Entries from mikebarnicle
The price of MLB’s All-Star move

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle as Barnicle dissects the ongoing saga over Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred’s controversial decision to remove the 2021 All-Star Game from Georgia after the state created more restrictive voting laws, to the dismay of Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams who urged MLB to keep the All-Star Game in her state, which will reportedly lose an estimated $100 million in revenue from the move. “Baseball has always lagged behind the other professional sports, especially the National Basketball Association, in terms of addressing prominent, social and cultural issues, especially regarding race in this country, and this is an opportunity for (Manfred) to declare Major League Baseball on the right side of history, which he did, and he did it by himself,” says Barnicle. Hear more of the details here.

Open the schools, says Dr. Fauci

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle following Dr. Anthony Fauci’s comments to the Morning Joe panel that schools can reopen and should remain open as the country continues to battle the COVID-19 outbreak. “The more kids that are back in schools the better off this country is going to be, the faster we’re going to move forward,” says Barnicle. Watch more of the discussion here.

Voting Rights front and center, again

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and the Washington Post’s associate editor Eugene Robinson about the Republican Party’s push to tighten voting rules after recent losses, with Georgia Republicans passing restrictive changes to the state election process that includes making it illegal to take food or water to voters in line. “It’s beyond sick,” said Barnicle, echoing a statement made by President Joe Biden in his first press conference this week. “It’s a real threat to our democracy, the way people vote in this country.” Hear Robinson’s response here.

The need for public/private partnerships

Watch this Morning Joe segment as veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and author Mariana Mazzucato discuss her new book, “Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism,” which delves into the need to foster the private/public relationship to achieve solutions for our modern day problems.

Morning Joe impressions

Here’s the deal, man: Tune in for this Morning Joe segment as Mike Barnicle and Dana Carvey via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert offer up their hilarious impressions of President Joe Biden as the panel share some laughs and Biden family stories.

Vaccine myths vs. reality

Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, joined with Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle to talk about the effectiveness of the two-dose COVID-19 vaccines in preventing infection of the various variants of the virus. Watch the conversation here.

Words matter

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between Mike Barnicle and Victoria DeFrancesco Soto of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin about the power and consequences of words, especially in connection with the escalation of inflammatory language in the United States, in a year that has seen the death and destruction of COVID-19 and crimes like the killings of eight people Atlanta-area spas, including six of Asian descent.

Bipartisan cooperation wanted

“Have you had the opportunity to talk to any of your Republican colleagues, and perhaps make some beginnings of a friendship with some of your Republican colleagues? Do you have any sense of why they fear the changing demographics of this country, the changing face of this country—seemingly much more so than they fear Iran or China or Russia?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) during this Morning Joe conversation. Listen to Warnock’s response here. Only on MSNBC.

Veterans’ care improving in rural areas

Watch this conversation with Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Sec. Denis McDonough about what the government is doing to get quality medical care to all veterans, including those living in rural areas.

Collateral damage of Trumpism

“Donald Trump didn’t pull the trigger in Atlanta, but Donald Trump certainly was responsible for the anger and the fear and the suspicion that exists in great degree in this country, much more so than ever in the past,” said Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle during this conversation with host Joe Scarborough about the rise of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans, including a man charged in Georgia, a suspect in three shootings at Atlanta-area massage parlors or spas that killed eight people, most of them women of Asian descent. Watch more of the discussion here.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Tune in for this St. Patrick’s Day conversation between Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle and Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin about the status of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement amid post-Brexit tensions between the UK and the EU over Northern Ireland.

Newsman Roger Mudd dies at 93

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they honor legendary network television journalist and “wonderful man” Roger Mudd who has died at 93 years old. “Roger began as a newspaper guy in Richmond, Virginia. When he was a famous anchor, he was still the Roger Mudd from Richmond, Virginia….And you’re absolutely right: Ask a simple, direct question; you get a simple, direct answer and that’s the news of the day,” says Barnicle about Mudd’s effective interview inquiries, which were on fully display in the 1979 interview that wound up undermining the presidential hopes of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Find out more about Mudd’s career here.

Sanders’ support for the minimum wage hike

Watch this Morning Joe conversation among Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle and Jonathan Lemire about the support President Joe Biden has received from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on his agenda, specifically Sanders’ commitment to push for the $15 minimum wage as a pay raise to hourly workers despite the proposal having been struck from Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus plan. Find out more here.

President Biden accelerates vaccine timeline

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle about the significance of President Joe Biden’s announcement that the United States would have enough COVID-19 vaccine doses for every adult American by the end of May, dramatically accelerating his own timeline. “The principle objective right now—as of this moment—is to show to the American public, the efficacy, the efficiency of government. When government is working well, it helps a lot of people, and that’s what this administration is intent on proving,” says Barnicle.

Where are the Republicans?

“Where have these United States Senators—all of them Republican—where have they been as this daily onslaught against things that we hold dear as a country: like truth, justice, accountability. Where have they been, and what are they going to do?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of The New York Times Washington bureau chief Elisabeth Bumiller as the Morning Joe panel discusses the future of the Republican Party as a majority of GOP senators are expected to acquit former President Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial this week. Hear Bumiller’s response here.

Crisis not averted: relief plan stalled

Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) discuss the Republican hold up of the new $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan amid states struggling with vaccine challenges during the country’s worst crisis in decades that has left more than 460,000 dead and millions without jobs and facing eviction.

Second impeachment of Trump begins

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Susan Page and Mike Barnicle as they discuss role of the U.S. Senators in the historic second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump for his role in inciting the Capitol riots on January 6th. “If the senators can’t grasp the meaning of their oath after all of this, then I don’t know where we are as a constitutional republic. Really. Seriously,” says Barnicle about the majority of GOP senators who may vote to acquit Trump.

Efforts to overthrow the government continue

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle about Senator Mitt Romney having called out his fellow Republicans who continue to push the myth that President Joe Biden is not the legitimate victor in the 2020 presidential election. “Good for Mitt that he spoke to it. But the larger problem is that we have thousands of people in this country and thousands of organized groups aimed at overthrowing the American government because of one man—Donald J. Trump—and one lie that Joe Biden is not really the legal president of the United States. And that is still out there thick in the air among these crazy people,” says Barnicle about the pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol and the rhetoric they continue to propagate.

Impeachment = Interruption

“The pending impeachment trial is nothing less than a huge distraction for everything that the Biden Administration is attempting to do. We’ve had an enormous action out of the Biden Administration in a very short period of time since the inauguration, and it’s (Biden’s) commitment to using government to help people, to help move the nation forward that’s behind all of this,” said longtime Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle during this conversation with Willie Geist about President Joe Biden having signed a record number of executive actions in his first week while the Senate is preparing for the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump for his role in having stirred up a mob that attacked the Capitol.

Biden’s national security choices: “comfort and competence”

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and the Washington Post’s columnist David Ignatius about President-elect Joe Biden’s national security team choices—including the latest William Burns as CIA director—selections that Barnicle says offer “comfort and competence.” Can they, as Ignatius asks, also challenge the new president to make the tough decisions? Hear more of the discussion here.