Mike Barnicle

“It is incredible, incredible that we have more than 40 million people collecting unemployment benefits in this country, and that issue alone is overshadowed by two paramount issues today: the virus and race in America,” said Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a wide-ranging conversation about President Donald J. Trump’s recent “race baiting” and “social arson” amid new poll numbers that show presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden leading Trump in six battleground states the president carried in 2016. Watch the conversation here.

Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle reflects on an Associated Press photograph by Patrick Semansky of President Donald J. Trump, which shows Trump returning from a re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wearing a rumpled blue suit, white shirt, tie undone. “He’s walking slowly and his face looks defeated. And all I could think of in looking at that photograph was ‘Death of a Salesman.’ Donald Trump as Willy Loman….He’s selling a stale product, an old product, that more and more people aren’t buying because they’re confronted with the reality that we’re all confronted with: More than 40 million people unemployed and a virus that could kill you like that if you catch it from God knows where. And he says very little about that.” Watch more of the conversation with Barnicle and Morning Joe’s Willie Geist here.

Stacey Abrams, former Democratic minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives and author of “Our Time Is Now,” discusses with Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle her thoughts on how to both reform and transform police departments in cities large and small in America by changing the way police do their jobs, banning choke holds, increasing training, and investing in communities by providing a higher quality of education, health care, affordable housing and community programs. “This is a ‘both’ ‘and’ solution to the challenges that have plagued this country from the beginning,” Abrams said. Watch more of the conversation here.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Baton Rouge community activist Rev. Gary Chambers Jr., who in a now-viral video sharply criticized East Baton Rouge Parish School Board member Connie Bernard who defended the controversial name of Lee High School named for Confederate Army Gen. Robert E. Lee, and who then appeared to be online shopping and “ignoring” community concerns during an intense debate over whether to rename the school. “It’s heart-breaking and that’s why it’s resonated with so many people,” said Chambers, publisher of The Rouge Collection.

Tune in to this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) about Attorney General William Barr “political bidding” on behalf of President Donald J. Trump in the wake of the firing of U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan Geoffrey Berman. Asks Barnicle: “What’s your view on what is going on with the attorney general of United States? Is he that bad a manager that he can’t control what he wants to do?” Hear Jeffries’ call for an investigation into Barr’s “rotten” and “toxic” actions.

Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle discuss President Donald Trump’s Tulsa, Oklahoma reelection rally, which produced a low turnout amid the coronavirus pandemic. “I don’t think Donald Trump knows what’s going on. He certainly knows the polls, but I think what he senses is that a referendum on Donald Trump in various states means one thing: It means he loses. So…he’s got to find an excuse so he doesn’t have to blame himself and people don’t blame him: The virus will be his excuse when he loses….But Donald Trump is the root of…everything that is disrupting this country today because from Day One of his presidency, he has focused on one thing above all else: Division, dividing the country,” says Barnicle. Watch the conversation here.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Eddie Glaude Jr., and Mike Barnicle about the fatal police shooting captured on cameras of Rayshard Brooks, a black man who was killed by an Atlanta police officer after firing a stun gun at the officer and fleeing. “You can train for everything at a police academy, all sorts of exigencies. You cannot provide common sense to someone who lacks it, and this was an astounding case of a lack of common sense resulting in murder two charges for that police officer,” says Barnicle about the police officer who shot and killed Brooks. Join the conversation here.

Join the conversation between Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and U.S. Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.) about this week’s House of Representatives hearings on the Democrats’ proposed police reform legislation to combat excessive force and racial discrimination, introduced in response to the recent killings of unarmed black Americans.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation among Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle and Eugene Robinson about “how difficult it is to be black in America.” Says Barnicle: “White families don’t have to live through the same series of outrages that happen when you’re black in America.” Hear from Robinson, Washington Post associate editor, about the centuries-old challenges facing black Americans and what might be the next positive steps toward equity and justice.

Hear what former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has to say in this Morning Joe conversation with Mike Barnicle about President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to deploy the national guard in Washington D.C.—a show of force usually reserved for combat zones—amid the protests in the nation’s capital in response to the death of George Floyd.

Dr. Leana Wen, former Baltimore Health Commissioner, during a conversation with Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle about mask wearing being a non-political, public health necessity, calls on the Trump Administration to “step up” and lead by example to help control the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus. “This is about each of us showing that we care about one another, that we respect one another. That’s the reason why we do this,” said Wen. Watch more of their discussion here.

“George Floyd was executed on a sidewalk, a street corner in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That image is going to be stronger in November than it is now. It’s going to remain with this country. It’s going to affect nearly everyone’s vote. And Donald Trump, instead of addressing it as a human being, which he is incapable of doing…they’re going to plunge ahead, plunge ahead on a law and order issue. It’s not going to work,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle during a conversation with Joe Scarborough about President Donald Trump’s drop in poll numbers released amid the nationwide protests in response to the killing of George Floyd and with an eye on the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

Tune into the Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Mike Barnicle and former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton about the killing of George Floyd, a black man who had “literally the life choked out of him” by now ex-Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, big city police officers who do not live in the cities they patrol and the NBC News analysis and report that found Minneapolis police had rendered 44 people unconscious with neck restraints in the past five years.

“The moment is just too big for Donald Trump. It’s too big for him to handle. He doesn’t understand the country. He doesn’t understand loss. He doesn’t understand empathy. He doesn’t understand the differences between races in this country. He just doesn’t understand the nature of the job,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle about President Donald Trump during a conversation with Joe Scarborough about racial inequality in America after the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died begging for breath while in a knee-to-neck restraint administered by a now ex-white police officer in Minneapolis.

“We operate under a slogan, ‘we’re all in this together.’ That is patently not true. It’s not true because we have a president of the United States who is divisive, destructive, damaging….There has never been a president, a leader, who has failed his people, his country, so badly, so miserably, as Donald J. Trump has. All we hear from him is division, divisiveness, damage and cruelty—cruelty from the Oval Office, and that’s where we are,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle during a conversation with Mika Brzezinski about how President Trump is “missing the moment” to lead the country as the U.S. tops 100,000 deaths due to the coronavirus.

“On this Memorial Day, we’re sitting in a country, and you just alluded to it, about the dams needing repair. We’re sitting in a country where people claim that America doesn’t build things anymore. You’re not too far from the old Ford Willow Run Plant where in World War II, the B-24 Liberators were coming off the assembly line of that plant at the rate of one per hour. Detroit helping to win the war. What is going on? Why can’t we get an infrastructure bill passed in this country to rebuild America today, in 2020?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) during a Morning Joe conversation about why Congress hasn’t been able to pass infrastructure legislation despite the desperate need for it in the country and what may be the crushing consequences if Democrats and Republicans don’t come together to build resiliency in the infrastructure now.

Gen. (Ret.) David Petraeus and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow join Morning Joe to discuss Grant, a three-night miniseries about the life and career of the military legend, beginning tonight on HISTORY. “There’s an astounding moment in his military career that I need your help in understanding. The compassion and generosity he showed at the signing of the surrender with Robert E. Lee at the Appomattox Court House: How does that happen?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Watch the conversation here.

NBC News senior international correspondent Keir Simmons joins Mike Barnicle on Morning Joe to report on the “good case study” of Greece, offering an example of for how European countries might deal with the geopolitical tension that goes hand in hand with reopening their borders amid the coronavirus pandemic. Listen to the full report here from London.

Watch this conversation between Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle and Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, about the benefits of a national public service program in our country, where only one percent of the population currently serves in the military. “We have been at war as a nation now for 19 years. Memorial Day used to have much more significance in this nation—three or four decades ago—when there was more familiarity with people who served in wars—in World War II, in Korea. Do you think that this might be a great time (for)…mandatory national public service in this country?” Barnicle asks in seeking a deeper appreciation for those who give back to the country on this Memorial Day.

“He lives in his own self-concocted, self-conceived fantasy world, and it involves, ‘this state is involved in voter fraud; that state is not involved in voter fraud because it’s going to vote for me.’ It fills his days, his dreams, his made-up numbers about ‘the death count is overrated, it’s underrated.’ It is what it is; you can’t follow him. And Dave, my question to you is, is there any credibility do you think on a national level—after the local level investigates and proves there is no voter fraud? Do Republicans listen to that?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg as the Morning Joe panel discusses President Donald Trump railing against mail-in voting on Twitter despite a GOP investigation in Florida having found there was no voter fraud. Listen to Aronberg’s response here about the notion that Trump is trying to convince Democrats to back off the effort.