A MAGA state senator in Georgia was shoved to the ground and arrested Thursday for trying to defy a ban and forcefully enter the House chambers.
Colton Moore was thrown down as he tried to push his way past police and officials to make it inside the chamber for Gov. Brian Kemp’s state of the state speech.
Moore, 31, was banned indefinitely from the chambers last year after he referred to the late House speaker David Ralston as “one of the most corrupt Georgians we’ve seen in our lives” during a day of remembrance for the longtime Republican politician, whose loved ones were in attendance.
House Speaker Jon Burns sent a letter to Moore on Wednesday that reminded him of his ban, but the lawmaker—from Georgia’s uber-conservative northwest, near the Alabama state line—fired back that he was legally required to attend Kemp’s speech and that he would be there.
Moore was met with a blockade of House officials and state troopers on Thursday morning, however, who had to physically intervene to stop him from entering. Moore stopped his physical push after he hit the deck, video captured by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed, but he then began complaining to a state trooper.
“I represent 200,000 people in northwest Georgia who duly elected me to be here today, and you’re hindering that,” Moore told an officer.
“I’m not hindering nothing,” the trooper responded.
Moore shouted back: “Unconstitutional. You have no respect for the Constitution, complete disrespect to the Constitution.”
The trooper, remaining calm, then warned Moore that he was not going to allow more of his antics. Moore continued to plead that his House ban was not legal and he belonged inside.
The moment Colton Moore, 31, was arrested at the state Capitol on Thursday. / X
After at least two minutes of trying to enter, troopers had enough. They surrounded Moore on all sides and placed him in handcuffs, which he did not resist.
Moore’s office later confirmed he was arrested and taken to the same Fulton County jail where Donald Trump infamously had his mugshot taken last year.
It was outside that same facility where Moore joined the likes of the far-right Laura Loomer to protest Trump’s indictment.
Moore has been a steadfast supporter of Trump and has a photo of him smiling next to the president-elect as a pinned post on X. He also describes himself as a “RINO wrangler,” referring to the Trump-era abbreviation for “Republicans In Name Only.”
Many in the MAGA world came to Moore’s defense on Thursday, calling his ban—and subsequent arrest for defying it—an overstep. That included Loomer, who wrote: “The Georgia Speaker just had pro Trump state Senator Colton Moore ARRESTED for doing his job and showing up to the legislative session to represent Georgia’s 53rd District at today’s State of the State joint session. The RINOS in Georgia are tyrants!”
Moore has been a disruptor in Georgia politics in recent years. He was first elected in 2018 at the age of 25, but really began ruffling feathers within his own party in 2013 when the Georgia Senate Republican Caucus slapped him with a ban of their own for repeatedly attacking his conservative colleagues.
Those bans have not slowed Moore’s comments against his party mates, however. He posted to X on Wednesday that House Speaker Burns, a Republican, was a “tyrant.”
Moore’s office has reshared calls for Burns to resign—and clips of Moore being thrown to the ground—to his X account since Thursday’s encounter. It also shared a statement there.
“Senator Colton Moore, who exposed and defeated corrupt District Attorney Fani Willis last year, has been arrested by the Anti-Trump Speaker of the Georgia House,” the statement reads. “Colton is being held in the same Atlanta jail as President Trump (sic). We are working to ensure his expedient release. Please pray for all those standing up for freedom and peace for all Georgians.”
