Tennessee’s Republican-dominated House of Representatives has expelled two Democrats over their participation in a gun control demonstration at the state legislature last week.
The protest came in the wake of the school shooting in Nashville on 27 March where six people, including three children, were killed.
The Republicans, who control the house 75-23, voted to remove representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson.
A move to expel a third Democratic member who stood with them during the protest on the floor of the chamber, Gloria Johnson, failed by one vote.
Republican representatives Andrew Farmer, Gino Bulso, and Bud Hulsey had filed the three resolutions on Monday to expel their Democratic colleagues, saying they broke decorum by leading the demonstration.
Image: Gloria Johnson (L), Justin Jones (C), and Justin Pearson (R) leave the Tennessee State Capitol
The House voted 72-25 along party lines to remove Mr Jones and 69-26 to remove Mr Pearson. But Ms Johnson was spared when the vote to expel her came up 65-30.
A total of 66 votes are needed for expulsion.
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“You cannot ignore the racial dynamic of what happened today. Two young black lawmakers get expelled and the one white woman does not. That’s a statement in and of itself,” Mr Pearson told reporters after the vote.
President Joe Biden decried the proceedings, tweeting that they were “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent”.
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Former president Barack Obama also criticised the move, saying: “This nation was built on peaceful protest. No elected official should lose their job simply for raising their voice – especially when they’re doing it on behalf of our children.”
Only two Tennessee state representatives have been expelled by their colleagues since the Civil War: one in 1980 for soliciting a bribe in exchange for blocking legislation and another in 2016 after being accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women.
Both expulsions were made with overwhelming, bipartisan votes.
The Democratic Party in Tennessee said it was raising funds to support special elections for any of those expelled.
Image: Protesters gathered in the public gallery
The three Democratic lawmakers led protesters last week to demand stricter gun laws.
Republicans in the resolutions calling for their expulsion accused the three of engaging in “disorderly behaviour” and said they “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonour to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions”.
The Secret Service shot an armed man near the White House, the agency said.
The incident happened shortly after midnight on Sunday after an “armed confrontation” with law enforcement, according to the agency.
Local police had reported a “suicidal individual” possibly travelling to Washington DC from Indiana, the agency said.
“As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm, and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel,” the Secret Service said in a statement on X posted by spokesman Anthony Guiglielmi.
The suspect was transported to hospital and his condition was not known.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
President Trump promised profound change. His former aide Steve Bannon said the first few weeks would be ‘days of thunder’.
It’s been all of that and more.
Domestically and globally Donald Trump has proudly upturned norms.
One key question for me these past few weeks has been: if much of the world (and liberal America) has been buffeted and bewildered by Donald Trump, what do those who chose him back in November think, nearly 50 days in?
I’ve been back to Pennsylvania, a place I have spent plenty of time over the past few years. It’s crucial in every election and was particularly so last November.
The state is sort of a microcosm for the country. To the east and west are the urban Democratic strongholds of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
In between are the rural Republican heartlands. And dotted throughout are the hinterlands – smaller towns where there is more of a mix of voters but still with a general lean towards the Republicans or, more specifically, to Trump.
On the edge of Gettysburg, a bleak rocky outcrop marks the location of the battle which changed the course of the civil war. The threads which stitch America run through this place.
A few hundred metres away is the spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address.
It was 1863 and America’s 16th president marked the end of the battle with a reminder to a country divided by a civil war that it was a nation founded years earlier on the principles of liberty and equality.
Lincoln was America’s most consequential president, until now, maybe.
In the town’s Lincoln Square, a statue of the 16th president stands tall. My focus was the new White House occupant.
“10!” It was the first of many ‘tens’ on my Trump scorecard.
“Oh he’s doing great…Yeah he’s doing real great,” one man said.
I asked what, in particular, he was happy with. “The money he’s making me.” The theme was the same with the next person.
“Trying to pass no tax on social security for one, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime – help out the workers, help out the retirees, that’s very important to me,” Mike said.
My third conversation was with a couple. I suggested to them that the federal firings had felt quite chaotic; a sledgehammer approach.
“No. I think they’re using a scalpel. They’re finding so much. It looks bad,” the man said.
“We had too many people that were in those jobs, they weren’t doing anything,” his wife added.
Image: A couple say that Donald Trump has been a ‘scalpel’ – not a ‘sledgehammer’
“He’s upsetting Europe as well…” I said in my next conversation. “That’s not good, is it? We’re supposed to be friends.” I suggested with a smile.
“Yeah, well we need Europe to step up too,” the man replied.
Lunch was at Chubby’s, a local pizza joint where I met Tom Jaskulski, a retired federal worker, now a handyman.
“He campaigned on all these policies, and he’s fulfilling them,” Tom told me. “It seems like the world’s waking up when Donald Trump came in office.
“A lot of things are happening worldwide, not just in this country.”
Image: ‘He’s rattling the hornet’s nest,’ Tom Jaskulski says
Tom’s score? “10! Not because I’m wearing his hat, but a 10 because he’s doing what he says he’s going to do.
“You know, he’s rattling the hornet’s nest.”
Down the road, at the Yankee Doodle Pet Spa, Tina and her 22-year-old apprentice Molly had no regrets and were baffled that anyone could think they would.
“He’s doing what he said he was going to do and I am quite happy with him right now,” Tina said.
Image: ‘I don’t think (Ukrainians) deserve our money,’ Tina says
Our conversation turned to Ukraine. I wanted to know her thoughts on President Trump’s abruptly shifting position and near-abandonment of Kyiv.
“It’s not our war. We have enough people in this country suffering, that’s how I feel about it. I don’t think they deserve our money,” Tina said, quoting the president’s exaggerated figures for how much America had spent in Ukraine.
But then our conversation cut to the core of where America is right now: siloed worlds.
We were discussing Elon Musk and his efforts to cut government bureaucracy.
“The social security, blowing that open with all of the people that are over 124 still getting social security,” Molly said of Musk’s claim that he had discovered social security was being paid to dead people.
“160 years old, I heard…” said Tina.
“Yeah, that’s insane,” Molly said.
I interrupted: “You know that’s been debunked? That wasn’t true. I’m worried that people are believing things that actually aren’t true. That the Trump administration is telling you stuff that is not true. What do you think?”
“I think it’s both ways,” Molly said, “I think both sides put out fake news and fake propaganda for each other.”
It was clear she didn’t know who to believe. She’d lost all trust in the legacy media. She and Tina had been drawn to social media and they’d concluded President Trump was trustworthy.
Back in Lincoln Square, a chance meeting exposed the other side of all this – deep anxiety.
“I’m a trans person so a lot of his policies have been impacting transgender people and that is just, it’s a scary time to live in,” 22-year-old Em told me.
Image: Em said ‘there’s a lot of hatred in the world right now’
“There’s a lot of hatred in the world right now, especially at so many groups of people. I mean, it’s really… yeah…” Em said before trailing off, face filled with anxiety and emotion.
By nightfall my journey of conversations had taken me to the quiz night at a bar and brewery in Waynesboro.
“I’ve never been more embarrassed to be American…” one woman called Jacqueline said.
Image: Jacqueline has ‘never been more embarrassed to be American,’ and Andrew says everyone is in their ‘own echo chambers’
Her quiz night partner, Andrew, chipped in. “I think it’s the access to information. I think we don’t go out and talk to each other.
“I think we’re on the internet all day. A lot of people are just on the internet and they’re getting news sources from their own echo chambers.”
“Things have been going downhill for a long time,” another man called Marco, at the next door table, said.
“I’m not saying Trump’s right about everything, but you know what? At least he’s trying, he’s doing something different. And I agree with what he’s doing.”
Image: Marco says Donald Trump is ‘doing something different’
This wave of change has been profound. But to assume that those who chose this change – who chose Donald Trump – would have any regrets would be to fundamentally misunderstand America today.
The profound sentiment among everyone we spoke to who voted for him is that he is putting America first with a tangibility that they have never felt before.
It may turn out to be an illusion. But they feel no sense of that at the moment.
He is rattling the cage and so many here couldn’t be happier.
A state of emergency has been issued in New York as brush fires sweep through swathes of Long Island and near Brooklyn.
Firefighters are battling the flames with National Guard helicopters providing air support, according to New York State governor Kathy Hochul.
The flames are being fanned by high winds that spewed thick smoke into the sky and caused the evacuation of a military base and the closure of a major highway.
Governor Hochul said emergency workers were responding to the fires around the Pine Barrens, a wooded area that is home to commuter towns east of New York City.
“This is still out of control at this moment,” she told Long Island TV station News 12.
“We’re seeing people having to be evacuated from the Westhampton area.”
Around the same time as videos started appearing on social media showing the fires, the Town of Southampton issued a warning against starting recreational fires due to the wildfire risk.
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“Exercise caution handling any potential ignition sources, including machinery, cigarettes, and matches,” the weather service warned.
“Any fires that ignite will have the potential to spread quickly.”