Mike Barnicle

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the 2021 MLB playoffs after the Boston Red Sox – under the leadership of manager Alex Cora – beat the Tampa Bay Rays to advance to the American League Championship Series. “Alex Cora has them extremely focused. The other night when Chris Sale gave up the grand slam home run, it was 5-2, suddenly, just like that, and Alex Cora at the break in the inning, he walked up and down that bench and said, ‘look at it this way, we are behind 3-0. It’s the first inning. We got a lot to go. We’re going to win this game.’ He’s got them extraordinarily focused, but they are the underdog,” says Barnicle about the Red Sox who will play against the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. Join the conversation here.

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommending that doctors should no longer routinely start most people who are at high risk of heart disease on a daily regimen of low-dose aspirin. “I have long had a practice of lying to my physician when you go for your physical. You know, he says, ‘you been taking your daily aspirin?’ ‘Yeah, always religiously. You know, chicken and fish. That’s it.’ And I park my car beneath the golden arches and ignore all of that because things change like that,” says Barnicle about nutrition and medicine recommendations. Join the conversation here.

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the Republican Party’s push against President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order prohibiting COVID-19 vaccine mandates by any “entity,” including employers. “This is a continuing tragedy in this country because what the governor of Texas has said, what other Republicans have said has nothing to do with public health or public policy. It’s all about politics….Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, the guy with no coat, the guy who never wears a coat, he urged an end to all – he urged Ohio to end all – mandates of all vaccines. Not just the COVID vaccines, all vaccines: Rubella, Polio, Measles, all vaccines. That’s where this is going. And it’s not just Congress, Joe. You know this; it’s not just Congress. It’s various Republican-led states with Republican governors and Republican legislatures. And this is, I think – I might be wrong, I’m often wrong – this could be the epic issue of our age. Can we hold on to our democracy in the light of all of these public people? Elected governors, elected members of Congress, elected members of the United States Senate. We just had, you reported on it the other day, the number two Republican in the House of Representatives, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, still refusing to admit that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president of the United States. This is all happening right in front of our eyes. From my point of view, from my grandchildren’s’ point of view, who I think about all day long, this is the issue of our time because they’re not going to have the country that we have if we shut our eyes to this. Build Back Better is really important, this is more important,” says Barnicle about thwarting the Republican Party’s effort to prevent President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Join the conversation here.

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the 2021 Major League Baseball playoffs after the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants to force a decisive game five in the National League Division Series. “The San Francisco Giants have been one of the most vastly underrated baseball teams in Major League Baseball throughout the year. Here they are. They are on the verge of winning their series with the Dodgers, and as Willie pointed out, I mean, the win-loss records were incredibly close, and the Dodgers’ payroll is probably one-third higher than the San Francisco Giants’ and yet here they are, San Francisco,” says Barnicle about the Giants who set a franchise record with 107 wins and ended the Dodgers’ National League West reign of eight straight seasons. Join the conversation here.

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they recap and discuss the Boston Red Sox having ended the New York Yankees season with a 6-2 win in the AL-Wild Card game at Fenway Park. “One of the big underlying stories, Joe, last night has to do with everything that we’ve been through as a nation and as a world across the last 19 to 20 months, suffering from COVID. The Red Sox, of course, had several unvaccinated players. But the crowd last night was as electric and as together—literally, figuratively together—close together; 38,000 people in that ballpark with noise and clamor and excitement that I haven’t seen or heard in that ballpark in maybe two to three years. And the funny, odd thing last night, when the Massachusetts state lottery number came up just prior to the game: The winning numbers were announced at about seven o’clock, and the numbers were one, nine, seven, eight—true story, 1978, the Bucky Dent year,” says Barnicle as he recalls former Yankee Bucky Dent who hit a home run in a tie-breaker game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park at the end of the 1978 regular season. Watch the whole conversation here.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Eugene Robinson and Mike Barnicle as they discuss Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s declaration that the Republican Party will not come to the aid of Democrats to raise the debt ceiling. “Look at the contentiousness in the United States Senate, look at the fact Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the United States Senate, is basically holding the American economy hostage, hostage to his politics,” says Barnicle. Hear more of the exchange here.

ICYMI: Watch this Morning Joe conversation as Mike Barnicle and others share their thoughts on President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan speech in which he defended his decision to end America’s 20-year war there and called the evacuation from Kabul an “extraordinary success” in his remarks. Commented Barnicle that despite Biden being “angered and outraged to his core” about the killings that took place in Afghanistan, “I heard a very strong defense of his position. After 20 years of death, deception—despite some immense progress in Afghanistan with regard to women and education—20 years of delusion….The president knows that only one thing is forever and that’s death. He knows that most of those at the airport were there in Afghanistan for perhaps their first time, greeting complete strangers, people they’ve never met, in order to save their lives.” More from the segment here.

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Eugene Robinson and Mike Barnicle as they discuss Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson remaining uncertain about getting vaccinated against COVID-19 after returning from his second bout with the virus in the last eight months. “Lamar Jackson is a tremendous quarterback, a tremendous athlete, there’s no doubt about that, Willie. But he’s not a team guy because he has just proven he is not a team guy….The other aspect of it—getting COVID twice and still being worried about the vaccine—I mean, that is truly mystifying in this current time, truly mystifying,” says Barnicle about Jackson after the NFL announced that teams will forfeit and be slapped with a loss if a game is cancelled because of a COVID-19 outbreak among their unvaccinated players.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Dr. Lee Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, about the ongoing hesitancy among many Americans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. “What do you think history is going to say about us that we had so many who refused to get a vaccine that could be lifesaving?” Hear Dr. Beers’ hopeful answer here.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation among host Mika Brzezinski, contributor Mike Barnicle and Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) about the desperate need to expand the eviction moratorium and disperse billions in funds through the end of 2021 to help both beleaguered tenants—largely in communities of color—and landlords alike who have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis that continues to surge.

Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski and contributor Mike Barnicle discuss a recent Wall Street Journal report that indicates that evangelical Christians are resisting the COVID-19 vaccine most among religious groups. “The vaccine has become an element of politics, that’s our basic problem (and) that’s what we’re talking about here every day. It’s the slow destruction of the republic, really. It’s the disbelief in the government. It’s the disbelief in the vaccine—a vaccine that has been proven to be helpful, and in many, many cases life saving to Americans and people around the world…Get it and safe your life,” says Barnicle about the COVID-19 vaccine. Tune in for the discussion here.

Tune in for this Morning Joe segment as veteran columnist Mike Barnicle talks with Dr. Vin Gupta, a public health physician, professor, and health policy expert, about how soon and how young children may safely receive the COVID-19 vaccine so they can return to school this fall.

Watch this Morning Joe segment between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Washington Post columnist Max Boot about whether or not COVID-19 vaccinations should be made mandatory for school teachers so that we don’t have to shut down schools again as the deadly Delta variant runs rampant. “I think that’s the heart of each family: You want your children to be better in life than you have been. But if your children are struck with a virus, that’s a critical condition for them, obviously. Aim at the children in public schools, get the teachers mandated vaccines: I’m wondering if you think that would work,” asks Barnicle. Hear Boot’s response here.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Miami Herald investigative journalist Julie K. Brown about her new book, “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story” and why the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida allowed basically “a slap on the wrist” for charges Epstein faced related to charges of sex with underage girls.

Watch this Morning Joe segment as contributor Mike Barnicle talks with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio about whether COVID-19 vaccinations should be mandatory for New York City school teachers as they head back to school this September and for the city’s health care workers, only half of whom are vaccinated on average, according to de Blasio. He said more aggressive measures may be warranted if the Delta variant continues to grow. See the discussion here.

ICYMI: Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, about whether COVID-19 variants will be prevalent in the coming years as the Delta variant now accounts for an estimated 83 percent of COVID-19 cases in America and what—if anything—we can do to prevent new variants.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle as they discuss President Joe Biden’s speech on voting rights in Philadelphia, where he issued a dire and angry warning that the very underpinnings of American democracy were under threat, calling an ongoing assault on voting rights the gravest challenge to American democracy since the Civil War. “It was certainly perhaps his most powerful speech as president,” says veteran columnist Barnicle.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Eric Adams, Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, about Adams’ plans to rebuild trust in the NYPD if he is elected mayor.

“I can’t imagine a more dangerous time in the last 100 years than the time that we’re enduring and going through right now—when every institution of government is suspect by so many people, when the core of this country: Freedom, liberty, free speech, the right to vote—all of it seems to be under question, almost each and every day,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about the state of America during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough. Tune in for their discussion here.

Join this Morning Joe conversation between Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle about Los Angeles Angels hitter and pitcher Shohei Ohtani, who has dominated this MLB season. “He’s more than just a phenomenon….He’s multitalented. And he plays for a manager in Joe Maddon, who’s an old school guy who loves baseball and has made the decision to allow Ohtani to both appear at the plate as a hitter when Ohtani is on the mound pitching. It’s a tremendous show. I’d pay to go see him,” says Barnicle. Learn more about Ohtani here.