Entries from Sep 2017
POTUS: Hypocrisy with a capital H

“Josh, other than hypocrisy with a capital H on the part of the President of the United States talking about Hillary Clinton’s emails, do we know whether or not there are any classified elements in the personal emails sent out by Jared Kushner?” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Politico White House reporter Josh Dawsey during a conversation about White House aide Jared Kushner having used a private email account for some White House business. Listen to Dawsey’s response here.

POTUS’ Twitter Troubles Continue

Washington Post national political reporter Robert Costa joins the Morning Joe panel to talk about President Donald Trump’s weekend of taunting North Korea and the NFL via Twitter. Asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle: “What is the level of concern, if any, among the staff closest to the President that — as you indicated — the President is interested simply and most primarily in a win — that his ideology is pretty much nonexistent, that he knows very little about the details of the health care plan…various legislative proposals, tax bills and everything like that, and that he is prone to doing what he did in Alabama with no advanced warning to the staff — tweeting either very late at night or very early in the morning with no control from the staff over the tweets, obviously.” Hear Costa’s response here about the President’s late night and early morning Twitter habits.

POTUS’ Sleepless Nights

“Here’s the problem….The President of the United States has sleepless nights. You check out the Twitter feed: Check the time code on the Twitter feed. The ‘won’t be around much longer’ tweet: 11:08 p.m. Friday night, wakes up Saturday morning, 6:15, 6:16 a.m. attacking the NBA and the NFL. This is a president that clearly his staff, some wonderful people, General Kelly, General Mattis, General McMaster — they have no control over the President of the United States, what he does, what he says, what he tweets — goading another country into firing a missile at us,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the panel talks about President Donald Trump, his foreign policy team, and the escalating crisis with North Korea. Listen to the conversation here.

President Trump’s War of Words

“I found this weekend — for many reasons — to be inordinately depressing…. (President Donald Trump) goes to bed one night provoking the leader of North Korea into a mistake. He wakes up the very next morning going after professional athletes…the majority of them – African American. This is the United States of America. He does not understand the United States of America,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle as the panel talks about the latest news coming from North Korea and the fallout over Trump’s battle with pro athletes, particularly his suggestion at a rally in Alabama that NFL players should be punished for kneeling during the national anthem. Listen to more of the discussion here. Only on MSNBC.

First Amendment Attack

“The saddest thing about this is: This is not about the flag. This is not about a song. This is about Colin Kaepernick’s right, your right, my right to be free — to do what you want to do in this country within reason. And that’s within reason,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the panel discusses President Donald Trump’s tweeting out against NFL players kneeling during the national anthem and suggesting players should be punished for such an act. Listen to more of the discussion about First Amendment rights and Sec. of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin’s defense of Trump here with hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

High-Flying Mnuchin

“The idea that you need secure communications instruments on your honeymoon. That’s a whole new deal,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle during the panel conversation about Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin having requested the use of a government jet for his European honeymoon at $25,000 per hour to attain ‘secure communications’. Hear more of the conversation about the controversial spending by Mnuchin and MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan’s opinion that the secure communications need is a “flat out lie.”

New News on Flynn’s Foreign Dealings

“Carol, you just pointed out that the obvious pattern here would be to try and flip General Flynn using the legal difficulty of his son as a means to help doing that, but in the course of your reporting, did you get any sense of the pace of the investigation in terms of just General Flynn and his activities?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of NBC News national political reporter Carol Lee during a conversation about the Russian probe gaining steam as it relates to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who, new reports show failed to disclose a trip and work he did related to a private proposal to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East. Listen to Lee’s response here. Only on MSNBC.

Barnicle: “This isn’t about DACA”

“This isn’t about DACA, it’s not about Steve King, it’s not about Laura Ingraham: It’s about Donald J. Trump. He wants a win. He’s watched the Cleveland Indians win 21 straight. He likes to be on that side of the aisle. He wants a win, and that’s what this is about. He wants a big W on the wall in the Oval Office. And he doesn’t care about Schumer, Pelosi, McConnell — nobody. He cares about himself. That’s who he is,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the panel talks about President Donald Trump agreeing with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to work on legislation that would protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation and massively increase border security, but exclude President Trump’s much-promised wall on the southern border. Listen to more of the discussion here. Only on MSNBC.

Storm for the Ages

During the discussion with MSNBC Meteorologist Bill Karins, Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle asks: “Bill, in your experience, do you recall a storm with such a damaging shelf life extending through days and hours and still in a sense walloping Georgia and South Carolina?” Hear more about record-breaking Hurricane Irma and the destruction it caused as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds.

Rep. Devin Nunes: In or Out?

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) talks with Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about the role of Rep. Devin Nunes’ (R-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, in the Russia probe. “Has he recused himself, or not?” asks Barnicle of Schiff. Hear Schiff’s surprising answer and his concern about getting to “the truth” of the situation.

Ryan vs. The Freedom Caucus

During a conversation with Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) about the possible ramifications of the contentious relationship between House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and the House Freedom Caucus, Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle asks: “Congressman, what’s the story in the internal cat fight between the Freedom Caucus and the Speaker of the House? And what’s the threat level to the Speaker’s job?” Listen to Cole’s position here.

Facebook on the Hot Seat

The Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig joins the Morning Joe panel to talk about her reporting on Facebook’s admission that a Russian-based group bought $100,000 in political ads from the social media site.
“What was the basic message of these ads and is Facebook going to releases the ads so we can judge for ourselves what they were all about?” asks Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle. Hear Leonnig’s response here on MSNBC.

Trump: Inside Out

“Long-term to Donald Trump is lunch today. It’s about maybe noontime, and we make the mistake too often of viewing the Trump presidency and Trump himself from the inside, from the perspective of internal politics: The House and the Senate, its relationship with the President, the White House’s relationship with Capitol Hill. If you view Donald Trump from the outside, you get a much better picture of what happened yesterday. You have a selfish guy, who’s President of the United States, who’s in it for himself primarily, to get a victory for himself to be able to boast in North Dakota that he knows how to cut deals — that he just did cut a deal. That’s the view of Trump from the outside,” explains Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a conversation with the hosts Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist about President’s Trump motivation for the deal with Democratic Minority Leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi to pair hurricane relief with a three-month debt limit hike— a deal that left some Republican lawmakers quite upset.

Trump: Done Deal

“Why is anyone really and truly surprised about what has happened here? The President of the United States is a man of the moment — he lives for the headline, he lives for the cable hour, he lives for the win. The personal is political, the political is personal. He will do anything to achieve even a momentary win (and) this is much more than a momentary win. He just has an affinity for Chuck Schumer that he is never going to have for Mitch McConnell. Jim, you’ve covered the Hill for years. Am I off base in that estimation?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Axios co-founder/CEO Jim VandeHei as the panel talks about President Donald Trump’s deal with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to tie emergency funding for hurricane relief with measures that would raise the debt ceiling and keep the government open for three months, to the consternation of some Republicans. Listen in on the conversation here.

POTUS: Reversal on DACA

“Kasie, how long is it before the fact that the President of the United States once again does not fully grasp the details of something – an issue, in this case DACA — health care before this. How long is it before (Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell and (House Speaker Paul) Ryan finally explode in public about the fact that the President knows very little about what he’s pushing?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt during a conversation about President Donald Trump’s decision to reverse course and rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), known as the ‘Dreamers’ program. Listen to the conversation here with Barnicle, Hunt and Joe Scarborough.