Trump Ignored Aides, Repeated False Fraud Claims

At the second hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, former President Donald Trump’s top aides testified that they told him his claims of election fraud were baseless. What Trump characterized as “fraud” was just part of the “normal process,” as former Attorney General William Barr said in one instance.

Even so, Trump continued to repeat his false claims of fraud — beginning on election night, when he declared victory against his top campaign aides’ advice, and continuing until this day.

Election Night

In taped testimony played at the June 13 committee hearing, Jason Miller, a top Trump campaign adviser, said he spoke with Rudy Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City and top Trump confidant, on election night. Giuliani, who testified that he spoke to Trump several times on election night, wanted the president to “declare victory and say that we won it outright,” Miller said.

“I think effectively, Mayor Giuliani was saying, ‘We won it. They’re stealing it from us. Where’d all the votes come from? We need to go say that we won,'” Miller said. “And essentially to anyone who didn’t agree with that position was being weak.”

Miller and Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, advised the president not to declare victory. Stepien recalled telling Trump that “it was going to be a process” to count the ballots and declare a victor.

“I recounted back to that conversation with him in which I said — just like I said in 2016 it was going to be a long night,” Stepien said. “I told him in 2020 that, you know, there were — it was going to be a — a process again. As, you know, the early returns are going to be, you know, positive. Then we’re going to, you know, be watching the returns of — of [mail-in] ballots as, you know,