Jan. 6 committee hears testimony that Rudy Giuliani was intoxicated when he told Trump to claim he won

Rudy Giuliani was drunk when he convinced former President Trump to “just claim he won” on Election Night, fellow MAGA loyalists told the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Monday.

The “definitely intoxicated” former New York City mayor won the ear of Trump in the hours after the polls closed, even as other top advisers warned him that the race was far from being definitively called.

“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,” said Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in her opening statement.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien and senior adviser Jason Miller said they met with Giuliani before the mayor spoke to Trump in his White House residence on Election Night.

“The mayor was definitely intoxicated,” Miller said in previously taped testimony to the committee. “I’m not sure about his level of intoxication when he talked to the president.”

Giuliani told Trump to “just say we won” because the president was leading President Biden in some battleground states on Election Night, before hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots were counted.

Robert Costello, an attorney for Giuliani, told CNN that the ex-mayor “denies all falsehoods by the angry and misguided Ms. Cheney,” although he stopped short of denying that Giuliani was drunk on Election Night.

[ Trump ‘detached from reality’ as he promoted Big Lie that he won 2020 election: ex-Atty. Gen. Bill Barr ]

Both Miller and Stepien told the panel they urged Trump to hold off from declaring victory on Election Night. They said they knew there would be large numbers of ballots still counted in the coming days.

Ivanka Trump also said she knew it was folly for anyone to claim victory on Election Night.

“It was becoming clear the race would not be called on Election Night,” the former first daughter said.

But Donald Trump had other plans. He emphatically rejected the advice of his top campaign officials and his own daughter.

“The president disagreed,” Stepien said. “He thought I was wrong … and he told me so.”