In his latest column for The Daily Beast titled “Joe Biden’s Grief Is the DNA of His Humanity,” Mike shares a couple of personal stories as examples of how Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden connects with people, especially in times of loss, when the cameras aren’t rolling and reporters aren’t taking notes. “I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life, said Boston father Charlie Kenney about a phone call from VP Biden when Kenney’s only son died suddenly at only 25 years old. “He made me realize, right then, that my son mattered.” Read the full column here.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-bidens-grief-is-the-dna-of-his-humanity
Check out veteran columnist Mike Barnicle’s latest commentary for The Daily Beast in which he dissects and explains President Donald Trump’s “attempt to scare the country” into voting for him during the 2020 Republican National Convention, which was “built around demonization, defining danger in almost clear racial terms, denying and talking around nearly 180,000 virus deaths that Trump could not combat with only passing references to the millions of unemployed. As Trump spoke and midnight approached, you had a right to be scared,” writes Barnicle. Read the entire column here: https://bit.ly/32DaCv1
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, “Trump’s Failures Are Erasing the Memory of American Greatness,” veteran columnist and MSNBC Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle argues that President Donald Trump’s inability to grasp “loss” has obscured the recollection of a better America and instead has led the country into a dire situation amid the rampant and spiking coronavirus pandemic, which has left about 140,000 Americans dead, millions more sick and jobless, most fearing for their families and their future. “What he does not realize is that there has always been one dominant emotion that has bound every American to one another. It is called loss. Every normal person is familiar with it, has experienced it at some level—losing a job, a paycheck, a house, health insurance, admission to a college, a roster spot on a Little League team. Losing hope. Losing a spouse, a child. Pride. Dignity. Self-respect. Losing a sense of place in your own small universe. Comprehending loss is beyond his grasp. He casts himself as a stranger to loss. Losing something, anything or anyone could mark you as a loser. Not him. So this is what we have here in the middle of summer 2020: A man who turns a mask into a joke, who is incoherent and invisible in the heat of a lethal battle against a virus that is consuming our country, battering our confidence, bleeding our economy and provoking legitimate questions about who we are, where we are going and what has happened to the United States of America,” writes Barnicle about America in the era of President Trump.
Read the rest of the column here: https://bit.ly/2ZJ48us
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, Mike Barnicle, son of a teacher, weighs in on the national debate over whether teachers should be allowed to carry firearms in the classroom. “Teachers belong in classrooms, teaching. Not in coffins, another casualty of a political culture and a Congress so lacking in courage and character that it continues to bury common sense each and every day, living with more fear of losing an election than any fear of losing another student or now perhaps a school teacher thought to be ‘adept’ with a gun.” Read the full column here.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/teachers-belong-in-classrooms-teaching
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, Morning Joe regular Mike Barnicle writes about the “increasingly deranged” tweets of President Donald Trump and a country let down by the inaction of the country’s chief executive. “This is the first time across all the dust-covered years of our history, centuries filled with courage and honor, that the elected commander-in-chief chose to tweet instead of plan to defend the country.” Read the entire column here.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/another-presidents-day-without-a-president?via=ios
“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
“Many have asked and wondered how or why such an exceptional guy like General Kelly would take the task of trying to turn the absurdly incompetent, chaotic Trump presidency into a functioning vehicle. And the answer is simple and obvious: Because he loves this country and does not want to have it fail or falter at the gate of a future filled with both promise and peril. His only ambitions are for America,” writes veteran columnist Mike Barnicle for The Daily Beast. Read Barnicle’s column here and learn more about the new White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly — details of his Boston childhood and some of the factors that helped shape his fine character and values.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-boston-neighborhood-that-made-john-kelly
“I am deeply sorry that I tweeted erroneous information this morning about Pete Frates — information that was provided by a family friend. I thank God that it was wrong. Pete is currently resting comfortably in the hospital here in Boston. He is a hero among us who needs our prayers and support more now than ever.” – Mike Barnicle
Journalist and MSNBC commentator Mike Barnicle and his wife Anne Finucane, Bank of America Vice Chairman, will be honored by Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) with its 8th annual Tim Russert Award at the Medicine That Matters Gala on Monday, May 15, at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.
BHCHP President Jim O’Connell, MD, said in announcing the award: “Anne and Mike have both reached the pinnacle of their professions, yet always maintained a deep commitment to those in need. At Bank of America, Anne has focused on strengthening communities through investment and at the same time supporting nonprofits like BHCHP. And for decades, Mike has given voice to people who struggle with all of life’s challenges, particularly poverty and the disease of addiction. Tim Russert was a close friend of theirs and I imagine he is very proud to see them honored with this award.”
Founded in 1985, BHCHP has evolved into the largest and most comprehensive health care for the homeless program in the country, delivering services to more than 11,000 homeless men, women and children a year at more than 60 shelters and sites. For more information, visit www.bhchp.org
https://lincoln.wickedlocal.com/news/20170512/lincoln-residents-to-be-honored-at-boston-gala
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, veteran journalist Mike Barnicle tells the story of Harry K. Tye, a U.S. Marine finally buried this week at Arlington National Cemetery after he was killed in a war – 74 years ago.
“On the night that Pfc. Harry Tye was buried, the President of the United States gathered more than a few Senators and their spouses at The White House for a reception. He was gracious and brief in his welcome and told them, in part: ‘We are doing really well in Iraq. Our soldiers are fighting and fighting like never before and the results are very good so I just wanted to let everyone know. …Our soldiers are fighting and fighting like never before…’
History is now a casualty too….” Read Barnicle’s whole column here.
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, Mike Barnicle pays tribute to legendary New York City columnist Jimmy Breslin, who died Friday at the age of 88. “He stood for the vulnerable and used the voice contained in his talent to call out the political people and anyone else who abused or ignored the poor, the disenfranchised, anyone living on life’s margins and judged by their zip code, their needs or their lack of income.” Read the column in its entirety here.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/20/jimmy-breslin-the-people-s-champion.html
The latest episode of How I Got Here features award-winning journalist and Morning Joe regular Mike Barnicle talking to the show’s creators, his son Tim Barnicle and Harry Hill, sharing stories from his youth in Fitchburg to his days in Washington D.C., his years as a celebrated newspaper columnist for The Boston Globe and much more. Hear Mike’s inspiring interview, as well as fascinating interviews with Tom Brokaw, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ken Burns and Maria Shriver on PodcastOne.
https://www.podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program/episode.jsp?programID=938&pid=1704182
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, Mike Barnicle paints a haunting picture of the harsh, cold reality of war for fallen soldiers and their families – buried in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery — to heed a message to President Donald Trump about the significance and responsibility that now rests upon his shoulders as he fulfills the role of Commander-in-Chief. “Donald J. Trump will take the oath of office and become the 45th president of the United States. Then, for the first time, he might well realize that his most important obligation is to be aware of the fact that only he can add to the names carved on war memorials and cemetery headstones because he now carries the burden, the weight and responsibility of being commander in chief. That is his duty, to honor the dead by never forgetting their sacrifice or the failed politics that sent them to die.” Read the entire column here.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/20/the-dead-patriots-and-the-commander-in-chief.html
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle writes about his experience as he accompanied Vice President Joe Biden to a rally in Biden’s home state of Pennsylvania. “He is a joyful, hands-on, shoulder-punching, hugging, smiling guy whose idea of a great day is a crowd, an event, a few laughs, and the certitude that his day will end at evening with his family by his side,” writes Barnicle of Biden. Using the analogy of baseball, he describes Biden’s profound speech to the Pennsylvania crowd at the rally. “On the stage, needing no notes, the thoughts filling the hall with a sense of optimism about the future and a ton of scorn for the scorched-earth landscape of the present political campaign, Joe Biden was the closer, coming out of the bullpen throwing fastballs at a time when the public has turned in disgust from spitballs or curves.” Read the whole column here.
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, MSNBC senior columnist Mike Barnicle asks readers to take a look at the attributes they would want to see in the next president — before they cast their vote. “I don’t want anyone rushing into the polling booth without thinking about the choice,” writes Barnicle. He provides a list of characteristics to contemplate in selecting our next president: competence, courage, an ability to listen and take advice, humility, honesty, patience, and empathy. “Donald J. Trump is without empathy. He proves it over and over each and every day. He has no understanding, no grasp of something that binds almost all of us together: a sense of what it’s like to suffer a loss.” Read the whole column here.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/06/take-this-quiz-before-you-vote.html
With all the press and social media coverage that followed Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson not being able to answer Mike Barnicle’s question on Morning Joe about Aleppo, Mike weighs in on the deeper meaning of the question, putting it into context, and explaining its overarching significance for all the presidential candidates as well as for each and every one of us. Read his latest column for The Daily Beast here.
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, Mike Barnicle writes about the extraordinary life of his friend and top cop John Timoney, an Irish immigrant who curbed crime as Chief of the New York Police Department, Philadelphia Police Commissioner and most recently Miami Police Department Chief. Barnicle juxtaposes Timoney’s life and life’s work with that of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, writing: “John Timoney was a sentinel of the city. And his life, his accomplishments and his very demeanor stand as a vivid antidote to the toxic behavior of another man from New York City who manages to incite a fear of the future by constantly hinting or even claiming that America is being stolen by some who do not belong here or rigged by some others in political power.” Read the rest of the column here on Timoney, who passed away earlier this month in Miami.
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, Mike writes about Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump’s attack on the family of Army Captain Humayun Khan, killed in Iraq in 2004 at the age of 27. Mike writes: “Here in the middle of an American summer one of the candidates to become Commander in Chief has proven with words and tweets that he is without the grace, the humility, the compassion or the simple comprehension of what it’s like for a mother and a father to lose a child in service of the nation. Donald J. Trump often speaks and tweets without thought but this week he spoke and tweeted without a heart.”
Does Donald Trump Have a Heart? Find out here.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/31/does-donald-trump-have-a-heart.html
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, Mike Barnicle writes of Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump: “He is a Hall of Fame salesman, always pushing the perfect product, the only item that exists in his mind: himself. He views himself as the answer to everything that ails or angers us. Any ill at all, he tells us, will be dealt with and taken care of by mid-afternoon on January 20, 2017 if only we will be smart enough to make him president.”
In his latest column for The Daily Beast, Mike highlights President Obama’s moving speech in Dallas “because of gunshots in the night, gunshots fired by a racist, gunshots that killed five police officers and broke another piece of a nation’s troubled heart.
“If you heard him, watched him, listened – really listened – you heard a man, the President of the United States, who spoke to what is best in us and what will save us from the calamity of racial and class division. He is the only president we have and on one American afternoon in July 2016 he was the one we so badly need,” writes Mike.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/12/in-dallas-our-president-meets-the-moment.html
