Leaked audio obtained by the Tennessean of a private Monday meeting of the state House Republican caucus reveals GOP leadership screaming at the handful of members who voted to spare white Democrat state Representative Gloria Johnson from expulsion over a rowdy anti-gun protest but not the two Black Dems, Justins Jones and Pearson, both of whom were reinstated this week.
“Dear God, we were called – you brought racism into it because you didn’t stay with us. I don’t want to hear why there wasn’t preponderance of the evidence as an attorney – I need to know why you flipped your vote at the last minute,” Knoxville Republican Jason Zachary yells at lawmakers Jody Barrett and Bryan Terry. Barrett then defends his vote, saying he “[knows] what [Johnson] did. I know that she did break the rules. I know that she deserved to be expelled, but we’ve got to do it right, and that wasn’t right. I went back to my desk. I sat there and had my internal debate on what to do. The bell rings, I am concerned that I am going to vote yes on a resolution I know is wrong.”