As the Morning Joe panel weighs in on Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates going to head-to-head about the legality of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle comments: “It’s also something that Ted Cruz has done more often than not. He has an intellectual contempt for nearly everyone because he thinks he’s just the smartest person in the room.” Listen in on the conversation here.
In conversation with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on the future of Obamacare, Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle asks: “Senator, there seems to be one fight that is more shadow boxing than real fighting, and it has to do with the financial institution that affects more lives than any Wall Street institution does. It affects your life, your home, your car and now your health. These large insurance conglomerates who seemly dictate what is going on with healthcare legislation in this country, and yet you hear very little verbiage, fighting verbiage, from people – your colleagues – in Washington D.C. about the role – the powerful role – that insurance companies play in our lives.” Hear Warren’s response and her message to insurance companies: “They have to be more responsive to the American people and we have got to get those costs down.” Listen in on the conversation here.
“Senator, under the topic of: ‘Is there anything further we can do to enforce penalties that hurt North Korea?’ Are there Chinese financial institutions that do business with North Korea that also do business globally? And is there any way that we can crack down on those institutions if they do exist?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) during a conversation about how to deal with North Korea’s nuclear threat. “That’s exactly the right question to be asking,” says Gardner. Listen to his answer here.
As Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle discuss the internal disagreement among House Republicans over the revised healthcare bill proposal and a Washington Post headline:
“GOP health bill on shaky ground,” Barnicle suggests: “You could have a subhead on that Washington Post headline: “Speaker Ryan has lost control of the House.” Listen to more of the conversation here.
“The President of the United States apparently has no discipline when it comes to restraining himself from tweeting and nobody around him has the clout to go in and tell the President: ‘You’ve got to stop tweeting’,” said Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a discussion with The Washington Post’s associate editor Bob Woodward and Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski about President Donald Trump recent tweet that “our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September” after Democrats suggested that the spending package Congress will likely pass is a “defeat” for President Trump. Hear more of the conversation here.
“Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles was the subject of a racial slur hurled from some fan behind the dugout and it resurrected to many the dismal memories that have continued to stain the reputation of Boston as a racist city, and it’s horrendous the way that this continues,” said Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle, a Boston native. “There’s no excuse for it – no explanation for it. We have a huge problem in this country still with racism.” Hear the rest of the conversation with Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough about what happened to center fielder Jones at a game this week against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
“Presidents need to know history. Presidents need to know that words matter – that the use of language moves people and nations, it affects more than just emotion, it affects public policy, and we are lacking that right now in the Oval Office with the current occupant,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as he closes the show with a summation of President Donald Trump’s last 48 hours. On a lighter note, the clips starts out with a Happy 50th Birthday to show host Mika Brzezinski.
“It’s very upsetting—kind of depressing—to read the transcripts of this particular President as he rambles on anecdotally, adlibs about things that are critical to the future of this country,” explains Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle during a conversation about a recent interview with President Donald J. Trump, during which he asks “Why was there a Civil War?” and suggests that President Andrew Jackson could have prevented it. Watch the excerpt and hear the panel discussion here.
The Morning Joe panel discusses the difficulties facing the House Republicans’ revised health care bill after watching clips from President Donald Trump’s sit down interview with CBS’ John Dickerson over the weekend, during which POTUS touted the merits of the health care plan. Comments senior contributor Mike Barnicle: “You know what’s interesting as well as intriguing? It’s kind of difficult semantically following the President in his interview there with John Dickerson, but, he instinctively knows that eliminating, dropping pre-existing conditions is more dangerous than dynamite to people in public office today. People are used to it. They like it. Whether you call it Obamacare or whatever — if they cut that out, if it goes back to the states, and any state governor or legislature cuts that out — (you’re) dead politically.” Watch the conversation here and the President’s promise that pre-existing conditions will be covered under the proposed bill.
“Lanhee, would you agree with me on one of the definitions of hypocrisy this week has arrived with the health care proposal on the one hand, and the tax reform proposal on the other. So, you get Republican Governors like Greg Abbott (TX) saying ’no Medicaid expansion in our cities. It is going to bust the budget.’ The tax reform, the one-page tax reform proposal that’s on paper, would explode the deficit to a point where we’d be paying the deficit for like 100 million years ahead. What is wrong with these people?,” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Hoover Institution research fellow Lanhee Chen during a conversation about the conflict of interest between the House Republicans’ revised healthcare bill proposal and President Donald Trump’s one-page tax reform proposal when it comes to the country’s budget and national debt. “The question is: Are Republicans willing to look the other way?” asks Chen. Hear more of the conversation here.
“This is one of those moments in this presidency where it’s very concerning….When you have a President of the United States really turning up the Bunsen burner on a situation saying: ‘There’s a chance here that we’re going to have a major conflict with North Korea, absolutely.’ That’s the President of the United States speaking. Words have meaning. I just feel uncomfortable that a president would be saying this in a situation so fraught with danger,” comments Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle during a conversation with former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN) about the brewing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, following President Donald Trump stating that a “major, major” conflict with North Korea is possible. Listen in for the analysis here.
“Congressman, we have had several members of the Freedom Caucus on this program in talking about this particular piece of legislation, and they continually fall back on the phrase: ‘This will give states the right to opt out of certain provisions.’ Opt out, like an accountant’s phrase. Could you humanize the phrase ‘opt out?’ What would the menu show that they would have the decision to ‘opt out’ of?” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist of Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) during a conversation about the House Republicans’ revised healthcare bill proposal. Listen to Dent explain why the amendment “makes things worse.”
“Michael Steele, we just heard Andy Card say that the Speaker of the House has the toughest job in that town, your town. We just sat through Steve’s (Rattner) charts, which pointed to an amazing, ballooning deficit. How does Paul Ryan handle all of this? This is pie in the sky stuff — this tax stuff. Sounds great, one page, sounds terrific, but the Republican Party, they’re not going to go for this,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle during a conversation with former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele about President Donald Trump’s one-page tax proposal. Hear Steele’s response here.
“Andy, as a former Chief of Staff, where would you rank the idea of imposing some sense of discipline within the Oval Office, access to the President and a schedule that the President sticks to?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of former George W. Bush White House Chief of Staff Andy Card during a conversation about how access and time should be managed for President Donald Trump. Listen to Card’s response here on MSNBC.
“Michael Steele, your party, the Republican party, is now on the verge, basically if they’re successful in this in telling people: ‘You know, your health is going to depend on what state you happen to be born in.’ That’s the state of national health care right now,” comments Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle to former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele as the panel talks about the amendments House Republicans are planning to make to their healthcare bill proposal. Listen to Steele’s analysis here. “This is not a full repeal,” says Steele. “Obamacare will be here in some form.”
“Through it all, it still remains amazing that the President doesn’t care about the pressure brought to bear by the public to release his tax returns. It’s just amazing,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the panel analyzes President Donald Trump’s one-page tax proposal, which has been widely criticized. Listen to the conversation here, including former Treasury official Steve Rattner saying Trump’s proposal will “help business and help a lot of very wealthy people.”
“Michael Steele: We have Democrats probably shaking their heads in both houses of Congress over the one-page proposal to cut everyone’s taxes. But is (President Trump’s) larger problem perhaps a group of Republicans who are frightened to death of what’s going to happen to the national debt?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele during a conversation about Trump’s one-page tax proposal. Hear Steele’s response here.
“Realistically, one page, an outline. How do they fill that hole? Who is going to pay for this tax cut?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of former Treasury official Steve Rattner during a conversation about President Donald Trump’s one-page tax proposal, which has been widely criticized as a 100-day ploy. Listen to Rattner’s response here and his belief that the tax cut will not pay for itself, as U.S. Sec. of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said it would. Only on MSNBC.
The Morning Joe conversation continues about the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s foreign ties and receipt of secret foreign payments, senior contributor Mike Barnicle explains: “Mike Flynn is today a mystery. He worked for General Stan McChrystal in Afghanistan running intelligence. And from multiple sources, you hear that there was no finer person for the job and no better person at doing the job than was then General Mike Flynn in Afghanistan. Something happened to this man along the way to have this sloppiness occur.” There’s more revelations here. Only on MSNBC.
While the Morning Joe panel discusses former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s troubling foreign ties and income received from Russia and Turkey that he kept secret, says senior contributor Mike Barnicle: “How do you not declare that? It’s astounding that he did not have the wherewithal to put this down on paper; and it’s doubly astounding that the Trump campaign did not force more investigation into his background during the campaign.” Listen to more of the discussion with Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and the BBC World News’ Katty Kay.
