While the Morning Joe panel talks about the possibility of President Donald Trump pardoning his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the US, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “If he accepts the pardon, my understanding is it ruptures his deal – his signed deal – with the prosecutor Robert Mueller, which would then put his son in jeopardy.” Listen to more of the conversation here about Flynn.
The hardest job in this country is being poor, and tax bills like this ensure that poverty for many, many people is going to be both a life sentence and a death sentence. And we ignore it,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel talks about the GOP tax plan. Listen to more of the discussion here.
“Here’s where the Republicans really get crushed. The front page of the Financial Times headline reads: ‘US companies set for big profit windfall from tax overhaul.’ Young people out there working, suburban families struggling to make ends meet, they know, and they’re going to find out, that the tax cut that they get is pretty much meaningless in terms of their everyday lives. But they also know the reality: That the big companies that they work for, the conglomerates that they work for, the companies’ profits are going to soar,” comments veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel talks about the GOP tax plan and the ways in which the Republican Party is alienating voters. Listen to more of the discussion here.
“The bill is an insult to common sense. Drive me through your district…the impact of basically the removal of Obamacare, health care, to I assume many people in your district, and the impact of really ignoring or not doing very much, as much as we should do, about the opioid crisis, which I assume is devastating parts of your district. What’s happening?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) during a Morning Joe conversation about the GOP tax plan, health care, and handling of the opioid crisis. Listen to Ryan’s sobering response here.
“Leigh, in the reporting out of the White House about the call yesterday between President Trump and President Putin, they led with the fact that the call was made in order for President Trump to say thank you to Putin for mentioning the great American economy. And yet, Wall Street—so skittish about so many elements each and every day—seems not to have reacted to an incredibly powerful indictment of policy-making as appeared in The Washington Post yesterday. What is going on there?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Fortune assistant managing editor Leigh Gallagher as the Morning Joe panel discusses a Washington Post report about the Trump Administration structuring President Trump’s intelligence briefings to avoid upsetting him. Listen to the conversation here.
Tune in as the Morning Joe panel discusses the defeat of Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore to Democrat Doug Jones and President Donald Trump spreading the blame for the GOP loss in the historically red state. “The baseline is you had a uniquely horrific candidate…but you also had nearly 11 months of total dysfunction in Washington; nothing being able to get done in the Congress. You’ve had a culture, a society, a country, I think, exhausted by the constant tweets of the President of the United States and the combination is just now `No, I’m not going to vote for Roy Moore’,” comments veteran columnist Mike Barnicle.
While the Morning Joe panel talks about Omarosa Manigault Newman, a White House aide and former “Apprentice” contestant, being forced out of her job in the Trump Administration, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “This whole thing gets to the level and the caliber of talent throughout the executive branch. There were some wonderful and exceptionally good people working in the White House. There are also some people who you wouldn’t hire, and she happens to be one of them.” Listen to more of the discussion here.
While the Morning Joe panel talks about the sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, senior contributor Mike Barnicle explains: “In the Northeast, the people from the coast – the coastal elites – we fail to recognize the impact that religion has on the daily culture in Alabama. The absence of condemnation from so many churches – small churches – and pastors throughout Alabama has played an important role in keeping his candidacy afloat to this point.” Listen to more of the discussion here.
“You find out that your son, Beau, has been diagnosed with a particularly virulent form of cancer, along with everything else on your shoulders. How did you do it?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of former Vice President Joe Biden as the two discuss how Biden waged a war on cancer while weighing his own ambition and managing his day job during an exclusive conversation on the audiobook version of Biden’s new book “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose” published this week by Audible. Listen to Biden’s response and download the entire audio book and Barnicle’s interview that contextualizes the memoir’s wide-ranging themes, including the presidential election, current events, and overcoming profound grief here: www.audible.com/biden
While the Morning Joe panel talks about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, particularly Sessions’ heated exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) over requests for a second special counsel to investigate former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “This is an attempt, a concerted attempt, by the President of the United States and allies within the House of Representatives, clearly Jim Jordan – the guy without a coat from Ohio – to turn the Justice Department into just a political property of the President, to inflict politic into the Justice Department, which would affect the morale of the Justice Department.” Listen to more of the discussion here.
ICYMI: On Morning Joe, the panel discusses the plight of Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, did not provide a clear denial of having pursued illegal or inappropriate sexual relationships with teenage girls when he was a professional in his 30s and threatened to sue The Washington Post over its reporting of the story. “The text of the Hannity conversation that we just read is incredibly incriminating in and of itself….You could only imagine what a deposition would look like,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Listen in on the conversation here.
While the Morning Joe panel discusses President Donald Trump’s trip through Asia, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “Sadly, and I truly regret to say this, but all weekend long, watching and following this trip, we can’t wait for history. The judgment is being made now. World leaders are laughing at our President of the United States, who stands on foreign soil, attacks two career intelligence officials, Brennan and Clapper, calls them hacks; attacks a former director of the FBI, calls him a liar. All of this happening after he rejects TPP…and while they roll out a red carpet and they give him a big crowd and he’s thrilled, saying things like ‘nobody has ever seen this before for any foreign leader in China.’ They are picking our pockets. We are the United States of America and, regretfully – I regret to say this – the President of the United States is without a clue as to who we are and what this country represents.” Listen to more of the conversation here about President Trump.
While the Morning Joe panel discusses the multiple sexual molestation allegations against Roy Moore, the Republican nominee in Alabama for a Senate seat, and Alabama Republicans defending Moore, who is accused of engaging in sexual activity with teenagers decades ago, senior contributor Mike Barnicle says: “There’s obviously a larger issue here….You can almost hear the nuts and bolts of the under structure of our culture loosening as everything becomes more permissible, everything becomes more public, and the longer it’s public, it becomes in an odd way sort of acceptable.” Listen to more of the discussion here.
“Mr. Mayor, a lot has always been said and written about when it comes to politics about the coastal elites, west coast, east coast. Except when you go to Washington Heights, or Astoria, or Staten Island you see America uniquely in this city, I think, more so than any other place in America. And yet we live with this constant fear in the country of ‘the other.’ What do we do about that?” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio during a conversation about fear in America. Listen to De Blasio’s response here. Only on MSNBC.
“Trump’s tweets are just knee-jerk reactions to everything, including AT&T, including CNN. Everything he tweets about is a knee-jerk reaction. It’s not really grounded in ideology,” says Morning Joe veteran contributor Mike Barnicle as the panel ponders the possibility of President Donald Trump’s influence on the Justice Department’s approval – or not – of AT&T’s $85 billion merger with Time Warner. Listen to the conversation here.
During the Morning Joe conversation about the impact on Republicans following the Democratic Party’s big wins in state elections across the country, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle adds:
“People pay attention in this country. And people pay attention to things like the proposed tax bill — they call it tax reform. No, it’s tax revenge if you look at that bill, if you look at the elements of that bill. So people are sitting out there in the suburbs, in the cities, and they’re thinking, ‘Wait a minute, state and local tax — we’re not going to be able to put that on our tax returns? High medical costs — that’s going to be taken and eliminated. Student interest loans are going to be eliminated.’ That’s the problem the Republicans have — the problem they’re living with. That’s the problem that’s going to drown them.” Listen to more of the discussion here with Joe Scarborough and Harold Ford Jr.
Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich about the ills of America’s economic system and how they might be remedied. “Let’s talk about this slow slide, maybe a couple of decades long, toward the disparity that we all live with today. How difficult are the odds against pulling this disparity a little closer together?” asks Barnicle. Hear Reich’s answer now.
“Steve Bannon doesn’t often cross my mind, but we just showed that clip and I keep looking at him. He’s done fairly well in America. I just wonder where he is always getting this bubble of resentment that he spills out. I don’t get it,” remarks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the panel shares final thoughts and reacts to a montage of a speech from Steve Bannon where the former White House chief strategist repeatedly references the Morning Joe program. Watch the clip here and listen in on the responses.
“Senator Collins, Senator Manchin, it’s wonderful to see the two of you together. Forgive me for injecting a bit of cynicism into this…but how will this work whenever the majority seizes control of things like the tax bill and you, Senator Manchin, as a member of the minority are often blocked out of marking up a bill or having public hearings on a bill. How is this going to work going forward?” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) who joined the show together to discuss their efforts to foster bipartisanship through the ‘No Labels’, a nonprofit group that promotes consensus on the big issues being debated in Congress. Listen in on the conversation here.
“I think it’s the slow reawakening of America, and Americans, and who we are and what this country is all about,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the panel shares its final thoughts regarding the Democratic Party’s victories in state elections across the country, gaining key state legislative seats, two governorships and full control of the state governments of New Jersey and Washington. Hear what Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist, and John Heilemann have to say on the topic.
