Entries from mikebarnicle
New book says: White House “out of control”

On Morning Joe, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and The Washington Post associate editor Eugene Robinson discuss former White House communications aide Cliff Sims’ new book, excerpted in the Washington Post, that describes an “absolutely out of control” White House staff and details President Donald J. Trump’s yelling and berating then-speaker of the House Paul Ryan. What will history say about the Republicans who have stuck with Trump? Find out here.

What will it take?

The Morning Joe panel of Mike Barnicle, Willie Geist and Eugene Robinson talk about the ongoing and longest government shutdown in US history and what it might take to bring Republicans and Democrats together and put everyone back to work. Click to listen. Only on MSNBC.

Rudy Giuliani’s jumbles

ICYMI: Listen in on the conversation among Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle with Axios co-founder and CEO Jim Vandehei about Rudy Giuliani, President Donald J. Trump’s attorney, backpedaling on potentially damaging comments he made about Trump’s involvement with Russia during his campaign for the presidency.

The shutdown continues

Listen in as Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and historian Jon Meacham discuss the tremendous impact to thousands of federal employees being ordered back to work without pay as the partial government shutdown continues. “This is a president of the United States, who clearly lacks an empathy gene. He does not understand that real human beings, whole families—there’s more than 800,000 people who are being hurt here,” says Barnicle. Hear more of the conversation here.

Conspiracy or collusion?

Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation with MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos about the impact of the court filing revealing that Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, shared 2016 polling data with a Russian associate. “All of this stuff feeds back to the one word over, and over and over: Russia. What is the legal difference between collusion and conspiracy here?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Hear Cevallos’ answer and more on the situation. Only on MSNBC.

The nation’s emergency

While the Morning Joe panel reviews President Donald Trump’s Oval Office address last night, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle puts it into context: “It raises the question—an important one…What happens when there is a real crisis? When there is a real emergency? Does he take to the air waves? Do we give him the air waves? Do we believe him? That’s a real question that’s going to have to be answered. The president continually…gets right up to the edge of ‘this as a national emergency’. Well, there is a national emergency I would submit, and we saw it last night: It’s him.” Listen to more of the conversation here.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

Today on Morning Joe, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Nelson Cunningham, former White House Special Advisor to President Clinton and General Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee under then-chairman Joseph R. Biden, discuss U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ recent decisions to intervene in specific cases—the latest tied to the Mueller probe—especially in light of Roberts’ well-known concern for the court’s reputation as an impartial institution, which took a hit during Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s hyper-partisan confirmation hearings last fall. Hear the conversation here.

Barnicle & Isaacson on the exhaustion about Washington

Listen in on the conversation between Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle and author and history professor Walter Isaacson about the American public’s “exhaustion factor” relating to President Donald J. Trump’s talk about building a wall along the Mexican border and “the fact that nothing gets done in Washington?”

Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi

Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough,Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) about Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reported involvement in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement in an interview on Fox & Friends that while the murder was a “tragic incident” that America doesn’t approve of, the Saudis are still “an important ally” of the United States.

Country numbness?

Veteran columnist and Morning Joe regular Mike Barnicle poses this question to viewers: “Has this president so numbed us that we don’t react anymore to this epic weekend of a president of the United States being involved in directing a conspiracy, involved in felonious behavior, lying, to the destruction of institutions like the Justice Department and even the presidency? Has this constant repetitive behavior so numbed us to outrage that nothing is going to happen?” asks Barnicle during a conversation with former President George W. Bush aide Elise Jordan about President Donald Trump.

The danger of anger

Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation with award-winning writers Mike Barnicle, Charles Duhigg and Walter Isaacson about the extreme danger of anger on social media. “Anger has to have a productive impact,” says Duhigg. Only on MSNBC.

Sour grapes in Wisconsin

“The Wisconsin legislature led by the Republican Speaker of the House basically stripped democracy from the state of Wisconsin yesterday by passing two pieces of legislation….,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel discusses the Republican-controlled Wisconsin State Assembly shepherding through a series of lame-duck bills to nullify the power of the state Democrats, who won big in the midterm elections. Listen to more of the discussion here with Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough.

Savor this moment: Remembering Bush #41

Listen in as the Morning Joe panel remembers and reflects on President George H.W. Bush hours before his memorial is set to begin in Washington D.C. “It’s going to be an American moment, a unique American moment that we should savor,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle.

Anne Finucane: “global powerhouse”

The Morning Joe panel congratulates “global powerhouse” Anne Finucane, Bank of America vice chairman and chairman of the board of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Europe (and Mike Barnicle’s wife) for being named #42 on Forbes’ annual list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Show co-host Mika Brzezinski praises her good friend Finucane for being “calm, clear and confident.” And Barnicle jokes: “What are the odds that I can get a boost in my allowance?” Hear more about Finucane’s accomplishments.

Remembering President George H.W. Bush

“This is an American moment. It’s not a tweet. It’s not a text. It’s not sky writing that’s going to disappear in the clouds as so many words on TV do. This is about one man: George Herbert Walker Bush, who at 18 years of age began serving his country and who served his country until the day he died. It’s about a man who valued and knew the meaning of the office he held, who had loyalty to the country and to the office far above himself. A man who made mistakes, but at the end of the day, his life and his personality—he, himself, was decent, courageous and of tremendous character. I would hope that the country remembers that long, long after we remember what is happening on an ongoing basis around Washington today,” says veteran columnist and MSNBC Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle as he memorializes former President George H.W. Bush, who died Friday at 94 years old.

Remember the caravan?

“These troops are coming from multiple posts around the country: Fort Hood, Fort Sill, Fort Carson; Colorado, Fort Bragg, Camp Pendleton. From all across the country, Marines and Army troops spread across the border as a scam, as a political prank. And this among people who’ve been multiply deployed…to either Iraq or Afghanistan. Happy Thanksgiving,” says Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle as the panel discusses how President Donald Trump’s talk of the caravan “invasion” has disappeared since the midterms. Hear more from Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough about Secretary of Defense James Mattis traveling to Texas to visit the troops, which are currently deployed at the Southwest border awaiting the arrival of the migrant caravan.

Arizona sees blue

Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle talks with outgoing Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake about the historic victory in his state for Sen.-Elect Kyrsten Sinema, the Democrat and former social worker. “Senator Flake, about the only one wish that President Trump has been granted recently is the fact that you are not going to return to the United States Senate. What’s your reaction now to the fact that you’re going to be replaced in the Senate by a Democrat, and what do you have to say to President Trump about that?” Listen to Flake’s response here about how Arizona is “no longer a Trump state.”

Bryan Cranston on Morning Joe

Listen in on the conversation between multi award-winning actor Bryan Cranston and Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about the differences between acting for television and live theater as the two talk about Cranston’s starring role on Broadway in the new adaptation of the 1976 classic Oscar-winning film, “Network.”

The vote for civility

Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation on civility following the historic victory for Sen.-Elect Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat and former social worker, in Arizona, defeating Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally, who conceded the race. “We just saw civility with Martha McSally. We saw civility with (Houston Congressman-elect) Mr. Crenshaw on Saturday Night Live. People have a yearning for civility in politics that has been missing for two years or more, but certainly for the past two years, and I think it was in evidenced in everything we’ve seen and talked about this morning out of Arizona.” Listen to more of the discussion here with Joe Scarborough.

Rewind: Recounts

While the Morning Joe panel talk about the Senate races in Arizona and Florida where votes are still continuing to be assessed, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “There’s a larger issue here that we haven’t focused on…enough: In this age where we are surrounded by such technological creations that stun us each and every day with their improvements, the fact that we as a nation don’t have a single voting system that is easy to use, that’s reliable, that doesn’t have to rely on paper ballots (and) recounts. We’re talking today as if in Broward and Palm Beach counties in Florida—same as we were talking about it in the year 2000—as if they have yet to discover electricity. I mean, it’s incredible that we’re still going through this after everything else in our lives is so easy, and so modernized and so technologically skillful.” Listen to more of the conversation here about the impact and outcome of the recounts.