The January 6 committee recommended in its final report that former President Donald Trump be barred from ever holding state or federal office again.
The recommendation to create a “formal mechanism” under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution for evaluating whether to bar “individuals identified in this report” from holding future office was one of eleven recommendations the committee made in the 845-page report released late Thursday.
The committee also called for more congressional scrutiny of media companies that “have had the effect of radicalizing their consumers.”
In calling for Trump to be barred from future office, the committee noted that under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, an individual who took an oath to support the Constitution, “but who has ‘engaged in an insurrection’ against the same, or given ‘aid or comfort to the enemies of the Constitution’ can be disqualified from holding future federal or state office.”
The report notes that Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for incitement of an insurrection, and there were 57 votes in the Senate for his conviction.
“The Committee believes that those who took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and then, on January 6th, engaged in insurrection can appropriately be disqualified and barred from holding government office,” the fourth recommendation from the report states.
The January 6 committee also highlighted the “Role of the Media” in the Capitol riots as an opportunity for congressional committees to oversee outlets seen to be enflaming or polarizing viewers. According to the report, many people who were involved in the riot “were provoked to act by false information about the 2020 election repeatedly reinforced by legacy and social media.” The report does not name any particular media outlets, but in the weeks leading up to the Capitol riot, pro-Trump outlets like Newsmax and the One America News Network, along with some Trump loyalists at Fox News, produced an almost daily drumbeat of stories and headlines seemingly designed to sow doubt about the integrity of the presidential election
The report states that, “congressional committees of jurisdiction should continue to evaluate policies of media companies that have had the effect of radicalizing their consumers, including by provoking people to attack their own country.”
Trump, who announced his third presidential run in mid-November, responded to the report Thursday night on his social-media platform, Truth Social, condemning it as a “Witch Hunt” lacking any substance.
“The highly partisan Unselect Committee Report purposely fails to mention the failure of Pelosi to heed my recommendation for troops to be used in D.C., show the ‘Peacefully and Patrioticly’ words I used, or study the reason for the protest, Election Fraud,” Trump wrote.
The report’s core recommendations, however, will likely not be implemented during December’s lame-duck session of Congress as the incoming Republican House majority has already signaled its desire to abandon the committee’s work citing political bias and other shortcomings.
Nevertheless, some reforms presented by the committee, including the Electoral Count Act — the committee’s first recommendation — could see bipartisan support. The revision would reaffirm “that a Vice President has no authority or discretion to reject an official electoral slate submitted by the Governor of a state” and has already been passed through the House.