Trump's 2020 campaign comms director Tim Murtaugh says he thought BLOOD was dripping down Rudy Giuliani's face at infamous press conference and reveals which aide demanded Biden be checked for an earpiece at a debate

Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for the Trump 2020 campaign, writes in a new memoir that it was now Rep. Max Miller who demanded that President Joe Biden be inspected for an earpiece ahead of the first presidential debate. 

He also writes in, Swing Hard in Case You Hit It: My Escape from Addiction and Shot at Redemption on the Trump Campaign, that he thought 'blood' was dripping down Rudy Giuliani's face during that infamous Republican National Committee press conference. 

Murtaugh details some of the wild turns the 2020 campaign took in the book, which was released Tuesday, but flashes back every other chapter to his harrowing battle with alcoholism. 

He cleaned up his act in May of 2015 after racking up two DUIs, serving several brief stints in jail and after facing charges - and the threat of 80 days of jail time - for public intoxication after a day of drinking at Chili's. 

In recovery, he was able to get his life back on track - and landed one of the top jobs in presidential politics during the 2020 cycle.

'This isn't a tell-all like other books of the Trump era,' he told DailyMail.com. 'Working for President Trump's reelection campaign remains the highest honor of my professional career and I support him again in 2024.' 

Murtaugh writes about several light-hearted moments from the campaign, including when Miller, who had come over to the campaign from the White House, surprised campaign staff by revealing that he had asked members of the Commission on Presidential Debates to have Biden inspected for an earpiece. 

The author detailed how the Trump campaign and members of the CPD went back-and-forth in negotiating how the three planned presidential debates would work.

Murtaugh recalled that several days before the first debate, which was held on September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio, Miller briefed Trump campaign staffers on how the negotiations were going. 

'He went through a list of different things that he had demanded, and that the Biden campaign had requested, and the things to which both sides had agreed. At the end, he had just one more item,' Murtaugh wrote. 

Quoting Miller he continued, 'So, as we were wrapping up, I said to them, 'Oh, also, we'll be wanting to do an earpiece check.'' 

'There was silence in the room for a moment,' Murtaugh recalled. ''What?' someone said.' 

Miller then reiterated, 'An earpiece check.' 

'I told them that we wanted both candidates to submit to an examination right before they take the stage to make sure they aren't wearing earpieces,' Miller, now a congressman representing an Ohio district, explained. 

Someone in the room laughed, 'Jesus Christ, Max!' 

Murtaugh said he had been 'assured that the Biden camp had agreed to the ear check.' 

'[S]o on the morning of the debate, we accused Biden's team of backing out of the deal,' he said, telling Bloomberg News at the time: 'Joe Biden's handlers several days ago agreed to a pre-debate inspection for electronic earpieces but today abruptly reversed them- selves and declined.' 

The Biden team deemed the issue a 'distraction,' though fact-checkers had to come out afterward and say the Democrat wasn't wearing an earpiece when a number of people on social media suggested there was 'evidence' that he was. 

More broadly, the Trump team was trying to push that Biden, now 81, was not mentally up for the job. 

They had requested that a fourth debate be scheduled for earlier in the campaign cycle due to many states implementing mail-in voting due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic - with voting starting in some states by the late September date.

'Yes, we wanted more debates, and we wanted them earlier, because we believed that most Americans were not aware of how much Biden had deteriorated mentally and physically since they had seen him as vice president,' Murtaugh wrote.  

'Because he had the luxury of staying off the campaign trail due to COVID-19, he'd been able to stay mostly under wraps - but in a debate, there would be no place to hide,' he continued. 

Biden, however, persevered - and was able to win the 2020 race. 

On Election Day, those inside the Trump campaign thought the election was winnable.

'If I had to guess,' one political staffer told Murtaugh on Election Day. 'I'd say we win in a close one.' 

The election was called for Biden on Saturday, with Pennsylvania sliding back into the Democratic column. 

But efforts were already afoot to contest the results. 

In the book, Murtaugh expressed skepticism at some of these efforts - mainly those being pushed by campaign lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. 

Murtaugh recalled telling Trump spokesman Jason Miller that he planned to skip Giuliani's press conference at the RNC headquarters in Washington, D.C. where droves of reporters were packed into a tiny space - telling the Trump official he'd catch it on TV instead. 

'And watch it on TV, I did, and stood aghast as I saw dark rivulets of fluid running down Rudy Giuliani's face on the screen,' Murtaugh wrote. 'I remember getting closer to the television to see if I could figure out what it was, at first thinking that it was blood.' 

He noted that it was 'widely speculated' afterward that it was Giuliani's hair dye leaking down the sides of his face in the hot room. 

'The press conference immediately assumed legendary status because of that, and it was generally agreed among the dwindling campaign staff that nothing else could happen that would surprise us,' Murtaugh wrote. 

The RNC presser took place on November 19, a full month and a half before January 6.  

Murtaugh also recalled campaign officials, including Campaign Manager Bill Stepien, leaving a meeting led by Giuliani when the election fraud theories got too zany. 

'Giuliani was talking about voting machines and fraud, the details of which I don't recall today, although I remember thinking that I wouldn't be able to defend it all on television if called on to do so,' the communications director recalled. 

Murtaugh noted how that at one public hearing in Pennsylvania, Giuliani claimed that only 1.82 million absentee votes had been requested, yet 2.5 million votes had been cast. 

'I decided to do a little sleuthing myself by looking at that same website. What I found was shocking and maddening at the same time,' Murtaugh said. 

Giuliani had seen how many mail-in ballots had been requested for the state's primary election - which was 1.82 million - versus how many had been cast in Pennsylvania's general election - 2.5 million.  

'Quite obviously, those were two separate and distinct elections—a primary and a general—and the two numbers were not relevant to each other at all,' a frustrated Murtaugh said. 

Now sober for nearly nine years, Murtaugh ends the book saying that he hopes his story can serve as an inspiration for alcoholics. 

'And finally, I hope that if fellow drunks read this, they can connect with it in some way and maybe put off picking up a bottle for just a few more minutes while reading it,' he wrote. 'I know that in recovery, I am always just one drink away from reliving disaster, and the thought that my experience might help someone else helps keep me sober.'