Entries from Nov 2018
Remember the caravan?

“These troops are coming from multiple posts around the country: Fort Hood, Fort Sill, Fort Carson; Colorado, Fort Bragg, Camp Pendleton. From all across the country, Marines and Army troops spread across the border as a scam, as a political prank. And this among people who’ve been multiply deployed…to either Iraq or Afghanistan. Happy Thanksgiving,” says Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle as the panel discusses how President Donald Trump’s talk of the caravan “invasion” has disappeared since the midterms. Hear more from Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough about Secretary of Defense James Mattis traveling to Texas to visit the troops, which are currently deployed at the Southwest border awaiting the arrival of the migrant caravan.

Arizona sees blue

Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle talks with outgoing Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake about the historic victory in his state for Sen.-Elect Kyrsten Sinema, the Democrat and former social worker. “Senator Flake, about the only one wish that President Trump has been granted recently is the fact that you are not going to return to the United States Senate. What’s your reaction now to the fact that you’re going to be replaced in the Senate by a Democrat, and what do you have to say to President Trump about that?” Listen to Flake’s response here about how Arizona is “no longer a Trump state.”

Bryan Cranston on Morning Joe

Listen in on the conversation between multi award-winning actor Bryan Cranston and Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about the differences between acting for television and live theater as the two talk about Cranston’s starring role on Broadway in the new adaptation of the 1976 classic Oscar-winning film, “Network.”

The vote for civility

Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation on civility following the historic victory for Sen.-Elect Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat and former social worker, in Arizona, defeating Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally, who conceded the race. “We just saw civility with Martha McSally. We saw civility with (Houston Congressman-elect) Mr. Crenshaw on Saturday Night Live. People have a yearning for civility in politics that has been missing for two years or more, but certainly for the past two years, and I think it was in evidenced in everything we’ve seen and talked about this morning out of Arizona.” Listen to more of the discussion here with Joe Scarborough.

Rewind: Recounts

While the Morning Joe panel talk about the Senate races in Arizona and Florida where votes are still continuing to be assessed, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “There’s a larger issue here that we haven’t focused on…enough: In this age where we are surrounded by such technological creations that stun us each and every day with their improvements, the fact that we as a nation don’t have a single voting system that is easy to use, that’s reliable, that doesn’t have to rely on paper ballots (and) recounts. We’re talking today as if in Broward and Palm Beach counties in Florida—same as we were talking about it in the year 2000—as if they have yet to discover electricity. I mean, it’s incredible that we’re still going through this after everything else in our lives is so easy, and so modernized and so technologically skillful.” Listen to more of the conversation here about the impact and outcome of the recounts.

POTUS: “A man of no history”

“Donald Trump is a man of no history. He has no comprehension of what World War I meant to Europe and the world. He has no comprehension of the loss entailed and the dangers that World War I put back on the center stage. He has no comprehension of what happened in World War II. He stood in a city, on a boulevard, the Champs-Élysées, where Nazi troops marched down 75, 80 years ago—he has no sense of that,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump canceling a planned visit to a U.S. cemetery in France for Americans killed in World War I, citing bad weather grounded his helicopter. Listen to more of the discussion here of Trump’s weekend visit to Paris and his need for the spotlight.

POTUS: He’s going to continue to fight

“Are we continuing to make the mistake of trying to measure Trump’s achievements as well as his failures by normal standards? This is not a normal presidency. He’s an abnormal human being. He…did not wake up this morning thinking about, you know, ‘the guy I stood up for in Florida won and this guy won, and this guy without me.’ He woke up this morning thinking only about himself. He regards the Republican Party as his party. He regards this country as his America, and he’s going to continue to do what he wants to do. He’s going to continue to fight every day. That’s who he is,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump, following the Democratic Party taking the House of Representatives and the Republican Party retaining the Senate in the midterm elections. Listen to more of the conversation here.

Who are Trump’s supporters?

“One of the more interesting aspects of last night’s results—the Trump victories, and they are Trump victories, bringing specific people into the United States Senate, defeating a couple of major all-stars—is the demographics of last night. Trump’s Republican Party is getting increasingly older, increasingly whiter, increasingly rural. In other words, almost getting close to life support,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel talks about the results of the midterm elections with the Democratic Party taking the House of Representatives and the Republican Party retaining the Senate. Listen to more of the discussion here.

Women, women, women

Listen in on the Morning Joe panel analysis of the significant impact women are expected to have on the outcome of today’s midterm elections with veteran columnist Mike Barnicle, MSNBC Hardball’s Chris Matthews, NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt, and Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. “Look at the long lines of people waiting to vote, most of them…the majority are women,” says Barnicle.

Immigration across the aisle

Listen in on the conversation between the Morning Joe panel and Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, about immigration. Asks veteran columnist: “Congressman, most people are familiar with President Trump’s immigration policy and it’s pretty ugly, as most people realize. But one question hangs out there continually: What’s the Democrats’ position on immigration?” Hear Luján’s response here about immigration reform that is “tough” and “fair.”

POTUS motivates voters

“I’m looking at something that Donald Trump has given the country that very few people have ever given the country: He’s gotten millions of people to vote who have never voted before. They’ve already voted….The early voting numbers are such that I think the Democrats are going to have a very, very big night,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel shares its outlook on today’s midterm elections. Listen to more here with Mika Brzezinski and Bob Woodward.

Georgia Governor’s Race

“We’ve covered a lot of races, but, in a sense, we haven’t paid enough attention to the internals of what’s going on in that Georgia governor’s race. I mean, Brian Kemp, the secretary of state, horrific conflict of interest: He is in charge of the election. He has been in charge of trying to suppress the vote in Georgia for several years, and with no proof at all over the weekend he charges the Democrats’ campaign for governor with trying to alter the vote, with trying to fix—bag the election. No proof at all two days before the election,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel discusses President Donald Trump stumping for midterm candidates. Listen to more of the discussion here only on MSNBC.

POTUS: Stick to the economy

While the Morning Joe panel talks about President Donald Trump’s chronic dishonesty as he has campaigned for Republicans heading into the midterm elections, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “You take all the lies about the wall, building the wall; you take what he has said to further divide the country numerous times.…Package all of that in one bundle, set it to the side and then think about this: Imagine what we would be talking about today in terms of the horse race in these various districts and in various states, governorships, senatorial seats, if he had stuck to the economy.” Listen to more of the discussion on here.

Barnicle: “This is truly, truly sad.”

Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation about President Donald Trump’s suggestion that he may send up to 15,000 U.S. troops to the border as migrant caravans travel toward the U.S.-Mexico border as the countdown to the midterm elections continue. “The United States Army along the border—to do what? To combat a group of basically homeless people? This is America? This is America? This is truly, truly sad,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Watch the discussion here.