'We broke the glass of your false power': Tennessee Democrat scorches Republicans ahead of expulsion vote

This story has been updated.

Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones (D-52nd District) is one of three Democratic lawmakers facing possible expulsion from the legislature by its Republican supermajority for taking part in a gun control protest following last week's mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville.

The other state representatives that could be removed from office are Gloria Johnson (13th District) and Justin Pearson (86th District).

Ahead of Thursday's unprecedented vote, Jones delivered a powerful speech admonishing the GOP for abusing its power:

So today we are brought to here where members are responding in the most extreme measure, not because of what we did, but because by breaking the quorum, we broke the glass of your false power for the world to see. We broke the glass of this chamber that someone called sacred. One of the members on the other side of the aisle was in tears and said, 'I've never seen such a breach of the sacred chamber.' And I thought to myself that representative has obviously never read history because is it, it is in this chamber? If you walk around this capitol, you'll see bullet holes when representatives got into conflict. You'll see duels take place on this House floor. Debating whether people like me should be treated like equal citizens under law. This is not a temple. This is a place where we're supposed to wrestle for our democracy and wrestle ideas and give voice to seventy-eight thousand constituents each of us represents. But for so long, this body drunk with power, has modeled for the world what we known as nothing less than authoritarianism, and today is the climax of that behavior. That a week after a mass shooting plagued our community. The most direct action this legislative body takes, or should I say, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are taking is to expel us for speaking about the issues of weapons of war on our streets.

READ MORE: 'Kids are still in body bags': students protest Tennessee House GOP for refusing to address gun violence

Late Thursday afternoon, the Tennessee House voted 72-25 to expel Jones. NBC News political reporter Adam Edelman noted that "in a process that closely resembles a trial, the Tennessee House allows each member to defend themselves with a 20-minute speech. House members then debate the resolution, and then each member is allowed to answer questions about the accusations against them from lawmakers."

Johnson and Pearson are likely to be next.

Watch below or at this link.

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