PLUS: Giuliani Distances Himself from Trump Lawyers’ Letter to Mueller: “I Probably Would’ve Organized It Differently,” “Agree With About 80 Percent”
ALSO: Giuliani Says He Will “Absolutely Not” Be Named in Forthcoming IG Report as a Receiver of Leaked F.B.I. Information
EXCLUSIVE: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Responds to Trump’s Trade Tariffs: “The Idea That We Are Somehow a National Security Threat to the United States is Quite Frankly Insulting and Unacceptable”
JUNE 3, 2018 – President Trump pardoning himself “would lead to, probably, an immediate impeachment” as terminating Special Counsel Mueller’s Russia probe also “could lead to impeachment,” warned Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, this morning on NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.”
Giuliani distanced himself from the letter sent by the president’s lawyers to Mueller in January, telling Todd: “I didn’t make the argument, but I agree with most of it as any lawyer. I probably would’ve organized it differently. … I agree with about 80 percent of what he [John Dowd] wrote.”
Todd asked the former New York City mayor if he expects to be named in the forthcoming Inspector General’s report as a recipient of leaked information from the F.B.I. “Absolutely not,” replied Giuliani. “Impossible. I didn’t get any leaked information from the F.B.I. … I speculated based on the fact that I knew there was a lot of turmoil within the F.B.I.” He added, “I do security work all over the world and I use F.B.I. agents, and I consider them current people. People haven’t retired yet. And then I have retired people.” Watch the full interview.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sat down with Todd in an exclusive interview from the Parliament of Canada, responding to the White House’s claim that new tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum are to protect national security interests: “Our soldiers who had fought and died together on the beaches of World War II…and the mountains of Afghanistan, and have stood shoulder to shoulder in some of the most difficult places in the world, that are always there for each other, somehow – this is insulting to that. …The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable.”
“I am confident that eventually, you know, we will continue to work together despite this challenge,” the prime minister said of his relationship with Trump. Watch the full exclusive interview.
This week’s political roundtable was comprised of NPR’s Joshua Johnson, National Review’s Rich Lowry, The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan and NBC News’ Katy Tur, who reacted to Todd’s Giuliani interview. It’s “interesting that he threw Dowd and Sekulow under the bus in terms of that letter,” remarked Tur.
President Obama “took it as a given that some of the opposition to him was rooted in racism,” shared Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser for Obama and author of the new book, “The World As It Is,” in a conversation with the roundtable. Rhodes joins NBC News and MSNBC as a political contributor.
Read the full transcript of “Meet the Press” this morning.
Follow the show on Twitter and on Facebook for the latest, and watch MSNBC’s “MTP Daily” at 5 p.m. ET for more from moderator Chuck Todd.
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NBC NEWS’ “MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD”
“Meet the Press with Chuck Todd” is where newsmakers come to make news — setting the political agenda and spotlighting the impact Washington decision-making has on Americans across the country. It is the #1 most-watched Sunday public affairs show across the board for the 2016-2017 season, reaching more than three million viewers every Sunday and millions more through social, digital and on-demand platforms. “Meet the Press” brings its authority and influencer interviews to MSNBC with “MTP Daily” weekdays at 5 p.m. ET and to the “1947: The Meet the Press Podcast”. It’s the longest-running show in television history, having celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2017 with the launch of its first-ever film festival in collaboration with the American Film Institute this November. Chuck Todd is the political director of NBC News and the moderator of “Meet the Press“; John Reiss is the executive producer.
