“Senator, we’ve been talking about gun control and gun owners for eons of time and nothing much ever happens. But when you buy an automobile and put the car on the road you have to prove that you have insurance on that automobile. What about a federal statute applying the insurance idea to gun ownership? That if you buy a gun – a shotgun, a handgun, no matter what kind of gun you’re buying – you have to insure it in a fairly substantial insurance cost. Do you think that might deter at least the idea of purchasing guns?” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) during a conversation about gun control in America, following the church massacre in Sutherland, Texas, where gunman Devin Kelley shot and killed more than two dozen people. Hear what Durbin has to say on the issue.
Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle talks with Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-TX) about the future of gun control, following this week’s church massacre in Sutherland, Texas where gunman Devin Kelley, who escaped a mental health facility before the Air Force could try him on charges that he beat his wife and baby stepson back in 2012, shot and killed more than two dozen people. And two years ago in Newtown, Connecticut, children were slaughtered in their classrooms. “And life goes on for the rest of us. What’s on your mind about this? Where do we go from here?” asks Barnicle. Listen to Rep. Castro’s response here.
While the Morning Joe panel talks about the Democratic Party trouncing the Republican Party 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, senior contributor Mike Barnicle explains: “The results coast to coast, actually, were like a flare in the night for the Democratic party: ‘Follow the light, follow the light. Turn out, turn out, turn out.’ The Democratic Party now sees the path to perhaps hopeful results for that party next year. Even Trump acolytes, I think, fear what he’s doing to the presidency. And I think that resulted in a big, big night for the Democratic Party.” Listen to more of the conversation here with Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
“Donna…why is it that you and several other people, who I respect greatly, could not get to the Clinton campaign two, three weeks out before the election with the fact that they were incompetent, that they were depending on algorithms rather than common sense, that they had no sense of scheduling going to industrial states like Wisconsin and Ohio. Why is it that so many people either were mute, reluctant or unable to crash into that inner circle and tell them ‘you’re going to lose the election?’” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile during a conversation about her new book “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House” that details the shortcomings of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Listen to Brazile’s response here.
“The President of the United States tweeted late last night: ‘I just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already extreme vetting program.’ So, let me ask you as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, having met with many members of the intelligence community in closed door sessions: Is there any way that extreme vetting can get to someone who’s been here seven years and vet the internet as he sits in an apartment in Paterson, New Jersey reading social media?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) during a conversation about the aftermath of the terror attack in New York City, where the suspected attacker, Sayfullo Saipov, a legal permanent resident of the United States who arrived in the country from Uzbekistan in 2010, used a rented truck to mow down pedestrians and cyclists on a Manhattan bike path – killing eight people. Listen to Schiff’s response here.
Former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Division Frank Figliuzzi joined the Morning Joe panel and said the kind of attack we had in New York City on Halloween — a “soft-target attack” — during which an Uzbek immigrant crashed a truck through a crowd on a bike path killing eight people, is “our new normal.” Listen to the conversation with Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle, who asks Figliuzzi: “What can we do that we’re not doing now to prevent these attacks?” Hear Figliuzzi’s response here.
“The portrait of resilience that was New York City yesterday was truly inspirational. Commissioner Bratton, what happened is happening all over the world. I think a lot of people wonder (about) the ease with which you can just rent a vehicle and do this. But there are safeguards that the New York Police Department has been working on and building up. Tell us about that if you could,” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton as the panel talks about the Halloween day terror attack in New York City, where the suspected attacker, Sayfullo Saipov, a legal permanent resident of the United States who arrived in the country from Uzbekistan in 2010, used a rented truck to mow down pedestrians and cyclists on a Manhattan bike path – killing eight people. Listen to Bratton’s response here. Only on MSNBC.
“Kristen, in the polling that you’ve done with regard to Donald Trump, the President of the United States, and his status with elderly people, with independents, with whomever, does the issue of incompetence ever come up? Because that would seem to be his true weakness in the long run. Incompetence: the fact that they can’t get anything done with him as president,” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Washington Examiner columnist Kristen Soltis Anderson during a conversation about President Donald Trump, his base, and the Senators who fear him.
“Thank God for baseball. It rescues us once again from the reality of our every day headlines,” said Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during the panel’s discussion about the World Series. Listen in here for more talk about America’s favorite pastime.
“We in this business should pay much more attention to John McCain,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the panel talks about Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) military career and heroism. Listen to more of the discussion here.
“It’s hard to measure moments like this in terms of history, because history is such a long haul. But it’s not hard to measure this moment in terms of what is going on right now within the Republican Party. This is a slow slide of principle conservatism among Republicans that has been an honorable part of the party for many, many years. A slow slide of that principle conservatism into something that resembles a dumpster fire. What people like Bannon are doing within the Republican Party, the lack of cohesion, the lack of a voice within the Republican Party, other than people like Jeff Flake and Bob Corker. It’s truly an astounding moment politically,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the panel talks about the current state of the Republican Party following Republican Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker publicly denouncing President Donald Trump. Listen to more of the discussion here.
Listen in on the conversation between Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and The New York Times Washington Bureau Chief Elisabeth Bumiller about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford’s “pretty brutal and blunt assessment” of the investigation into the ambush in Niger that killed four American service members. “At the end of the his press availability yesterday, it seems that there are more answers that are still being sought than the questions he raised,” says Barnicle.
While the Morning Joe panel discusses how the majority of the Republican Party leadership is unwillingness to stand up to President Donald Trump, senior contributor Mike Barnicle compares their conduct to the time of President Ronald Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill. “It’s an astounding spectacle of cowardice and a continuing spectacle of cowardice on the behalf of most of the Republicans in the Senate and in the House. There’s no back and forth. There are no relationships the way they used to be.” Listen to more of the conversation here.
“He’s filled with fear. Filled with fear about Bob Mueller’s investigation,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the panel talks about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion between Russia and the President Donald Trump’s campaign. Listen in to the conversation and Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough’s thoughts the situation here.
“How aware is the Street of the fact that as the market just soars, the emphasis among people on income inequality also rises?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of CNBC’s Brian Sullivan during a conversation about Wall Street and the global impact of the booming US stock market. Listen to the conversation here on the record-setting market and its ramifications, as the Dow Jone hits a high of 23,000.
While the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump’s “official statements of the White House” via his tweets, senior contributor Mike Barnicle explains: “That is a huge issue. The fact that we are talking about his tweets, and we do it every day. The fact that not just here, but every network, every newspaper covers his tweets. We had 300 people killed in a terrorist bombing in Mogadishu — we didn’t even mention it. We have the four Green Berets killed in Niger — we now talk about it because of the controversy that erupted around President Trump. We don’t talk about the fact that they died in a country that very few Americans knew we were participating in militarily — in a war that is going to be a generational war that’s going to go on for 10, 15, 20 years. We don’t talk about that. There’s all sorts of important issues that we don’t raise, talk about and cover because of our obsession with his tweets.” Listen to more of the discussion on President Trump here with Joe Scarborough, Jon Meacham and Katty Kay.
While the Morning Joe panel talks about former Vice President Joe Biden saying that foreign leaders have sought him out for insight into President Donald Trump, senior contributor Mike Barnicle explains: “I was with the Vice President (Biden) a couple of weeks ago for about an hour in the afternoon. Later that afternoon he was meeting with the head of a foreign nation and basically if you hear him explain it: There are many people in other countries, who are used to dealing with the United States, who are now operating without a GPS system. They don’t know where they are. And, so, what do they do? They call the old GPS system to say: ‘Where are we? Where is the United States?’ They know, globally, they cannot navigate without the United States in the lead.” Listen to more of the discussion here with Joe Scarborough, Katty Kay, Peggy Noonan and Willie Geist.
“Congressman, other than a few lobbyists in Washington, nobody I know likes the insurance companies. But without this occurring to prop up the insurance companies in terms of helping people with lower incomes get health care, what happens to those people? You just referenced the hurt, the poor. What happens to them?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) during a conversation about President Donald Trump’s executive order on health care, which will withhold the cost-sharing subsidies that the government currently pays insurance companies in order to reduce deductibles and co-pays for many low-income people. Listen to Walker’s response here.
“There are no words to convey what the President of the United States did yesterday by injecting John Kelly’s son into a political argument. You have to go to history to measure it. You have to go to June 9th, 1954, when…Joseph Welch looked at Joseph McCarthy with the TV cameras going and said: ‘Senator, up until now, I never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Have you no sense of decency, sir?’ And Joe McCarthy had no sense of decency, and now that’s the question we’re saddled with, with regard to the sitting president of the United States,” said Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle during a panel discussion about President Donald Trump’s claim that President Barack Obama did not call the loved ones of fallen soldiers, suggesting to reporters to ask his chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, whether Obama called him after his son died in Afghanistan. Watch the conversation here.
“That’s all I said: They were a fun team to watch,” says Morning Joe senior contributor and devoted Boston Red Sox fan Mike Barnicle as the panel teases him for tweeting that “the (New York) Yankees are a fun team to watch.” Listen to more of the baseball banter here.
