White House Says Harris to Meet Tennessee Legislators After Expelling 2 Democrats

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting the US state of Tennessee and will hold a meeting with state legislators there, the White House said on Friday.

"At 4:50 PM CT, the Vice President will meet with Tennessee state legislators. This meeting will be closed press," the White House said.

On Thursday, the Tennessee legislature expelled Democratic party Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson for joining unruly protesters demanding gun control measures in the state.

Jones, Pearson and their colleague Gloria Johnson were expelled for being disorderly and disruptive and for flaunting the Tennessee House’s decorum and floor rules by speaking from the podium without being recognized by the speaker. The three representatives used a bullhorn and yelled chants in the legislative’s public gallery.

The Tennessee House voted to remove Johnson as well but fell one vote short of the needed 66 votes in the 99-seat chamber.

On March 27, a gunman using an assault rifle killed three nine-year-old children and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. Three days later, hundreds of protesters entered the Tennessee legislative building demanding that lawmakers pass gun-control legislation.

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution protects the right of Americans to keep and bear arms.