CNN Newsroom: Interview With State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-TN)

Interview

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I just want to talk about the immediacy of getting solutions for gun violence. I think that we have to continue to lift that issue.

And I'm so very proud of this young generation, who are organizing and fighting and working so hard. They're showing up and they're speaking up at the capital.

And it's wonderful to see so many people united. Toddlers, teens and their parents and college students just really coming out, saying we want to be protected.

And that is what the three of us were trying to do and trying to bring attention to that on our House floor. And that's what we're going to keep bringing attention to.

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You know, I -- he can say that now, but that certainly wasn't the tone of the questioning and what we were hearing in that room.

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Meaning, they were -- they were talking down. They were rude. It was like they were -- they were prosecutors. But then they didn't allow us to build a defense.

They allowed themselves to bring video. But we were told we could not bring video. We have no idea, you know, who filmed that video, who edited that video. They promised it was only video from the floor.

But as it turned out, it had video from other days in it. And so they were just honest throughout the procedure.

And we didn't really find out much about the procedure until six o'clock the night before.

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I kept hearing from some across the aisle that they that they didn't feel like we showed enough - weren't apologetic, weren't conciliatory, that sort of thing.

But, you know, I knew I was breaking a rule. But, because they're not following Democratic processes, that's why we felt that we had to break the rule.

And we were not allowed -- we were silenced on the floor multiple times that day. We were not allowed to address those protesters, thousands of protesters outside that were there for safety for their children.

We just wanted to welcome them, acknowledge they were there, say that we saw them, we cared about their issue and we would fight hard for gun sense legislation.

That's all we wanted to do. We weren't allowed on the floor, and so we just decided to take those few minutes to be able to do that.

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Yes, what it does is, the first part of the process is it goes to those metro councils or commissions and they will appoint a replacement.

And yes, they are -- it's completely allowable for them to a point the former representatives.

There's some question as to the law as it relates to -- it's really undefined. There's nothing in there that says it can't be in the General Assembly, the same 113th General Assembly, which we are in now.

But there are some lawyers who maintain that it can't be in the same General Assembly. But other lawyers will say it doesn't say that.

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So it's going to be a legal question.

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I -- so when I was standing there, you know, I just started to walk off of the floor, just like Justin did after he was expelled, and they're like, no, you they you won the vote, you won the vote. And I was like, I can't -- you know, when all I started saying, but that's not ok because of Justin.

And so, for me, I took no satisfaction at that point for winning because I was so concerned about Justin Jones, who had -- who had gone before me. His -- his resolution went before mine.

And I just broke down in tears because it just mortified me. He made such a beautiful defense.

And you know, after his -- I was like, oh, my goodness, I can never be that eloquent, that articulate that you know, powerful. What a powerful speaker. And then Justin Pearson after that.

But when you heard the tone of the questioning in there on how they were questioned and how I was questioned, it was clear what that was about. It was so clear.

And they -- the thing was they were so good at pinpointing it out and hitting it directly. I was so proud of them.

We need their voices in the legislature. And I'll do everything I can to help them get back.

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Yes. Yes, Justin Jones, when his - in Nashville, it's more Democratic. In Knoxville, is very Republican.

So my race was in the general election against a Republican. His biggest race was he didn't even have a challenger in the Democratic general election. His big race was in the primary.

So after he run -- won his primary, he committed to come to Knoxville. And he came multiple times to Knoxville to help me knock doors and all of that.

And I said, Justin, I'm going to be there for you in Nashville. I will go to Memphis for Justin Pearson and do everything that I can to help them come back.

Because I truly believe that those voices are desperately needed in our General Assembly, who is not listening to a large part of the population in Tennessee.

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Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for having me on, Fredricka.

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