“Our job in the media is pretty simple: It’s to – as best we can – ignore all the `fake’ media charges and even ‘enemies of the American people,’ and just do our jobs. The cost of immigration – what is going to be the cost of implementing this? The financial cost, the human cost – what is going to be the cost and the impact of any tax reform package? And just do it every day with details – every single day,” said Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle during a discussion among the panelists about President Donald Trump’s controversial statements and policies.
During a Morning Joe conversation based on a new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll that sets President Donald Trump’s approval ratings at 43 percent, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle says: “If you listen out there, I think the most significant difference between the Obama numbers early in his presidency and Trump’s numbers right now is the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over the country and over the Trump administration. You hear more people say…‘what do you think he is going to do?’…than you hear anything else about him. More than you hear anything about him saying anything about fake news or immigration; you hear: ‘What do you think is going to happen?’.” Listen to more of the discussion about Trump among hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and the Morning Joe panel here. Only on MSNBC.
“The relief is palpable. Just a huge, huge collective sigh of relief among establishment circles,” said Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of the across-the-board support for President Donald Trump’s selection of Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as National Security Advisor. “We tend in this culture of ours to put people in boxes. ‘Oh, he’s a member of the military, we’ll put him in this box.’ But, McMaster like several other high-ranking officers in both the Marine Corps and Army, especially, have quite an intellectual approach to international policy, foreign policy, and their own grasp of warfare, which is their business.” Tune in to hear praise for McMaster from both sides of the aisle and how his selection will impact the Trump Administration.
During the ongoing discussion about President Donald Trump’s new selection for National Security Advisor, the Morning Joe panel discussed how staffing might change under Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. “I have been told repeatedly over the past five years by the Republican administration under George W. Bush and especially under Barack Obama’s administration: The NSC staff is too large, too unwieldy, too bureaucratic. And whether General McMaster can do anything about thinning that down, that is going to remain a question that is going to be resolved,” said veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. In conversation with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, Barnicle asks: “Specifically, have you heard anything about his ability to pick his own people?,” Hear more of the comments and Ignatius’s response here. Only on MSNBC.
During a conversation with Mark Brzezinski, former member of the National Security Council and U.S. Ambassador to Sweden about President Donald Trump’s statement that suggested a terror attack had occurred in Sweden, Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle asks: “If indeed there was something pivotal that occurred in Sweden or anywhere else in the world…having to do with our foreign policy, who would be contacted in the White House?” Hear Brzezinski’s answer about the current lack of structure in the Administration relating to foreign affairs and the “dangerous way” the President is using the bully pulpit.
“The media: My view is that we need no defense,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle in response to President Donald Trump’s ongoing war with the news media, included a tweet that branded the news media as “the enemy of the American people.” “The problem here, the danger here, is when he says the fake news media is the enemy of the American people. That’s a slow slide to ‘immigrants are the enemy of the American people. Unions are the enemy of the American people. People in Massachusetts and New Hampshire or any other state that didn’t vote for me, Trump, are the enemy of the American people.’ It’s a slow slide to that.” Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation among Barnicle, host Joe Scarborough and The New York Times’ Nicholas Confessore about the record subscriptions and ratings the news media is experiencing in the Trump era.
“We are not invading Mosul. The Iraqi Army is invading Mosul. The Iraqi Army is going to have to liberate their country. The Iraqi Army is part of our allies and we have numbers of American troops on the ground as advisors, but this is not our job. It’s the Iraqi Army’s job,” explains Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as he weighs in on President Donald Trump’s comment that he is going to keep the U.S.’s attack on Mosul a secret. Hear from Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and panelists Mark Halperin, John Heilemann and Elise Jordan about President Trump’s confusion, contradictions and the battle for Mosul.
“The FBI doesn’t fool around and you don’t get leaks out of the FBI unless there is something to the leaks,” said Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a conversation about the ongoing investigation into the Trump Administration’s contact with Russia during the campaign and currently. “You have FBI field offices in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and FBI counterintelligence teams in Washington, D.C. all honing in on one specific thing: Contacts between Trump’s people during the campaign and the Trump administration today.
You’ve had (National Security Advisor) Mike Flynn already leave because of something having to do with Russia obviously. Now you have the President’s own personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, a lawyer outside of government, acting as de facto Secretary of State. All of this a combustible concoction of chaos. Where is Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in all of this?” Hear more about the investigation here and a promise from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C.) that “2017 is going to be a year of kicking Russia in the ass in Congress.”
As the Morning Joe panel discusses NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker’s reporting that Secretary of Defense James Mattis has said the U.S. will not “seize” Iraqi oil, which deviates from President Donald Trump’s often stated desire to keep Iraqi oil, Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle says: “General Mattis is absolutely correct. Taking the oil is a war crime. You shouldn’t confuse the first Marine division with Quantrill’s Raiders after the Civil War.” Listen here for more on Secretary Mattis and President Trump’s differing views on taking Iraqi oil.
Mark Brzezinski, former U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, joins Morning Joe to discuss with veteran columnist Mike Barnicle President Donald Trump’s remarks during a Florida rally that suggested a terrorist attack had occurred in Sweden on Friday night. “If there had been a terrorist attack in Sweden, one of our closest partners, the President would have been briefed on it by his national security team. That couldn’t have happened,” Brzezinski tells Barnicle. The conversation unfolds here.
Before heading into a commercial break, Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough asks the show’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to quickly inform the panel and viewers about a story in The Washington Post that details the security needs of President Donald Trump and his family. Said Barnicle: “It’s a big one: ‘Trump travels come at a high cost’.” Barnicle goes on to tell of the report, which explains how the unusually elaborate lifestyle of America’s new first family is straining the Secret Service and security officials to the tune of as much as hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of a four-year term. Hear the rest of the conversation here.
“Senator, in this hurricane of duplicity and incompetence coming out of the White House, sometimes things get overlooked…General Tony Thomas…is quoted as saying this in all of the papers today: ‘Our government continues to be in unbelievable turmoil. I hope they sort it out soon because we are a nation at war.’ How does that strike you coming from a general who is very rarely quoted on anything? And this quote is just dynamite,” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) during a conversation about the resignation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Listen to Murphy’s response here about the kind of comment from a high ranking general that is “not without precedent” but that only comes “once or twice a century.” Is this an opportunity for the new Administration to hit “reset” on foreign policy? Only on MSNBC.
“The relationship between the Vice President of the United States and the Trump administration: It’s now been separated. It’s now been bifurcated because of his lack of knowledge for nearly two weeks. All the people around the President knows – and the Vice President doesn’t know? And he is sitting out there. That’s an issue of competence,” explains Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel evaluates the status of the relationship between President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence following the White House having kept Pence in the dark about former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn lying to him about his correspondence with Russia. Tune in to listen to host Joe Scarborough and Bloomberg Politics co-managing editor John Heilemann also weigh in on the current state of the relationship between Trump and Pence.
During the Morning Joe discussion about the Trump Administration’s relationship with Russia, co-host Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle get to the core of the issue. “They didn’t think anybody would find out,” says Barnicle about National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resignation after having misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about his conversations with Russia. “They don’t think lying is wrong,” says Brzezinski about the Administration, “because we are not seeing anybody held accountable….This looks like the steps leading up to a total meltdown.” Hear the rest of the conversation here.
Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle talks with Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz about a hypothetical situation of Dershowitz assisting President Donald Trump appeal the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision to not reimpose the Trump travel ban due to insufficient evidence. “Write the appeal for us right now. What would you do?,” Barnicle asks. Listen to Dershowitz’s response here. Only on MSNBC.
“In one of the more powerful scenes in the film, and you view it with great trepidation as a parent–a 5-year-old, terrified on the train. How much of that do you remember and feel?” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of author Saroo Brierley, who joined the show to talk about the Oscar-nominated film “Lion,” adapted from his book and life story. Hear Brierley describe the harrowing experience of feeling like he was caged as a little boy and how he followed his heart and dreams to find something he longed for his whole life.
“Senator, it’s great hearing you take the strong defense of the Constitution, and it’s really needed at this point in time. Why are there not more Republican voices in the Senate, like yours, talking about clearly an effort to delegitimatize the judiciary by the President of the United States?,” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, during a conversation about President Donald Trump’s verbal attack on the judiciary. Listen to Sasse’s strong response here. Only on MSNBC.
Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle, host Joe Scarborough and the panel on Morning Joe discuss the mounting controversies created by President Donald Trump with his tweets and verbal attacks. “I think you hit a key element of it when you indicated whether anyone around the President is talking to him about this behavior–because this behavior is more dangerous than dynamite. It’s an effort to delegitimatize the judiciary, just as it is an effort to delegitimatize the media. Both efforts are unfortunately, sadly, for us, having some relevance out there in the country, and it’s taking hold a bit, and it is really and truly dangerous,” said Barnicle. Hear more of the conversation here.
During the Morning Joe discussion about the silencing of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren by Republicans for reading a 30-year-old Coretta Scott King letter criticizing the civil rights record of Trump administration Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions, host Joe Scarborough likens the situation to a scene from the Tom Hanks movie “Big.” But senior contributor Mike Barnicle says, “You’ve got the wrong movie. It’s Clint Eastwood saying – Senator Warren saying – ‘Go ahead make my day.” Watch here some of the live footage of Sen. Warren being shot down and Scarborough saying the Republicans’ move was “so stupid on so many levels.”
While the Morning Joe panel discusses the ever expanding media profile of President Donald Trump’s Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “Internally there is no match for him in the White House. The cover of Time magazine, permanent seat in the National Security Council; and now he is twined with Cardinal Raymond Burke – 68 years old from St. Louis – who is the equivalent of the Tea Party in the Vatican.” Listen to more of the discussion on how Bannon’s profile has eclipsed the president’s, played out to much fanfare on the most recent Saturday Night Live.
