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Salon
Salon
Politics
Tom Boggioni

Trump campaign chief bails on hearing

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference about lawsuits contesting the results of the presidential election at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday Nov. 19, 2020. Sarah Silbiger for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Appearing on CNN's "New Day" Monday morning before former Donald Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien excused himself from having to testify on national TV due to a "family emergency," the New York Times' Maggie Haberman claimed that, when he testifies, he is expected to focus on "bad actor" Rudy Giuliani activities pushing the "Big Lie."

While Stepien's attorney is reportedly going to make an appearance and read a prepared statement, Haberman suggested the former Trump, campaign manager and adviser has a bone to pick with the former New Your City mayor who had Donald Trump's ear.

Speaking with host John Berman, Haberman explained, "Bill Stepien took over as campaign manager in July of 2020. He was in charge of the campaign on election night as Donald Trump was being urged by Rudy Giuliani, 'Go say you won.' Other advisers were saying, absolutely do not do that but Trump wanted to do it."

"To be clear, Trump has agency here," she added. "It's not like he needed Giuliani to tell him to do that. Stepien was present when was told what the data showed, if there was a chance to thwart Biden's win. Stepien is key to talking about what Trump was informed about over and over, the fact he lost."

"You think he might have some opinions on Rudy Giuliani?" host Berman asked.

"I'm confident he has opinions on Giuliani, as almost everybody who worked on that campaign did," she replied. "I think -- he's appearing under subpoena -- that's important to note. It's not as if he's showing up as a willing witness against Donald Trump. I do expect he will talk about how Giuliani was a pretty, in their minds, bad actor, saying things to Trump that certainly weren't true and offering up all kinds of claims about fraud he did not back up."

Watch below or at this link.

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