Tennessee Capitol protest explainer: Here's what did and did not happen

More than a 1,000 peaceful protestors rallied around Tennessee’s state Capitol on March 30 calling for more restrictive gun laws. Many made their way into the Capitol in a demonstration top Republican lawmakers have likened to “an insurrection.”

No demonstrators broke into the Capitol, no one was arrested or injured, and no property was damaged.

But legislative business in the House was brought to a halt when three elected Democratic representatives stood at the podium with a bullhorn to lead protestors in the galleries in calls for gun reform.

House Republicans filed resolutions Monday to expel the three members who interrupted legislative business, triggering a removal process expected to take place this Thursday. The trio will have a chance to defend their actions, but expulsion is likely under the Republican supermajority in the House.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, compared the events on March 30 to "at least equivalent, maybe worse" than the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which left a protestor dead, many police officers injured and millions of dollars of property damaged.

Clarifying his comments on Monday, Sexton said it was not his intent to conflate the protesters at the Capitol with the three lawmakers.

Still, misinformation and false allegations continue to circulate that protestors illegally stormed the House chamber or staged an "attempted takeover" of the Tennessee Capitol.

Here’s what to know.

What happened on Thursday?

Protesters gathered inside and outside the state Capitol beginning before 8 a.m. on Thursday, March 30. Protestors loudly but peacefully confronted lawmakers as they arrived for legislative sessions, asking them how they would increase school safety. By mid-morning, the crowd gathered at War Memorial Plaza, where several speakers called for gun-control in the wake of The Covenant School shooting on March 27.

A smaller crowd remained inside the Capitol just outside the House and Senate chamber doors, where they remained loudly protesting until the early afternoon.

How did protesters enter the Capitol building?

Most protestors entered the Capitol building through the west entrance of the second floor. Everyone was required to go through security, managed by officers from the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

Demonstrators congregated in the area outside the House chamber, under a rotunda-like ceiling directly accessed by two elevators and stairs leading to the first floor of the Capitol.

The area is flanked by two staircases where members of the public can access the viewing gallery of the House. The area in front of the Senate, down the hall, was cordoned off, and protestors did not try to fill down the hallway.

What about the video showing THP officers pushing protesters?

The protest did get very loud and was chaotic at times. Because lawmakers arrive at the Capitol via the elevators, they had to walk through the crowd to get into the House chamber. THP officers cleared paths where necessary to allow this.

Lawmakers also had to wade back through the crowd to use the only available restroom. Lawmakers were yelled and chanted at along these paths.

Later in the morning, after a lawmaker went in the restroom, three young men stood outside the door, facing out toward the crowd. A THP officer in the restroom pulled one person back to allow a pathway for the lawmaker to return to the chamber. A group of THP officers pushed against some protesters through the walkway to return the lawmaker to the chamber.

Officers then pulled one of the young men out of the crowd, but he was soon released and allowed to return to the protest.

THP confirmed to The Tennessean no arrests were made, no property was damaged and the protest resolved "peacefully."

Why did legislative business come to a halt?

As members of the House of Representatives debated an education bill, three House Democrats approached the podium, called the "well," without being recognized to speak — breaching the chamber’s rules of procedure.

With a bullhorn, Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, and Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, led protestors in the galleries in several chants calling for gun reform.

Sexton immediately recessed the chamber, halting legislative business for nearly an hour before it resumed, and ordered security to clear the House galleries.

Sexton huddled with legislative leadership, including House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, and House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, during the break in business and before the three lawmakers left the floor.

No protestors tried to access or were allowed on the chamber floor. When Sexton ordered security to clear the galleries, protesters left willingly.

What did not happen?

No protestors broke into the state Capitol. No one entered without going through security. No members of the public stormed the House chamber floor.

Was anyone arrested or injured?

Tennessee Highway Patrol has confirmed that the March 30 protests were peaceful, that no protestors were arrested, and no injuries or property damage were reported as a result.

At one point, THP officers physically removed one protestor from blocking one lawmaker’s path to the public restroom. The protestor was not arrested, and immediately returned to the protest.

Throughout the morning, state troopers escorted protestors from the House and Senate chamber galleries when they disrupted legislative proceedings, which is not an unusual occurrence at the Capitol during contentious debate.

Why are Republicans calling it an insurrection?

Sexton, the House speaker, and several other Republicans have compared the protests Thursday to events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after several conservative media outlets suggested protestors attempted to "take over" or storm the Tennessee Capitol.

On Monday, Sexton walked back some of his remarks, saying his "intent" was misrepresented and he meant to differentiate between the protest and the three Democratic lawmakers.

“I don’t know if you heard what happened today, but there were three Democratic lawmakers, one from Knoxville, who basically tried to take over the House floor and cause an insurrection on the House floor today," Sexton said in his radio comments.

“So we were in between bills, and Rep. Justin Jones,  Rep. Justin Pearson, and Rep. Gloria Johnson came to the well. We had protestors that had been vocal in the balcony. We had given them warnings. They were out in front of the chamber, being very vocal, yelling and screaming, which we are used to, at one point during session, to come up out of order and try to take over the House floor. Started pulling out a megaphone and shouting at members, and incite riots or violence. You had people outside the chamber who rushed the state troopers to try and get inside the chamber. They weren’t successful. So now we have multiple violations by those three.”Sexton released a social media statement on Monday after receiving public pushback about the characterization.

"My comments on Thursday were not directed toward the peaceful protestors; they were solely directed toward the actions of three Democrat lawmakers who rushed the well and those who led a protest on the House floor with a bullhorn," Sexton said.

"There were a lot of protestors and the vast majority of protestors were peaceful, they were there with their parents, they were there with their other classmates. They were peaceful," Sexton later said. "There were videos that showed that in some instances, a few may have acted out. Unfortunately, some people will take that to be representative of the whole when it's not."

What are Democrats saying? 

Democrats clashed with the three lawmakers on the floor of the House as leadership decided how to respond to the unprecedented situation.

Veteran Democrats were seen loudly arguing with Jones before they all went into an antechamber. House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, later said the trio was making "good trouble" and said sometimes different lawmakers approach situations differently due to their backgrounds, referring to both Pearson and Jones' rise through advocacy circles.

"I want to apologize to the mothers, the fathers and the children who came to our state Capitol yesterday to speak and demand action. You had parents take their kids out of school — a lot of schools let their students out — they came up here, they took time out of their schedules to come up to the Capitol to make their voices heard," state Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, told reporters a day later. "And less than 24 hours later, members of this body, members of the supermajority Republican Party are referring to those families as insurrectionists."

What will happen next?

Republican leadership is considering expelling the three members for their actions on March 30. Formal resolutions to expel were filed Monday, triggering a process which will allow Johnson, Jones, and Pearson to defend their actions.

On Monday morning, Johnson and Jones were formally stripped of their committee assignments. Pearson, who was just sworn in last week, had not yet been assigned any committees.

Expulsion would be an extraordinary step for lawmakers to take. Both Pearson and Jones are freshman lawmakers.

If the three are expelled, they would be eligible to run for office again. If elected, current House rules do not allow expulsion of members twice for the same offense.

Have House members been expelled before?

Yes. The last time the House expelled a sitting lawmaker was in 2016 when the chamber voted 70-2 to remove then-Rep. Jeremy Durham, R-Franklin, from the House for alleged sexual misconduct.

Robert Fisher was kicked out of the House in 1980 after being convicted of soliciting a $1,000 bribe in exchange for trying to kill a bill.

Six lawmakers were ousted during an 1866 special session after they tried to prevent Tennessee from ratifying an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to provide citizenship to former slaves.

House leadership in recent years declined to take sanctions action against a lawmaker accused of sexually assaulting minors when serving as a basketball coach decades earlier and against a former House Speaker Glen Casada, R-Franklin.

Casada was forced out as speaker amid a scandal involving sexist and racist text messages in 2019 and was later federally indicted on corruption charges. Prosecutors accused him of the crimes while he was in office. He has pleaded not guilty.

Last year, for the first time in its history, the Tennessee Senate voted to expel a senator, stripping Sen. Katrina Robinson, D-Memphis, of her elected position following her federal conviction on federal wire fraud charges.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Capitol protest: Here's what did and did not happen March 30