“Lanhee, would you agree with me on one of the definitions of hypocrisy this week has arrived with the health care proposal on the one hand, and the tax reform proposal on the other. So, you get Republican Governors like Greg Abbott (TX) saying ’no Medicaid expansion in our cities. It is going to bust the budget.’ The tax reform, the one-page tax reform proposal that’s on paper, would explode the deficit to a point where we’d be paying the deficit for like 100 million years ahead. What is wrong with these people?,” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Hoover Institution research fellow Lanhee Chen during a conversation about the conflict of interest between the House Republicans’ revised healthcare bill proposal and President Donald Trump’s one-page tax reform proposal when it comes to the country’s budget and national debt. “The question is: Are Republicans willing to look the other way?” asks Chen. Hear more of the conversation here.
“This is one of those moments in this presidency where it’s very concerning….When you have a President of the United States really turning up the Bunsen burner on a situation saying: ‘There’s a chance here that we’re going to have a major conflict with North Korea, absolutely.’ That’s the President of the United States speaking. Words have meaning. I just feel uncomfortable that a president would be saying this in a situation so fraught with danger,” comments Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle during a conversation with former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN) about the brewing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, following President Donald Trump stating that a “major, major” conflict with North Korea is possible. Listen in for the analysis here.
“Congressman, we have had several members of the Freedom Caucus on this program in talking about this particular piece of legislation, and they continually fall back on the phrase: ‘This will give states the right to opt out of certain provisions.’ Opt out, like an accountant’s phrase. Could you humanize the phrase ‘opt out?’ What would the menu show that they would have the decision to ‘opt out’ of?” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist of Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) during a conversation about the House Republicans’ revised healthcare bill proposal. Listen to Dent explain why the amendment “makes things worse.”
“Michael Steele, we just heard Andy Card say that the Speaker of the House has the toughest job in that town, your town. We just sat through Steve’s (Rattner) charts, which pointed to an amazing, ballooning deficit. How does Paul Ryan handle all of this? This is pie in the sky stuff — this tax stuff. Sounds great, one page, sounds terrific, but the Republican Party, they’re not going to go for this,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle during a conversation with former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele about President Donald Trump’s one-page tax proposal. Hear Steele’s response here.
“Andy, as a former Chief of Staff, where would you rank the idea of imposing some sense of discipline within the Oval Office, access to the President and a schedule that the President sticks to?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of former George W. Bush White House Chief of Staff Andy Card during a conversation about how access and time should be managed for President Donald Trump. Listen to Card’s response here on MSNBC.
“Michael Steele, your party, the Republican party, is now on the verge, basically if they’re successful in this in telling people: ‘You know, your health is going to depend on what state you happen to be born in.’ That’s the state of national health care right now,” comments Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle to former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele as the panel talks about the amendments House Republicans are planning to make to their healthcare bill proposal. Listen to Steele’s analysis here. “This is not a full repeal,” says Steele. “Obamacare will be here in some form.”
“Through it all, it still remains amazing that the President doesn’t care about the pressure brought to bear by the public to release his tax returns. It’s just amazing,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the panel analyzes President Donald Trump’s one-page tax proposal, which has been widely criticized. Listen to the conversation here, including former Treasury official Steve Rattner saying Trump’s proposal will “help business and help a lot of very wealthy people.”
“Michael Steele: We have Democrats probably shaking their heads in both houses of Congress over the one-page proposal to cut everyone’s taxes. But is (President Trump’s) larger problem perhaps a group of Republicans who are frightened to death of what’s going to happen to the national debt?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele during a conversation about Trump’s one-page tax proposal. Hear Steele’s response here.
“Realistically, one page, an outline. How do they fill that hole? Who is going to pay for this tax cut?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of former Treasury official Steve Rattner during a conversation about President Donald Trump’s one-page tax proposal, which has been widely criticized as a 100-day ploy. Listen to Rattner’s response here and his belief that the tax cut will not pay for itself, as U.S. Sec. of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said it would. Only on MSNBC.
The Morning Joe conversation continues about the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s foreign ties and receipt of secret foreign payments, senior contributor Mike Barnicle explains: “Mike Flynn is today a mystery. He worked for General Stan McChrystal in Afghanistan running intelligence. And from multiple sources, you hear that there was no finer person for the job and no better person at doing the job than was then General Mike Flynn in Afghanistan. Something happened to this man along the way to have this sloppiness occur.” There’s more revelations here. Only on MSNBC.
While the Morning Joe panel discusses former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s troubling foreign ties and income received from Russia and Turkey that he kept secret, says senior contributor Mike Barnicle: “How do you not declare that? It’s astounding that he did not have the wherewithal to put this down on paper; and it’s doubly astounding that the Trump campaign did not force more investigation into his background during the campaign.” Listen to more of the discussion with Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and the BBC World News’ Katty Kay.
During a Morning Joe conversation centered on an editorial in the English-language Chinese newspaper the Global Times about China’s increased pressure on North Korea to end provocations, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle asks Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations: “I’m wondering, given that there’s fairly optimistic tones in that editorial… and at the same time…we have the Vice President of the United States on the deck of an aircraft carrier in Tokyo Bay sort of rattling sabers. What story is best for us?” Listen to Haass’ response here and his praise for the Trump Administration following President Donald Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping earlier this month.
“You want someone opposed to war, go to the Pentagon (and) talk to people like General (James) Mattis, General H.R. McMaster. Read McMaster’s book ‘Dereliction of Duty,’ which outlines the incredible flaws, and human failure, and cowardice at the command level in the 1960s in Vietnam,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a conversation with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) about National Security Advisor McMaster and Secretary of Defense Mattis. Watch the discussion here.
“Congressman, let’s take those two countries: Syria and Iraq, as well as Afghanistan. We’ve been at war for 16 years in Afghanistan, 14 years in Iraq. You have spent an enormous number of years on the ground in Iraq. So when you go home on weekends to Salem and have town meetings in the North Shore in Massachusetts and a parent comes up to you and asks you: ‘I have a 19-year-old son. He’s a Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. He’s in Iraq today; he might go to Syria tomorrow. Why is he there?’ What do you say?” asks Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Marine Corp. veteran and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, during a conversation about the U.S. military possibly going into Syria following President Donald Trump’s missile strike there. “It’s a good question and I do get that question a lot,” responded Moulton, who called for a strategy for Syria before troops are sent in.
The Morning Joe panel discusses a report in The Washington Post that the FBI — as part of its investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia — had obtained a secret FISA warrant last summer to monitor the communications of Carter Page, at the time an adviser to then presidential candidate Donald Trump. Explains veteran columnist Mike Barnicle: “You do not get a FISA warrant on a whim or a suspicion. You have to have probable cause. The FBI in this case apparently had probable cause. Then you go to the FISA Court, comprised of judges. I couldn’t name the judges on the FISA Court. They go to great lengths to really disguise who the FISA Court judges are, and they, thus, get a warrant to look at Carter Page.” Listen to more from Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and author Jon Meacham.
While the Morning Joe panel analyzes the situation facing White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon on the heels of butting heads with others in the Trump Administration, including POTUS, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “(Bannon) works for the President of the United States. You can’t walk around Washington, D.C. leaking stuff about how you made (Trump) president and now you’re manipulating his presidency, and you’re molding his thought process because it’s yours.” Tune in to hear NBC News correspondent Katy Tur share what an ally of Bannon told her about the White House chief strategist’s current status.
“Admiral, given that sentiment you just expressed, given your military career, given your knowledge of General (James) Mattis: The day after is always a most critical moment in terms of like 59 Tomahawk missiles or cruise missiles being sent over there. What does it do? What did that do? And what is it doing now to alter what we do on the ground vis-à-vis Russia and other nations in Syria?,” asks Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO, during a conversation about the White House’s strategy for dealing with Syria following the missile strike. Listen to Stavridis’ response here on MSNBC.
While the Morning Joe panel reacts to the viral video of officers dragging a United Airlines’ passenger off a plane against his will after refusing to leave because the flight was overbooked, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle says: “One of the untold stories in this country — and it’s untold because it happens so frequently, so often, every day — is the status of commercial flight in America. It is horrendous.” Listen in on the conversation among hosts Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and regulars Willie Geist and Barnicle about how the airline industry has changed dramatically since deregulation and consolidation.
“Syria was a serious mistake that the Obama administration made in retrospect,” said Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a conversation with host Joe Scarborough and Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, about support for the Trump Administration’s recent strike against Syria in the wake of a chemical attack on civilians by President Bashar al-Assad. Tune in to hear more on the current state of the ongoing conflict with Syria.
“The most endlessly fascinating topic that all of us witness each and every day (is) human nature…and reading between the lines of every Steve Bannon story, you clearly have a man here who thinks he created a presidency,” said Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a conversation about the tension within the inner circle of the Trump Administration. “Then you take the jump into the White House where you now have President Donald Trump and you have Steve Bannon thinking, because he created the presidency, it’s now his job and he has the authority to mold and manipulate the presidency.” Listen in on the conversation between Barnicle and host Joe Scarborough about the role of White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon in the Trump White House.
