Entries from mikebarnicle
An infection in the political system

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they discuss Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who appears to already be casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2022 midterm elections, saying he hopes he can accept the outcome of the elections but that he “can’t predict what the Democrats have planned.” Barnicle explains: “There’s a contagion, a virus, an infection in the political system that begins at the top. It will definitely circulate right down to the lives of ordinary people every day.” You can watch the segment here.

Twitter hate speech

Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle talks with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt about a recent meeting Greenblatt and other civil rights leaders had with new Twitter owner Elon Musk amid concerns over the dissemination of anti-Semitism and other hate speech over Twitter. Hear what Greenblatt has to share about the meeting.

American democracy in peril

Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle discuss how voters are weighing the threat to American democracy amid the country’s high inflation rates, following President Joe Biden having delivered a stark warning to citizens that the future of the nation’s democracy could rest on next week’s midterm elections. Join the conversation here.

GOP attacks on voting

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Al Schmidt, a member of the cross-partisan Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, about the voting process in the United States amid GOP attacks on elections as well as election workers in the run-up to the 2022 midterms. “There have been some states where as we all know, there have been people armed—armed and dangerous—waiting outside voting booths, waiting outside where people vote in order to intimidate them. What do we do about that?” asks Barnicle. Hear Schmidt’s response here.

Violent acts, rhetoric and ignorance today

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Eugene Robinson, David Jolly and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the current violent rhetoric in American politics with the 2022 midterm elections one week away, following the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband and a New York Times analysis having found a rise in threats against lawmakers in Congress. “I’m not surprised at any of this. It’s shocking, but not surprising, and the violence—the level of violence—is it an uptick in the level of violence? It’s an uptick in our knowledge of the level of violence….The violence of language, the violence of ignorance, and it’s gone back a long time in politics, specifically in the modern era of politics. I trace a large part of it to the late 1980s when Newt Gingrich decided that the way for Republicans to really gain control was not to just defeat their opponents but to demonize them, to destroy them, and that began it. That was the incubator for what’s happened now,” says Barnicle. Watch the conversation here.

Can Republicans find their way back?

“Governor, you were born and raised in a state where there were Republican candidates elected to office who bear no resemblance to existing national Republican candidates and many local Republican candidates. So, how hard is it for you, a Democrat now, Governor of New Jersey, to sound a hopeful note about the future of politics, especially bipartisan politics?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) during a Morning Joe conversation about whether it’s possible for the Republican Party to return to its traditional roots that preceded President Donald Trump. Listen to Murphy’s response here. On MSNBC.

Republicans: Abandoning principle for power

“You’ve been out there on the trail in many, many states following many, many different candidates in the past several months. Is there a channel here where fear of disappointing the base and ambition to create victory for themselves by playing to that base—where fear and ambition collide? And this is the result—this intemperate language, this violent language?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Mark McKinnon, creator and co-host of THE CIRCUS on Showtime, during this Morning Joe discussion about the current violent rhetoric in American politics, following the Republican nominee for Arizona governor, Kari Lake, having mocked the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in her remarks made at a campaign event that was followed by laughter from the audience. Listen to McKinnon’s response here about Republicans having abandoned principle for power.

Employment woes and opportunities in Ohio

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), the Democratic nominee for the Ohio Senate seat, about Americans who are experiencing employment issues, with the 2022 midterm elections less than two weeks away. “What do you…tell these people who are in that netherworld of having lost employment or reduced employment? What do you tell them?” asks Barnicle. Hear Ryan’s answer here.

The status of families in America

“I think there’s a lot of anxiety in the country,” veteran journalist Mike Barnicle told Jonathan Lemire on Way Too Early. “I think people are living on pins and needles. They go from the grocery store to the gas station wondering what the immediate future is going to bring. I think they’re especially worried about their children; people who have children. One of the things that hasn’t been discussed at length at least to my ear in a lot of campaigns is what has happened to the education of younger children, grammar school and high school, who have missed so much school because of COVID and school lockdowns, and that hasn’t arisen as a big issue; but, I think it lurks in the backgrounds in terms of people thinking about their future. They no longer measure their future in four or five years of ‘when I retire’ or ‘when I begin to retire.’ They measure their future now by end of this week, which is a troubling situation I think that for a lot of families,” says Barnicle about the situation for many Americans.

Dems withdraw Russia diplomacy letter

“Why would you negotiate with Vladimir Putin? He is a war criminal. He has used the same strategy that the Russians used in World War II: Destroy and demonize your opponent, try to make your opponent so fearful by killing innocent civilians, by bombing schools, hospitals, sanctuaries, cathedrals. Kill the civilians; that’s how you win the war. That’s how the Russians think that they can defeat the Ukrainians. They can’t defeat the Ukrainians that way, and the United States has no one to negotiate with in Moscow because the leader of Russia is a war criminal,” says Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to a letter and then a retraction from progressive U.S. Democratic lawmakers to President Joe Biden having urged him to pursue direct diplomacy with Russia more than six months after Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine and while the two countries are still engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine. Join the conversation here.

Ashton Carter dies at 68

Watch this Morning Joe conversation among Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they remember Ashton Carter, the former defense secretary for President Barack Obama’s Administration, who died at 68. “This is a shock to me. I spoke to him last Thursday, and everything you’ve just said, Mika and Joe, is so true about him,” said Barnicle. “He was a strong, strong leader and a strong believer in the power and how to use the power of the United States when he was secretary of defense and everything else that he did in government dating back a couple of different administrations. He will be sorely missed….A brilliant guy, a strong guy, a courageous guy—68 far too young.”

Crime on the ballot?

“Crime is an issue that I know you understand and live with within your district; but why is it that so many Democrats seem not have understood the power of that as an issue, as it has come up over the last two to three weeks? When someone is pushed from a subway, in front of a subway train in New York, the resonance is in Cleveland, it’s in Wisconsin, it’s in North Carolina. Why is it that so many Democrats seem not to have recognized that as an issue?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) during a Morning Joe conversation about the Democratic Party’s messaging on the issue of rising crime, with the midterm elections just two weeks away. Listen to Jeffries’ response here.

New book on Ted Kennedy

Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle talks with author and historian John Farrell about this new book “Ted Kennedy: A Life,” which dives into the life and career of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and reveals that in 2005 Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito told Sen. Kennedy that the legal basis ensuring abortion rights was “settled” law. Find out more about the issues that mattered most to Kennedy—the law, justice, and the Supreme Court.

What do voters want?

ICYMI: Tune in for this Morning Joe discussion about the sentiment of voters on key issues with the 2022 midterm elections just two weeks away, including the Senate race in Ohio that features Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, whose campaign is focusing on the economy and China.

2022 Subway Series?

“My dream is that the Yankees beat the Astros, and then the Phillies beat the Yankees in the World Series, and that’s quite a World Series. Philadelphia versus New York, a subway series so to speak…The series will probably end on Thanksgiving eve in the snow, but that’s my dream,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this conversation with Joe Scarborough and Claire McCaskill about the Major League Baseball playoffs after the Houston Astros defeated the New York Yankees in game one of the American League Championship Series and the San Diego Padres evened up the National League Championship Series with a victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in game two.

Republican reprisals

“David, I have a rather simple yet pejorative question for you: Could we boil this piece down to the following—if you could answer it? What percentage of Republicans are we talking about? Is their complaint that their party – the party around them – is just not crazy enough?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Washington Post data analyst David Byler as the Morning Joe panel discusses polling that shows Republicans dislike their own party more than Democrats do. Watch the conversation here.

What’s next for Ukraine?

Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle talks with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) about whether a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia should even be on the table as the Ukrainian army has shown remarkable resiliency and determination in their continuing effort to reclaim territory that was seized in the early days of the Russian invasion. “Why would the Ukrainians cede anything to Russia or Putin right now?” Hear Coons’ response here.

Help not politics needed in Florida

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle about President Joe Biden’s commitment to the people of Florida and the imperative to put politics aside as the deadly Hurricane Ian, a category 5 storm, is about to strike the Sunshine State. “FEMA’s been on the ground in Florida for several days now…in preparation for helping people in Florida, for helping to save lives, and I don’t think (Biden) needed to be challenged to make a phone call by the governor of Florida, which the governor did yesterday….The reason he hasn’t spoken to the President is the President was actively engaged in getting FEMA, and help, and aid to Florida now,” says Barnicle.

Kerry on China’s progress on climate

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran journalist Mike Barnicle and John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, about China’s progress on its commitments and the upcoming U.N. climate conference in Egypt in November.

Morning Joe talks MLB

Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle talk Major League Baseball, with the playoffs less than ten games away, including the Boston Red Sox’s disappointing season as the team will finish in last place in the American League East. “Outside of my family, the Red Sox are the most important component of my life, and I have to tell you that this has been the most bitter, the most disappointing season I’ve experienced in a long, long time. There is no excuse for what’s happened.” You can watch the segment here.