‘Intoxicated’ Guiliani told Trump to declare 2020 win
DONALD TRUMP declared victory on election night in 2020 and claimed fraud after an “intoxicated” Rudy Giuliani advised him to do so, a US Capitol riot hearing has been told.
Other advisers in Mr Trump’s inner circle said they did not want him to take that course of action, but Mr Giuliani arrived at the White House urging that he should, according to video testimony aired on Monday.
Mr Trump subsequently addressed the nation late at night, telling them the election was a fraud on the American people and that “frankly, we did win”.
It marked the start of Mr Trump’s insistence that the election was “stolen”. which continues to this day.
A host of former advisers gave evidence in depositions to the Congressional committee investigating the riot that later took place at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Asked if anyone had too much to drink on election night, adviser Jason Miller said: “Um, Mayor Giuliani.”
Mr Miller said: “I think the Mayor was intoxicated, but I do not know his level of toxic intoxication when he spoke with the president, for example.
“There were suggestions by, I believe it was Mayor Giuliani to go and declare victory and say that we won it outright.”
Liz Cheney, the committee vicechair, said: “President Trump rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night, and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani to just claim that he won and insist the vote counting stop, to falsely claim everything was fraudulent.”
Bill Stepien, Mr Trump’s campaign manager, said: “The results were still being counted. It was becoming clear that the race would not be called on election night.
“My recommendation was [for Mr Trump] to say votes were being counted and it was still too early to call. The president disagreed with that. He thought I was wrong. He was going to go in a different direction.”
Senior adviser Jared Kushner said he told the president it was “not the approach I would take, if I was you”.
But Mr Kushner said the president told him: “I have confidence in Rudy.”
Many advisers later tried to dissuade Mr Trump from pursuing the fraud allegations.
Bill Barr, the former attorney general, described how Mr Trump called him into the Oval Office and presented him with an “amateurish” report suggesting fraud, that he seemed con- vinced would win him a second term.
In a recorded deposition, Mr Barr said: “I was demoralised because I thought, if he really believes this stuff, he’s lost contact... he’s become detached from reality, if he believes this stuff.”
He added: “There was never an intention of interest in what the facts are. Before the election it was possible to talk sense to the president, it could be a big wrestling match, but I felt after the election he didn’t seem to be listening.”
Mr Stepien said: “There was my team and Rudy’s team. I didn’t mind being categorised as part of ‘team normal’. I always told the president the truth.”
Referring to the election fraud allegations, adviser Eric Herschmann said: “What they were proposing was nuts. All over the radar.”