One of two Tennessee legislators who were expelled from the state House last week over a disruptive gun control demonstration is being called a fraud after a video resurfaced showing he completely transformed the way he speaks in recent years.
Democratic state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were ousted after they joined Rep. Gloria Johnson in encouraging what the left might have called an “insurrection” had the mob been made up of conservatives.
The trio wanted a ban on “assault weapons” after a transgender shooter murdered three students and three adults at a Nashville Christian school March 27.
They did not get such a ban, and so they encouraged rioters to swarm the Capitol on March 30.
“Let us in!”
State troopers block demonstrators gathered in the Tennessee State Capitol protesting the expulsion vote of three Democratic representatives over gun violence protest. https://t.co/JTQO41Wc6l pic.twitter.com/hWZTZxlJGB
— ABC News (@ABC) April 6, 2023
Students protest gun violence at the state Capitol in Tennessee, one week after the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville. pic.twitter.com/THQ9LceFzc
— The Recount (@therecount) April 3, 2023
On Thursday, the legislature’s Republican supermajority voted to expel Jones and Pearson, both of whom portrayed themselves as civil rights martyrs.
Pearson really went all-in, using his best Southern preacher voice as he claimed to be a victim of racial oppression.
Watch this:
This speech by the wrongfully-expelled Rep. Justin Pearson will go down in history as one of the greatest. I’m FIRED UP!pic.twitter.com/ZP9Foeb76U
— Dash Dobrofsky (@DashDobrofsky) April 7, 2023
In reality, he broke the legislature’s rules for decorum and threw a tantrum when he and his fellow Democrats didn’t get their way.
Jones has been reinstated, and Pearson too could be back on the House floor, where he will get more opportunities to make a mockery of the state government.
But as for now, Pearson is the one being mocked after a video of him in college showed he was a level-headed young man whose voice did not resemble that of a knockoff of Martin Luther King Jr.
Watch how differently he expressed himself just a few years ago when he was a student at Bowdoin College in Maine:
Justin Pearson was a normal, middle class clean cut black college student in 2016 when he ran for BSG president. He spoke about bringing together liberals and conservatives, to meet in the “radical middle” and waxed lyrical about the importance of “hearing every voice”. https://t.co/faED0Oi8WF pic.twitter.com/hfN6zaAmyA
— Aimee Terese (@aimeeterese) April 11, 2023
Video of Pearson’s new approach to the English language elicited quite a response from many who came across it on Twitter:
Wow…this is Justin Pearson’s normal voice
Total fraud https://t.co/PfsA6HWTA2
— Jack Poso ?? (@JackPosobiec) April 11, 2023
That fake sermon voice. ??♀️
— Awake, not Woke (@Doembon) April 11, 2023
I can’t stop laughing! ????
Justin Pearson transformed from Carlton Banks to Malcolm X. pic.twitter.com/viuqjtHoZU
— Samuel Sey (@SlowToWrite) April 11, 2023
You mean he doesn’t normally sound like a cheap knockoff MLK? Shocking.
— Still Boneless (@still_boneless) April 11, 2023
I mean, how long did he practice the MLK voice. Come on guy, be original. That is most definitely an act!
— Lead By Example, Even When No One Is Looking (@HeadMotivator) April 11, 2023
Been coaching himself a lot. I bet he couldn’t wait for the chance to show off his ‘impersonation’…
— K0RÄT ™ (@KORAT_TM) April 11, 2023
When he said he wants to “bring together different voices”, he meant for himself
— ?? (@NickLeddysBeard) April 11, 2023
Putting on a fake Southern preacher accent when addressing issues of race is sort of a rite of passage for Democrats.
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But that doesn’t make Pearson’s blatant political theater any less absurd or hilarious.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
