Supermajority: The Roll Call

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4.8 • 11.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

It's been four months since the Covenant moms – lifelong conservatives Melissa Alexander, Mary Joyce and Sarah Shoop Neumann – pleaded with their lawmakers to pass gun control measures during a special session at the Tennessee statehouse. Now they're back – for months, not days – and this time, they feel prepared to face the GOP-dominated legislature. But when the 2024 legislative session begins, the mothers realize that the Republican majority's new bills may be more complicated than they anticipated. The women discover a long line of dissenters flocking to the statehouse, to protest bills about abortion, education, police violence and LGBTQ rights. Will the women stand alongside these other constituents and broaden their objectives beyond gun control? And what happens when they begin to imagine unseating one of their lawmakers? To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York,
0:05.0	working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace.
0:11.0	More information at Carnegie.org.
0:13.0	Hey, it's Kelly McEvers, and we are back with episode 2 of Supermajority.
0:21.0	And just a note before we start, there's some course language in this
0:25.3	episode. Okay, here's Maribonite. It was April 3rd of last year, exactly a week after the shooting at the Covenant School.
0:36.5	You may remember this from the beginning of the last episode.
0:39.8	Protests demanding more gun control had been raging, and the House was in chaos after three
0:45.8	Democrats took to the floor with a bullhorn in solidarity.
0:50.4	Now, Republican lawmakers had introduced resolutions to expel them.
0:56.0	All those in favor, vote I, all those opposed, vote no.
1:00.0	Angry spectators look down on lawmakers from the House Gallery, screaming fascists as a resolution's past.
1:10.0	Now I see the whole country watching us and they would have never paid any
1:14.4	attention before. Mr. Trooper unfortunately the members cannot hear I ask you to
1:19.6	clear out the balcony please. But next door in the Senate things were quite different. All was quiet, not a
1:29.8	peep from the gallery. It was business as usual.
1:33.0	Clerk, take the role.
1:35.0	32 members are present.
1:38.0	The Senate has a quorum and is now in session.
1:41.0	Ms. Speaker, if I could approach the well, please, sir.
1:45.0	Right after the Pledge of Allegiance,
1:46.8	longtime Senator Rusty Crow
	...

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