Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle asks U.S Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) about the problems in the Democratic Party. “Congressman, why do you think the Democrats have been losing their majority consistently in the House over the last three elections?” Hear Swalwell’s answer here.
While Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough leads the panel in a discussion about “fake news” and how most of the mainstream and Democrats on the left overlooked the huge support President-Elect Donald Trump had from voters throughout the campaigning, senior contributor Mike Barnicle explains: “They somehow lost the innate ability to do a critical thing when you are gathering news or looking for votes: Listen. Listen to the people you are trying to represent if you are a politician. Listen to the people you are trying to record what their feelings are for a news story. Listen to them.” Tune in to listen to more of the discussion here. Only on MSNBC.
As the Morning Joe panel switches gears to discuss the media’s poor and unbalanced coverage throughout the 2016 election cycle, senior contributor Mike Barnicle says: “It saddens me to say this, but the media took a bigger hit in this year’s election process and over the past two years than any of the political parties. There is a reason why people are going to Facebook for news, unfortunately. I really regret saying that, but you can’t ignore the facts.” Listen to Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough give his thoughts on the media’s coverage during the election cycle and the poor performance of the political parties.
As the Morning Joe panel reflects on yesterday’s Capitol Hill speech by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), senior contributor Mike Barnicle comments: “Every day, she’s clearly a candidate for president of the United States She’s clearly running for president, and good for her. She leads a significant portion of the Democratic party. The interesting thing is going to be if there’s a (Democratic Senator) Chuck Schumer party in the Senate and an Elizabeth Warren party in the Senate.” Tune in to watch a highlight of Warren’s speech here.
Responding to news that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons capable of reaching the United States, Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle says: “President-elect Trump has put together his NSC appointment, his CIA appointment, and yet he has the two pivot points of this North Korea story — Department of Defense and Department of State (positions) — still open, and they are all intertwined. I don’t know that as president-elect he has yet received his first really full intelligence briefing, but I would assume when he does he will be told ‘President-Elect Trump sometime within the first tenure of your administration, you’re going to have a North Korean regime with the capability of reaching Seattle with a nuclear head missile.’ You’re going to need a strong Secretary of State as well as your intelligence team.” Hear more from the Morning Joe panel on this topic here.
The bureaucracy of the State Department is front and center as President-Elect Donald Trump considers candidates for Secretary of State. Says Morning Joe’s senior contributor Mike Barnicle: “You need a strong secretary of state — someone who can manage that bureaucracy — a strong under-secretary of state because the word in the State Department — more so than any other department in Washington— is that the titular heads — the secretary of state, the under-secretary, the political appointees — the bureaucracy refers to them as the `Christmas help.’ They are just there for a while.” Listen in on more of the discussion on Trump finding the right leader for the State Department.
As the Morning Joe conversation shifts to the regularity in which a president-elect selects for his cabinet perceived rivals over others considered close supporters, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle comments: “In 2008, when incoming President-Elect [Barack] Obama selected Hillary Clinton, there was a level of consternation among his close supporters that he was going to choose Hillary Clinton for secretary of state. The odds were it was going to be John Kerry… It didn’t happen.” Listen to the rest of the conversation here by the panel and Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough. Only on MSNBC.
As the Morning Joe team discusses President-Elect Donald Trump’s sense of loyalty toward staffers and particularly campaign manager and adviser Kellyanne Conway, in light of her scathing comments against former Gov. Mitt Romney being considered for Secretary of State, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle cites an article in The New York Times by Maggie Haberman and says Trump has an “unwavering sense of loyalty. No matter what happens. No matter what (Conway) did, what he said.”
“This goes on in every transition…It went on in 2008 in the Obama [administration with] Secretary of State… John Kerry gave Barack Obama the podium in 2004 to help put him on the ascendancy and endorsed him early. [Kerry] does not get Secretary of State – said nothing, went quietly into the night back into the Senate. But there has never, ever been anything quite as remarkable as Kellyanne Conway’s [comments],” explains Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the panel analyzes the scrutiny that Trump detractor and former Governor Mitt Romney is receiving from other political figures, especially President Elect-Donald Trump’s campaign manager and adviser Kellyanne Conway, as he is being considered as a candidate for Trump’s secretary of state, proving that supporting a potential presidential nominee doesn’t guarantee a position in his cabinet. Listen to more of the discussion here.
In discussing world leaders’ mixed reactions to the weekend death of the controversial former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle recalled covering the mass emigration of Cubans in 1980 juxtaposed with a statement by Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, who described Castro as a “larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century.” Said Barnicle: “I can remember covering the Mariel Harbor evacuation in 1980. I was in Key West, Florida. We rented a boat and went out to meet the flotilla. It was the flotilla of many, many ships coming across the bay. To see, hear and speak to people…who risk their lives and the lives of their children to flee that island [about] why they wanted to flee that island would put a whole new twist on Prime Minster Trudeau’s statement.” Watch more on the story here.
During the ongoing conversation about President-Elect Donald Trump’s cabinet choices, host Joe Scarborough insists – despite all the jockeying by those around Trump – that he alone will make the decisions. Veteran columnist Mike Barnicle adds that for the position of Secretary of State, Trump has some “pretty good choices. In addition to Governor [Mitt] Romney, there is General [David] Petraeus and General [John] Kelly. General Kelly is a terrific candidate … and would accrue to the value of the Trump administration on the continuing war on terror because Secretary of State is much more now than just going around the world shaking hands with diplomats. There’s a internal security component that is vital, and John Kelly would be a terrific asset.” Watch more of the discussion here.
During the Morning Joe conversation about the possibility of President-Elect Donald Trump choosing his staunch and vocal adversary, former Gov. Mitt Romney, as his Secretary of State, senior contributor Mike Barnicle said: “I can report from sources close to Governor Romney that he will not be apologizing. I can also report that the problem wouldn’t be a rogue Secretary of State. The bureaucracy within the state department is of its own weight. It is something that is difficult to move. There is one way to clear this up: For Donald Trump to appoint the secretary of state today.” Listen in on what the panel thinks is the likelihood of Romney being selected and when that might or might not happen. Only on MSNBC.
“Everything thing Rudy Giuliani has said publicly in seeking this job is a actually a disqualifier,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a conversation about former New York Mayor Giuliani’s public campaign for the job of Secretary of State in the Trump administration. Hear more from Barnicle and Random House Executive Editor Jon Meacham on the topic here.
Following President-elect Donald Trump’s break from tradition in abandoning the press pool to attend a private dinner with his family at Manhattan’s famed 21 Club, Morning Joe’s senior contributor Mike Barnicle and the panel discuss the ramifications of Trump’s break from protocol. “Given the current climate toward the media — and the demonization of the media during the course of the campaign hasn’t helped — but everything changed for the Presidency on the afternoon of November 22nd 1963. You need a press pool. It’s a protective press pool,” explains Barnicle. Listen to more of the conversation here. Only on MSNBC.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Oh) joins Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle to share his thoughts of what’s to come for the Democratic Party following the monumental fall of the ‘blue wall’ in the 2016 presidential election. Asks Barnicle: “Goodyear, Firestone, people who live in bungalows, two-family homes, blue collar workers, black and white and Hispanic — make the argument right now of why they should remain or go back to the Democratic Party that has been with them since 1932?” Listen in to Ryan’s answer about the challenges that Democrats face in the Midwest.
“In retrospect, it’s easy to look at it in the rear-view mirror and indict [Hillary Clinton’s] campaign. It was a very well-run campaign. But gender wasn’t the only issue here. [There was] rage, frustration, and anxiety among the voters. There’s real anger about inequity–class was the issue, income was the issue,” explains Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the panel discusses President Obama’s support for Clinton and his mandate for the Democrats in the wake of the country’s election of Donald Trump.
“There is a growing…resentment of both Clintons for…the opportunities and the chances they had [and] did not take advantage of. You hear repeatedly from Democrats…that you cannot run for president of the United States basically on a platform of ‘it’s my turn,’ which is what they think that campaign was all about,” explains Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the panel discusses how some in the Democratic party feel toward the Clinton family now.
“[Bernie Sanders] is right. He’s absolutely right,” proclaims Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the show’s panel reacts to Senator Bernie Sanders’ comments on ABC’s The View that working class voters didn’t believe in Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and that the Democratic party hasn’t been as strong as it should be. Tune in for more discussion about the problems in the Democratic party here.
Morning Joe senior contributor asks host Joe Scarborough and former RNC chairman Michael Steele an important question as the only two people on the show who have ever run for public office: “In a certain sense, the country does not know Donald Trump right now. They know who he was and who they voted for, but they don’t know who he is as president-elect. And we have not heard from him since the election. Do you think it’s approaching the time when… [the] president-elect of the United States…has to speak to the nation about his intent as president-elect?” Hear their answers here. Only on MSNBC.
On Morning Joe, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and show host Joe Scarborough discuss the lack of qualifications of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to be Secretary of State in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. “He’s drunk with his own power,” says Scarborough. Listen in for more insights on Trump’s possible cabinet choices.
