“Baseball is part of us. You know, it’s like our faith. You’re born with it, and you live with it, and it’s every day. It’s a constant. The days get longer, the weather gets warmer. It’s a relief from the everyday stress of things that we talk about each and every day, and it is back—finally—today,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as he and Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough rejoice over the start of the 2019 Major League Baseball season. Listen to more of the discussion here about how baseball unites generations and provides a respite from “what’s happening in Washington, D.C.”
ICYMI: Hear the Morning Joe conversation about the probability of President Donald Trump and the Democrats resuming their fight over the Affordable Care Act. “Given the drift and the incompetence of this Administration, there will be over 100 million Americans without healthcare, unable to see a doctor or perhaps paying through the nose in higher premiums for their existing health plans because the insurance companies will be able to run amok,” explains veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Listen to more of the conversation with Joe Scarborough about the president’s unkept health care promises.
When you talk about this presidency, it’s what he’s done to diminish and/or maybe destroy existing institutions that have stood for 70, 75 years and created at least a welcome mat in Europe, and a system for peace and existing conditions there now,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump’s possible connection with Russia. Listen to more of the discussion here.
“Vladimir Putin (has) won beyond his wildest dreams. He has turned our political, cultural, social system upside down. He has the bases of two political parties hating one another….They have these social tools like Twitter that they use like Bunsen burners to just torch every idea and every human being involved in this fight….Yet out in the larger country…the vast majority of people, who depend on institutions like The Washington Post, like The New York Times, like their local papers, like us in some component parts, to give them the truth. It’s our job to do our job,” said Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle. Listen to more of the Morning Joe panel conversation about the media’s role amid Russian interference and the impact Russian President Vladimir Putin has had on America.
As the Morning Joe panel discusses The Dallas Morning News headline “Report: No Collusion,” and what we know so far about the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle asks POLITICO senior White House reporter Josh Gerstein: “How important…was the fact that there was no sworn sit-down testimony as to state of mind by the President of the United States with Mueller and his investigators?” Listen to Gerstein’s response and his talk of “another chapter to this story.”
Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation with veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano about her new book, “How Safe Are We?” and what she proposes can and should be done to combat the real and current threats to homeland security in light of Robert Mueller’s report indicating that there are ongoing attempts by Russia to interfere with American democracy.
“Given what happened over the last two or three years, I would urge that we pump the brakes a little on this. We don’t know a whole lot, and I don’t want to see the media—us or anybody else—get involved with criticizing (special counsel Robert) Mueller at this point or raising objections to Bill Barr, the attorney general. Let’s wait and find out what’s in there,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle about Mueller’s report and the fact that most Americans are moving on with their lives and are more concerned with the cost of health care and stagnant wages. Listen to more of the conversation here with Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
“Jay, the language of acceptance of the verdict from the President…was not exactly, you know, ‘the thing is over. Let’s move on as a country.’ To your knowledge, is the President going to continue to insist on reopening investigations of Hillary Clinton?” asks Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle of Jay Sekulow, attorney to President Donald Trump, following special counsel Robert Mueller finding no evidence that President Donald Trump or any of his associates coordinated with the Russian government’s 2016 election interference. Listen to Sekulow’s response here about how he believes the country can best move on in the wake of the Mueller report findings.
While the Morning Joe panel discusses special counsel Robert Mueller’s presenting no evidence that President Donald Trump or any of his associates coordinated with the Russian government’s 2016 election interference, but stopping short of exonerating the President on obstruction of justice, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “We’re not going to be able to talk about this knowledgeably–fully knowledgeably–until we see the report, until the American public sees the report. I was told yesterday by two people who know Bob Mueller very well, and know aspects of this investigation, and both of them said: You cannot overestimate the importance on the obstruction issue of Mueller’s team being unable to get Trump to testify, Q&A, back and forth, in private. We don’t know about (Trump’s) state of mind. Are the tweets reflective of his state of mind? And it’s a very tough call to take that to court because it’s a high bar to convict someone of obstruction.” Hear more of the analysis here.
Listen in on the Morning Joe discussion about the record-breaking $426.5-million contract extension signed by Major League Baseball superstar Mike Trout with the Los Angeles Angels. “Certainly, (he’s) the greatest ballplayer since Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle in the early 1950s—there’s no doubt about that. He is a generational player, a generational talent, and if he had waited to go into free agency in another year or year and a half—the bidding would’ve started at around $600 million. The Yankees would’ve been all over him,” explains veteran columnist Mike Barnicle.
Listen in on the Morning Joe panel discussion with South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a 37-year-old Democrat, who is a gay, Harvard-educated, Afghanistan war veteran running for president. Asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle: “I’ve not heard you speak about our problems with both class and color in this country—they are significant, deep, historical. Talk about that.”
Hear Buttigieg’s answer about an elected leader’s responsibility to “call people to their highest values and bring them together” and his belief in a national service program for young people.
Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation about President Donald Trump’s position on immigration contrasted with remarks made by former President George W. Bush at a naturalization ceremony, where the 43rd president stated that “immigration is a blessing and a strength.” Commented veteran columnist Mike Barnicle “Unfortunately, we don’t have a President who understands the role of the presidency today, and I think George W. Bush’s function yesterday was to remind people of how great it is to have a president who does understand it.” Hear more from Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough and Barnicle here.
As Morning Joe starts Monday morning’s show discussing President Donald Trump’s weekend Twitter barrage, in which he tweeted more than 50 times from Friday morning to Sunday evening, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle references a tweet by political analyst William Kristol about Trump’s latest attack on Sen. John McCain, months after the Arizona senator’s death. “I think one of the classic tweets of this weekend was from Bill Kristol who urged the Republican Party—members of the Republican Party—to look at all of the President’s tweets yesterday. ’Don’t avert your eyes,’ he said. ‘Don’t avert your eyes. Look at the tweets and then ask yourself: ‘Is this the man you want representing the Republican Party?’’” Listen to more of the discussion here.
Tune in as Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle discuss the House Democrats having postponed a vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism amid escalating tensions over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) alleged anti-Semitic remarks. “One of the most offensive tropes that was uttered is this idea that some people because they’re Jewish have more of an allegiance to Israel than the United States of America,” said Barnicle. “That is truly, deeply offensive, and it ought to be to every ethnic group in this country. I’m for a united Ireland, but America is where I live. America is my country, not Ireland.” Listen to more of the conversion here.
Listen in on the conversation between Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle and The New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker about President Donald Trump and his team of one. “With the thinning out of the White House staff, how many people surrounding the President of the United States does he listen to? Or are we into a process where it’s only the President whose opinion and view counts and he carries forward with very little insight from anybody else?” Find out what Baker has to say here.
Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) about Hoda Muthana, a 24-year-old woman who left the U.S. in 2014 to join ISIS and who is seeking an expedited return. “Should she be allowed to return to this country? Should she be allowed to return to this country in handcuffs? What’s your view?” asks Barnicle. Listen to Jones’ response here.
“I would submit that if you went to that speech, got the tape of it, clipped out the introduction that he’s the President of the United States, you would look at it as if, ‘uh oh, well thankfully the guy doing the act out here is fully clothed, he’s not wearing paper slippers. He’s clearly a mental patient and someone in his family had better hopefully come on stage and take him off.’ I mean, it’s that crazy,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump’s unhinged speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Listen to more of the discussion here with Morning Joe’s Willie Geist and Associated Press White House reporter Jonathan Lemire.
“One of the most admirable things about Bob Mueller has less to do with his service in Vietnam, his service in the Justice Department, his service as a homicide investigator in Washington, D.C. Through Mueller’s eyes and through some knowledge of Bob Mueller, the name Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, happens to be the focal point of this investigation in the public mind; but I would guarantee you that in Bob Mueller’s mind this is an investigation aimed at answering the question: Who did harm to my country, to Bob Mueller’s country, our country,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a Morning Joe conversation with national security expert Tom Nicholas about special counsel Robert Mueller and his Russia probe. Listen to Nicholas’ response here.
ICYMI: The Morning Joe panel, headed by Willie Geist and including Associated Press White House reporter Jonathan Lemire and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle, discuss the latest comments by Ty Cobb, a former White House attorney for President Donald Trump, who said that special counsel Robert Mueller is a hero and that Mueller’s probe is not a witch hunt. Listen to the conversation here.
Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and The Atlantic national correspondent Graeme Wood about Wood’s recent time spent with national security adviser John Bolton. “We are approaching 20 years at war in Afghanistan—soon to be like 7,000 days at war in one country. Did this come up in the course of your conversation? And if not, do you have any sense of Bolton’s feeling about our role in Afghanistan?” asks Barnicle. Listen to Wood’s response here.
