With World Cup 30 Days Away, ICE Still Threatens Fans

The GOP is responding to Democrats protesting being wiped off the map by ripping away the last bit of representative power they had, all while scolding them for “instigating and encouraging disruptions … in coordination with paid protestors and attendees,” and using “prohibited props and noisemakers on the House Floor.”

“Speaker of the TN House Cameron Sexton just removed me and every Democrat—and therefore every Black elected official in the state legislature from any committee we served on,” said Representative Justin Pearson, who was at the forefront of last week’s protests. “This move strips nearly 2 million Tennesseans from the representation they deserve in TN state [legislature].

“I just got an official letter from Speaker Cameron Sexton stripping me of all my committee assignments for protesting their white supremacist agenda.… Just as my white Republican colleagues chose racial retaliation against Tennessee’s Black voters, the Speaker of the House is now choosing retaliation against a Black lawmaker for standing up against their Jim Crow racial gerrymander,” Representative Justin Jones wrote. “His assault on our democracy is not about me, but silencing the voices of the people who democratically elected me, the 70,000 people who call District 52 home.