ATLANTA – Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Georgia Senate, said Friday that he won’t tolerate any future episodes like what happened Thursday when Sen. Colton Moore was arrested for trying to enter the state House chambers.

As members of the House and Senate gathered for Gov. Brian Kemp’s annual State of the State address, Moore, R-Trenton, was wrestled to the ground outside the chambers by a House staffer, then arrested and hauled away by Capitol Police.

House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, banned Moore from the House floor last March after the far-right senator from Northwest Georgia made disparaging remarks about the late Speaker David Ralston, whose memory was being honored in the House and Senate on what would have been his 70th birthday. Ralston died in 2022.

On Friday, two House members took different sides on the controversy, speaking on the House floor. One criticized Moore’s arrest as a violation of his constitutional rights, while the other defended the ban on Moore as appropriate considering what he had said about Ralston.

Jones left no doubt where he stands.

“What happened yesterday was an embarrassment for the General Assembly,” the lieutenant governor told his Senate colleagues Friday. “It shouldn’t happen again.”

Jones said he met with Burns after Moore’s arrest to defend the senator’s right to attend the governor’s speech.

Later Friday, Burns released a statement indicating that lawmakers would not be barred from future joint sessions of the General Assembly.

“While the senator’s actions were despicable and hurtful to all who knew, respected and loved former Speaker David Ralston, we know that Speaker Ralston’s first priority was always to serve the people of our great state, and he wouldn’t want that important work to be hindered,” Burns said.

“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.”

Moore thanked Jones for his support and said he received many encouraging texts and phone calls from senators after the incident.

“I appreciate your willingness to support the Constitution of the United States,” Moore said. “The Constitution is sacred. I thank you for recognizing that.”

After his arrest, Moore was charged with a misdemeanor of willful obstruction of law enforcement officers and released after posting bail.

A former member of the House elected to the Senate in 2022, Moore has been a lightning rod, drawing criticism from fellow Republicans to the point that he was suspended from the Senate GOP Caucus in September 2023 after he unsuccessfully pushed for a special legislative session to investigate Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ prosecution of former President Donald Trump.