Black Democrats Fired By Tenn. GOP Peers After Gun Protest
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.4 • 25.7K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2023
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rep. Gloria Johnson, who also participated in the protest, held on to her seat by a single vote and suggested that's because she is white.
And the Biden administration released a report shifting blame for the chaotic final days of American troops in Afghanistan to the Trump administration. The document offered little information about what errors may have led to the deaths of 13 American soldiers amid a chaotic exit that left a number of Afghan allies stranded.
This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, White House correspondent Asma Khalid, Nashville Public Radio reporter Blaise Gainey, Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman, and congressional reporter Barbara Sprunt.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Johnny. I'm sitting on the beaches of Ghana about to celebrate my daughter Malia's 11th birthday. |
| 0:07.8 | This podcast was recorded at 12.11 p.m. on Friday the 7th of April. |
| 0:14.1 | Things may have changed by the time you hear this, but I'll still be enjoying my life in Ghana. |
| 0:20.5 | Enjoy the show! |
| 0:25.3 | Well, happy birthday, Malia. |
| 0:27.3 | You know initially when he said he was in Ghana because my mind is all politics here. |
| 0:31.3 | I thought he was going to have a time stamp about the Vice President's trip. |
| 0:35.3 | Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Tamer Keith. I cover the White House. |
| 0:39.3 | And I'm Asma Khalid. I also cover the White House. |
| 0:42.3 | And we are joined by Blaze Gainey of Nashville Public Radio. Hey there. |
| 0:47.3 | Hi, how are you? |
| 0:48.3 | Great. So you have had a busy couple of weeks. |
| 0:51.3 | Tennessee's Republican-dominated House voted Thursday to remove two Democratic lawmakers for violating decorum. |
| 0:59.3 | After the mass shooting that killed three children and three adults at a school in Nashville, |
| 1:04.3 | they led a protest from the House floor calling for gun control legislation. |
| 1:14.3 | And so with Republicans united and Democrats dramatically outnumbered, |
| 1:18.3 | the two lawmakers were expelled, leaving in the wake an intense conversation about racial politics, |
| 1:24.3 | majority rule, and democracy itself. So Blaze, you were in the Capitol last night for all the drama. |
| 1:30.3 | But I want to go back. Let's start with these men, who they are, and what was the protest about? |
| 1:36.3 | Yeah, so Representative Justin Jones of Nashville and Representative Justin J. Pearson of Memphis |
| 1:42.3 | are both black men under 30 years old, and before being elected were activists and led successful protests in their perspective cities. |
| 1:51.3 | What they did last Thursday was lead a protest on the House floor to uplift the voices of the thousands of people that were calling for Republicans to take action |
... |
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