Mike Barnicle

TIME Magazine editor Nancy Gibbs joins the Morning Joe panel to talk about this week’s cover story “Donald Trump After Hours,” an exclusive and inside look at the Oval Office and West Wing, including the President’s private dining room. “Nancy you’ve been around. Were you surprised at his openness, the graciousness that appears in this piece?” asks senior contributor Mike Barnicle. Hear Gibbs recount stories and give her impressions of her time meeting with President Trump and how it differed from any other White House visit with a sitting President.

“Vladimir Putin scored six goals yesterday playing hockey. He actually scored seven – that picture you just held up. That’s the seventh goal,” says Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle to host Joe Scarborough during a conversation about how President Donald Trump allowed a photographer for a Russian state-owned news agency into the Oval Office during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, leading to a widely circulated and much criticized front page photograph of POTUS and the Russian diplomats all smiles. Hear more of the story here.

Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle talks with Rep. Jim Hines (D-CT) about the Senate Intelligence Committee’s probe of President Donald Trump’s Taj Mahal money laundering case, in which the FinCEN division of the U.S. Treasury fined the Taj Mahal $10 million back in 2015. Asks Barnicle: “Congressman, in your prior life before you were elected to the House, you were very familiar with the world of finance and Wall Street. So, what triggers an alert like that in the Treasury Department, the movement of money from banks or banks overseas? What would send up a red flag that would result in the $10 million fine that was imposed?” Listen to Hines’ response here.

“They are caught in one of the age-old elements that beleaguer all cover ups and that is: ‘A lie is the hardest thing to remember’,” says Morning Joe’s senior contributor Mike Barnicle during a conversation about the various stories coming out of the White House about the President Donald Trump’s surprise firing of FBI director James Comey. “They can’t figure out which story to tell from hour to hour about what occurred over the last five or six days.” Listen in here for the inside story from The New York Times White House correspondent Glenn Thrush and The Washington Post’s national political reporter Robert Costa about the difficult job today and ahead for President Trump.

The Morning Joe panel, in conversation with the Aspen Institute’s Walter Isaacson, the best-selling author of Einstein, continue to discuss the fall out from President Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI director James Comey. “What you have had happen…is just one more indication that Donald Trump and clearly the people around him do not understand the presidency itself and the value of the presidency to this country,” says senior contributor Mike Barnicle. Tune in to hear more about the White House’s potential “constitutional crisis.”

While the conflicting stories continue to swirl about why President Donald Trump unexpectedly fired FBI director James Comey in a termination letter that claims Comey told POTUS that he is not the subject of an FBI investigation, Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle explains: “I was told that line in the letter that the President wrote to Comey firing him; the three times…’thanks for telling me three times I’m not a subject of an investigation,’ I was told flat out by two agents that never happened. And another person told me there’s a possibility that the President inadvertently waived executive privilege going forward by mentioning that in the letter.” Listen to more of the discussion here with Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist and former Democratic Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.

During the ongoing Morning Joe discussion as to why President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey this week, including reports that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein may have been ordered by POTUS to write a memo recommending Comey’s dismissal, senior contributor Mike Barnicle explains: “(Rosenstein) has only one option to maintain his sterling credentials, and that is to appoint a special prosecutor. So, we’re going to see going forward exactly what happens here, but the logic of what the White House is trying to sell in terms of the chain of evidence concerning how and why Jim Comey was fired by the President does not stand up to common sense.” Listen to more of the conversation here.

The Morning Joe panel talks with Sen. Lindsey Graham about his phone call with President Donald Trump informing him of the abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey. “During the course of that call, did you get the opportunity to ask him – why now?” asks senior contributor Mike Barnicle. Hear what Sen. Graham had to say about his advance notice and the impact of the Comey decision by President Trump.

Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle asks Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) about the possible connection in subpoenas issued involving former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey and the Russia investigation involving the Trump campaign. Hear what Kaine says about the “connective tissue” in these instances and what it could mean for the pace of the investigation.

As the Morning Joe panel examines the bigger picture behind President Donald Trump’s unexpected firing of FBI Director James Comey, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle explains: “There is a daily diminishment of the presidency involved here. This is about an issue far larger than this individual, Donald Trump or James Comey. It’s about America, and it’s about the United States of America – about us – and about the presidency itself: How we define it, how we think of it, and the behavior of a president. Listen to the discussion here and what it could mean for the Republican Party.

“Sarah, let’s skip over your investigative prowess and go back to the letter that the President wrote to Director Comey, in which he says: ‘Well, I greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the DOJ to dismiss Comey.’ Do you know how many people helped the President prepare that letter, if any? Who approved sending that letter and the allegation that (Trump) was told three times by Jim Comey? Do you know anything about this?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a conversation about President Donald Trump’s letter that informed FBI Director James Comey that he was fired. Listen to Sanders’ response here.

As the Morning Joe panel dissects President Donald Trump’s unexpected firing of FBI Director James Comey and the blowback that’s followed, the show’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle offers: “This is no longer about Donald Trump. It’s no longer about James Comey. It’s about the presidency, which is being diminished on a daily basis by his behavior. It’s about the Constitution. It’s about the United States of America and the people of this country. That’s what it’s about. After all the talk is done, after all the verbiage has been piled on this, Jim Comey is no longer the FBI Director because the President of the United States knew instinctively he could not control him.”

“One of the central problems – with this issue and other issues in the White House — is the total chaotic nature around the President. There’s no strong Chief of Staff. There’s no strong voices to give him some direction, advice, counsel that he adheres to and this is what happens,” comments Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle in conversation with The Washington Post’s columnist David Ignatius about President Donald Trump’s inner circle, following former acting Attorney General Sally Yates testifying to Senators that she warned the Trump Administration that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his Russian contacts and was vulnerable to blackmail attempts. Listen to the discussion here.

“What did you learn from the disaster that was the Tribune purchase?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of billionaire Sam Zell during a conversation about what lessons Zell picked up from his experience of buying the Tribune Company – a media conglomerate – in 2007 and then having the Tribune Company file for bankruptcy the following year. Listen to Zell’s response here and his advice from Confucius.

“Congressman… in terms of the investigation, what’s your outcome? What’s your goal? Where do you stand on achieving that goal?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) during an interview about the House’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible connections to Russia. Hear Schiff explain why the well-being of democracy hangs in the balance.

During more of the talk about the Saturday Night Live cold open that spoofed the recently announced relationship between Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, panelists Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle discuss their portrayals in the skit. “She hired a personal trainer for me,” said senior contributor Mike Barnicle of his wife after seeing him portrayed by SNL’s Bobby Moynihan. “‘If you look like that, you’re going to get in shape’,” Barnicle quoted her as saying. Hear more from Scarborough, Barnicle and Geist here. Only on MSNBC.

During another Morning Joe conversation about the latest eruption of violence involving air travel passengers and police — this time in Florida involving stranded Spirit Airlines travelers — veteran columnist Mike Barnicle offers: “Commercial air flight in America is a constant aggravation – 24 hours a days, 7 days a week. Find out more about the Spirit Airlines incident here and which airline gets a positive shout out from the Morning Joe panel.

“Senator…on the front pages of the paper, on every TV, there was the meeting of the 1952 Minneapolis Rotary Club — all these guys talking about their success on the health care bill in the House. What was your reaction to the gathering? And what is going to happen to that health bill now that it’s in the Senate?” asks Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle of Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) during a conversation about President Donald Trump’s gathering with Republican lawmakers at the White House Rose Garden to celebrate the House passing the revised healthcare proposal, which has been sent to the Senate for a vote. Listen to Klobuchar’s response here about the high fives for health care.

In the continuing conversation with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Morning Joe senior contributor Mike Barnicle asks: “Could you give a grade to Pakistan as an ally? What would you give it?” Hear Rice’s assessment of the tough U.S. / Pakistan relationship here. Only on MSNBC.

“What’s been your reaction to the staffing cuts at the State Department, the lack of support for the Secretary of State?,” asks Morning Joe’s veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “I hope it’s done with a scalpel and not with a bludgeon,” says Rice. Listen in on more of the conversation here.