Entries from Sep 2019
Trump impeachment inquiry

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation between Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing the House will initiate a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump following a call POTUS made to the president of Ukraine in July, in which he admitted discussing Joe Biden in the context of fighting “corruption” in the country. “For months now we know that (Pelosi) has been drawn reluctantly to where we are today. Her background played, I think, an important role in her decision…and her background is faith in and devotion to this country of ours,” says Barnicle. Join the conversation here. Only on MSNBC.

Sen. Booker needs $2 million

2020 presidential candidate Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ), who says his campaign must raise nearly $2 million before the end of the quarter or his presidential candidacy would be essentially over, stops by Morning Joe to talk about his plans to improve the country if he is elected president. Asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle: “Senator Booker, my wife and I we have seven children, we have a couple of grandchildren. I’m concerned about our grandchildren. Why should I send you a hundred dollars or a million dollars? What are you going to do for them?” Listen to Booker’s answer here.

Ukraine allegations against POTUS

Listen in as the Morning Joe panels talks with former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal about the escalating standoff between Congress and Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire over his refusal to share a whistle-blower complaint with lawmakers that is said to be at least in part about President Donald Trump’s communications with Ukraine, which the Justice Department has said Maguire can lawfully keep secret. “What’s going on at the Justice Department and their interpretation of this law? What’s your interpretation?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Katyal. Hear his response here. Only on MSNBC.

Trump/Lewandowski inquiry

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation about President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee where Democrats—with the exception of House Judiciary Committee majority counsel Barry Berke—struggled to get answers from Lewandowski as to whether he helped President Trump to obstruct special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. “It was a total clown show…with (the) rare exception, Barry Berke, a skilled prosecutor asking questions of a defendant. Why they allow various members of Congress their five minutes of time on television to ask inane and ludicrous, leading questions of Corey Lewandowski—or anyone else—and not stick…with a skilled, knowledgeable prosecutor. Why they don’t do that is beyond me,” says Barnicle about the Democrats. Join the conversation here with MSNBC’s Barnicle, Willie Geist and Ari Melber.

Crowd size: Does it matter?

Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle juxtaposes the rallies of Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren and President Donald Trump, after having attended Warren’s rally last night in New York City. “In (Trump’s) speeches and what he tells the crowd, there’s an edge of anger and resentment in the crowd in response to what he says. The Warren rallies…are bent on policy, and they are bent on the future—on your future and what we want to do with this country.” Hear more about the candidates’ crowd size, content and inspiration and ideas here.

Mariano Rivera receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle discuss former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera—the first man unanimously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame—having received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony with President Donald Trump. “Mariano Rivera is one the nicest human beings that you’ll ever meet in your life, even though he’s an exalted and honored professional baseball player. Hall of Fame baseball player,” says Barnicle. Join the conversation here.

More on Biden v. Warren

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle about the “upcoming battle” between 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. “One of these candidates has to stake out where we’re going, where they want to take this country in the next very few months. They’ve got to do that. It’s one thing to go back and forth between Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren has had the blessing of receiving very, very favorable coverage, Jonathan, I would think in the initial stages of her campaign. She has not been touched up at all. The issue arose during the debate…when Joe Biden basically said, ‘how much is this going to cost?’ And Elizabeth Warren was quite reluctant to go there. And that’s going to be a huge issue going forward. But, yes, the Biden campaign certainly senses the obvious: Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is very professional, very well organized, very substantive, and she’s not going to go away,” says Barnicle.

The effort to free Michael White

Montel Williams, host of the “Let’s Be Blunt” podcast, joins the Morning Joe panel to talk about the case of U.S. Navy veteran Michael White, currently imprisoned by Iran. “Michael White, Navy veteran on disability, with cancer in an Iranian prison. Was there anything that he posted on social media at all about Iran that would have triggered notice or anything?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Listen to Williams’ response and his plea to help White.

Biden v. Warren

Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle and CNBC editor-at-large John Harwood discuss 2020 presidential candidates Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren as the two are set to face off with the other Democratic challengers in their third debate. Hear Harwood’s take on the status of the front runners here.

Trump’s lack of leadership

Listen in on this Morning Joe discussion among Willie Geist, Wes Moore, Susan Del Percio and Mike Barnicle about President Donald Trump’s lack of leadership skills in the wake of ousting national security adviser John Bolton and referring to him as “not smart” on the handling of North Korea. “It’s a horrifying, dangerous aspect of this presidency,” says Barnicle about Trump’s incompetency. Join the conversation here.

POTUS v. the Democrats

Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle discuss a new New Hampshire poll that indicates several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates—except Sen. Elizabeth Warren—could beat President Donald Trump in a general election. “Elizabeth Warren has run an incredibly great campaign. She was written off earlier this year in the spring, and she’s come charging forward. Her rallies are electric. She is specific with her proposals. She does indeed have a plan for most things, but there’s a lethal aspect to her campaign…It’s things like Medicare-for-all, it’s decriminalization along the border, elements like that. She’s got to figure out a way to come back to the middle, and that brings you to Joe Biden. That’s where he is. That’s where he’s run his campaign since the day he announced. He’s a moderate. This is a moderate country,” says Barnicle about America. Join the conversation here.

The Return of Big Papi

Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle about Red Sox legend David Ortiz’s surprise appearance at Fenway Park to throw out the first pitch of the final Red Sox-Yankees game of the season, marking Big Papi’s return to the historic ballpark after recovering for a gunshot wound that occurred during an attack in June in his native Dominican Republic and following the recent announcement that the Red Sox fired their president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. “That was a great moment and it was nice to see him out there…back healthy, throwing the way he always throws,” said Barnicle. Listen to more of the discussion here.

Barnicle and Buttigieg

Listen in on the Morning Joe conversation with 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg as they discuss the issues facing this country. “You’ve been going across this country for months now. You’ve probably picked up that the country is kind of divided—that people are anxious about who we are and about our future as a republic. The country was divided and endangered 51 years ago this summer because men were being killed in a war built on a lie. We survived that in one sense, but the repercussions of that war, I think still exist today. So, if you go through the country, and you think about the political divisions and the cultural divisions that separate us, if you’re president of the United States, what do you do about perhaps the number one priority for the next American president: To heal this country?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Listen to Buttigieg’s thoughts on unity and healing. Only on MSNBC.

Trump’s Wall: States’ Loss

“Please explain to me, Senator Tillis, why you allowed $80 million to be diverted from people who really serve our country,” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) as the panel discussion with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski centers on GOP senators whose states will collectively lose hundreds of millions of dollars after having voted in support of President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration on the U.S.-Mexico border. Learn more here.

Is there truth?

“We have a commander-in-chief—President of the United States—who considers that he can never be wrong about anything, about something so inconsequential as the path of a hurricane to Alabama instead of the natural path that every weather service was telling him. He can never be wrong. So he has to alter reality. That gets into the other really larger and maybe lingering damage: Is there any more truth? What is truth now in this administration?” asks Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a discussion with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski about President Donald Trump’s presentation of a doctored version of an official National Hurricane Center map of Hurricane Dorian’s path to defend his false claim that Alabama faced a serious threat from the hurricane. Join the conversation here.