- The former Trump campaign chief Bill Stepien said he was part of "Team Normal" in the Trump camp.
- Talking to the January 6 panel, Stepien said Team Normal was contrasted by a "Team Giuliani."
- Giuliani pushed Donald Trump's voter-fraud claims while Stepien distanced himself from the campaign.
The former Trump campaign chief Bill Stepien says the Trump team was split into two camps after the 2020 election: "Team Normal" and "Team Giuliani."
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot played a clip of Stepien's testimony on Monday during the second of the committee's six public hearings. During his deposition, Stepien was asked whether he had pulled back from the Trump camp to preserve his professional reputation.
"You didn't want to be associated with some of what you were hearing from the Giuliani team and others that — that sort of stepped in in the wake of your departure?" an unidentified questioner asked Stepien, referring to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York City.
"I didn't mind being categorized," Stepien said. "There were two groups of them. We called them kind of my team and Rudy's team. I — I didn't mind being characterized as being part of Team Normal, as — as reporters, you know, kind of started to do around that point in time."
Stepien added that he had worked in political campaigning "for a long time," with his work spanning ideologies of the Republicans Donald Trump, John McCain, George W. Bush, and Chris Christie.
Stepien added that he quit after the election because he didn't think what was happening was honest or professional.
"And, you know, I can work under a lot of circumstances for a lot of varied, you know, candidates and politicians," Stepien added. "But a situation where — and I think along the way, I've built up a pretty good — I hope a good reputation for being honest and — and professional, and I didn't think what was happening was necessarily honest or professional at that point in time."
Giuliani led the Trump campaign's legal team and led a rollicking press conference in November 2020 in which he made baseless claims about voter fraud while a black substance trickled down his face.
A longtime political operative, Stepien became Trump's campaign manager four months before the 2020 election, per CBS, taking over for Brad Parscale. Stepien was originally one of the witnesses scheduled to testify at the second televised hearing, but he bowed out after his wife went into labor Monday morning.