“Pete was a giant of American journalism….He was a true tribune of the city, New York City, and he wrote about people whose lives matter—ordinary people—who don’t often find their names in the paper unless it’s surrounded by some calamity. He wrote about how people live….He was decent, kind, generous. He was everything you would want in a human being, never mind a city columnist, a great journalist. Pete Hamill will be missed by me and many, many others whose lives he touched across the years,” says Morning Joe contributor and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about Pete Hamill, who died this week at age 85, and who in addition to being a legendary columnist served as editor for the New York Daily News and the New York Post.
“I’m still stuck on the President’s phrase to Jonathan Swan in that remarkable interview: ‘It is what it is.’ And I’ll tell you ‘what it is.’ When he said that, 38 Americans an hour died of the virus. That’s what it is, and today the evictions begin, mortgages to come, food lines exist in America. There are 30 million people unemployed. That’s what it is. ‘It is what it is.’ That’s what it is,” says veteran journalist Mike Barnicle in this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist about President Donald Trump’s recent interview with Axios on HBO, during which Trump said the United States’ staggering death toll from coronavirus “is what it is.”
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle about the poll numbers continuing to show presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election. “All the Biden campaign has to rely on now—in addition to Joe Biden himself, the candidate, the man, the human being—is the refrain, ‘are you better off today than you were in March?’,” says Barnicle, referencing one of the most important campaign questions of all time and the unprecedented devastation of COVID-19. “The element of loss in this country is playing a role in every single state that we have talked about this morning and it’s jarring to think about it: We have 150,000 Americans dead. We have four and a half million Americans infected, by far the largest number in the world—of any country in the world. And within that framework, we have a president of the United States who seems unable to speak about what loss means to families in this country.” Join the conversation here.
Iranian-American actor/comedian Maz Jobrani joins Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle to talk about the inspiration for his work and how far the industry has come in writing roles for Middle Eastern actors in the 22 years he’s been in the business. Watch the conversation here.
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and widow of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, about how we can honor the legacies of her husband and the late Rep. John Lewis, who served together in Congress and fought for justice, voting and human rights.
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and MSNBC science contributor Laurie Garrett about the tremendous challenges and issues involved in the possible reopening of schools amid the coronavirus pandemic and how the policies will need to differ among the age groups. “We’re not going to gamble with the future health and present health of our children by sending them into schools where the questions remain completely unanswered—at least from my point of view—about what’s going to happen in those classrooms,” said Barnicle. See more of the discussion here.
Veteran columnist Mike Barnicle outlines the three main issues in the 2020 presidential race: COVID-19, race equity and Donald Trump during this Morning Joe conversation with host Joe Scarborough about the polls showing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden leading President Trump in key battleground states.
“Donald Trump is the clear pivotal figure in this campaign and his incompetence in running this country, in dealing with the virus, I think, is probably the number one issue that’s going to keep this race separated for the winner, Joe Biden,” says Barnicle. Join the conversation here.
Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice joins Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to talk about the current status of the damage done by the U.S. to international relations and allies around the world. “How much of it, in your experience, from your point of view, is irreparable damage being done, and how long will it take–given your experience–to repair these alliances?” asks Barnicle. Hear Rice talk about how U.S. allies “cannot trust” the word of President Donald Trump or the White House and how it will take a regime change, hard work, time and patience for the relationships to be repaired.
Watch this Morning Joe segment in which contributor Mike Barnicle repeatedly asks Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), House Intelligence Chairman, if the reports are true that Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has become a tool for “laundering” a foreign interference campaign aimed at damaging presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Listen to Schiff’s response here and additional discussion about a public letter from Democratic leaders that asked the FBI for an urgent briefing arising from concern that members of Congress are being targeted by a foreign operation intended to influence the 2020 presidential election.
“Despite what Donald Trump thinks about the American people, most Americans think he is a weak leader—that he has downplayed the threat of coronavirus, that he has stoked racial tensions,” said Guy Cecil, chairman of Priorities USA, a voter-centric progressive advocacy organization, during a Morning Joe conversation with veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Watch more of their discussion about Priorities USA’s polling and what they have learned about Republican efforts to “screw with” the upcoming general election through efforts to suppress and intimate voters.
Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, John Heilemann and Mike Barnicle sound the alarm bells as they discuss President Donald Trump’s threats to send unidentified federal troops to various U.S. cities to quell protests like in Portland, Oregon, where Trump has already sent federal officers and video captured them beating and pepper spraying a Navy veteran, Christopher David, there. “We should all be freaking out about this,” said Heilemann.
“Oh, it couldn’t be more appropriate than to have Dr. Anthony Fauci on the mound, on the hill, for the Washington Nationals opener. It just couldn’t be more perfect,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle during this conversation with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski about news that Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert amid the coronavirus pandemic, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the first game of Major League Baseball’s pandemic-delayed regular season.
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
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel about the urgent need for Congress to increase federal funding to keep the upcoming U.S. general election safe amid COVID-19 concerns and the persistence of foreign interference.
“John Lewis was what America aspires to be. Donald Trump is what America is slowly becoming. John Lewis marched forward every day of his life toward equality for everyone, regardless of color, faith, gender, belief, ideology, anything. John Lewis marched forward. Donald Trump doesn’t like John Lewis’s America. Donald Trump is uncomfortable in John Lewis’s America. Donald Trump fights everything that John Lewis stood for….John Lewis believed in moving forward, in going onward with faith in this country. Donald Trump has faith only in himself,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this conversation with co-host Mika Brzezinski and The New Yorker’s David Remnick as they remember the life of civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis and all that he stood for.
“People will gamble on Powerball tickets, Mega Millions tickets. They’ll bet on horse races and ball games. But they will not gamble with their children’s health and safety, and that is something that the Administration, the President of the United States is going to inevitably bump into….School openings, I think, is going to be a real pivotal point and it’s coming up very quickly,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski and Washington Post associate editor Eugene Robinson about the ongoing debate over whether schools should reopen in the fall amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
“The President of the United States took a medical emergency—a virus, an epidemic, a global epidemic—that is crippling the United States of America, and he turned it into simplified stupid things like, ‘don’t wear a mask, wear a mask, hey, it’s all up to you.’ There has been no effective leadership out of the Oval Office in this country, and that is I think the defining factor in why we are losing, losing the war against COVID-19,” veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski in reference to a new Washington Post report that juxtaposes President Donald Trump’s leadership amid the coronavirus pandemic with those of other world leaders.
Catch up on this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer about her latest investigation, “How Trump is Helping Tycoons Exploit the Pandemic,” which shows how Ronald Cameron, a Trump top donor and head of Mountaire Poultry, is leveraging the coronavirus to strip workers of their protections and safeguards, leaving them to fend for themselves.
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, president/CEO at Houston’s Harris Health System, about the causes for the recent “rapid surge” in coronavirus cases and whether Porsa’s staff has enough supplies to fight COVID-19 safely.
“This is a very personal presidency…as we have all found out to our great sadness and chagrin. Roger Stone got his sentence commuted by the President of the United States for not flipping and cooperating with prosecutors, which would’ve exposed the President to a charge of perjury had he done so,” explains Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as he and Mika Brzezinski discuss a National Review op-ed that calls President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of his former campaign adviser and longtime friend Roger Stone on seven felony crimes “an indefensible commutation.” Watch more of the conversation here.