MS NOW senior national security reporter David Rohde joined Morning Joe to discuss his latest piece “Was Jeffrey Epstein a spy? The world keeps asking,” which reports that despite growing political speculation, there is no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was a spy for any foreign nation, though some officials debate whether foreign intelligence agencies may have targeted him because of his elite connections. “David, you mentioned when you were listing the potential secret operations of other countries looking at his emails—trying to look at his emails—you mentioned the Russians and the Chinese; but, isn’t it also possible that he could have been a clear target for some sophisticated countries like Israel, who are always looking for information about America and what’s happening in America? And this guy had treasure trove of information—confidential information—with some pretty high rolling people?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Hear Rohde’s answer here.
“There’s a phrase that is used in history to describe certain examples of leadership: it’s called pathfinder. And in the 1984 campaign, I would submit Jesse Jackson was a pathfinder. He was so electric as a candidate that he changed politics, not only Democratic politics, but politics in this country,” said veteran columnist and MS NOW contributor Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Rev. Al Sharpton, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist as they remember the life and legacy of civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has died at 84 years old. In Jackson’s historic bid for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination, he became the first African American candidate to win a major party state primary or caucus.
Tune in for this Morning Joe segment with Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they talk with American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch who unveiled the AJC’s State of Antisemitism in America 2025 report, which reveals, among other facts, that 73 percent of American Jews have experienced antisemitism online. “…There’s a real sense of more anger out there and frustration in people’s lives. How does that add to it, do you think?” asks Barnicle. Hear what Deutch has to say about the contributing factors fueling antisemitism today and some of the possible solutions.
“It was depressing to watch that, actually, the entire hearing,” said MS NOW contributor Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire and Joe Scarborough and as they weigh in on “the lack of empathy” from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who faces intense criticism for her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files at a high-tension House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing where she also refused to personally acknowledge survivors in attendance. “It was also another building block in people’s lack of confidence—the feeling that they have lack of confidence that the government operates for us, for ordinary people. Watching it and because of my age, my experiences, I started thinking about the Army-McCarthy hearings and Joseph Welch ‘have you no sense of decency, sir?,’ the Fulbright hearings on Vietnam, the Watergate hearings that resulted in Richard Nixon leaving the presidency, resigning from the presidency. All of these things, I think people felt, ‘well, they’re doing something for us. They’re explaining things for us, for the people.’.…This hearing, yesterday, I think the only thing it did was cement the average person’s accurate feeling that justice is a two-tiered system now in the United States of America. It protects the wealthy, protects the powerful like Epstein and his friends, Epstein and company. And the average person does not get the same treatment in the justice system in America now,” says Barnicle about the American judicial system.
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between MS NOW contributor and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) about the ongoing, controversial ICE operations under President Donald Trump, after Liam Conejo Ramos—a 5-year-old boy “detained” by ICE in Minneapolis—was finally released. “Liam and the other children in that facility with him have in effect been kidnapped,” says Barnicle. “You are a member of the United States Senate, 100 strong, the House of Representatives, 435 strong. Are you telling us, the nation, that there is nothing you can do about this—nothing?” Hear Murphy’s response” “We are not powerless,” he says in describing what methods lawmakers have to stop the “murder” of American citizens and the tear-gassing of schools.
Tune in on this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss President Donald Trump continuing to insist he “didn’t make a mistake” and refusing to apologize for his Truth Social video post that included racist imagery of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, which has received bipartisan backlash. “When you realize what it was and people see it, and you understand the president’s reaction to it—that he’s not going to apologize, that he’s not going to admit a mistake—he defines himself even further as to who he is: Are we really surprised?” says Barnicle.
“Peter Baker, you’ve been covering Washington, D.C. for quite some time. So on this particular never-ending story, the Epstein files, do you get the sense that it’s the intent, the plan, the plot of the Trump Administration to just run out the clock on this—by redacting so many names, keep sending up papers that are meaningless, really, with no proof, no real hard evidence that you can talk about publicly—just run out the clock on it?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker as the Morning Joe panel discusses President Donald Trump’s rollout of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which has been marked by accusations of cover-up, noncompliance, heavy redactions, and political deflection. Listen to Baker’s response here.
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire, Eugene Robinson and Mike Barnicle as they weigh in on President Donald Trump having called U.S. Olympic skier Hunter Hess a “real loser” after the athlete exercised his First Amendment rights by expressing “mixed emotions” about representing the United States in the current political climate. “The most American thing you can do is say: I love America. I’m a member of the United States of America. I’m a citizen. My family has grown up here. I love this country. I just wish that we would stop putting five-year-olds in refugee camps and taking them out of their homes and off the streets of the cities that they live in. There’s nothing more American than that,” says Barnicle.
“One of the problems in this country, I would submit, is the lack—the death—of so many local newspapers where people would get their news about what’s happening in their state or their small town or their city that they live in,” said veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski about the state of journalism today and how major outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, are providing hope because they’re thriving under strong leadership and proving that high-quality journalism can still succeed if done right. “There are a few papers still doing the job….My old paper, The Boston Globe, is doing very well. It’s doing very well under the ownership of John W. Henry. His wife, Linda, helps run the paper. She does run the paper…and it’s a dominant newspaper and it can happen. The death of the small papers in this country are part of the slow diminution of people’s appreciation of government, of democracy, and we need more healthy newspapers.”
Tune in for this Morning Joe segment as veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie address Donald Trump’s call to “nationalize” U.S. elections—with Christie positing that the Founders deliberately placed elections in the hands of the states to protect accountability and public trust, and that state-run elections help keep power closer to the people who actually vote. “I think most people think our elections are free and fair…but having one entity, the federal government, running an election, a national election, as opposed to 50 states running their elections—boy, you can see something easily done by putting your finger on the ballot, literally from the national level, and taking care of it, rigging it one time, rather than 50 states doing it in charge,” says Barnicle.
Tune in for this Morning Joe segment as veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and former Atlanta Mayor and 2026 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms discuss the FBI having executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center in Georgia as it probes alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election.
“Some of us feel nostalgic about a country called America that we grew up in, that our parents gave to us….The country doesn’t belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to us. It belongs to everyone in America. It belongs to my children and my grandchildren. And I’m fearful for them….There’s something wrong out there in this country,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle in this Morning Joe conversation with Jonathan Lemire and Willie Geist as they weigh in on the ‘chaos’ in the country being exacerbated by the situation in Minneapolis, where the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents have ignited protests, political backlash, and intense scrutiny of ICE’s tactics.
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle as they react to MS NOW reporter Josh Einiger’s coverage of the fear and intimidation that’s blanketing Maine as ICE starting to make arrests in the coastal state. “They’re also doing something that is forbidden by nearly every major police department in the country, in that they go to places like Auburn, Maine, or Lewiston, Maine, and they will stop people based on skin color alone. That’s it. You have an accent, you have brown skin, everything like that—‘pull them over.’ It’s outrageous, and it’s daily, (and on an) hourly basis that they’re doing it,” says Barnicle about the arrests being conducted by ICE under the Trump Administration’s “Operation Catch of the Day.”
“Senator Schumer…There’s been a lot of Democrats who have stood on the floor of the Senate and outside the Senate complaining about and pointing out the inequity, the outrages that are taking place in the streets of Minneapolis today. Why haven’t you gotten like a dozen Democratic senators and maybe a dozen New York City cops flown to Minneapolis, stood there in the crowds and said to the guys wearing masks, ‘we’ve brought people who know how to operate, we’ve brought people who know what law and order really means, and you are wrong, and they are right, and that’s why we’re here?’” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) during a Morning Joe conversation regarding tensions in Minnesota reaching a breaking point following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer as daily clashes between protestors and federal agents—who have come under criticism for their inadequate and brief training in many cases—have intensified across Minneapolis. Hear what Schumer has to say here.
“Wouldn’t one of the big things be with people retiring at the age of 64, 65 and lifespans continuing to increase, 79, 80 years of age being average, sometimes, what happens to health care costs for those people, 62, 65 retiring, who walk around looking for part time jobs, looking for something to do, not finding anything to do, loneliness becomes a factor, their physical health might become a factor. What do we do about that?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park who joins Morning Joe to discuss her new article “The New Old Age,” which explores how the traditional American life arc—school, work, family, and retirement in one’s 60s—is becoming a relic as life expectancy and health spans increase around the globe. Watch the conversation here.
“During the course of putting the piece together, assembling the reportage on the piece, did you run into at all the idea that there seems to be a very short training period for ICE agents, and their backgrounds might not be all law enforcement prior to getting to be a member of the ICE brigade that goes to places like Minneapolis, and that could result in them using force that is truly banned by most large police departments in the country?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of ProPublica reporter Nicole Foy who joins Morning Joe to discuss her reporting that found over 40 cases of ICE agents using chokeholds and other moves that can cut off blood flow to the brain or airflow—controversial techniques banned by a significant number of police departments across the country.
“You two boys changed the way news is delivered and devoured over the past 20 years, and my question to you is: Given the attention span of today’s news based customers, you’ve fed that as well, quite well, but how do you maintain—and you have maintained thus far—the credibility that comes with delivering news?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen who join Morning Joe to discuss their new editorial piece “Behind the Curtain: 20 years of Media Revolution,” which reflects on two decades of media transformation—starting from their departure from legacy news institutions forward to the current fractured landscape. Watch their conversation here.
“Adam, so much of your work is filled with insight. I want to ask you one question about one of the themes in your book: ‘Ask for advice, not feedback.’ How do you do that in a culture where everybody looks at their iPhones thinking that’s going to give them the answer to every question they ask? How to lose weight, which direction to take to get to Chicago, stuff like that. How do you do it?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of organizational psychologist Adam Grant who joins Morning Joe to discuss his book “Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things,” which challenges conventional wisdom about talent and explores how anyone can achieve greatness through character development, making mistakes and effective learning strategies. Watch the conversation here.
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) about the White House’s new website with a rewrite of the historical record of January 6, 2021, hailing the pro-Trump mob who stormed the U.S. Capitol five years ago as “peaceful protesters” who were provoked by law enforcement and the missing plaque that is by law required to be on display at the Capitol to honor the police who defended democracy that day five years ago.
Vanity Fair writer Chris Whipple joined Morning Joe to discuss his new high-profile exposé on White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, based on 11 interviews, during which Wiles said President Donald Trump “has an alcoholic’s personality,” called Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist” and concluded that Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” the early handling of the Epstein files. “Chris, I’ve known you for a while. You can be a very charming guy, but charming doesn’t cover 11 sit downs with the chief of staff of the White House….Over the course of 11 interviews, did she ever once say, you know, ‘what is this for?’” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Whipple. Hear Whipple’s answer and learn a little more about the making of this deeply reported profile of Wiles.
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.
