#ExpelByrd thread OK folks, hang on, I 'm going to tell you more about the admitted child molester in the state house who is being protected by the GOP, Rep. David Byrd.

Byrd was formerly a teacher and girl's basketball coach in his district. After it became public in 2018 that he was credibly accused of sexual assault of 15 year olds and even admitted guilt and apologized on an 18 minute recorded phone call...

with one of his victims, after the GOP Speaker of the House and the Lt. Governor said he should resign, he remained and was basically given safe harbor by the GOP.

On January 18th Cade Cothren set up a meeting with Alana Autler, a reporter, and Speaker Casada and Rep. Byrd. In this meeting, Rep Byrd said the women were lying.

Yet when the story aired, Casada and Byrd said that was the first they had heard of the accusations. The next week, Byrd called one of his victim's place of employment and asked her boss for a tour of the facility where she worked.

It is thought that he was doing so to show his power as a legislator and try to bully her in to staying quiet.

Then in February the recorded phone call happened, he admitted what he did was wrong, talked about how hard it was for HIM, and said that God has forgiven him and tried to keep her from saying anymore-an 18 minute call.

Yet in the 2018 election cycle, the GOP ran no one against Byrd and spent thousands on mail in Byrd's district calling his sexual assault victims "unhinged" and said they were doing this for political reasons.

Wow, the GOP spent money re-victimizing these sexual assault survivors. Byrd, refused to answer any questions about it and has not publicly denied it.

They were ostracized in their community due to the mail that was sent and Byrd's attempts to cover his crime. He did all of this while in office.

There is something in the law that talks about a coverup as a continuation of the crime. I say it sure seems we have the cover up and it sure sounds as if the GOP participated in the cover up.

Governor Lee met with one of the victims and he said he believed her. Rep Dunn met with her as well and said he believed her. Yet no one is doing anything to remove him.

In August, the special session to remove disgraced Speaker Glen Casada, I decided I would bring a resolution to expel Byrd as a member.

I made the motion to remove, just as a motion had been made to remove Jeremy Durham, and Rep Curcio said he would investigate this situation through his Judiciary Committee and tabled my motion-

he spoke for 5 minutes on his intention to investigate the situation immediately. We had barely left the floor when Speaker Sexton was already trying to walk it back because of an AG opinion they filed.

The AG opinion only addressed the sexual assault that happened before Byrd was elected, it did not address the fact that the cover up took place while Byrd was in office.

The AG opinion was that it needed to be decided by the legislature. So it turns out I had gone about it correctly.

Immediately turned in to "there has to be a new bill." I wrote a new Resolution. It turned into "it has to go to Constitutional Protections and Sentencing."

It went to that committee, a committee Rep Curcio was sitting in, he took a walk before they called the Resolution, and as there was only one Democrat in the committee, it did not get a second-which means I am not able to speak on the bill.

Broken promises to sexual assault victims and the entire state of TN, cowardice for leaving the room instead of honoring a promise.

I don't know how these people sleep at night, not even having the courage to stand up against an admitted child molester in the legislature, instead, choosing to protect one.

At the end of the committee meeting, the Chair of the Constitutional Committee, Micah Van Huss, made a brief speech about how he didn't feel this was the place to address the issue.

It seems the AG, Rep Curcio, myself, and my caucus absolutely think this was the place to address it. Apparently Rep Curcio didn't have the courage to do so and decided to go get coffee or something. He returned after my bill had gone through the committee.

Do we have to ask GOP men exactly when and where it is OK to discuss this issue, I have some victims of sexual assault who would like to be heard.

Every day this man is in office and holds power over the children and families in this state as he sits on the Education Committee, is another day he re-victimizes his victims.