CNN’s Don Lemon on expelled Tennessee lawmakers: ‘It’s racism’

“And so I think that we really need to think about the double standard in the society,” Lemon said during CNN’s flagship morning program on Friday. “You may want to call it an unconscious bias … It’s racism. It’s exactly, that’s all that it is. And what they were trying to do is something that was good for the country and for Tennessee and for the country. And they ended up with the worst outcome.”

Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) were expelled from the Republican-controlled Tennessee House late Thursday for participating in a gun violence protest days after a mass shooting at a school in Nashville that left six dead.

Jones said during an appearance on MSNBC later Thursday that race played a role in the decision to expel he and his college and “basically had a member call me an uppity Negro.”

“It’s not about me, but it’s about the 78,000 people I represent,” Jones said.

Lemon said there could have been other measures taken against the two lawmakers for participating in the protest, and kicking them from the House was a step too far.

“I think it’s obvious. Look … They could have done a censure. Right. I think the right question was why take the most drastic action afterwards,” Lemon said. “This is exactly what our country was built on. On protesting. Not everyone, protests aren’t perfect. It’s also unconscious bias. It’s racism; it’s a double standard in our society.”