After encouraging an uprising, Donald Trump should never be permitted to run for public office again ‘whether federal or state, civilian or military’ legislators looking into last year’s attack on the US Capitol decided in their historic final report.
The recommendation was the first in a litany of recommendations from the 845-page report that was intended to ensure that the violent riot the former president is accused of arranging in a failed attempt to hold onto power after losing the 2020 election wouldn’t happen again.
The report’s introduction by the panel’s chairman, Bennie Thompson, stated that “our country has come too far to allow a defeated president to turn himself into a successful tyrant by upending our democratic institutions (and) fomenting violence.”
The letter calls on Congress to pass legislation that would prevent Trump and other individuals who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office, “whether federal or state, civilian or military.”
Trump has declared his intention to run for president once more in 2024.
The report was the result of 18 months of investigation by congressional investigators who spoke with more than 1,000 witnesses to pinpoint the Republican millionaire as the attack’s main cause.
A government crackdown on extremist organisations, election law revisions, and designating Congress’s certification of presidential elections as a “national special security event” on par with the annual State of the Union speech were among recommendations made by the committee.
The panel’s final action before being disbanded in January when the House of Representatives flips to Republican rule.
The party has fought against the probe from the beginning, and the change in the balance of power casts doubt on the likelihood that the majority of the recommendations will ever be implemented.
