Closing summary
Less than a week after Republicans booted them from the Tennessee state house of representatives, Black Democratic lawmakers Justin Jones and Justin Pearson have been reappointed back to their old seats, with the latter’s return confirmed this afternoon by local authorities in Memphis. The episode, which began when the duo joined with a white colleague (who was not expelled) to demonstrate for stricter gun control on the House floor, appears far from over. In Washington, two Democratic senators have called for attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate their expulsion, arguing it appears to have violated free speech and anti-discrimination laws. But if the statements of two Kentucky lawmakers following Monday’s mass shooting in Louisville are any indication, the partisan divide over gun rights remains as wide as ever.
Here’s a look back at what else happened today:
Donald Trump said he’ll “never drop out” of the 2024 presidential race, even if convicted of a crime.
Rupert Murdoch could be on the witness stand as soon as Monday, as Dominion Voting System’s defamation complaint against Fox News heads to trial.
Republican senator Tim Scott inched closer to an all-out presidential run by announcing an exploratory committee.
The new Secret Service director downplayed concerns about politicization of the agency raised by the January 6 investigation in a rare interview.
Trump is suing his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for $500mn, alleging he unjustly enriched himself and breached attorney-client privilege. You may remember Cohen as being the vehicle for the former president’s hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, which is at the center of the indictment filed by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg against him.
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There’s news of a link-up between a certain likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, Ron DeSantis, and Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán. Flora Garamvolgyi writes for the Guardian:
Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, one of Donald Trump’s biggest international supporters, has made overtures in recent weeks to Ron DeSantis and one of the Florida governor’s key billionaire backers.
Orbán has repeatedly voiced strong support for Trump’s policies and political style, even long after he left the White House. But meetings between a key Orbán ally and the DeSantis camp suggest the Hungarian leader is hedging his bets amid uncertainty over Trump’s electoral prospects.
Katalin Novák, the Hungarian president, met DeSantis last month. She also met DeSantis’s wife, Casey, and Republican mega-donor Thomas Péterffy, who has announced he would not be backing Trump’s 2024 presidential candidacy. The Hungarian-born billionaire has called DeSantis his “favorite man” and donated $570,000 to his campaign in 2022, according to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.
The first female president of Hungary and a close ally of Orbán, Novak previously served as minister for family affairs. Like DeSantis, she has ultra-conservative views regarding family policies, LGBTQ+ rights and abortion. She has been a key part of Orbán’s efforts to make Budapest a hub for discussions between rightwing and far-right forces from around the world, including the US right.
“For the Orbán government, bilateral relations have a strong party-politics angle. They have been contemplating whether it was worth putting all their cards on Trump. The indictment against the former president only confirmed that,” said Daniel Hegedus, a Central Europe fellow at the German Marshall Fund.
Separately to the DeSantis meetings, Hungarian government officials have started to contact other Republican figures, according to a former Hungarian diplomat.
“These outreaches have increased for the past nine months, and more government officials have visited the US than before,” said the diplomat.
Read the full story:
Murdoch could testify in Fox-Dominion trial as soon as Monday: report
Fox News chairman Rupert Murdoch could as soon as Monday appear on the witness stand when the trial of Dominion Voting Systems’s defamation case against the conservative media network begins, Bloomberg News reports.
The trial, in which the election systems company is asking for $1.6bn in compensation from Fox for allegedly harming its reputation in the aftermath of the 2020 election, begins in Delaware on Thursday. Opening arguments are set to start on Monday, and Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, say Murdoch could appear on that day or Tuesday as the second witness called.
Following Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, his supporters accused Dominion of rigging the vote in favor of Joe Biden though its voting equipment, which is used by municipalities nationwide. Dominion says Fox amplified these claims repeatedly, even though they knew the network’s employees knew were false. Here’s the latest on the case:
Pumping his fist in the air with a vow of “let’s get back to work”, Justin Pearson and his supporters were jubilant after local authorities in Memphis reappointed him to his seat in the statehouse.
Here’s clip of his remarks following the Shelby county commission vote, which was unanimous:
Shelby County Commission sends Justin Pearson back to Nashville.
— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) April 12, 2023
"You can't expel our voice, and you sure can't expel our fight. We look forward to continuing to fight, continuing to advocate, until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." pic.twitter.com/tLXHJkKDIl
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Justin Pearson reinstated to Tennessee statehouse
Justin Pearson, who was one of two Black Democratic lawmakers ejected from the Tennessee house of representatives by its Republican supermajority last week, has been reappointed to his position, the Associated Press reports.
The Shelby county board of commissioners voted to send Pearson back to his seat representing Memphis. On Monday, the Nashville metropolitan council had done the same for Justin Jones, the other Democrat expelled after staging a noisy protest on the House floor in favor of stricter gun laws following a mass shooting in Nashville. Both men will need to win a forthcoming special election to remain in their seats.
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In Memphis, protesters have gathered while the Shelby county commission reviews the reappointment of Democratic representative Justin Pearson.
He was one of two young Black Democrats removed from the Tennessee house of representatives along with Justin Jones, who was reappointed on Monday.
We’re expecting a decision from Memphis shortly.
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Trump sues former attorney Cohen for $500m: report
Donald Trump slapped his former lawyer Michael Cohen with a $500m lawsuit on Wednesday, according to Fox News.
Cohen is, of course, Trump’s one-time fixer, notorious for making the $130,000 pay-off to adult movie star Stormy Daniels that led to the ex-president’s appearance in a Manhattan courtroom on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
According to Fox, Trump’s legal team filed a 30-page federal lawsuit in the US southern district court in Florida earlier today, claiming that Cohen breached of his attorney-client relationship and unjustly enriched himself, among other allegations.
“This is an action arising from [Cohen’s] multiple breaches of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, conversion and breaches of contract by virtue of [Cohen’s] past service as [Trump’s] employee and attorney,” the lawsuit states, per the Fox report.
The lawsuit, the network said, details Cohen’s “myriad of public statements, including the publication of two books, a podcast series, and innumerable mainstream media appearances,” while ignoring “cease and desist” orders.
It claims Cohen has, in recent months, “increased the frequency and hostility of the illicit acts” and “appears to have become emboldened and repeatedly continues to make wrongful and false statements” about Trump through various platforms.
Cohen has become one of Trump’s sharpest critics since being released from a prison term in 2020 for crimes including tax evasion, lying to Congress and facilitating illegal payments to silence both Daniels and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model.
He wrote a memoir, entitled Disloyal, later that year chronicling his time as Trump’s henchman, and has become a regular analyst on cable TV channels on the former president’s legal perils.
Trump has always denied the affairs, or making payments to the women.
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Democratic Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin says she’s running for a third term, news greeted enthusiastically by the chair of the state party.
Ben Wikler says Republicans are “hiding under a rug” because none so far have announced they are challenging for Baldwin’s seat in the key swing state, according to the Associated Press.
It’s official: I’m running for reelection!
— Tammy Baldwin (@tammybaldwin) April 12, 2023
Wisconsin’s working families deserve a Senator who’s going to fight for them—not shady special interests or big corporations. We’ve made a lot of progress, but the stakes have never been higher and our work isn’t over yet.
Baldwin, in a statement, said she intends to continue fighting for the working class and families struggling with inflation, as well as opposing Wisconsin’s ban on elective abortions.
She became the state’s first female member of congress in 1998, and was elected to the Senate in 2012, handing Republican former governor Tommy Thompson his first defeat in a statewide race.
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Here’s the letter we told you about earlier from Chuck Schumer, Raphael Warnock and other senior Democrats calling for the justice department to investigate the expulsion by Republicans in Tennessee of two young Black state representatives for taking part in a gun reform protest.
In it, Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and Warnock, of Georgia, join fellow Democrats Chris Murphy (Connecticut), Alejandro Padilla (California) and Brian Schatz (Hawaii), in asking attorney general Merrick Garland to look into whether citizens’ rights of representation were breached when the lawmakers were removed.
A press release from Schumer’s office announcing the letter reads in part:
On March 30, three Tennessee lawmakers peacefully protested in the well of the state’s House of Representatives following the state legislature’s inaction on gun violence prevention after the slaughter of three nine-year-olds and three adults at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.
The next week, two of the three lawmakers, representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, were expelled, while their colleague, representative Gloria Johnson, was spared by one vote.
The senators asked the DOJ to investigate whether actions by the Tennessee state legislature violated any constitutional rights of Tennessee citizens to be represented by the legislators of their choice, or violated any of representatives Jones’ and Pearson’s 14th amendment or first amendment rights.
We cannot allow states to cite minor procedural violations as pretextual excuses to remove democratically-elected representatives, especially when these expulsions may have been at least partially on the basis of race. Allowing such behavior sets a dangerous, and undemocratic, precedent.
We’ll find out this afternoon if commissioners in Memphis have voted to restore Pearson to his seat. Nashville city leaders voted unanimously on Monday to send Jones back to the state house until a special election can be held.
Read more:
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Investigators asking whether Trump reviewed classified material: report
Special counsel Jack Smith’s investigators are trying to determine whether Donald Trump personally reviewed classified materials in his possession after the government asked last year that it be returned, and are asking witnesses whether he showed off a map containing sensitive information, the New York Times reports.
Smith has been tasked by attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate the classified materials the FBI found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last August, as well as his involvement in the January 6 insurrection and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. According to the Times, who cited four people with knowledge of the matter, Smith’s investigators have asked witnesses whether he displayed a map after leaving office. The details of the map are unknown, but it is said to contain secret information.
They have also asked whether Trump requested to personally review boxes of sensitive material at his Mar-a-Lago resort after receiving a subpoena last May to hand over all classified documents in his possession. A lawyer for the former president later signed a document asserting Trump had handed over all the material in his possession, which turned out not to be true.
Here’s more from the Times’s report:
The question of whether Mr. Trump was displaying sensitive material in his possession after he lost the presidency and left office is crucial as investigators try to reconstruct what Mr. Trump was doing with boxes of documents that went with him to his Florida residence and private club, Mar-a-Lago.
Among the topics investigators have been focused on is precisely when Mr. Trump was at the club last year. In particular, they were interested in whether he remained at Mar-a-Lago to look at boxes of material that were still stored there before Justice Department counterintelligence officials seeking their return came to visit in early June, according to two people familiar with the questions.
Mr. Trump typically leaves Florida for his club in Bedminster, N.J., earlier than he did last year, when he was still at Mar-a-Lago for the visit from the Justice Department officials, on June 3. Investigators have been gathering evidence about whether Mr. Trump had aides bring him boxes to sift through after a grand jury subpoena was issued in May for any government documents Mr. Trump still had in his possession, the people said.
After the June 3 visit, when Justice Department officials were handed a batch of documents with classified markings that had been found at Mar-a-Lago, a lawyer for Mr. Trump signed a certification saying a “diligent search” had been conducted and all government material had been returned. That statement proved untrue two months later when the F.B.I. found hundreds of pages of additional classified documents during a court-authorized search.
The day so far
The second of two Democratic lawmakers expelled last week from Tennessee’s house of representatives may get his seat back today, after a meeting of local commissioners in Memphis. In Washington, two Democratic senators have called for attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate the episode, arguing the Black lawmakers’ banishment appears to have violated free speech and anti-discrimination rights. The whole affair started with a protest in favor of stricter gun control – an issue over which partisan divisions are as wide as ever, if the statements of two Kentucky lawmakers are any indication.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Donald Trump says he’ll “never drop out” of the 2024 presidential race, even if convicted of a crime.
Republican senator Tim Scott inched closer to an all-out presidential run by announcing an exploratory committee.
The new Secret Service director downplayed concerns about politicization of the agency raised by the January 6 investigation in a rare interview.
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A group of pharmaceutical firms and executives have filed a brief encouraging a federal appeals court to half a judge’s ruling that last week decertified mifepristone, one of the drugs used in medication abortion.
“The district court’s approach would have ripple effects across FDA’s programs for drugs intended to treat serious and life-threatening diseases and conditions —programs that are essential to facilitating and expediting the development and review of critical medicines,” the group of dozens of organizations and individuals writes in their amicus brief.
“It would narrow eligibility for these programs, delay patient access to life-saving medications, and discourage development in the first instance. Without sufficient flexibility, sponsors would lose considerable efficiency in bringing new drugs to market — and in updating and innovating on existing approved applications. And patients would lose access to potentially lifesaving and life-improving treatments.”
The justice department is asking for a stay on the ruling from the fifth circuit court of appeals – which is considered the most conservative federal appellate body in the country.
Abortion advocates are scrambling ahead of a Friday deadline after which a drug used in medication abortion could be deauthorized, thanks to a conservative federal court judge. Here’s the Guardian’s Mary Tuma with a look at the effort to get a higher court to intervene:
FDA authorization for a key abortion drug could be nullified after Friday, unless an appeals court acts on a Biden administration request to block last week’s ruling suspending approval of the drug.
The drug, mifepristone, is used in more than half of all the abortions in the US. The ruling, issued by a federal judge in Texas, applies across the country.
Writing that the ruling would “inflict grave harm on women, the medical system, and the public” if it went into effect, the Department of Justice on Monday requested the fifth US circuit court of appeals temporarily block Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling while the appeals process plays out.
The issue may ultimately fall into the hands of the US supreme court and its conservative supermajority, which eradicated abortion rights last year by overturning Roe v Wade.
A coalition of media organizations has filed a lawsuit asking for the release of surveillance footage from the January 6 insurrection that House speaker Kevin McCarthy provided to Fox News but no other outlet, CNN reports.
The suit filed against the justice department under its public records law argues that because the Republican speaker provided the footage to Fox, it should be made available to the public at large.
“That denial of access is a stark change of pace for these Plaintiffs, as over the past two years they have diligently, cooperatively, and successfully pursued and obtained access to thousands of videos of the Capitol riot that have been used as evidence or otherwise become judicial records in more than a hundred cases in this District against those charged with organizing or participating in the riot,” reads the suit, which was filed by CNN, Advance Publications, the Associated Press, CBS News, EW Scripps, Gannett, Politico, ProPublica and the New York Times.
McCarthy in February handed the footage to conservative Fox commentator Tucker Carlson, then promised to “slowly roll out” footage to other outlets – which he has not done. Carlson used the footage in segments that attempted to downplay the severity of attack on lawmakers as they were certifying the results of the 2020 election. The release also sparked concerns that it could compromise security arrangements in the Capitol.
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Tennessee’s neighbor Kentucky is having its own reckoning with gun violence after a mass shooting in Louisville on Monday left five people dead.
But as the Washington Post reports, the partisan divide over what to do about these repeated acts of violence is as wide as ever in the solidly Republican state. The Post tuned into public events held by two freshman House representatives from the state, one the sole Democrat in its delegation, the other a Republican.
“The left and this White House is using the victims of this tragedy – three children and three adults – to pursue their agenda, which is to take your constitutional rights,” Republican Andrew Ogles said in a telephone town hall that the Post described as “tightly controlled”. He went on to blame “people with mental illness” for the violence, though ruled out new funding to address the problem, instead saying the education department should redirect money allocated to promote “critical race theory” – which is something the Post notes it is not involved in.
At a Louisville news conference, Democratic representative Morgan McGarvey embraced the party’s preferred solutions to America’s gun violence epidemic, including “taking weapons of war off our streets”, more funding for mental health programs and universal background checks.
“Please if you are a person of faith and you want to give us your thoughts and your prayers, we want them, and we need them. But we need policies in place that will keep this from happening again so thoughts and prayers do not need to be offered to after another community [is] ripped apart from the savage violence coming from guns,” he said.
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Senators reportedly call for investigation of Tennessee Democrats' ousting
Two Democratic senators want the justice department to investigate last week’s expulsion of two Democratic lawmakers from the Tennessee House of Representatives, the Washington Post reports.
The letter from Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader representing New York, and Raphael Warnock of Georgia asks attorney general Merrick Garland to “take all steps necessary to uphold the democratic integrity of our nation’s legislative bodies” and “use all available legal authorities” to determine if the expulsion votes against Justin Jones and Justin Pearson broke federal law.
The pair of Black lawmakers were removed from the chamber by its Republican supermajority after participating in a protest calling for stricter gun control on the House floor, after six people died in a mass shooting at a Nashville school. A white Democratic colleague who participated in the protest was not expelled, which some Tennessee lawmakers have said was because she did not participate in the disruption to the extent the others did.
Jones has already been reinstated to his seat by local authorities in Nashville, while commissioners in Memphis are expected to do the same for Pearson today. In their letter, Warnock and Schumer argue their banishment may have violated the rights of their district’s citizens to be represented, the lawmakers’ first amendment rights to free assembly and speech, and federal laws banning racial discrimination.
Even though its agents literally stand next to the president, the Secret Service takes pains to stay out of the political fray, but couldn’t escape questions over how its agents reacted to the January 6 insurrection.
These concerns centered on the deletion of phone data from around the time of the insurrection, the unusual decision for top agent Tony Ornato to take a political job in Donald Trump’s White House and the actions of its agents protecting Vice-President Mike Pence on the day the Capitol was breached.
In an interview with USA Today, the agency’s recently arrived director Kimberly Cheatle addresses some of these questions. “I think, unfortunately, the Secret Service has been painted, at times inaccurately, as being a political organization and we’re not,” she says. “We don’t talk politics here. We are an agency that truly does take pride in our apolitical mission.”
Regarding Ornato taking a job in the White House, Cheatle said in the interview that she did not “fault” the agency’s previous leadership, but “I don’t know that I would necessarily make the same decision.”
She also addressed concerns that the Secret Service had plans to remove Pence from the Capitol during the insurrection, which could have prevented him from certifying the results of the 2020 election and potentially upending the transition from Trump to Joe Biden.
“I was the assistant director of Protective Operations at the time, and I know the planning that went on for both the rally site … on the [White House] Ellipse that day and for the vice president’s visit to the Capitol. There was no nefarious intent to have anything stopped that day. Our folks, again, did their job …” she said in the interview.
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Another Republican thought to be inching their way towards announcing a presidential run is Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who has transformed the state’s politics since taking office in 2019. The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports on how his aggressive use of gerrymandering and attacks on voting rights have undermined Black political power in the Sunshine state:
Al Lawson felt the weight of his victory the night he was elected to Congress in 2016.
He was born in Midway, a small town that’s part of a stretch of land in northern Florida dotted with tobacco fields once home to plantations. A former basketball star, he was once reprimanded for drinking out of a whites-only water fountain. In some of his early campaigns for the state legislature, he ran into the Ku Klux Klan.
There was jubilation when he was elected.
“Everywhere I would go, it was like a celebration,” Lawson said one morning last month in his office in downtown Tallahassee. “People saying: ‘Boy, I wish my daddy, my granddaddy – I really wish they could see this.’”
In Congress, Lawson was a low-key member known for delivering federal money for things like new storm shelters to help his northern Florida communities. He was easily re-elected to the House in 2018 and 2020. But when he ran for re-election in 2022, he lost to a white Republican by nearly 20 points.
Lawson’s loss was nearly entirely attributable to Governor Ron DeSantis. The governor went out of his way to redraw the boundaries of Lawson’s district to ensure that a Republican could win it. It was a brazen scheme to weaken the political power of Black voters and a striking example of how DeSantis has waged one of the most aggressive – and successful – efforts to curtail voting rights in Florida.
Election day 2024 is a long way off, and should Donald Trump’s candidacy somehow be felled before then, another Republican appears ready to step in: Tim Scott.
The South Carolina lawmaker is the only Black senator in the GOP. Today, he announced the formation of an exploratory committee for a presidential run, a key step before launching a campaign outright. Adopting the slogan “Faith in America”, he released a video that checks all the boxes for Republican candidates who aren’t Trump: harken back to trying moments in America’s history, attack Joe Biden and drop GOP buzz phrases like “radical left”.
“See, I was raised by a single mother in poverty. The spoons in our apartment were plastic, not silver. But we had faith. We put in the work and we had an unwavering belief that we too could live the American dream. I know America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. I know it because I’ve lived it. That’s why it pains my soul to see the Biden liberals attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb,” Scott says.
Here’s the full video:
Tucker Carlson’s questions to Donald Trump about being convicted of a crime weren’t theoretical: the former president has been indicted in Manhattan for allegedly falsifying business records.
Republicans have rushed to his defense since the charges were filed late last month, and on Monday, the GOP-controlled House judiciary committee will hold a hearing in New York City on crime, as part of their counterattack to Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg. Democrats have in the past shunned such hearings, but will reportedly show up to this one to defend prosecutor.
The committee’s Republican majority this morning announced the witnesses who would appear at the hearing. From their press release:
Jose Alba, former Manhattan bodega clerk
Madeline Brame, chairwoman of the Victims Rights Reform Council and mother of a homicide victim
Jennifer Harrison, founder of Victims Rights NY
They may also announce more witnesses.
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Trump: 'I'd never drop out'
Donald Trump gave a lengthy interview to conservative Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson last night in which he made his usual bombastic claims, as well as a bit of news.
Carlson asked the former president, who is vying to return to the White House in next year’s election, whether he would consider dropping out of the presidential race if he was convicted of a crime. “I’d never drop out. It’s not my thing, I wouldn’t do it.”
You can see the moment where he says that in the clip below:
The Biden administration is set to take a major step towards weaning the American car industry off fossil fuels with new regulations announced today. Here’s the Guardian’s Dani Anguiano to tell you what they are:
The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed strict new automobile pollution limits that would require that all-electric vehicles account for as many as two of every three new vehicles sold in the US by 2032 in a plan that would transform the US auto industry.
Under the proposed regulation, released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), greenhouse gas emissions for the 2027 through 2032 model years for passenger vehicles would be limited to even stricter levels than the auto industry agreed to in 2021.
The EPA administrator, Michael Regan, insisted the targets were “readily achievable”, with EV sales tripling since Biden came to office, and despite the skepticism of some automakers about the pace of the transition needed for the plans.
'Those who seek to silence us will not have the final say' declares ousted TN Democrat
Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were both Black Democratic lawmakers in the Tennessee House, until the chamber’s Republican supermajority last Thursday voted to remove them.
The stated reason was that they took part in a demonstration held on the chamber’s floor in which they used bullhorns to join protesters calling for more gun protection following a mass shooting at a Nashville school that killed six people late last month. A white Democratic lawmaker who joined in was not expelled.
But Pearson and Jones are both set to boomerang right back to their seats. Jones was reappointed by the Nashville metropolitan council on Monday, while Pearson’s appointment will be up for consideration by the Shelby county board of commissioners in Memphis today. However, both lawmakers will need to win forthcoming special elections to keep their seats for good.
In his New York Times essay, Pearson outlined the reasons why he wants his seat back, and why he fought so vigorously for gun control. Here’s what he has to say:
It’s not just our individual voices that were sanctioned and silenced last Thursday. It was the voices of the nearly 135,000 Tennesseans we represented — many who are desperate for protection from the absence of many common-sense gun safety laws in our state. Since the Covenant School shooting, the Republican supermajority in the State House has done little but advance a bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in school and propose a $140 million budget increase to pay for the presence of armed guards in public schools, further militarizing them without adequate evidence that this makes schools safer.
Besides expanding already expansive gun rights, Republican-led statehouses across the country are proposing and passing staggering numbers of bills that serve a fringe, white evangelical agenda that abrogates the rights and freedoms of the rest of us. They’re passing legislation to control the intellectual freedom of writers and educators, proposing laws that would restrict the bodily autonomy of transgender children and people who can become pregnant, and curtailing even our right to vote. Combined with a shrinking social safety net as people lose access to resources to meet basic health, housing and food needs, we have a nation in pain and peril.
In a small victory for our people clamoring for change, Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday that he would sign an executive order strengthening background checks for buying firearms and called for Republican lawmakers to support a red flag law.
I was elected early this year by the people of Memphis and Millington to stand up for all of us against encroachments on our freedoms.
I will continue to fight with and for our people, whether in or out of office. We and the young protesters are the future of a new Tennessee. Those who seek to silence us will not have the final say.
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Second ousted Tennessee Democrat could be returned to statehouse today
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Justin Pearson was one of two Democratic lawmakers the Tennessee house of representatives expelled last week for holding a noisy protest in favor of gun control, but his exile could end today. Local commissioners in his district will vote on whether to reappoint him to his seat, which is what happened on Monday to Justin Jones, the other legislator booted by the chamber’s GOP majority. “I wasn’t elected to be pushed to the back of the room and silenced,” Pearson declared in a New York Times op-ed published this morning. We’ll see if his local counterparts agree.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Joe Biden is in Northern Ireland, where has met with British prime minister Rishi Sunak, and will head to Dublin later today. Follow our live blog for the latest on the president’s travels to the land of his ancestors.
Kamala Harris will convene the White House’s reproductive health care taskforce at 2.45pm as access to medication abortion appears imperiled.
Tim Scott has formed an exploratory committee to run for the GOP’s presidential nomination next year. To succeed, he’ll have to beat the 800-pound Republican gorilla: Donald Trump.
