Monday morning news: June 4, 2018

Trump would fight subpoena » President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani says he’s trying to talk the president out of speaking with special counsel Robert Mueller in his ongoing Russia probe.

GIULIANI: He wants to testify. Every lawyer he has, including this one, always wants their client not to testify. The idea is you can’t interfere with him, either from the point of view of indictment or questioning. You can’t interfere with the president’s time, his effort, his concentration. 

On Saturday, The New York Times reported that it obtained a letter Trump’s legal team sent to Mueller in January, stating that there is no need for the president to testify. It reportedly said Trump could not obstruct justice with regard to the Russia investigation, because the president is the chief law enforcement officer, and to say he obstructed justice amounts to saying he obstructing himself.

Some have accused the president of obstruction for firing FBI Director James Comey.

Canadian prime minister: U.S. tariffs “insulting” » Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he won’t stand for the Trump administration’s new tariffs on steel and aluminum.

The tariffs, announced last week, are based partly on national security grounds, that steel and aluminum should be produced domestically.

On Sunday, Trudeau told NBC:

TRUDEAU: The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable. 

On Thursday Trudeau said Canada may have to retaliate with tariffs of its own.

But Trump’s National Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox News Sunday that Canada will remain the United States’ largest trading partner. 

KUDLOW: Mr. Trudeau, I think he’s overreacting. I don’t want to get in the middle of that as a fine friend and ally of the United States. Nobody denies that, but the point is we have to protect ourselves. 

The new tariffs are imposed on Canada, Mexico and European Union nations. 

President Trump will face leaders of those countries this week at the G7 economic summit in Quebec. 

Trump admin preps for North Korea summit, mission unchanged » The Trump administration continues preparations for the June 12th summit between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Following the president’s Friday announcement that the meeting is back on, Defense Secretary James Mattis said the U.S. will not waiver from its mission.

MATTIS: We still stand for the verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the peninsula, and the diplomats are engaged right now in New York. Advanced teams are engaged here in Singapore, and I think the hopes of all of us lie with them.

After calling off the summit last month over negative remarks and threats by the North Korean regime, President Trump reversed course on Friday after meeting with Kim Jong Un’s emissary at the White House.

Analysts note that it’s still not clear what North Korea will be willing to give up in talks for denuclearization. Intelligence agencies believe Kim Jong Un’s regime is close to having the ability to deliver a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland.

Handling of rape allegations led to SWBTS president’s firing » A top official at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary released new information over the weekend, about the firing of seminary President Paige Patterson. WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry has more.

JIM HENRY, REPORTER: Chairman of the Board of Trustees Kevin Ueckert said Patterson’s handling of rape allegations on campus led to his firing on Wednesday. He confirmed that a female student at Southeastern Theological Seminary Theological Seminary did accuse another student of rape in 2003, when Patterson was president of the school in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Ueckert said that information contradicts what Patterson told the board.

He also referenced another rape case that took place in 20-15 at Southwestern, after Patterson had become president at the Fort Worth, Texas, campus. Ueckert said Patterson asked in an email to the chief of campus security to meet with the accuser alone so he could—quote—“break her down.”

Southwestern’s board of trustees on May 23rd removed Paige Patterson as president but allowed him to remain as “president emeritus.” But in light of the new information, the board moved on Wednesday to strip the 75-year-old leader of his new title and his retirement benefits.

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Jim Henry.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: life insights from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. And later, commentary from Mary Coleman. This is The World and Everything in It.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) In this May 5, 2018, file photo, Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks at the Iran Freedom Convention for Human Rights and democracy in Washington. 

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