so let's listen to the Republican House Speaker here, making a comparison, sorry, I just don't think it fits. Listen.”
In the clip, Sexton declared “Two of the members, Representative Jones and Representative Johnson have been very vocal about January 6th in Washington D.C. about, what that was and what they did today was equivalent, at least equivalent, maybe worse, depending on how you look at it of doing an insurrection in the Capital.”
King returned to declare, “They were trying to get a discussion about gun reform. They're not trying to overthrow the election. They were not trying to seize control of the chamber... They were not trying to get the governor out of office. They were not violent. Thank you. They were not violent. They may have been loud. They may have broken the rules, but really equivalent or worse?”
Sure, the lawmakers weren’t trying to get the governor out of office, but they literally did seize control of the chamber to the point where Sexton had to call for a recess. Furthermore, no GOP lawmaker stood on the House floor with a megaphone during January 6.
After Zeleny questioned whether Sexton believed his own analogy, he added “but look, the reality of all of this, the protesters out in Tennessee this swing voters, suburban voters, independent voters, Republican voters. There are people out there who want their elected officials to do something on guns. So at some point, there will be a tipping point. I don't know if it will be in the next election or not.”
In something that would never be said about January 6 or any other situation where the partisan roles were reversed, Zeleny also claimed “But this-- this inside baseball, these rules no one cares about the rules of the Tennessee House.”
By “no one,” Zeleny meant those who want gun control, “Voters, I'm guessing certainly Democrats and some in the middle and others what, clearly there are overwhelming majorities of Americans want something to be done on guns… this does nothing to stop or address what clearly is an epidemic of violence in this country.”
And if Tennessee Democrats and CNN thinks shutting down legislatures is going to convince Republicans to pass gun control, then they are badly mistaken.
This segment was sponsored by The Farmer’s Dog.
Here is a transcript for the April 6 show:
CNN Inside Politics with John King
4/6/2023
12:19 PM ET
JOHN KING: Now again, they broke the rules in speaking up. The question is okay, six people were shot and killed in your community. Emotions are raw. Do you expel them for speaking up?
ASMA KHALID: I mean, whether or not I think they think it's the judicious thing to do politically, which I'm not sure that it really is at this point in time. I mean, I think there's a question to of these lawmakers were democratically elected and are you essentially superseding the will of the people by expelling them? I mean, that's a rather harsh, I think fairly unprecedented and people see, partisan move as a result of this
KING: And so let's listen to the Republican House Speaker here, making a comparison, sorry, I just don't think it fits. Listen.
CAMERON SEXTON: Two of the members, Representative Jones and Representative Johnson have been very vocal about January 6th in Washington D.C. about, what that was and what they did today was equivalent, at least equivalent, maybe worse, depending on how you look at it of doing an insurrection in the Capital.
KING: They were trying to get a discussion about gun reform. They're not trying to overthrow the election. They were not trying to seize control of the chamber—
KHALID: They weren’t violent.
KING: They were not trying to get the governor out of office.
JEFF ZELENY: You heard--
KING: They were not violent. Thank you. They were not violent. They may have been loud. They may have broken the rules, but really equivalent or worse?
ZELENY: You heard him pause there. You almost wonder if he was thinking if you should go ahead with the sentence, but he did, but look, the reality of all of this, the protesters out in Tennessee this swing voters, suburban voters, independent voters, Republican voters. There are people out there who want their elected officials to do something on guns. So at some point, there will be a tipping point. I don't know if it will be in the next election or not. But this-- this inside baseball, these rules no one cares about the rules of the Tennessee House. Voters, I'm guessing certainly Democrats and some in the middle and others what, clearly there are overwhelming majorities of Americans want something to be done on guns, and this is an example not happening, so I don't know if they'll be punished at the ballot box. The leaders who are doing this, but this does nothing to stop or address what clearly is an epidemic of violence in this country.
KING: We’ll watch as the votes play out in Tennessee throughout the day.
