Joe Biden calls Tennessee’s expulsion of two Black Democrats for gun control protest ‘undemocratic’ – live

Claims of racism after Republican lawmakers expel two of three Democrats for taking part in protest

• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email

A Good Friday good morning to our US politics blog readers! There’s more than a whiff of racism hanging over the Tennessee state house this morning, where Republican lawmakers on Thursday expelled two of three Democrats who took part in a rowdy gun control protest on the chamber floor.

Those ousted are Black, while the third, who survived the expulsion vote, is white. Their perceived crime was “breaking decorum” for joining constituents demanding tighter gun laws in the wake of last week’s Covenant school shooting in Nashville that killed six, including three nine-year-olds.

Conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas is facing calls for his impeachment after it was revealed he accepted undeclared luxury gifts from a Republican mega-donor for more than two decades.

Stormy Daniels, the adult movie actress paid off by Donald Trump to keep quiet about an encounter before the 2016 election, says in a new interview the former president has been “dethroned”. Trump appeared in court this week charged with falsifying business records relate to the pay-off.

Democrats in North Carolina are fuming over the defection of a lawmaker, giving Republicans a veto-proof supermajority in the state house for critical issues such as abortion, voting rights and gun controls.

Biden received good economic news on Friday with figures showing unemployment in the US down to 3.5%, and 236,000 jobs added in March.

Senate and House lawmakers are on their Easter break, and neither Biden nor vice-president Kamala Harris have any public events scheduled.