Mike Barnicle

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Norman Ornstein, a political scientist with a new article in the New Republic about mental health month. “Most people who live an ordinary life know that mental health is a huge issue from grammar schools on up through life. A lot of people are aware of that; but how do we as a country and you as a specific individual get Congress to pay attention to one single group of people? Not that they’re the most important, but one single group of people massively affected by mental health, and I’m talking about veterans of wars. The VA clinics in this country are overrun, an epidemic of people going in, not being able to find help because they’re understaffed or it’s closed. They’ve got to drive another 80 miles to find another VA facility. What do we do about that? They gave to us. What do we do for them?” asks Barnicle in a discussion about how we as a society can better assist American veterans who are suffering due to their mental health. Listen to Ornstein’s response here. Only on MSNBC.

Watch this Morning Joe discussion with veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Semafor’s David Weigel about Weigel’s latest article: “Trump’s falling in polls. Why aren’t Democrats benefiting?” “How does that happen to a party?” asks Barnicle. Weigel shares his findings here.

“We accept it as passengers. We accept that when we go to the airport there’s going to be a delay in our flight. We’re going to sit on the runway. Yesterday because of the Newark situation…we sat on the runway for an hour and a half to two hours. We take off. We’re coming to New York. It’s very rainy and cloudy out, obviously on the ground. We’re coming in for a landing, plane’s coming in, and all of a sudden, we swoop upwards. The pilot comes on the air and says, you know, “sorry about that; the runway was a little overcrowded. We’re going to take another round and take a run at it again.’ And that happens too often, and it’s a miracle that something really, truly tragic and horrific has not happened—especially on the east coast of America with all of these airports in such a small geographical area and FAA traffic control problems,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle during this conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist about the ongoing issues with the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control in America, following air traffic controllers temporarily having lost communication with aircraft flying in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

Tune in for this Morning Joe panel discussion with Mika Brzezinski, Mike Barnicle and U.S. Army Col. Jack Jacobs (Ret.), a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions during the Vietnam War, on this 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War ending. Hear Jacobs’ views on the “selective service” in Vietnam and how it divided the country.

“We went to Vietnam really in the early 1960s…it was the first time that we were really in someone else’s country fighting not for them, but for us—to get out of there; but years later we’ve done it again and again. We’ve done it in Iraq, and we’ve done it in Afghanistan. What impact do you think the failure, the defeat of the United States in Vietnam, had to do with the diplomacy going forward in terms of other countries that we invaded or went to?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Richard Haass, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, during this Morning Joe panel conversation about the impact of the Vietnam War, a “war of choice,” as Haass terms it, on America 50 years after the war ended. Watch the conversation here.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, about the Russia-Ukraine War and the Trump Administration’s push for a peace treaty, following Russia having launched one of the most devastating bombardments on Ukraine’s major cities since the war began, killing at least 12 people, hours after President Donald Trump said he believed he had struck deals with both sides to end the war. “So, along this line of thinking about the pause and the fighting, the cease fire, the all caps warnings that the president issues on Truth Social. Where is the European Union’s role in this with regard to Ukraine?” asks Barnicle. Hear Haass’ response only on MSNBC.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Elise Jordan and Mike Barnicle as they weigh in on President Donald Trump’s approval rating continuing to decline only a few months into his second term in the White House. “The level of incompetence is still there and the fact that it all revolves around him, what he thinks on a moment-to-moment basis. And you watch Republicans, you watch Democrats, the collective political group, looking at all of the issues, I would submit most Republicans, most Democrats in the House and Senate, pay more attention to policy on a daily basis than does the president of the United States because the policy that he thinks about is—him,” says Barnicle about President Trump.

“Will, you have a reputation of having great talent and great credibility. We’ve been talking about the NFL draft this morning and all the personnel, and whether someone’s arms aren’t an inch longer or an inch shorter, or whatever. So, tell me the truth when I ask you this question: Do you ever have to tape your eyelids open in listening and talking about the NFL draft?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of New York Magazine contributing editor Will Leitch who joins Morning Joe on Day One of the 2025 National Football League draft as teams prepare to make their first round selection. Listen to Leitch’s response here about what to expect.

“This man was basically, and always, right up until the day of his death, a parish priest. He related to the people he represented, to the people he served. And he also, in a larger sense, further defined what the Catholic Church at its core is all about. Catholicism and Catholics are in the forgiveness business. That’s why we have the sacrament called confession: ‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been’ however, long since I have last been to confession. You confess your sins, and you are forgiven. Pope Francis was in the forgiveness business big time. And he was articulate about it, he was eloquent about it, and in his own way, he was vague enough about some of the things that he said, that he would cause millions of people to editorialize and think about ‘what did this Pope really mean’ and what this Pope really meant until the moment he died was about morality,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Barnicle about the late Pope Francis, with whom he’s pictured, during this Morning Joe panel conversation to remember the life and legacy of Pope Francis who died Easter Monday at 88 years old.

“The Pope symbolized for Catholics, and I think for many, many other peoples of different religions in the world, someone they could approach. He was a parish priest at heart. He lived very modestly in an apartment building just at the edge of Vatican City. I was fortunate enough, lucky enough, blessed enough, to be in that building, to attend a mass that the pope said. And he was a uniquely ordinary individual at one level, despite the fact that he was the Pope. He was an incredible human being. I think that’s the biggest thing you can say about him in terms of who he was. He was a human being who understood instinctively troubles, troubles of the damaged, troubles of those who were viewed as differently by different cultures, a unique, a unique holy man,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel remembers the life and legacy of Pope Francis who died on Easter Monday at 88 years old. Join the conversation here.

“Joyce, in the past few days, we’ve seen the back and forth between various federal courts and the Supreme Court and the Trump Administration. Anybody who is vaguely familiar with American politics knows how easy it is to become totally isolated from reality when you live and work in the West Wing of the White House. Given what’s going on, given the road that we seem to be on legally, what do you think the odds are that the Supreme Court—it goes to the Supreme Court again—they clean up the language, they make it specifically clear to anyone that the man must be returned by the United States to the United States and the Trump Administration, the president of the United States, says ‘no?’” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance as the Morning Joe panel discusses President Donald Trump testing judicial authority as the Trump Administration has said the U.S. government will not return a Maryland resident it erroneously sent to a hard labor prison in El Salvador despite the Supreme Court unanimously upholding a lower-court ruling ordering it to “facilitate” the man’s return to the United States. Hear Vance’s response about what this test will determine.

Watch this Morning Joe segment with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) about the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff war amid the economic uncertainty in America. “You are the chief executive of a very large business called the state of Connecticut. In order to run a large business, you need some sense of certainty and some sense of reality. How difficult is it to deal with the state of Connecticut, moving it forward, given the uncertainty that constantly comes out of Washington, D.C.?” asks Barnicle. Hear from Gov. Lamont on the challenges facing his state and constituents and the impact on Americans all over the country.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle about the 2025 Masters, which begins another star-studded affair with a loaded 95-man field featuring the best golfers in the world, including Rory McIlroy who is aiming to claim his first major title since 2014. “On Rory McIlroy, I would personally love to see him win the Masters title, and it doesn’t matter that he won two weeks ago, another PGA title, another PGA tournament. The Masters has been the great white whale for Rory McIlroy, and it would be great to see him win that,” says Barnicle.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle and NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley as they discuss her latest reporting that reveals a recently created Department of Homeland Security task force is using data analytic tools to scour the social media histories of the estimated 1.5 million foreign students studying in the United States for potential grounds to revoke their visas. “Is this not a definition of the death of due process?” asks Barnicle.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the future of major league baseball with New York Times investigative reporter Michael Schmidt who recently interviewed MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on a variety of topics including whether the players will go on strike next year when their collective bargaining period ends and the possibility of robot umpires. Find out more here.

“There is—for all practical purposes—no council of economic advisers, no secretary of the treasury, no one on Wall Street who’s close enough to him to say: ‘You’re wrong, stop this, give it a pause, give it a 90 day pause.’ And lastly and most tragically, if you speak to people who know him or think they know him, Wall Street people who think they know him, know what he might do, know what he might say, know that he is a man alone, that…the United States, Gillian, is now a nation alone, economically led by a man, who I was told yesterday, from someone who has known him for years, is uniquely without humility,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett as the Morning Joe panel discusses the ongoing concerns about the U.S. economy following President Donald Trump escalating his trade war with aggressive tariffs that have rocked the global markets. Watch the conversation here. Only on MSNBC.

On this MLB Opening Day, the Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Willie Geist shifts to a memorable June 1986 column by the late Richard Ben Cramer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, titled “What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?” which provided an inside look into the life of baseball legend Ted Williams. “The Richard Ben Cramer piece captures Ted Williams in the winter of his life down in Islamorada, Florida, where he would go bone fishing all day long…He was supposedly the most expert caster that professional fishermen had ever seen….It’s a spectacular profile,” says Barnicle. Join the conversation here.

“The reflections on your life contained in this book are kind of a gift to anyone who is interested in print and in writers and in great editors. We mentioned Bob McFadden, Bill Geist, Nora Ephron, Ben Bradlee, Maureen (Orth). It’s always what you have on the page….I won’t ask you to name the four or five most memorable pieces in your career, but the daily push towards excellence. Where did that come from?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, who joins Morning Joe to discuss his new memoir “When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines,” which revisits the glamorous heyday of print magazines when they were at the vanguard of American culture. Listen to Carter’s response here.

“You mentioned leadership. You’ve led troopers into battle. So, the signal flap that’s going on right now in the front pages of every newspaper. We are still the tip of the spear around the world, the American military, from eastern Germany to Africa, troops on the ground, submariners in the arctic, South China Sea, all over the world. We are the force—still. So, what does it tell you in terms of leadership when we have the signal flap and not a single person involved, not one single person steps up and accepts responsibility?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) who joins Morning Joe to discuss President Donald Trump characterizing an extraordinary security breach as a minor transgression, insisting that top administration officials had not shared any classified information as they discussed secret military plans in a group chat that included the editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine. Watch Hertling’s response here: “Leadership is about trust,” he says.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel discusses the uncertainty surrounding the future of social security as the Social Security Administration has been crippled by cuts to the agency pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “I can guarantee you that Elon Musk has absolutely zero sense of what a social security check for $375 means to an elderly couple living largely off of social security—none, zero. This is an item that is going to hemorrhage in terms of Trump’s weakness,” says Barnicle about the Trump Administration’s cuts to the Social Security Administration. Join the conversation here.