Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore (R) said on Tuesday a civil war might break out when former President Donald Trump goes to trial for his efforts to overturn the state’s presidential election results in 2020.
He lamented that he didn’t want to “have to draw my rifle.”
“We’ve got to put our heads together and figure this out. We need to be taking action right now,” Moore told far-right former Trump White House official Steve Bannon during his “War Room” show. “Because if we don’t, our constituencies are gonna be fighting it in the streets. Do you want a civil war? I don’t want a civil war. I don’t want to have to draw my rifle.”
Moore’s remarks came after Trump and 18 co-defendants were charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ earlier this month for their alleged efforts to pressure Georgia officials to flip the results of the 2020 election. Trump surrendered to state authorities last week on charges of felony racketeering, among others.
Moore is not the first Republican to raise the prospect of civil war in response to Trump’s Georgia indictment. Last week, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took to Newsmax and warned of a civil war over Trump’s arrest in Georgia.
Moore is also one of the Republicans at the state level in Georgia who is taking it upon himself to defend Trump against his latest indictment. Earlier this month Moore called on the Georgia legislature to convene for a special session to investigate and potentially impeach Willis. The proposal is unlikely to go anywhere as only a handful of other lawmakers have backed the effort and state Republicans would need their Democratic colleagues’ support to schedule such a session. Additionally, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) — who has previously shut down Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud in the state’s 2020 election — has made it clear he is not on board with the state senator’s proposal.
But despite clear indications that the proposal is unlikely to go anywhere, Moore continued to talk to Bannon about his desire to defund Willis and her office.
“I want to make this problem go away with my legislative means of doing so,” Moore said. “And the first step to getting that done is defunding Fani Willis of any Georgia tax dollars and hopefully Representative (Jim) Jordan and Representative (Andy) Biggs will follow suit in Congress and strip her of her federal dollars, too. Because she is not upholding her oath to the Constitution.”
Georgia Republicans have floated other, more creative ways to go after Willis in recent weeks, as well.
And similar to Moore, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Republicans are also trying to defend the former president by using their subpoena power to publicly poke holes in Willis’ credibility.
Last week, Jordan announced a Congressional investigation into Wiilis and her office and pushed baseless conspiracy theories about deep-state collusion between the Fulton County DA and the Justice Department in the process.
And earlier this week, House Freedom Caucus member Andrew Clyde (R-GA) also jumped aboard, saying he is planning to introduce two amendments to eliminate federal funding for the three prosecutors who indicted Trump — including Willis.
