• Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was accused of being intoxicated on election night 2020.
  • A historian told Insider the accusation may reinforce an idea that "we have nothing to worry about."
  • Giuliani was subpoenaed by the House January 6 committee for "claims of election fraud."

Members of Capitol Hill have speculated that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was drunk on election night in 2020, baselessly pushing then-President Donald Trump to recognize that he beat President Joe Biden. 

While Giuliani's office has denied accusations that he was inebriated that night, a historian has cautioned against using drunkenness as an excuse for rejecting the election results.

Accusing the Trump lawyer of being drunk could "reinforce that idea that these were not serious people and we have nothing to worry about," Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University and expert on fascism, told Insider's Charles Davis.

Her statements come as the House January 6 Select Committee airs hearings investigating the Capitol attack. The committee subpoenaed the former mayor over "claims of election fraud," and he was subsequently interrogated for over nine hours, Insider reported.

In her opening remarks of the hearing, committee co-chair Rep. Liz Cheney said that testimony would highlight how 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 he won, and insist that the vote counting stop."

Jason Miller, who is the former adviser to Donald Trump, testified via video that the former "mayor was definitely intoxicated, but I do not know his level of intoxication when he spoke with the president, for example." 

Giuliani's office has insisted that the former mayor was drinking Diet Coke.

Further, one committee member, Rep. Jamie Raskin, said to CNN's Erin Burnett that he "really can't tell the difference" between drunk or sober Giuliani, Mediaite reported. 

"And it doesn't make any difference, because what he was spouting – as Attorney General Barr said and as numerous witnesses confirmed – was complete nonsense," Raskin added.

Ben-Ghiat told Insider that autocrats and "people like Trump" surround themselves with "incompetent people around them because they are threatened by people who are competent and what they really need around them are lackeys."

"And that's why Giuliani was listened to, although Trump didn't really listen to anyone. That's one of the big takeaways. William Barr and others: everybody told him that he had lost."

 

Read the original article on Business Insider