Morning Joe’s Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle remember the Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, who was found dead alongside his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, and their dog in their Santa Fe home. “He was quite a guy. He was a legitimately ordinary human being when you’d meet him. I had the good fortune of meeting him several times and went to see him in Santa Fe about 5 or 6 years ago, and he was the same then as he was when I first met him in 1973 on the set of “A Bridge Too Far” in Nijmegen, Holland, when he was the star of that cast. He had a lot of fun making that movie. We won’t go into it now. But he was really good guy,” says Barnicle about Hackman. Join the conversation here.
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Mike Barnicle and NBC News medical contributor Dr. Vin Gupta about the possible consequences that could follow the abrupt cancellation of an FDA vaccine advisory committee meeting, which was scheduled for March to select the strains to be included in next season’s flu shot.
Tune in on this Morning Joe segment as Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle discuss House Republicans becoming weary of in-person town hall meetings after multiple lawmakers have faced hometown crowds irritated about the Trump Administration’s push to slash government programs, services, funding and staffing. “This is a disaster in the making for the Republican Party; but, worse than that, Mika, it’s a disaster for the United States of America,” says Barnicle after House Republicans approved a budget framework for President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda, which calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade.
In case you missed it: Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Alexander Vindman, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, about Vindman’s new book “The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine,” which provides an analysis of how Western indecision and apathy made possible the return of brutal Russian expansionism with potentially catastrophic consequences. “Putin is winning,” he says, but we need to focus on “what really matters”—our relationships and democracy.
“There’s a lot of people who are viewing this peripherally everyday. People are busy. They have their own jobs, their own lives, getting the kids ready for school. But one of the things that’s going on is: They’re confusing motion with achievement. So, this flooding the zone, people think, ‘oh, boy, he’s really working hard at it. Trump is really working hard at it.’ But Mitch, what happens when inevitably the Medicare stuff doesn’t show up for people, the Social Security checks are short, the cost of living index? And that is bound to happen, it seems,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to Mitch Landrieu, co-chair of the liberal group American Bridge, as the Morning Joe panel discusses the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the federal cost-cutting initiative championed by Elon Musk, after a federal judge declined to stop DOGE from accessing data systems at seven federal agencies and firing or putting their employees on leave. Listen to Landrieu’s response here. Only on MSNBC.
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Pablo Torre and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the Philadelphia Eagles having dominated the Kansas City Chiefs with a masterful defensive effort to win Super Bowl LIX. “Patrick Mahomes’ offensive line could not protect him. They could not keep people away from him. He was getting crushed from two minutes into that game. He was running for his life….If you do a forensic autopsy on the Chiefs’ season, they had a very good record; but it was a hard-earned record. They won a lot of games in the last minute because of Patrick Mahomes, and the big difference again, we reflect back on it, we know what happened: They could not protect Patrick Mahomes yesterday, and they were going to lose, and they did,” says Barnicle about the Chiefs superstar quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. Join the conversation here.
Watch this Morning Joe panel conversation with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on a wide range of topics, one being illegal immigration. “Do you see anything wrong with sending people back to their country of origin who are here illegally?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Watch the conversation here. Only on MSNBC.
“I’m talking about the President of the United States. All he wants is the attention. ‘Look at me, look at me. Don’t – shiny object over there, no, no, back here.’ And he does it multiple times a day incredibly successfully,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about President Trump during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough about the state of immigrant crossings along the southern border of the United States. Watch the segment here.
“The fact that President Biden and his wife, Hillary Clinton and former President Clinton, former President Bush and his wife Laura, and former President Barack Obama all sat in the same row alongside each other and witnessed what everyone witnessed yesterday was perhaps the one true ring of democracy that we saw yesterday—the one true ring of civility,” said Morning Joe contributor and veteran journalist Mike Barnicle during this panel discussion about President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. “The other thing that was shocking to me – maybe I’m the only one – was the absolute lack of grace and graciousness in President Trump’s speech, especially when he announced to the crowd about the hostages, three hostages being released. The crowd erupts in applause; he never even looks at President Biden, who invited Trump’s representatives to join in the talks to free the hostages. Never, never once looked at him when he uttered that, never once thanked him for his cooperation, or thanked him for allowing the two sides, the Trump people and the Biden people, to pursue the release of the hostages. Not once. That was the most shocking part.”
“Ed, I don’t think anyone would quibble with what you wrote today in your assessment of the Biden presidency; but that’s today. It’s a snapshot. It’s not history. Don’t you think that history’s view of Joe Biden is going to be a little bit different than your view of Joe Biden in today’s piece that you’ve written, in the sense that it’s going to take into account Joe Biden’s role in keeping NATO together, in keeping Ukraine alive, in the day to day tug of war match that he’s had with Bibi Netanyahu for a year and a half, and most importantly, the economic underpinnings of legislation that he passed on a bipartisan basis in the first 18 months of his presidency that are going to transform many middle class cities and towns in this country over a longer period of time? Not today, not yet, but within 2 or 3 years, AI and all of the chip manufacturing that’s going to happen in this country is going to transform and help a lot of American families,” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Financial Times US national editor Edward Luce, who joins Morning Joe to discuss his latest piece titled “Joe Biden’s tragic curtain call,” which argues hubris kept Biden too long in the presidential race and he will be remembered chiefly for easing Donald Trump’s return. Hear Luce’s response here.
“Yesterday’s hearing was one of the most depressing aspects of politics in Washington that I have witnessed in a long, long time,” said Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle about the tense confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, after a report that the FBI background check on Hegseth does not include interviews with Hegseth’s ex-wives or the woman who accused him of sexual assault in a California hotel room in 2017. “Sitting there watching Pete Hegseth take questions from both sides—all I could think of was that most of the panel, both Republicans and Democrats, apparently have never seen the full FBI report….I’m also thinking that the principal client of the FBI was the Trump transition committee, which is shocking because the principal client of the FBI ought to be and is the American taxpayers, you and me, all of us here; but no, not in this case.”
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle as they discuss Peter Baker’s New York Times article, “Trump Sees the U.S. as a ‘Disaster.’ The Numbers Tell a Different Story,” which examines how President Joe Biden is bequeathing President-elect Donald Trump a nation that by many metrics is in good shape, even if voters remain skeptical. “Facts do matter and they matter to everyone’s life in America,” says Barnicle. “Joe Biden can stand on his legislative record. The Republicans have that record now. They are standing on it in terms of the economy. The strongest economy in the world. If it slips, if it slips, it’s on them,” says Barnicle about President-elect Trump and the GOP.
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation among host Jonathan Lemire, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and film director Ibrahim Nash’at about his new documentary “Hollywoodgate,” which looks at the Taliban in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. “Do you think there is any hope for a civilized version of Afghanistan led by the Taliban?,” asks Barnicle. Hear Nash’at’s answer here.
Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss a New York Times op-ed that argues against Senate Republicans suggesting the terrorist attack in New Orleans has increased the urgency to approve Donald Trump’s choices for top national security positions. “Their proposed picks have nothing to do with solving what happened in New Orleans….It has to do with the mind of the killer….It has to do with tracking whatever incident set him off on the path that brought him to Bourbon Street the other night….This crime builds up in the mind, the human mind. What triggered it? What happened to this man? When did it happen? Did it have to do with ISIS? Did it have to do with his travels? Did it have to do with his family? All of those things are separate and apart from whoever is appointed to be the next attorney general or the next national intelligence person in the White House or the next FBI director. All of those things are separate and apart from it. It’s an age-old situation. It requires expertise. It requires time and it requires patience,” says Barnicle about the terror attack in New Orleans where at least fourteen people were killed and dozens injured when the man plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street in a pickup truck.
“America is about the future. It’s not about the past. It’s about the future. (Democrats) have to address the future in solid, sensible ways that are meaningful—from the price of gas, to the price of eggs, to the price of a college education. Talk about the things that impact people’s lives—that’s it,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a Morning Joe discussion about the future of the Democratic Party with Joe Scarborough, Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Democratic strategist James Carville and Jonathan Lemire. Watch the whole conversation here.
“The coverage of the end of the Biden presidency, is really interesting to me. It’s like going to a baseball game and you watch the game, you drive home, and you say, ‘well that was a good game.’ You get home and you realize, ‘boy that was a great game.’ And what’s happened here in the coverage of the end of the Biden presidency is it’s dominated by his age. Every story that’s written describes his age, his shuffle, his stutters, he didn’t say anything. And age takes precedence over the accomplishments of the Biden administration. They certainly are historic, and they certainly are a huge positive for American paychecks,” says Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire and Al Sharpton as they discuss the Democratic Party’s road forward after losing in the 2024 election and the final stage of President Joe Biden’s term in the White House.
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Jonathan Lemire, Mike Barnicle and NBC News Senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake about the influence of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, on President-elect Donald Trump and his team as Musk has demanded that Republicans back away from a bipartisan spending deal that was meant to avoid a government shutdown over Christmas. “What impact do you think that’s having on that inner circle?” asks Barnicle. Find out here.
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) about how House Democrats will approach the incoming Trump Administration as the Republican Party will enter the 119th Congress with a razor-thin majority in the House. “It sounds as if every vote is going to be like a buzzer-beater at the end of a basketball game….What’s the reality on the Democratic side of the aisle? What are your issues that you worry about?” Hear Jeffries’ response here on MSNBC.
“I went to grammar school with kids—who came to the same grammar school classroom I sat in—who were wearing braces and sticks to carry them through the day, to walk. They had polio. The idea that we’re going to eliminate the Salk vaccine—and take a look at vaccines that all infants and children get to prevent measles and other really radical diseases that could cause harm to them—the idea that we’re talking about eliminating them based upon the quackery of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—and it is quackery. And he is a very smart guy and he ought to know better, but he clearly doesn’t know better. But the idea that we’re still seriously talking about eliminating vaccines from any children is almost beyond belief,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Jonathan Lemire following a New York Times report that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s lawyer Aaron Siri has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death.
“Competence is the issue. Look at the Middle East…Is Syria on the verge of becoming a failed state or is it a failed state already? The German government is in a state of near collapse. The French legislature has been disbanded and they are going to have another election probably this spring. Ukraine – what’s going to happen with Ukraine? All of this depends on partially, at least two of the nominees, Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Hegseth, doing their jobs competently. They can’t do their jobs competently because they are not fully qualified for those jobs, and yet, they are nominated for those jobs. So, it’s going to be up to the Senate – the United States Senate – to stand up, advise, consent and then vote. And we are going to out which senators have the courage to do absolutely the right thing in defense of the United States of America,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about the Senate amid Trump’s cabinet nominations during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Katty Kay as they discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial cabinet nominees, including Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief and Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary, who are currently in Washington D.C. meeting with senators amid their confirmation push.
Mike Barnicle is a veteran print and broadcast journalist recognized for his street-smart, straightforward style honed over nearly four decades in the field. The Massachusetts native has written 4,000-plus columns collectively for The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and the New York Daily News, and continues to champion the struggles and triumphs of the every man by giving voice to the essential stories of today on television, radio, and in print.
