Mike Barnicle

“The motivated ignorance of Donald Trump has been a lifetime habit, a lifetime habit. He’s been operating on motivated ignorance since he’s been 17, 18 years of age. He did it all through his business career, all through his life, nearly every day. And in politics, he’s done it consistently. And he has developed indeed a cult around him. Now part of that cult, I would think given human nature, you’d have to feel badly for because they are people who bought into what Trump says in his motivated ignorance thinking it was going to help improve their lives. Well, it hasn’t, it hasn’t, and that’s the way you defeat Donald Trump. Point out the facts of people’s existence. The big tax breaks that he always talks about. Did it help someone making $100,000 a year? No, it helped people making millions of dollars a year. And so, now in the debate, for the first time, that motivated ignorance is going to be displayed publicly in an empty hall. There’s going to be no crowds saying, ‘oh yeah, that’s great, yeah,’ applauding if he does indeed walk towards President Biden’s podium. If he does the crazy things that he’s apt to do. It will be met by silence, and he will be told to go back to his podium. His microphone will be shut off; that, I think, is going to be the most interesting aspect of this debate,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Amanda Carpenter as they discuss Peter Wehner’s latest article for The Atlantic titled, “The Motivated Ignorance of Trump Supporters,” ahead of the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on June 27th, with both campaigns having agreed to various rules for the debate, including microphone muting and no studio audience.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Jonathan Lemire, Donny Deutsch and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the unwavering loyalty from Republican lawmakers for former President Donald Trump— in Washington this week to visit with congressional Republicans for the first time since he left office—despite his many controversies and now felony convictions. “The GOP, as I knew it, as you knew it…as everyone knew it, it’s gone. It disappeared…Eight years we’ve been going through this dance with various Republicans, Donny. It verges from spinelessness, to lack of character, to complete duplicity, to fraud. One political party, a major political party, gone, diminished—means nothing to a lot of people today. I don’t know how you rebrand that,” comments Barnicle about today’s GOP.

During this Morning Joe segment, Mike Barnicle, who grew up in a Gold Star house on a street where the flag flew every day, remembers his many trips to Normandy on this 80th anniversary of D-Day. And host Mika Brzezinski read from a Boston Globe column Mike wrote in 1994 to honor the fallen soldiers. “These are the heroes who all died young. They missed sunsets and baptisms. They went without 50 World Series and 50 New Year’s Eves. They never stood at the door anxiously waiting for a daughter’s first date to arrive or witnessed their kids’ junior proms and college graduations. They never saw men landing on the moon or a fax machine. They were not allowed to walk on a beach with the girls they loved or hold the hands of grandchildren who would have asked about their great crusade. In our increasingly selfish country where everything and nearly everyone is part of some special interest, where defining any enemy or current threat to live or moral values is as difficult as peering through the murky fog that envelops this French coast, it is stunning to realize that these 4,410 and millions of others sailed to certain danger with no thought of conquest or profit. They came because they were asked and because they were needed.”

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the “anti-American” sentiment that arose as Republicans across the party’s political spectrum denounced former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict on all 34 felony counts related to falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his bid for the White House in 2016. “On the left, on the progressive side or whatever, this is no reason for glee. This is no reason to be in the streets cheering and yelling. This is a reason for stop and think and maybe even get depressed over the reaction on the other side. The anti-Americanism that filled the air last night, from people like Marco Rubio, from people like Ted Cruz because as we indicated earlier, if there is no rule of law in this country, if they really believe the rule of law is rigged and corrupt…than there is no more America without a rule of law,” says Barnicle about the GOP defending former President Trump after his guilty verdicts.

“Twelve average Americans sat in a room, and guess what? They didn’t get information or evidence from TikTok or Instagram. They got evidence presented rationally by the prosecution in this case. And they made a decision that Donald J. Trump was guilty. And Donald J. Trump’s reaction to the guilty verdict was, once again—he’s already demeaned and destroyed much of our electoral process by saying it’s rigged and corrupt. And now he took on the rule of law. He took on the definition of justice itself by saying this verdict was corrupt, and it was rigged, and it’s a rigged system. Well, if he was correct in both his assertions, that the electoral process is rigged and corrupt, and that the judicial process is rigged and corrupt, then there is no more America. There is no more America,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with the panel and MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin as they react to former President Trump being convicted on all 34 and felony counts in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by falsifying business records in a case stemming from a payment that silenced a porn star. Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to be convicted of a felony crime.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire, Symone Sanders-Townsend and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the new Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll that shows President Joe Biden has made significant gains against the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, during the past month in six of seven 2024 swing states. Barnicle attributes the gains in part to “the president of the United States Joseph R. Biden being out there, people seeing him, say, ‘oh, okay, fine, I know how old he is; but he’s pretty sharp.’ He knows what he’s doing. And they consider the weight of what he’s carrying when he goes to a small town in North Carolina. He’s coming in with the Gaza war going on, he’s coming in with the Ukrainian war going on, he’s coming in with the economy burping everyday one way or another trying to figure out which way we’re going and which way we’re going to be headed, and that’s what people want to know. ‘Where are you going to take us?’ Joe Biden tells you where he wants to take this country. Donald Trump tells you when he is going to court next.” Join the conversation here.

“There has been continued exposure to Donald Trump. The more exposure that Donald Trump has on TV, the attack that …the Republicans continue to make against Joe Biden, is pretty much universally confined to one word – old: He’s old. And yet, you see Donald Trump on TV night after night at these rallies where he’s practically incoherent….Do you think, more and more voters, potential voters, are saying, ‘hmm, what about the other guy, though?,’” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Bloomberg politics editor Laura Davison about President Joe Biden who joins Morning Joe to discuss a new Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll that shows Biden has made significant gains against the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, during the past month in six of seven 2024 swing states.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire, Pablo Torre and Mike Barnicle about the gambling and theft allegations surrounding Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter and close friend of Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, after at least $4.5 million in wire transfers were reportedly sent from Ohtani’s bank account to a Southern California bookmaking operation that is under federal investigation. “Major League Baseball and every baseball fan should really be praying that the greatest star that has appeared in the Major League Baseball stage maybe since Babe Ruth, Ohtani, did not bet on any games. That’s the hope here,” says Barnicle. Join the conversation here.

Morning Joe’s Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle talk about the famed Philadelphia Eagles player and big brother Jason Kelce having announced his retirement through an emotional farewell press conference that felt more like a family affair than a business decision, with his parents and younger brother, Kansas City Chiefs star tight end, Travis Kelce, sitting nearby. “The thing that struck me the most was the element of good parenting. Clearly, his parents and his brother’s parents, they had a remarkable influence on these two guys,” says Barnicle about the Kelce brothers. Join the conversation here.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between The Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about Foer’s article entitled “The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending,” which explains how Anti-Semitism on the right and the left threatens to bring to a close an unprecedented period of safety and prosperity for Jewish Americans—and demolish the liberal order they helped establish. Foer writes and explains how “the Jewish vacation from history ended September 11th, 2001.”

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they discuss former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric toward immigrants and the media coverage of President Joe Biden as the two head into a likely rematch in November. “On Sunday, the New York Times had a front-page story about a poll that parts of it were devastating to the chances for Joe Biden to win re-election. On Monday, again, on the front page above the fold, they had another story about Joe Biden, referencing the poll, but again referencing Joe Biden’s age. Why is it that they don’t cover things that we just saw and heard—a man who is literally losing his mind in front of audiences coast to coast – his name is Donald J. Trump? Why is it that this is not covered in a similar fashion to the way Joe Biden’s age is covered? Joe Biden knows how old he is, and Joe Biden does more in one hour, in a day, in the White House than Donald Trump has ever done in his presidency….I hate to criticize print media. I’m a print media guy, but this is out of control,” says Barnicle about the media coverage of President Biden this election season. Watch and join the conversation here.

“This is a Republican Party now committed to themselves, the same way their nominee, Donald Trump, is committed to himself….He suggested that it would be wonderful if the stock market crashed this year. So it would help him electorally. In other words, he would be applauding if people went broke, lost their homes, or whatever this year because it would enhance his opportunities to again become president of the United States. There is no more Republican Party. The Republican party of just recent memory, the Republican Party that you (Joe Scarborough) belonged to, that you ran for office under their flag, Joe, that party is long gone,” says Mike Barnicle about the Republican Party during this Morning Joe conversation about the state of the party as former President Donald Trump’s push to kill a bipartisan immigration deal may now have derailed a major national security package, forcing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to suggest a new course of action and endangering aid to Ukraine and Israel in the process.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation between Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss President Joe Biden’s trip to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where he will deliver a speech on democracy to mark the January 6th anniversary in what will resemble an unofficial campaign kickoff for his reelection bid. “Unless you concentrate on telling people and talking about democracy, we’re soon going to end up losing a democracy. I mean, this is a very depressing state that we’re in as a country when you think about it….The year ahead is going to be really, really demanding of us as citizens, to take a look at what’s going to happen. The President of the United States every day has the job of doing many, many things….And he’s got to ask America really, not in these words, but he’s going to ask America: ‘What do you want to risk going forward.’ Listen to Donald Trump, listen to Joe Biden, what are you willing to risk with your vote?” asks Barnicle as we embark on this 2024 presidential election year.

ICYMI: Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle and POLITICO politics editor David Siders who stopped by to discuss “What I Saw on the Dreary Road to 2024,” his year-long roadtrip across the U.S. to chronicle how American politics is shifting.

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Jacqueline Alemany, Donny Deutsch and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the Senate in a single stroke approving about 425 military promotions after Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama ended a monthslong blockade of nominations over his opposition to a Pentagon abortion policy. “You may have had a head of household—a father, a soldier, or mother who is a soldier—sent somewhere else, other than where the children are going to school. That family is disrupted for an entire year because of one thing, this dope, and he is a dope – Tommy Tuberville,” says Barnicle about the damage Sen. Tuberville has caused for military families over the past year.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle, and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron about which country may lead the effort to help Ukraine’s defense in the war with Russia as U.S. Senate Republicans have blocked a bill to provide aid to Ukraine over a lack of border provisions in the measure. “President Biden pulled together the strong collection of NATO countries on behalf of Ukraine and has kept them solidified. And now that we seem to be on the verge, perhaps, of the American Congress not providing funding for Ukraine to go further, at least funding through maybe the end of the year or certainly into next year, which group of European nations—or maybe it’s one nation—steps up to lead the effort to keep Ukraine in the fight? Would it be Great Britain? Would it be Germany? Who would it be?” asks Barnicle of Cameron. Watch the conversation here.

“The interesting thing about polls right now—and it’s the only interesting thing—is that it’s like taking a picture of a sunset, each poll. There’s going to be another sunset tomorrow. Things change. Nobody is paying attention really—other than people like us—to a future election a year away. The interesting aspect of the election, I would submit, is that we have one political party, the Republican Party, seriously interested, seemingly from top to bottom, in marching this country backward. Their principal interest is in taking things away from people—things that people have grown used to living with,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation about the unreliable nature of political polls.

“We live in a country with no patience, no patience whatsoever. A country that has a diminishing memory of anything that happened further back than a week ago….We live in a TikTok nation where people get their news in about 20, 25 seconds on their phone. So, here’s their day: They get up in the morning, man or woman, going to work. They need gas. The last thing that Americans do together because, there’s no full-service gas stations anymore, is take the pump, put it in the side of the car, lean against the car, and watch those numbers flash by, say ‘wow.’ So, a month ago, they would fill up for 70 bucks and now they’re doing 20 bucks at a time to save money. Then they go to the grocery store. You see the price of eggs? ‘Wow.’ They put the eggs; they pay; they leave the grocery store. They go home. They get home at the end of the workday. They make out a check or Zelle their credit card payment, credit card interest rates have gone up. ‘Wow, I’m getting hammered all day long.’ The phone rings. And it’s a pollster. ‘How do you feel about the country?’ ‘It’s terrible, it’s terrible.’ It’s human nature, is what it is. It’s not political so much as it is cultural and economic,” says Barnicle about the state of the American economy in this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist and Donny Deutsch.

Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Mike Barnicle and Commentary editor John Podhoretz about why antisemitism does not erode and is surging on college campuses and around the globe in the wake of the October 7 massacre in Israel. “This disease—and antisemitism is a disease—why does it linger, recede, erupt and always the focus is always on the Jews? Why?” asks Barnicle. Hear Podhoretz’s response here.

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and The New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker about “the turmoil, the trouble, the minute-by-minute focus” of the enormity of the job of the presidency, following President Joe Biden having been briefed on the massacre in Lewiston, Maine, last night during a State Dinner for the Prime Minister of Australia.