Conservatives criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for making an unannounced trip to Tennessee to meet with Democratic lawmakers who were kicked out of the state house for disrupting meetings, but she ignored the victims of the mass shooting that led to the protest.
The Vice President went to the Tennessee capital on Friday at the last minute to meet with two state lawmakers who were kicked out of the General Assembly for protesting for gun control after a shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville that killed six people, including three children.
CNN said that Harris met privately with Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who were both kicked out of office, as well as with Rep. Gloria Johnson, who avoided being kicked out by just one vote.
She also met with advocates and the whole Democratic Tennessee state caucus. However, she did not visit the victims and their families after the deadly school shooting, which made critics very angry.
“Kamala Harris isn’t going to Tennessee to meet with the families of those who died in the horrific shooting,” political commentator Dan Eberhart tweeted Friday.
“She’s going there to meet with Democrats who are upset over facing consequences for their actions.”
Actor Rob Schneider also took issue with Harris’ visit, saying the trip “reveals herself.”
“She visits when 3 Dem legislators are kicked out or censured by Tennessee legislature. But she doesn’t visit when 3 Nine Year Old Children are murdered…” the “Hot Chick” star tweeted.
Prominent conservative lawyer Jenna Ellis accused Harris of dismissing the victims.
“They’ve dismissed the real victims of this tragedy almost as badly as they did East Palestine, OH,” she tweeted.
Harris’s spokeswoman wouldn’t tell The Post why she couldn’t meet with the victims of the tragedy, which happened when a transgender shooter opened fire at the private Christian elementary school where Harris used to go.
No one was able to reach The Covenant School, even though they tried. Right now, there is no school because of Easter break.
During her visit, Harris also gave a fiery speech at the Fisk University chapel. In it, she criticized Tennessee Republicans for stifling free speech by removing their opponents from the legislature.
“It wasn’t about the three of these leaders. It was about who they were representing. It’s about whose voices they were channeling! Understand that!” she emphasized in her impassioned remarks.
“And is that not what a democracy allows? A democracy says you don’t silence the people! You do not stifle the people!” she continued, raising her voice.
“You don’t turn off their microphones when they’re speaking about the importance of life and liberty!”
Critics were also quick to call the emotional speech hypocritical, pointing out that the Democrats had hidden a bombshell report about Hunter Biden’s laptop from The Washington Post before the 2020 election.
“Then why was the Hunter Biden laptop story silenced?” asked immigration lawyer Matthew Kolken.
On March 27, 28-year-old Audrey Hale shot and killed three children and three staff members over the course of 14 minutes.
Two police officers shot and killed Hale at the scene.
A few days later, Reps. Jones, Pearson, and Johnson led a protest for gun control that drew so many people that it went into the state capitol building.
On Thursday, the Tennessee House of Representatives, which is run by Republicans, voted to kick out Jones and Pearson.
On Friday, President Biden invited the three Democrats from Tennessee to come to the White House.
“Earlier today, I spoke to Reps. Jones, Pearson, and Johnson to thank them for their leadership and courage in the face of a blatant disregard of our nation’s democratic values,” Biden wrote in an Instagram post Friday, in which he shared an image of himself on a video call with the three.
