“There is no plan B for Donald Trump and this administration now that he scrapped the Iran accord. There was no plan B on the night of the election when he assumed the presidency. They were shocked, stunned that they won. They had no plan. So, they didn’t know what to do because they never expected to be there. And that’s where we are today with Iran, with North Korea perhaps. They have no idea because it’s spur of the moment governing,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump and the problems in his Administration, following news that several companies paid President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen for White House insights. Listen to more of the discussion here.
During the Morning Joe conversation about several American companies, including Novartis and AT&T, having paid President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for promises of White House insights, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle says: “How dumb are these corporations? Novartis paid this guy $1.2 million. AT&T pays $600,000. What do their boards think about this?” Hear more of the discussion with Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and BBC World News America Washington anchor Katty Kay.
During the Morning Joe discussion about whether President Donald Trump will fire Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer, following reports that indicate Trump is growing increasingly annoyed with Giuliani’s frequently off-message media blitz, veteran columnist asks: “Joe, the more this continues — the presidency as theater — you have to ask the question: Are we being played by Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani? Because every day Giuliani says something that is so odd and so at odds with the law as we know it that you wonder: Are they just continuing this thing to keep us preoccupied? Look what we’re not talking about….This is just a classic shell game that they’re playing, perhaps unwittingly.” Hear more of the conversation with Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski now.
During a Morning Joe conversation with Amanda Carpenter, author of the new book “Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us,” veteran columnist Mike Barnicle asks her: “You can call it gaslighting, you can call it lying; but you have to have intent to do it effectively, and the intent here is not in terms of sitting down prior to lying or gaslighting and planning something. It’s momentary; it just flows out in a particular moment, and it’s like secondary gaslighting. There’s no planning to it.” Listen to more of the conversation about the “phenomenon” of President Donald Trump’s lies.
“Why would (President Donald Trump) be unafraid to take the Fifth Amendment? Look at where he is today and look what he’s done. Look what he’s been publicly accused of doing. Why would taking the Fifth Amendment, do you think, hurt him among his core constituency,” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough as the panel speculates whether Trump would exercise his Fifth Amendment right if subpoenaed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Listen to Scarborough’s response here.
Listen in on the conversation among Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, author Jon Meacham and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle on this 73rd anniversary of V-E Day. “I grew up later on, on a street where there were seven Gold Star families. Seven families on one street. Families originally from Russia, Greece, Finland, Italy, Ireland. America, the idea of America, and I don’t think there has ever been…a greater juxtaposition in proof of the strength of the American idea than Franklin Delano Roosevelt being followed by Harry S. Truman, a haberdasher from Missouri….Look at the gift that he was to America: Taking the first steps to integrate the United States military, taking the initial steps to protect and defend Berlin, and to take the advance against the creeping power of the Soviet Union – Harry S. Truman.” Hear more of the conversation.
While the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump’s legal strategy following contradictory remarks made publicly by his new lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, on the Stormy Daniels payment and the James Comey firing, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “I’m told just yesterday, last night that the legal strategy that the president and Rudy Giuliani are employing, the legal strategy is: fear. They are desperately afraid that Michael Cohen is cooperating with the special prosecutor, and they are also convinced that the special prosecutor might have Donald Trump’s tax returns, which would be a lethal weapon in terms of matching the president’s rhetoric, against actual fact-based stuff….So, they are in a world of hurt, and they’re waiting for (attorney) Emmet Flood to come through the door to stop the flood.” Listen to more of the discussion here with Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Axios’ Jim Vandehei.
“If there is a subpoena issued, it will be fought in court. What’s your expectancy in term of coverage of this story? This could go on for another year, year and a half,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to Washington Post investigative reporter Carol Leonnig during a conversation about the possibility that special counsel Robert Mueller III will subpoena President Donald Trump as part of his Russia investigation. Listen to Leonnig’s response here.
ICYMI: Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle and Elise Jordan, the New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, and Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle about President Donald Trump and his ongoing troubles, including most recently with Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly and the eroding West Wing morale. “The offenses against common sense, justice and whatever come at us every day like a fire hydrant. And it’s exhausting even trying to keep up with them.”
While the Morning Joe panel talks with Carol Leonnig, investigator reporter for The Washington Post, about her reporting that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said he could subpoena President Donald Trump in his Russia probe, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle weighs in on Trump’s lawyers’ role in the situation: “One thing becomes more clear with each passing day, that Rudy Giuliani, Ty Cobb, John Dowd — none of them know as much as Bob Mueller knows because their client has not fully told them.” Hear more of the story now.
While the Morning Joe panel discusses the leak of the 49 questions that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III would like to ask President Donald Trump and provided to his attorneys, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle comments: “One thing seems to be for certain now: This investigation is going to drag out for months, and months, and months because the president is not going to sit for this interview. He’d be crazy to sit for this interview.” Listen to more of the conversation here.
As the Morning Joe panel discusses Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s comments during an event at the Newseum in Washington that the “Department of Justice will not be extorted” amid news that U.S. representatives Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), allies of President Donald Trump, have drafted articles of impeachment against him, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “It’s clear from listening to Deputy Rosenstein during the interview (that) the roots of this investigation have to do with a foreign state – Russia – attacking the American political process, inflicting damage in our democracy. What Meadows and Jordan are doing with their antics is nothing less than trying to obstruct or impede an ongoing investigation – that’s it.” Listen to more of the discussion here.
