Mike Barnicle

While the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump’s uncharacteristic silence amid his legal battle with adult film star Stormy Daniels and the flux within his own legal team, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains why Trump has had nothing on his daily schedule in recent days: “if a fire truck comes down the street, people cheer. If a cop car comes down the street, people get nervous. That police car is now parked outside the White House. The cops are not yet at the door, but…Dowd is gone, his principal lawyer. (POTUS) can’t find another really top shelf lawyer to represent him. He’s probably this morning looking at LegalZoom to try and figure out what to do in his defense. That’s why we don’t see him.” Listen to more of the discussion here.

While the Morning Joe panel remembers the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter and father of co-host Mika Brzezinski, on what would have been his 90th birthday, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains:
“Dr. Brzezinski— his every appearance here—was what I would call `value added’. And nowhere do we miss him more than in situations like occurred yesterday with the head of North Korea going to Beijing. The Chinese and the North Koreans sitting down, discussing multiple items that threaten the world. And the president of the United States apparently on the eve, allegedly, if a meeting is to take place with the head of North Korea. I would like to—love to— have known what Dr. Brzezinski surmises from what is happening right now all around us.” Listen to more of the conversation with Joe and Mika here.

Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and the panel discuss the significance of The Wall Street Journal editorial board’s “The Tale of Stormy Donald,” in which they say: “Mistakes of character tend to catch up with everyone, and that’s what is now happening with President Trump and his many women….Mr. Trump can’t retain the best legal counsel because no one wants a client who ignores all advice.” Listen in on the conversation about President Donald Trump’s legal battle with himself, and adult film star Stormy Daniels.

“It’s really not funny anymore when you consider what’s going on with the president, his legal team and his failure to…tweet about anybody he fears, and he really fears what’s happening,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough during a conversation about President Donald Trump’s uncharacteristic silence about his legal troubles. Listen to the discussion here.

ICYMI: As the Morning Joe panel brands the “stupidity” and “darkness” of various statements by several Republican politicians in recent days, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle turns the focus to the tremendous impact of Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez and the hundreds of thousands of students who protested over the weekend nationwide to demand action against gun violence. “The sounds of silence, mute on TV for nearly six minutes, was stunning. Anybody who watched it realized that’s our future. These children, and they are children, are our future—not the politicians.” Listen to more of the discussion here.

During the Morning Joe conversation about President Donald Trump’s dwindling legal team and his tweets that boast “many lawyers & top law firms want to represent me,” veteran columnist Mike Barnicle says: “You don’t see any leaks out of the (Bob) Mueller operation. People respect what he’s doing. Trump…looking for a lawyer of Mueller’s capability to represent him is an impossible task.” Listen to more of the discussion with Joe Scarborough, Barnicle and Elise Jordan, a former aide to President George W. Bush.

Robert Gibbs, former White House press secretary to the Obama Administration, joins the Morning Joe panel where he’s asked repeatedly his opinion on what impact President Donald J. Trump is making on the office of Commander in Chief. “I’m wondering…what you think about the damage that’s being done to the institution of the presidency today given that you worked for a presidency that was virtually scandal free, an exemplary person as president. And now we have nearly the opposite. What do you think about the damage that is being done to the institution?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Listen to Gibbs answer here.

“There are arguably two great tracts that have been written throughout history. One is the Bible and the other is the Constitution of the United States of America. And America is an idea. It’s not a democracy, it’s not a republic before it is an idea. And the idea that 74 percent, according to the Monmouth University poll, believe there is a deep state run by a military, political, intellectual hierarchy apart from government is devastating. And this is the gift we have gotten from Donald Trump. This is the gift we have gotten from him surrendering to Vladimir Putin, Facebook and a series of events that have caused chaos in this country,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel analyzes a poll from Monmouth University that indicates that more Americans say they believe in the existence of a “deep state.” Listen to more of the discussion here with Mika Brzezinski, Carole Lee, Richard Haas and David Ignatius.

“This is an old story, and it gets to the root of human nature being so unpredictable, and the human nature element in this is that everyone, including a president of the United States, always gets nervous and a little frightened when the cops are about to knock on the door, and this is what’s going on here. And Michael Schmidt, I would like to ask you, the disarray within the President’s legal team, the chaos that has been created here, how much of it has to do with their apprehension about what might be about to happen?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of The New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt as the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump’s legal team being divided about whether or not POTUS should talk with special counsel Robert Mueller regarding the Russia probe. Listen to Schmidt’s response here.

“It’s all about him. He’s a solo act. I mean, Saccone running for Congress was an appendage, mentioned maybe once or twice, and that was it. And he did all of this on the weekend prior to the anniversary of March 12, 1933, the first Roosevelt fireside chat, which was about leadership,” explains veteran columnist Mike Barnicle referencing President Donald Trump’s controversial speech at a rally in Moon Township, intended to promote the candidacy of Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone in the Pennsylvania special election. Listen to the other Morning Joe panelists share their final thoughts of the morning. Only on MSNBC.

“There’s a ripple of unrest in this country that hasn’t been dealt with, and one of the reasons for the unrest is the playing-to-the-cheap-seats cadence that comes out of the White House. But one thing went unnoticed in the past few days that I’d like to ask you about. And it is this: Russian operatives in Syria apparently with the tacit consent of the Kremlin, and thus Putin, attacked an American special forces unit. They picked on the wrong unit, and they got crushed. But it’s virtually a declaration of war against the United States of America, another one, not a cyber war, a real, physical gunshot war. And the President has yet to say a single thing about it,” observes Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a conversation with the Washington Post columnist David Ignatius about the tenor and tone coming from President Donald Trump. Listen to more of the discussion here.

Hear more from NBC News’ Kristen Welker and Heidi Przybyla about the White House’s plan for gun reform and the new commission that will be led by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to broadly examine ways to protect schools from gun violence.
“We saw the secretary on in an earlier clip from…60 Minutes, and she was totally unarmed with facts. And now she’s going to be head of the school safety commission?” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Listen to the responses from Welker and Przybyla.

Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation about how “the Mueller matter has metastasized” with veteran columnist Mike Barnicle, George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley and Michael Schmidt, reporter for The New York Times. “It could be that Donald Trump’s red line over the Mueller investigation is similar to Barack Obama’s red line in Syria. It will be crossed,” said Barnicle. Hear more of the discussion on the Russia probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

In a Morning Joe panel discussion about President Donald Trump’s state of mind and what might happen next in the Stormy Daniels situation and the Russia probe, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle asks NBC News national political reporter Heidi Przybyla: “You have reports that the President of the United States now feels completely unshackled from John Kelly — from anything or anyone in the White House who would try to monitor his conduct and his behavior — and that he is literally a man alone operating on foreign policy and maybe even on legal policy.” Listen to Przybyla’s response here. Only on MSNBC.

“The President of the United States has injected successfully a slow poison into the culture of this country,” said Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a conversation about President Donald Trump’s controversial speech in Pennsylvania. “I don’t know what the impact is going to be years down the road, but I do know that one of the things we ought to be worried about is the damage that he has already done to the presidency. And we should be worried about how lasting is it, and can it be repaired.” Tune in for more on the remarks POTUS made during a rally to help the candidacy of Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone in the Pennsylvania special election.

As the Morning Joe conversation turns to the upcoming 2018 MLB season, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle says of the Boston Red Sox: “It’s a very good team, a very good team. The whole year is going to come down to (pitcher) David Price, though. Which David Price is going to show up this year? That’s going to be the year,” Listen to more of the baseball talk here.

“There’s only one person in this administration,” says Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle during the panel discussion with MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews and NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt about the chaos in the White House and Gary Cohn resigning as President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser. “We might be underestimating the amount of chaos that is there now compared to what it might be a month from now, six weeks from now — who knows.” Hear more of the conversation here.

As the Morning Joe discussion turns to how President Donald Trump’s tariffs plan will hurt Americans, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “Loss is the key word. These are the same people who when the economy crashed in 2008 and 2009, many of them lost their homes, they lost their 401ks (and) they lost their hope in this country. Many of these people also are the people who risk losing their sons and daughters in a war that’s been going on for 16 years now. So, loss is the key, and loss triumphs over facts. Loss is emotion, loss is nostalgia, and loss sends people to the polls.” Listen to more of the discussion here.

ICYMI: Listen in on the conversation between Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle and former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance about what comments by former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg might reveal about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia meddling. “He’s been in talking with prosecutors,” says Vance of Nunberg, “and we’re likely hearing some of that being filtered back.” The rest of the discussion is here.

“Senator, we have a tenuous, yet very positive and optimistic development in Korea — at least they’re talking. But do you worry, are you concerned at all that an undisciplined president could tweet something that would just derail whatever is going on over there?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) during a conversation about the possibility of President Donald Trump disrupting talks between North Korea and South Korea, given his history of confrontation. Listen to Coons’ response here.