Rudy Giuliani was apparently intoxicated on November 2020 when he urged Donald Trump to declare prematurely and wrongly that he had beaten Democrat Joe Biden for the presidency.
Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice-chair of the congressional select committee on January 6, 2021 by extremist Trump supporters, declared as much during the opening remarks on Monday in the committee's second public hearing of six in Washington DC. The first hearing was last Thursday.
You will hear testimony from Donald Trump rejecting the advice of his campaign experts on election night and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani to just claim he won and falsely state that everything was fraudulent, Cheney said.
Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, the chair of the House of Representatives panel, had already stated that the public would hear how Trump had lost an election and that he would wage an attack on democracy by inciting deadly violence on 6 January as rioters broke into the Capitol to try and stop the official certification of Biden's victory.
On the night of 3 November 2020, Trump was in the White House with family and watching election night coverage.
A witness at Monday s hearing, Chris Stirewalt, a former politics editor for Fox News, testified that the conservative cable channel's decision desk on the night was the best in the business, and beat other outlets to declare that Biden, not Trump, had unexpectedly won in the pivotal state of Arizona.
The result was a huge blow to the Republicans that caused anger and dismay among those who gathered at the White House, as well as the fact that it was Fox News that had called it, the committee heard.
Jason Miller, an attorney then advising Trump, testified to the committee by video that there were suggestions by Mayor Giuliani to go and declare victory and say that we d won it outright. He opined on the night that it was too early to announce that the election was going to be decided, let alone that her father had won, a lawyer and former mayor of New York, who was also advising Trump, as definitely intoxicated Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and adviser.
Bill Stepien, then campaign manager of Donald Trump, said he did not think the president should declare victory on election night, but he disagreed with him.
It was far too early to make any calls like that, as ballots were still being counted, Stepien testified.
In the early hours of November 4th, Trump falsely declared victory.
The election was called on Saturday for Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.