Georgia's GOP state legislative leaders said that calls to defund Fani Willis are 'theatrics' and impossible to accomplish

• A handful of GOP Georgia lawmakers are trying to impeach or defund District Attorney Fani Willis.
• The state's House and Senate leaders, however, said the push is 'theatrics' and unlikely to succeed.

The two highest-ranking officials in Georgia's state legislature said that calls to defund or impeach District Attorney Fani Willis are impossible to accomplish and simply "theatrics."

In an email sent to the Republican caucus Wednesday afternoon, House Speaker Jon Burns decried the attempts by a handful of state lawmakers to call for a special session specifically to strip away funding or power from Willis' office as she investigates former President Donald Trump and 18 others over an alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

"Unfortunately, we continue to have a few members of the General Assembly making misleading or false claims about the General Assembly's lawful powers regarding an ongoing case before our Judiciary," Burns wrote. "It is an unfortunate reality of today's politics that theatrics sometimes garner more attention than genuine human needs like those that will unfold today in south and coastal Georgia."

He further wrote that defunding or impeaching Willis would also "obviously be harmful to the public safety" as it would cause delays in the prosecutions of rape, murder, and other charges.

State Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that there's no realistic pathway right now for the legislature to even call in a special session and that some lawmakers are now receiving threats from pro-Trump supporters for not being on board with the idea.

"We simply do not have those votes" for a special session, Gooch said, adding that it would require Democratic support. And in the event that a special session does happen, he noted that there would never be enough votes in the state Senate to impeach her.

The pushback from Gooch and Burns comes directly after state Senator Colton Moore warned of a violent uprising akin to civil war by Trump's supporters if the prosecution continues.

"We need to be taking action right now," Moore said, "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. I want to make this problem go away with my legislative means of doing so."

On the federal side, House Rep. Jim Jordan, Rep. Andy Biggs, and a smattering of other GOP representatives are also reportedly looking into ways they can try and halt any of the four major ongoing cases against Trump in Georgia, Florida, Washington, DC, or New York.

As NBC News notes, a government shutdown may be around the corner, but that wouldn't halt any of the investigations into Trump or his alleged co-conspirators.