Entries from mikebarnicle
POTUS continues to cause damage

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the Washington Post’s Anne Gearan and contributor Mike Barnicle as they discuss the Trump Administration’s potentially “destructive” maneuvers that are attempting to thwart the efforts of the Biden transition team at many levels of government prior to the transfer of power on January 20th. “The incoming Biden Administration feels incoming damage on a daily and hourly basis,” says Barnicle about the troubled transition. FInd out more here.

Barnicle: “I’m struck by the indifference”

“I’m struck by the indifference that we’ve witnessed over the last couple months—two or three months—in both the House and the Senate toward the plight of millions of Americans who are struggling with eviction, with joblessness, with hunger,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle about the economic toll added to the death and illness of the coronavirus catastrophe that has plagued the country. “There seems to be just an indifference that really stunned me, and it’s certainly a contrast to…as recently as the early mid-90s. It seemed different then—it seemed Congress and the Senate was more in touch with the needs of people than we are in this age of instant communication. It’s incredible.” More of Morning Joe “final thoughts” here.

Barnicle speaks with Sen. Kaine

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) about what priorities are at the forefront for the new Congress and the Biden Administration in 2021 as state and local governments and their constituents continue to be hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic hammering the country. You can see the segment here.

Help is on the way

Morning Joe’s Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle discuss the significance of bipartisan congressional leaders finally coming to an agreement on a roughly $900 billion economic relief package that will bring emergency aid to a weak economy and a country ravaged by surging coronavirus cases, ending a long period of “indifference” of leaders and perhaps signaling change that could lead to more cooperation in the House and Senate moving into the Biden Administration. Watch the conversation here.

Our damaged country

“When you stop and think about all the people that we have elected to office, all the people who have served this country over the generations, and you come to this point—where there’s one terribly damaged individual—he’s president of the United States—and I would submit that the damage that he has already done to this country and continues to do to this country on an hourly basis is now unfortunately, incalculable—incalculable,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation about President Donald Trump with Los Angeles Times columnist Virginia Heffernan.

POTUS: Agent of misdirection

“I was thinking when I saw that number flash up on the screen last night: 3,054. It’s a shocking number in a single day, and I was reverting in my mind back to September 11th. Now nearly 20 years ago, when well over 2,000 Americans were killed in an office building—a mass murder, people died for the crime of going to work that day. What happened then? America stood still. Americans were shocked, they were fearful, but, I think most importantly, they were listening. And they listened to President George W. Bush who stood on the rubble, gave the country some direction in the two to three weeks that followed September 11th. That’s the important thing: Gave us direction and we listened. What direction have we ever had from this president and this White House about a killer amongst us? We have had no direction. We have had misdirection. We have had instructions not to wear a mask. A mask. He turned it into something political—a life saving device. A simple mask….And people died as a result.” says Barnicle in this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist about President Donald J. Trump’s leadership amid the coronavirus outbreak within the country, the day after more than 3,000 Americans died of COVID-19 as cases continue to surge.

Where are the Republicans?

ICYMI: Watch this Morning Joe conversation between host Mika Brzezinski and contributor Mike Barnicle about Republican lawmakers who have not stood up to President Donald J. Trump after he escalated his baseless claims of voter fraud in a 46-minute video rant. “Where are the Republicans?….Where are the Barry Goldwaters and the Hugh Scotts from a long-gone era, who went to the White House to tell Richard Nixon that he had to go?….Where are these people? That’s the question of the day. That’s the question of our time,” says Barnicle about the GOP not condemning unsupported remarks from Trump as coronavirus continues to ravage the U.S. See the segment here.

Biden’s top cabinet picks

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation among Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle about President-elect Joe Biden’s top cabinet nominations as they are set to be formally introduced. “The level of experience and expertise is overwhelming, and the reason that the level of experience and expertise is necessary because so much of our government is broken within each department….Why is it broken? Because the level of incompetence over the last four years has been unbelievable and the results are proven each and every day as the virus skyrockets around the country,” says Barnicle about the Trump Administration’s failures amid the raging COVID-19 outbreak throughout the country. You can watch the segment here.

Break the Chain of Transmission

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, about how we can “break the chain of transmission” of the coronavirus over this upcoming Thanksgiving week by limiting personal contact with others as the U.S. logged more than 170,000 newly reported COVID-19 cases for the second time and the death toll crossed the quarter-million mark.

Barnicle on Newsom: ‘The arrogance of the entitled’

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and veteran columnist and longtime contributor Mike Barnicle discuss the leaked photos that show California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a dinner party on November 6 at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, California, not following his own state’s COVID-19 protocols. Commented Barnicle: “I was harking back to old photo editors and what they would do with a picture like that in the old days, and the caption that they would put on a picture like that is ‘the arrogance of the entitled,’ and unfortunately for us over the last 10, 15, 20 years the distance between the entitled in this country and their arrogance has only grown, and it’s separated us as a nation.” You can watch the segment here.

COVID-19 challenges on education

Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle discuss the terrible toll the coronavirus is taking on school children across the nation as New York City announces it will close its public school system—the largest in the nation—and transition to remote learning as coronavirus cases continue to rise there. “It’s just tragic what has happened to these students and their families—and it’s not just New York—it’s across the country,” says Barnicle about COVID-19’s severe educational, social and economical impact on families nationwide as the virus continues to ravage the U.S. Join the conversation here.

Trump’s post-presidency plans

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Jonathan Lemire about the possible next act for President Donald J. Trump once he leaves The White House, amid reports that Trump has told friends he may start a media company or announce a political comeback.

Presidential transition in peril

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle discuss the history of presidential transitions and president-elects gaining access to critical presidential-level intelligence briefings while President Donald J. Trump has thus far thwarted the transition to President-Elect Joe Biden. Join the conversation here.

Former VP Joe Biden becomes President-Elect of the United States

ICYMI: Watch this conversation among Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist and veteran columnist and MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle about this historic day that saw former VP Joe Biden become president-elect of the United States. “Through healing comes his purpose,” says Barnicle of Biden. “His purpose is to try to heal those divisions that exist in the country: To lower the temperature of the country, to stop the tweeting, to stop the cultural wars by just a calm, effective, competent job as president of the United States.” Watch more of the coverage here and a remembrance of Biden’s interaction with a young man, Corey Hixon, son of Stoneman Athletic Director Chris Hixon, who was among 17 killed at the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Biden here to heal

“One thing that Joe Biden is really, really good at and it’s a self-acquired aspect of who he is, his character: healing,” says MSNBC contributor and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this conversation with Nicolle Wallace on the day that former VP Joe Biden was named President-Elect. Barnicle talks about how Biden’s faith, family, successes and losses have uniquely prepared him for this moment, to be president to all the people. See the segment here.

Joe Biden’s Grief Is the DNA of His Humanity

Mike joins Nicolle Wallace during MSNBC’s live coverage leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory speech to discuss his latest column for The Daily Beast that outlines how Biden’s life experience, successes and hardships have made him a man suited for this moment to lead the United States. “The heart of the country is the heart of Joe Biden, and he knows what it’s like to feel a loss and he knows what it’s like to feel great hope. And he has both tonight.” You can read Mike’s Daily Beast column here: https://bit.ly/32rgQ1L

What are the roots of the country’s deep divide?

Watch this Morning Joe segment between host Joe Scarborough and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as they discuss the deep division that exists in America today as we count down in a very tight race to determine the next president of the United States. “The autopsy on this is going to be among the most interesting American experiments we’ve ever done, and it has to be done,” says Barnicle about the need to explore the reasons for the divisions, the roots of which “were there long before Donald Trump.”

Barnicle: This is the last presidential campaign I’m covering

“This is the last presidential campaign I’m covering. I’ve done every one since 1972—this is it. I won’t be doing it four years from now,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. “Listening to that president speak, all I could think of was the ‘fake news’ thing that he’s been selling—it worked. It has damaged our credibility and going forward we have to take a look at this country. We have upwards of maybe 45 percent of this country who resent the other half of the country….No republic can survive in the long run with that kind of division. We’ve got to heal the resentments that boil, fester every day.” Hear more of the conversation with Joe Scarborough as the two share takeaways from the 2020 presidential election as the race has remained unsettled.

Rep. Jim Clyburn votes for restoring goodness

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) about how America might overcome the toxicity and division plaguing the country and perpetuated by the current occupant of the White House on this 2020 Election Day. With his support for Democratic candidate Joe Biden for President, Clyburn advised: “Let’s restore goodness in the White House and we will maintain greatness for this country.”

Concession speeches can offer healing

On this Election Day, Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle look back at past concession speeches from presidential candidates who failed to win the White House but were graceful in defeat, showing an “extraordinary display of character in the most terrible of situations for the person involved after expending all of that energy and effort to win the presidency.” Looking forward to the results of the 2020 presidential election, Barnicle added: “I hope and pray for the sake of the country, our country, that it will be a healing statement and not a statement of division.”