democrats who led gun safety protests we will take you there and across the country as we loo at what is going on in a state houses from coast to coast the big question, the lawmaker know what their constituents really want? money power politics and the supreme court the investigation into justice clarence thomas secretly accepting luxury trips from major republican donor the 11th hour is getting underway on this thursda night. good evening once again. i m stephanie ruhle. tonight, we begin in the state of tennessee we are in a stunning act o political retaliation. republican lawmakers expelle two of their democrati colleagues, justin jones and justin pearson they joined in a peacefu protest on gun violence with students jones and are both black a third democratic lawmaker wh is white was up for a vote but was not expelled here saw the tennessee newspaper wrote it up. quote, ten days after a shoote on loaded 152 rounds inside nashville school and killed si people, tennessee
, free, free, free, free the tennessee free you are fascists! you banned books, you banne rag, kids are still in bod bags [crowd chanting] you banned books, you banned, rag kids are still in body bags that was the scene at th tennessee capitol earlie today. republicans in the state legislator voted to expel tw democratic representatives fro the tennessee house. they voted to kick to democrat out of office. it was an unprecedented and it was a drastic move and it al started last week. that is when hundreds of schoo students came to the tennessee capital to call for new gu safety measures after a shoote opened fire at an elementary school in nashville. killing three 9 year old students and three adults. during that protests, a handfu of democratic law minister before the house chamber they had megaphones and they weren t shy about standing i solidarity with the protesters outside which was apparently a violation of the rules of th chamber. republicans pounced. they didn
lawrence oh, i have pretty bad sound here is alex wagner talking to me there she is i think i just turned on m phone. no, the volume thing was a little low it happens to all of us it s your show now you can do whatever you want with it. thank you for the soundtrack, alex we needed that have a great show, lawrence we have a statement fro president biden on the situation in tennessee tonight it was just released by th white house. the president said a state republican lawmakers calle votes today to expel three democratic legislators who stood in solidarity with the students and families an helped lift their voices today s expulsion of lawmakers who engaged in peaceful protes is shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent. rather than a debating the merits of the issue of, thes republican lawmakers hav chosen to punish, silence, and expel elected representative of the people of tennessee we had planned to cover severa stories for you in this hour including the latest
of the last seven years or so of coverage but we are glad to have you in the seat. thank you to all of you for joining us here at home. this is what it sounded like at the chamber of the tennessee house of representatives you ban books, you ban drag, kids are still in body bags. that was the scene at the tennessee capitol earlier today. republicans in the state legislature voted to expel two democratic house of representatives from the tennessee house. they voted to kick two democrats out of office. it was an unprecedented, and it was a drastic move, and it all started last week. that is when hundreds of school students came to the tennessee capitol to call for new gun safety measures after a shooting opened fire at an elementary school in nashville killing three 9-year-old students and three adults during that protest, a handful of democratic lawmakers stood before the house chamber they had megaphones and they were not shy about standing in solidarity with the protester
very dangerous, and i hope that as the nation watches that we to say we should sound the alarm across the nation we re entering dangerous territory. that was one of two democrats in tennessee that was just expelled after participating in a gun violence protest on the floor of the statehouse. we ll have much more on this partisan punishment just ahead meanwhile on capitol hill one of donald trump s most vocal allies in congress sends a subpoena to a former prosecutor in the manhattan district attorney s office we ll explain why this move may backfire on jim jordan, and we ll dig into a bombshell report exclosing years of lavish vacations taken by supreme court justice clarence thomas, all paid for by a gop mega donor all right, good morning. and welcome to way too early on this friday, april 7th. i m sam stein in for the irreplaceable jonathan lemire. republican legislators in tennessee voted yesterday to expel two black democrats from the statehouse over their protest o