Georgia House speaker backtracks on banning senator who was arrested for trying to enter the chamber
Georgia House speaker backtracks on banning senator who was arrested for trying to enter the chamber
Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, is detained by Georgia State Patrol as Moore attempted to enter the state House of Representatives for the state of the state address at the Georgia Capitol, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Atlanta. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, falls to the floor during a shoving match outside door of the state House on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, before he was denied entry at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, is led out of the Georgia Capitol in handcuffs on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, after he was denied entry to the state House and arrested after a shoving match in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, is detained by Georgia State Patrol as Moore attempted to enter the state House of Representatives for the state of the state address at the Georgia Capitol, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Atlanta. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, is detained by Georgia State Patrol as Moore attempted to enter the state House of Representatives for the state of the state address at the Georgia Capitol, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Atlanta. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, falls to the floor during a shoving match outside door of the state House on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, before he was denied entry at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, falls to the floor during a shoving match outside door of the state House on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, before he was denied entry at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, is led out of the Georgia Capitol in handcuffs on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, after he was denied entry to the state House and arrested after a shoving match in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, is led out of the Georgia Capitol in handcuffs on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, after he was denied entry to the state House and arrested after a shoving match in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s House speaker said Friday that he’s lifting his ban on a state senator entering the House chamber, a day after Sen. Colton Moore was arrested after he tried to enter for Gov. Brian Kemp’s state of the state speech.
The decision came after state Senate and Republican Party leaders lined up to support Moore, a Republican who has criticized members of his own party for being insufficiently pure or insufficiently supportive of Donald Trump.
The arrest is one of several examples of state officials trying to restrain lawmakers or onlookers as legislative sessions begin in 2025. With many taking pictures and video, it quickly became the flashiest.
State troopers arrested Moore after he tried to push his way past House staffers who were blocking him. At one point, Keith Williams, a lawyer for the speaker’s office, put his arms around Moore and shoved him away, with Moore falling to the ground. Troopers marched a handcuffed Moore away and booked him into Fulton County jail on a misdemeanor charge of willful obstruction of law enforcement officers. After Moore took a mug shot imitating one Donald Trump famously took at the same jail, a supporter posted Moore’s $1,000 bail.
“How can a attorney for the speaker of the House do some wrestling move, throw the senator on to the ground, and the senator gets arrested with 18 state troopers standing there?” a defiant Moore told reporters Friday. “That is a constitutional crisis. That is tyranny.”
Moore, from Trenton, says Burns can set rules for the House, but that he had a right to attend on Thursday because a joint House-Senate session was meeting to hear Kemp’s speech. Moore said he’s considering legal action against Williams and others.
Burns banned Moore from the House chamber last year after Moore denounced late House Speaker David Ralston on a day when Ralston was being honored and his relatives were watching. Burns called Moore’s remarks “vile” when he announced the ban, saying it would remain until Moore apologized.
Burns, a Republican from Newington, said Friday in a statement that Moore’s desire to “cause a disturbance and gain notoriety in the press broke longstanding rules and precedents of decorum that each member of the General Assembly has a responsibility to uphold.” But he said he’d admit Moore for joint sessions without an apology because Ralston wouldn’t have wanted the legislature’s work to be hindered.
“For this reason, the Ralston family has expressed to their family here in the House that they desire for our chamber to resume business as normal — with all members of the General Assembly present — for any future joint sessions with or without the apology they and the House deserve,” Burns said.
Lt. Edward Starling, a spokesperson for troopers, said he had no update on whether charges would be dropped.
The decision likely averts another showdown on Jan. 28, when a House-Senate joint session is set for state Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs to address lawmakers.
On Friday, with conservative groups supporting Moore, two interns in Burns’ office were doing little but answering phone calls complaining about how Burns treated Moore. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon also lined up in support.
Jones said on Friday that he told Burns that the arrest was an “embarrassment for all of us.”
“Moving forward, you have my word that this will not happen again under my watch,” Jones said in a speech to senators. “Because I will make sure that every senator has a voice in this building.”
Moore was kicked out of the Senate Republican caucus in 2023 after attacking fellow Republicans for refusing to agree to a special session to act against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for indicting Trump. Kemp denounced the call as “ some grifter scam ” seeking campaign contributions.
In 2018, troopers arrested 15 people including Nikema Williams, then a Democratic state senator and now a member of Congress, during a protest in the Georgia Capitol. Troopers arrested state Rep. Park Cannon in 2021 after she knocked on Kemp’s office door as he broadcast a speech.
Charges were dropped both times.
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