Biden Praises Tennessee Legislators For “Standing Up” for Democracy . . . By Stopping the Legislative Process

by JONATHAN TURLEY

President Joe Biden held a curious meeting in the Oval Office where he honored Tennessee legislators for “standing up” for democracy by preventing a legislature from continuing its work. He then magnified that mixed message by refusing again to answer questions from the media and dismissing them with a dismissive joke.

I have previously written that I did not agree with the vote to expel state Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, D-Tenn., though I felt that they warranted some form of sanction for stopping legislative work on the House floor. I simply believe that expulsion should be reserved for the most serious or repeated violations. What they did should have merited other forms of punishment from censure to suspension of legislative privileges.

Yet, President Biden brought them to Washington to celebrate their conduct in taking a bullhorn to a legislative proceeding to prevent others from voting on measures. Because they had insufficient votes to secure gun control, President Biden believes that they were justified in preventing legislative work to be done by the majority.

This is why American politics has become a simple matter of amplification.

The media largely ignored the contradiction of President Biden praising legislators for defending democracy by stopping the legislative process.

Rep. Gloria Johnson was also honored after she claimed that pure racism was the only reason why, as the only white member of the three, she was spared expulsion. That ignored distinctions raised by Johnson and her supporters during the debate that, unlike Jones and Pearson, she did not use a bullhorn; her counsel also insisted that she separated herself from the protesters. Johnson’s distinctions swayed one member to defeat expulsion, but Johnson then declared the result was evidence of sexism and racism: “pretty clear I’m a 60-year-old white woman, and they are two young Black men. I was talked down to as a woman, man-splained to.”

So, on Jan. 6th, if Republican members prevented the proceedings with bullhorns, would Biden have praised their standing up for Democracy? Would have they been justified to “shout down” speakers on the floor as they do on college campuses?

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