Tennessee State Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), who were expelled from the state House of Representatives last month, protested in Washington D.C. over the weekend.

Jones and Pearson were expelled last month after they, along with State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), commandeered the House Floor to demand gun control in the wake of the Covenant Presbyterian School shooting three days prior.

Both Jones and Pearson have since been reinstated to their positions by the Nashville Metro City Council and Shelby County Commission on an interim basis.

On Saturday, Jones and Pearson were spotted in Washington D.C., taking part in a protest organized by the environmentalist group Climate Defiance. The group attempted to blockade the White House Correspondents Dinner.

The group was protesting the Biden administration’s recent approval of a 30-year Alaskan oil drilling project, known as the Willow Project. The protesters alleged that through the move, the Biden administration was committing “ecocide.”

Jones and Pearson’s appearance at the protest came less than one week after they, along with Representative Johnson, visited the White House and met with both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Climate Defiance’s Saturday protest in Washington D.C. may not be its last. According to its website, the group’s D.C. protest marked the first “nonviolent direct action” in wake of President Biden’s “failure” to deliver on promises regarding ends to “new leasing on federal lands.”

The group’s website states:

WE WILL START WITH A SERIES OF NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTIONS CASCADING WITH A MASS TURNOUT BLOCKADE OF THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS DINNER.

The President promised us an end to new leasing on federal lands but failed to deliver. Now, he needs to hear from the voting block that delivered him the 2022 midterm elections.

We will provide direct action training to all participants.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Justin Jones” by Climate Defiance.