Memphis sends Pearson back to Tennessee House days after GOP expelled him

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

4.1 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

The Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted to reappoint Justin J. Pearson back to his seat in the Republican-led Tennessee House of Representatives. It was less than a week ago that the GOP-dominated chamber expelled Pearson along with Justin Jones for their role in a gun protest on the House floor following the shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville where six people died, including three children. Pearson joins AC360 to discuss how it feels to be voted back into his seat. Plus, Louisville officials have released the 911 calls surrounding the deadly bank shooting. CNN Senior Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz tells Anderson Cooper how one of the officers who first responded to the attack is doing after being shot in the head.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Good evening.
0:01.0	To give you some idea what change looks like on an issue that some fears impervious
0:06.2	to it, take a look at the front page of today's Nashville, Tennessee.
0:09.6	Lee, it reads that the Republican governor Bill Lee wants gun law action.
0:14.3	Beneath it, Jones, meaning Democratic State Representative Justin Jones, expelled after
0:19.4	a gun violence protest on the state house floor, reclaims his seat in legislature.
0:24.7	Two major bipartisan developments in the wake of last month's school shooting in Nashville
0:28.5	happening with remarkable speed, creating a front page that might have seemed inconceivable
0:33.6	just a few days ago.
0:35.1	And that was before local officials voted today to reinstate the second expelled state
0:39.2	representative, Justin J. Pearson of Memphis.
0:42.2	Last night, on this program, Representative Jones said he saw a change of heart in governor
0:46.2	Lee.
0:47.2	And in perhaps another sign of that, both his reinstatement and representative Pearson's
0:50.3	today were unanimous.
0:52.1	Representative Pearson joins us now.
0:54.5	Representative, thanks so much for being with us.
0:56.0	How does it feel to be reappointed just six days after you were first expelled?
1:00.8	We have to realize that the anti-democratic behavior of the Tennessee State Republican Party
1:06.0	is dangerous.
1:07.5	And that disenfranchising thousands, hundreds of thousands of voters is always wrong, especially
1:12.9	on an issue where we are trying to elevate the need for gun violence prevention and gun
	...

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