Jan. 6 committee urges Congress to consider barring Trump from holding office

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• Judy Woodruff:

  The committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol released its final report late last night.

  Over the 845 pages, the committee lays the blame squarely with former President Donald Trump, writing — quote — "None of the events of January 6 would have happened without him."

  After an 18-month-long investigation, the members conclude with 11 recommendations to prevent a similar attack, among them, to reform the Electoral Count Act, which Congress approved today, and to consider barring Trump from holding public office again.

  Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren of California serves on the January 6 Committee, and she joins me now.

  Congresswoman Lofgren, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

  So, 18 months, thousands and thousands of hours' worth of work? Was the committee able to answer all the questions it had about January 6?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA):

  Well, not every single one. Some witnesses refused to come in, as you know. The president himself refused to come in, along with his chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

  But we were able to fill in and really to answer the central question, which was, why did this happen? It happened because of the ex-president. And he engaged in a very wide-ranging plot with multiple threads to overturn the lawful election and stay in power illegally. That, we know.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And so what would be the — what's the main message you want the American people to take away from this?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  Well, I think we need to listen to what people say.

  And he said that he would not, he might not respect the election results way before the election. And we now know that he never intended to abide by the results of the election. We — people need to realize that our democracy is not inviolate. It's not impossible to overturn.

  We need to be vigilant. The protection of our democracy is up to us. And it's not a given. It's not forever that we just get to benefit from our democracy because of all who came before us. We need to act, so that it is protected for those who come after us.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And you do place the blame squarely on former President Trump.

  But, as you know, a number of Republicans are asking, why not focus more on failures in the intelligence community, in the national security community, and on political leaders who could have done something ahead of time to head off of what happened?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  Well, we did have — there were intelligence failures. And we have covered that in the report.

  They did not adequately communicate the threat that the president's supporters posed to the peaceful transfer of power. But that doesn't mean that the president wasn't trying to illegally overturn — and he came close. He came very close.

  The vice president at the time refused to go along with the scheme. But, really, the rioters came within minutes, really, of capturing the vice president and probably doing harm to him. Probably, if the police had not been as tremendously heroic as they were, there would have been a lot more bloodshed.

  And so that's a serious matter. And it disturbs me when some of my Republican colleagues try and pooh-pooh this whole thing. It was the most serious breach of the Capitol. I mean, in the Civil War, we didn't have the attack on the Capitol as we had on January 6. It was a very sad and dangerous day for America.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Do you think, Congresswoman, there's enough evidence here for the Justice Department to pursue criminal charges against former President Trump?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  We do think so. That's why we referred it to the Department of Justice for possibilities for prosecution.

  But, having said that, they have to reach their own conclusions. They have to, as prosecutors, make a judgment whether they have evidence sufficient to prove beyond reasonable doubt that these crimes were committed. We think they do. But they have got to make up their own judgment on that.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And if their final judgment is not to pursue criminal charges, does that mean the committee's work in any respect was in vain?

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  No, I don't think so.

  We have already today made amendments to the Electoral Count Act. It's not everything the House wanted, but it is better than the current state, so it will be much more difficult for someone to try and steal the election in the future through the arcane mechanisms of the Electoral Count Act.

  We're going to take a look at a number of other legislative opportunities. But I think the other thing is that the American people now, I think, realize that there is a threat to our democracy and are making their judgments politically with that in mind.

  You can see that most of the election deniers were not successful at the polls. People know that we are lucky here in this country that we have a democracy. And, ultimately, the power rests in the hands of the American people, as voters, not in the hands of politicians who want to keep their jobs. And that is the biggest victory of all.

  I started this — someone asked me nearly two years ago now, what would be a success? And if the American people realize how important their democracy was, that would be part of that success. And I think we achieved that.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, who is a member of the House January 6 Select Committee, thank you very much.

• Rep. Zoe Lofgren:

  Thank you very much. Happy holidays.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And to you.