“One of the interesting things about what’s happened in the last decade or so, especially the last couple of years, is the language of politics. And as we play clips every day of public people from the president—both Democrats and Republicans, but specifically this administration, the language of politics—each and every day it seems it removes itself measurably from the lives of ordinary people. People who are sitting around a kitchen table in the morning getting their kids ready for school. They listen to some of these public people. We hear them—the clips that we play—and they’ve got to be thinking, ‘what does he mean?’ ‘What does she mean?’ ‘They don’t understand how I’m living. They don’t they don’t understand the cost of cereal that I’m providing my kids.’ And Joe, they don’t understand the fact that health care, health care policies; the gasoline prices rising, that’s nothing compared to the cost of health care in this country. And if it’s available—even if it’s available, if they can get it—they’re lucky,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough and Pablo Torre as they discuss the “massive affordability crisis” and its impact on everyday Americans as President Donald Trump has neglected the issue.
Tune in on this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss Vice President JD Vance at an event in Georgia having characterized the Trump Administration’s decision to halt direct military aid to Ukraine as one it’s “proudest” successes. “If you talk to specific people in the Pentagon and the Defense Department, not the secretary of defense, certainly, but people who are annoyed by his behavior and what’s happening with Ukraine via the Pentagon. If Ukraine had been given the munitions that they are owed because of what they’re doing, Russia, the Russian troops would be back in Moscow today. That’s how superior the Ukraine fighting forces are when faced against the Russians, and they’re getting zero help now from us,” says Barnicle about the strength of the Ukrainian military amid its ongoing war with Russia.
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Mike Barnicle and MS NOW justice and intelligence reporter Ken Dilanian about the Department of Justice having filed motions with a federal appeals court to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of 12 prominent January 6 defendants, which marks the Trump Administration’s latest effort to rewrite the history of the violent January 6 attack on the Capitol. “Ken, do we have a specific number or a range of numbers of the numbers of people—professionals—who have left the Department of Justice because of what’s happening to the Department of Justice?” asks Barnicle. Hear Dilanian’s summation of the “thousands” of DOJ employees who have exited because they couldn’t “tolerate the working environment” under the Trump Administration.
“We don’t know our own history. The roots of NATO were born in the years after World War II. It’s been the most effective alliance ever created in any country—an alliance between the United States and much of Europe. And Ambassador Stoltenberg, I was wondering if you could speak to the importance of that alliance, the roots of that alliance, and the dangers in ripping up those roots without any explanation from Washington, DC, other than, ‘oh, we…wanted Greenland, and they don’t want us to have Greenland, so we’re done.’ It’s ridiculous,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this conversation with former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who joins Morning Joe to discuss the state of NATO as President Donald Trump has escalated threats to withdraw the U.S. from NATO, primarily citing European resistance to his ambition to acquire Greenland and a lack of support from European allies in the ongoing U.S. war against Iran. Hear Stoltenberg’s assessment on Europe’s efforts “to preserve NATO” amid the threats from POTUS, explaining “we are stronger together; we preserve peace when its time together.” ”
“Ben, what are we to think as Americans when we hear the energy secretary…basically saying, it’s wonderful that we have a president with the courage to allow gas prices to go up?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith during a Morning Joe conversation about U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright at the Semafor World Economy Summit having defended the Trump Administration’s decision to engage in the ongoing conflict with Iran, despite it causing a spike in domestic gas prices. Hear Smith’s assessment of how President Donald Trump’s “unilateral” decision-making style has led to a situation where he “makes the decisions and everybody else scrambles to react,” according to Smith.
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the backlash to a now-deleted AI-generated image shared by President Donald Trump. The image, which depicted POTUS in a Christ-like pose, drew criticism from Christian commentators who called it “blasphemous,” including some longtime allies. The president later said the image showed him as a doctor or Red Cross worker. “The word that has not been dropped here today…is stability. What is the president of the United States’ sense of stability because we’re talking about someone who has done some crazy things and likening himself to Christ in that post that he put up and then withdrew and claiming, ‘well, it’s a doctor. I’m supposed to be a doctor in that.’ That’s just so—it’s beyond absurd. And we have a war going on that we don’t know where it’s going to end. And the word stability, I think, ought to be underlined each and every hour of the day in this presidency,” says Barnicle.
“You’ve got a lot of European leaders, both economic and political there, and Europe, of course, is combined of a group of nations that were ill informed or uninformed about Donald Trump’s plan to go to war with Iran, and there’s contentiousness on both sides now. I’m wondering what your view is going to be in terms of trying to extract from them their anger over how the United States has behaved,” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith who joins Morning Joe to talk about the upcoming Semafor World Economy 2026 forum in Washington, D.C. that will feature hundreds of top global leaders from business and government. Hear Smith’s assessment on the emotional “balance” European leaders are seeking amid the war with Iran, suggesting they are “infuriated by American government policy and obsessed with the U.S. economy.”
“When you’re born Catholic, raised Catholic—especially by my mother, we used to call her ‘my mother, the nun’—the one thing you retain, I would think, is that the theory of the Catholic Church is rooted in a simple phrase—the least among us. So, if you look at the Trump Administration’s behavior toward the least among us, it is almost criminal. It is certainly a sin because they don’t care for the least among us, and we should all care for the least among us because when we care for them we care for ourselves,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist about an article in The Free Press that details the strained relationship between the Trump Administration and Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope.
“Did not Iran, though, just play rope a dope with the United States? They won. Iran won,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, during his Morning Joe panel conversation about the United States and Iran having agreed to a two-week provisional ceasefire, which came less than two hours before a deadline set by President Donald Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face “total destruction.” Hear Haass’s assessment about how Iran is “stronger” now since the start of the war, explaining “we hurt them in the classic sense but in the strategic sense they are much better off.”
“You just mentioned tectonic plates of the economy. When the tectonic plates move, when gas prices go up, things like that—that’s not the only thing that happens. The residual effect, the shipping, the airline prices going up, everything going up. And it sometimes seems that the tectonic plates that move quickly, move very slowly in terms of prices coming back down. What happens then?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett who joins Morning Joe to discuss the economic impact the war in Iran could have on the world. Hear Tett’s assessment on why the “big level of disruption in the system in the last few weeks” caused by the war will cause shock waves, pointing out that “you can’t just magically switch the system back on again.”
“Palm Sunday….My wife and I went to the 5 o’clock mass at Saint Ignatius in Boston. It’s on the Boston College campus, so you’d expect a few college students at 5 o’clock mass. It was packed, standing room only. People outside the church. The demographic, I thought in my mind’s eye, would look 25ish to 30ish—youngish. Most of them reciting the prayers by knowledge, just by rote. They knew the prayers. It was stunning to me, absolutely stunning. And I give credit to a couple of things: One, the times we’re living in, and Pope Leo,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire, Mika Brzezinski, and Donny Deutsch as they weigh in on the Catholic Church seeing an increase in attendance during this “dark time” in America, particularly with younger men in America. “There’s a phrase that was used repeatedly on Palm Sunday that I think has struck a chord among younger people as well as people my age or your age—’the least among us,’” Barnicle says of the phrase drawn from Gospel of Matthew 25:40, referring to the marginalized, vulnerable, and overlooked in society, emphasizing a call to compassion by teaching that serving them is equivalent to serving Christ.
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire, Katty Kay, Donny Deutsch, MS NOW National Security Analyst John Kirby, and Mike Barnicle as they discuss President Donald Trump now threatening to launch massive military strikes against Iran’s civilian infrastructure if the country does not agree to a deal and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz on the 39th day of the war. “This is a country of 93 million people, and everyone who has ever had any experience dealing with the Iranian people will tell you they are more culturally inclined to the West than any other groups of people in that region. And so what you’re going to do by wiping out, by making the country go dark, by taking out their water supplies, all sorts of things, all sorts of damage to the civilian population—you’re going to risk malnutrition, you’re going to risk a refugee crisis coming out of out of Iran. You’ve got to think that the military, more than anyone else, is thinking about these things, much more so than the political leadership of this country,” says Barnicle amid the stark threats from POTUS toward Iran.
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Jonathan Lemire, The New York Times Opinion writer Mara Gay, and Mike Barnicle as they discuss news of President Donald Trump reversing course on his administration’s effective oil blockade of Cuba, allowing a Russian-flagged tanker to deliver a shipment of crude oil to the island. “The elastic concept of the presidency, building his own universe, saying whatever he wants, whenever he wants, is extraordinary.…Why are so many people so afraid of him?” asks Barnicle as the trio discuss the deeply unpredictable nature of POTUS.
“The people around the mayor and the mayor himself—he’s young, he’s energetic, he’s full of energy, full of ideas and everything like that. What are his prospects if he runs afoul with the New York Police Department?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of The New York Times Opinion writer Mara Gay who joins Morning Joe to discuss the generational change in New York City politics under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Hear Gay’s assessment of the Mayor’s “secret to success,” the work ethic of the Mayor and his team, and the “open question” surrounding his relationship with the NYPD.
“Mr. Ambassador, your career has taken you from Beijing to Brussels—all over the world. You’ve had a career and a life lived as a diplomat. And I’m wondering if you could expand on your thoughts—that you just started to talk about—the fact that we have a president of the United States and his diplomats, secretary of state, who have created an alternate universe in terms of diplomacy and global diplomacy. What impact, what lasting impact and lasting danger, do you think they have posed to the history of the United States diplomatic efforts around the world?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns during a Morning Joe conversation about America’s global diplomatic relations as the war with Iran enters its 32nd day. Hear Burns’ assessment of how the U.S. Foreign Service is at its “weakest point” in its 102-year history with the career state department being “ignored.”
“If you take a look at the stats of a lot of hall of famers and you take two guys who are not in the Hall of Fame, Dale Murphy being one, Dwight Evans of the Boston Red Sox being the other—both absolutely belong in the Hall of Fame. There’s no doubt about it,” says Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and Jonathan Lemire as they talk some baseball, including Baseball Hall of Fame snubs. Join the conversation here.
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) about the SAVE America Act and President Donald Trump’s recent social media post saying he was “glad” to hear the news that former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III had died. “I’m wondering if any Republican senators you spoke with: Did they say anything to you or were they ashamed of it? Were they shocked by it, or did they say nothing about it?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Booker. Hear Booker’s response about the “crisis of conviction” we find ourselves in. The silence right now—it is killing our democracy,” Booker said. See the conversation here.
Silence is killing our democracy
“Norm, let’s have an explainer for people watching: If you came here to this country, say in 1980 from Cambodia and you moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, where your family started a business that thrives and you have a Massachusetts driver’s license today, but they demand a birth certificate to back up any credibility that you have citizenship here. What do you have to do? Go back to Phnom Penh to try to get a birth certificate? What do you do?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Matthew Harris Ornstein Debate Institute co-founder Norm Ornstein who joins Morning Joe to discuss the Save America Act, which would complicate voting in America as it would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections if passed. Listen to Ornstein’s response here.
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation Jonathan Lemire, Mike Barnicle and MS NOW reporter Josh Einiger who joins the program from Dubai to discuss the attacks on the United Arab Emirates’ by its Iranian neighbor that has caused the country to briefly close its airspace as Israel launched new strikes in war in the Middle East. “What’s happening to people on the streets of Dubai?” asks Barnicle. Watch the discussion here.
“Let’s put on your admiral’s hat and talk about the war from that point of view. The Iranians are playing a home game in the Straits of Hormuz, and they can do whatever they want, whenever they want. What does that mean for the conclusion of this war, the fact that they can do whatever they want, when they want, in that strip of narrow waterway?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral (Ret.) John Kirby during a Morning Joe conversation regarding the Strait of Hormuz being effectively closed to most commercial traffic following a series of Iranian attacks on merchant vessels during an escalating conflict with the U.S. and Israel. Listen to Kirby’s response here on MSN NOW.
Mike Barnicle is a veteran print and broadcast journalist recognized for his street-smart, straightforward style honed over nearly four decades in the field. The Massachusetts native has written 4,000-plus columns collectively for The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and the New York Daily News, and continues to champion the struggles and triumphs of the every man by giving voice to the essential stories of today on television, radio, and in print.
