Mike Barnicle on TV: 2025

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Watch this Morning Joe conversation about the lack of significant progress to end the now month-long government shutdown, following an unusually irate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) having erupted at Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján (NM) on the Senate floor as frustrations continue to mount over the shutdown. "Don't you think (Thune) desperately wants to make a deal...how can they not make a deal? What is the problem here?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough.

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Government shutdown: 1 month and counting

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“If you're at home and your children are in college or whatever, and they're training themselves educationally for a specific series of jobs or a specific profession that they're interested in, will that profession still be there when they graduate from college? And the after effect of that is what you just raised: Are we confident that the United States Congress has a significant membership, a percentage of its membership, that realize the threat of AI?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski about the inaction of Congress amid the AI revolution impacting the U.S. job market and beyond.

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AI blamed for massive layoffs

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Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire, Willie Geist, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they discuss President Donald Trump’s current diplomatic tour in Asia as he is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. “Everything that he's speaking about is obviously critical, all the business deals, as you indicated—we hope they work out well for the United States. But the Taiwan aspect of it is really interesting. You wonder what is going to happen when they talk—the two of them—about Taiwan…It's a vital component of peace in the South China Sea, and we still don't know where we are going on Taiwan,” says Barnicle amid reports that some of Trump’s aides have advised him against shifting the U.S. position on independence for Taiwan to favor China ahead of his meeting with President Xi Jinping.

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The stakes of Trump-Xi meeting

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Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has significantly restricted the ability of Pentagon staff to communicate with Congress, issuing a memo that requires prior approval for nearly all interactions with lawmakers. “The leaks to the media are going to increase hundred-fold; that's one aspect of it. The other aspect of it that is really kind of interesting is how long can they get away with building this protective cone around the secretary of defense, so, that he they keep him from the public,” asks Barnicle about Hegseth, who is significantly changing the Defense Department’s policy of interacting with Congress.

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The Hegseth bubble

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“I’m wondering from your perspective, a few weeks ago, the secretary of defense and the president of the United States assembled combat leaders from all across the globe to Washington for a lecture period where they were told some of them were too fat, some of them were too lazy, some of them weren't in shape and as you enlarge the photo that was on the front pages of the Times and the Wall Street Journal and many of the papers in this country, you see hundreds of Silver Star recipients, hundreds of Bronze Star recipients, hundreds of men wearing CIBs – combat infantry badges. And I'm wondering what you thought when you heard and listened to that performance by the secretary of defense and the audience that participated in it?,” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby during a Morning Joe conversation about President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth having hastily gathered hundreds of top U.S. military leaders from around the world to the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, to outline their vision of a "warrior" culture for the military, emphasizing merit, strength, and an end to "politically correct" and "woke" policies. Listen to Kirby’s concerns about this administration’s efforts to “politicize the military” as he transitions from a long career in government to become the newly appointed Director of the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics.

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Military brass meet with President Trump

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Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation as veteran columnist Mike Barnicle questions Karine Jean-Pierre, the former senior advisor to President Joe Biden and former White House press secretary, about why no one on Biden’s team intervened before his infamous debate performance during the 2024 presidential election, which ultimately contributed to his decision to withdraw from the presidential race the following month. “Why did not anyone see a clearly ill President Biden approaching the podium? Why did not anyone around him say, ‘wait, wait a minute?” Hear her response here.

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Biden’s Blunder: Why wasn’t it prevented?

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"We've got to end the confusion that the government, as we describe it, are the people in Congress and the guy who is knocking down the East Wing of the White House. That’s not the government,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about the state of America during this Morning Joe segment, following an estimated 7 million people having participated in the weekend’s No Kings rallies to protest President Trump’s policies. "The government is the people of the United States of America, and we have to remind ourselves—and remind everybody who was out there over the weekend and everybody who gets up and goes to work and pays their taxes: They are the government. We are the government, the people."

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Barnicle: “We” are the government

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"We have a dysfunctional government….We don't know our own history in this country. If we knew our own history in this country, it would be twice the revolt there was this weekend I would submit with the rallies all across this country. If people would concentrate on what this country has meant over the years, the decades, the generations and what it represents today—there would be more outrage at what's going,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel discusses the sentiment in America over the ongoing government shutdown after this weekend's nationwide No Kings rallies to protest President Trump’s policies brought out an estimated 7 million people.

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Barnicle: “We don’t know our history"

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Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the Major League Baseball playoffs after the Seattle Mariners defeated the Detroit Tigers in Game 3 of the American League Division Series, taking a 2-1 series lead. “The Lou Piniella era, I mean, he could have been in the World Series three separate years—they missed. They had Alex Rodriguez, then they had Ichiro; they missed. This team here, might be, it might be Seattle-Milwaukee,” says Barnicle about the potential of the Mariners finally breaking through these playoffs and making the franchise’s first ever World Series appearance.

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MLB Playoffs

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"This is going to be a transformational papacy, based partly on the fact that he speaks English, and as well as the fact that he has tremendous courage and conviction and beliefs and is willing to speak about them each and every day—whether it's migrants, whether it's what's happening in America,” says Morning Joe’s Mike Barnicle about Pope Leo XIV in response to the Pope’s comments about abortion and immigration in America. "He is unafraid in his confidence, and I think he’s going to be a transformational pope."

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The new Pope speaks out

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/10/what-does-government-shutdown-mean-to.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who represents one of America’s poorest congressional districts, about our “paycheck-to-paycheck” country amid the government shutdown.

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What does the government shutdown mean to you?

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"It would be hard not to admire Jimmy Kimmel after watching him last night in that performance. It was heartfelt, it was sincere, it was personal, it was moving, and it was genuine—and it was about something that affects everyone in this country,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel weighs in on Jimmy Kimmel having broken his silence in an emotional return to ABC’s airwaves as he spoke to the controversy that briefly sidelined his late-night show and sparked a national debate over free speech. "We have something that very few people in the world have. We have the right to speak. We have the right to say what we want to say, when we want to say it with very few restrictions, and that goes from late night comedians to what we do here in the morning, to what you say on a bus or in a school room or whatever: Freedom of speech is the core of the United States of America.” Watch the discussion here.

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Jimmy Kimmel’s back on ABC

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"You've been in the business all of your life. The power of movies when you first began doing 'Arrested Development' on TV was far different than it is today, and the power of Netflix is just incredible. Can you talk about the power of Netflix compared to the old studio things, the way they used to go?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of actor Jason Bateman who joins Morning Joe to discuss his new Netflix crime drama “Black Rabbit,” which centers on two brothers who own a popular New York City restaurant, Black Rabbit, and get pulled into the city's criminal underworld.

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Jason Bateman talks about his career

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“I was struck by how much I thought I knew about the origins of this country, that I did not know—that I found out during your classroom, and it’s a classroom. It’s an epic classroom, this film. What did you learn? What surprised you as you made it?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns who joins Morning Joe to discuss his new 12-hour docuseries “The American Revolution,” which premieres on PBS on November 16, 2025 and airs on six consecutive nights. Watch how Burns explains that the making of the film provided a “daily humiliation of what I thought I knew."

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Ken Burns’ new docuseries “The American Revolution"

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Tune in to this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, Jeffrey Goldberg and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the Trump Administration's plans to crackdown on liberal groups, following ABC having pulled late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air indefinitely after pressure from the Federal Communications Commission over remarks he made about the killing of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. “Every American household with a television set, that television set comes with an automatic censure thing: It's called a remote control. If you don't like what you're hearing or what you're watching or the person presenting it, you change the channel. Instead, they (the Trump Administration) want to change the philosophy of the country,” says Barnicle.

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White House crackdown on “liberal” thought

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"What does it say about us, right, that if you pick up a grammar school textbook history, a high school textbook history, and look for Emmett Till, you might not find him in the index?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of author Wright Thompson who joins Morning Joe to discuss his new book “The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi” that revisits the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, revealing the true location and nature of the crime, which took place in a barn rather than the location indicated by a false confession. Thompson, a Mississippi native, explores the historical context of the event, the forces of white supremacy that enabled it, and the efforts of individuals to uncover the truth after decades of obfuscation, which he writes "painted a poor picture of Mississippi and its white citizens."

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Revisiting the murder of Emmett Till—70 years later

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“Dr. West...when you talk about these scores and you look at them: They're down in science, they're down in math, they're down in reading. What is wrong with the American educational system—that pretty much across the board, every subject, important subject taught in schools—the scores are way down,” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to Dr. Martin West, vice chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, who joins Morning Joe to discuss National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores showing drops in science, math and reading for eighth and twelfth grade students. Hear what the contributing factors are here.

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Students’ test scores dropping

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Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the latest in Major League Baseball, including why fewer teams are now winning one hundred games in one season and what Lemire called an “epidemic" of pitching injuries in Major League Baseball. “What's happened to pitchers in Major League Baseball over the course of the last six or seven years is really extraordinary. More pitchers are going out now for surgery at younger and younger ages, and they can't figure out why,” says Barnicle.

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MLB updates

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Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle ask they reflect on Axios CEO Jim VandeHei’s latest op-ed titled “A message to college students,” which suggests that today's college students are being "duped" by a narrative of "impending doom" and a "crisis of hope" promoted by social media and politicians. Barnicle suggests reading about the country’s history, in books written by Rick Atkinson, for example: “You come away stunned—stunned at what the United States of America meant to the world and still means to the world. It's amazing to read histories like this of who we are, the fiber, the spine of what it means to be an American and that still exists today.”

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The importance of learning history

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"What we often fail to do is recognize the innate genius of Donald Trump in terms of building up the exhaustion factor, like...that three hour and fifteen-minute cabinet meeting. The exhaustion factor. What happens when you're exhausted? You either go to sleep, or you turn away and try and do something else. That's what's happened to the American electorate I think; that's what's happened to the Democratic Party. They’re exhausted from this every single day, instead of sitting down and saying, ‘listen we've got to come up with a proposal here,’” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about the Democratic Party’s inability to sway or reach voters in the era of President Donald Trump during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

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Trump’s "exhaustion factor"

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"The reality is we now live in a world, a political world, coming out of the White House, where if you sign a letter saying: ‘This is going to be trouble, you know, you're letting this go. It's not as good as it used to be,’ you are dismissed. You are sent home. You are told to go home,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel weighs in on the Trump administration placing more than a dozen Federal Emergency Management Agency employees on leave after they signed an open letter of dissent about the agency’s leadership.

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Dissent = Dismissal

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“Donald Trump's position on the National Guard, inserting them into Washington, D.C., allegedly trying to put them into places like Chicago and Baltimore, has shades of 1968 when the Republican Party first took over law and order as an issue and then remained strong with that issue since 1968. Richard Nixon campaigned for president talking about law and order throughout the country…But today… it’s a misuse of the National Guard. You insert them into a city where probably more likely than not many members of that unit don't come from the District of Columbia. They don't know the neighborhood, they don’t know the players in neighborhoods, from one neighborhood to another, and they’re wasting their time really,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle about President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. as part of his crackdown on crime.

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National Guard in DC: “They’re wasting their time"

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Watch this Morning Joe segment about the impact the federal government is having on the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois due to its withholding of funds that would benefit local school children and threats of deployment of the National Guard to deal with crime. “Chicago, it's just like a lot of other American cities, big American cities, especially if you pull the string on crime...you’ll find that, that string will lead you to fractured family structures, it will lead you to juvenile crime—growing juvenile crime—and it will lead you eventually to not enough good teachers and not enough good elementary schools. So, my question to you is in terms of the money that you're talking about, the federal government taken from you: How much is being deprived from getting to local public schools in Chicago?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D), a former public school teacher serving as the 57th mayor of the third-largest city in the United States by population.

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Trump eyes Chicago for National Guard deployment

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“In a litany of tragedies, the hostages still remain number one, number one. And it's been going on now for two years, held hostage. And now we're down to, according to news reports, perhaps less than 20 have survived, less than 20….The reason the hostages are still hostages, the reason the war still continues is because Bibi Netanyahu knows the day the war ends his trial begins in Tel Aviv,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the hostages being held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Katty Kay, David Ignatius and Mika Brzezinski.

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Barnicle: Hostages are number one

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“In addition to the enormous human tragedy that we're talking about right now and that occurred just a couple of days ago, this is a tragedy for Israel as a whole—a global tragedy for Israel,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle during this morning’s conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire and Willie Geist as they remember the five journalists killed in Gaza after an Israeli strike on a hospital, which has received mounting international condemnation. "Israel needs friends. It has always needed friends; but under Bibi Netanyahu and the conduct of the IDF in waging this war against Hamas, Israel is winning no friends. It's losing friends rapidly and the idea that the IDF is continuing to wage war against Hamas under the goal of, as Bibi Netanyahu has pointed out, eliminating Hamas. You're never going to eliminate Hamas. It's not going to happen, and the reason it's not going to happen is because of the constant warfare against Hamas in Gaza. You've earned another generation's contempt of Palestinians toward Israel.”

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Remembering the five journalists killed in Gaza

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/08/is-national-guard-coming-to-your-city.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they discuss President Donald Trump signaling that he might deploy the National Guard to U.S. cities including Chicago, even as his crackdown in the capital of Washington, D.C. has been met with anger from local residents. “It's a sad case when you have National Guardsmen patrolling streets like in Georgetown or whatever, or central Washington, D.C. which is quite active, quite thriving, restaurants and everything...and now they're strapped with pistols on leg holsters. These are largely weekend people who train maybe once a month….This is a disaster waiting to happen—and the idea of sending the National Guard to Baltimore or Chicago is beyond outrageous for similar reasons,” says Barnicle about President Trump’s strategy of deploying the National Guard into American cities to combat crime.

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Is the National Guard coming to your city?

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/08/dems-we-care-about-you.html[/postlink][starttext]
Tune in for this Morning Joe panel discussion with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) about the future of the Democratic Party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and how the focus needs to shift back to an economic message. "What's the Democrats' plan in the House to deal with lack of primary care physicians?...It's impossible to find a doctor now, rising electric costs because AI gobbles up everything and, your electric bill is like 50 percent higher now than it was earlier. And the cost of living, the cost of living continues each and every week to go up for a lot of people, especially in the one place that everybody goes to—the grocery store,” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Hear what Gottheimer has to say here about how Democrats "care about" and are “still fighting" for everyday citizen.

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Dems: We care about you

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Tune in for this Morning Joe segment with Jonathan Lemire, Mike Barnicle and Helene Cooper, the New York Times' Pentagon correspondent, as they discuss President Donald Trump deploying the D.C. National Guard in the nation’s capital and placing D.C.’s police department “under direct federal control,” citing a public safety emergency. “Part of it is performance art from the President of the United States. It fits his personality—that he can do this, that he can insert uniformed troops of the United States government on to city streets,” says Barnicle. But what are the ramifications? Is this federal overreach? Watch the conversation here.

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Trump deploys National Guard to DC streets

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Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and NBC News medical contributor Dr. Vin Gupta about the Environmental Protection Agency moving to revoke its long-standing finding that greenhouse gases harm human health and roll back vehicle emission standards, setting off what it describes as the biggest deregulatory action in American history. Learn how this will impact everyone, especially those with asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

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EPA attempting to dismantle core climate rules

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“Well, it's great theater that we just saw: Cory Booker, a good guy, standing up and yelling on the floor of the United States Senate. What I don't understand is: He's yelling at two other Democrats. The Democrats have enough problems. They have enough problems in this country defining themselves to people, making sure that people know they are alive. They are interested in your life. They are interested in you, solving your problems,” says Morning Joe contributor and veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this conversation with Joe Scarborough and Claire McCaskill as they react to the Senate floor having devolved into an intense clash between Democrats when Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey emphatically objected to unanimously passing a bipartisan package of police funding bills.

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Theater on the Senate floor

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"Mr. Mayor, there are many elements of this tragedy yesterday that have a ripple effect that people are going to be feeling for a long, long time. For me, one of the most critical aspects of it is the fact that, Didarul Islam, the police officer killed yesterday left two little boys, and his wife is pregnant with their third child, and he's an immigrant from Bangladesh. The New York City Police Department is filled with immigrant police officers. Can you tell us…what's the composition of the police department? How many languages, different languages, are spoken by members of the New York Police Department for translation, things like that?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of New York City Mayor Eric Adams who joins Morning Joe to honor 36-year-old police officer Didarul Islam, the first Bangladeshi to die in the line of NYPD duty, after a gunman opened fire inside a high-rise corporate building in the heart of Manhattan, killing Islam and three other people. Watch their conversation here.

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NYPD loses their first Bangladeshi in the line of duty

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Watch this Morning Joe segment with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle, Willie Geist and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder of Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, who joins to discuss an article he co-authored for the New Republic entitled, "The 'Tiffany Network' Shatters as Paramount-CBS Sells Its Soul Cheap. "What happens to the soul of a network when you strip it—the way they're stripping it down apparently—in the news department?” asks Barnicle of Sonnenfeld following recent reports indicating that the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global, but with the condition that Paramount, which owns CBS, must appoint a "bias monitor.”

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Paramount-CBS Merger: Morning Joe Debates the Future of the ‘Tiffany Network’

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"A lot of media people are afraid of Donald Trump—afraid of his retaliatory powers, afraid of what he might say or do about their product, so he’s made a lot of money….The state of the media today is so much different than it was just a mere decade ago, and certainly vastly different than it was at its inception, its modern inception. We're a long ways from John Chancellor and Huntley and Brinkley and Walter Cronkite. We're a long ways from networks that were the only three things that people saw on TV. It's so spread out today. There's so much, when you say the word media today, a lot of different people have a different version of what the media is to them. Some people think, a lot of people think, the media is their phone. You know, if you've been in the business a long time, it's shocking what has happened to the concept of media in this country,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as he joins Way Too Early with Ali Vitali to discuss the latest Trump news.

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Trump v. the media

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"What we just saw a clip of is the sitting president of the United States of America talking about one of his predecessors, Barack Obama, and using the word treason. That is so far beyond the pale—that unfortunately in the shocking, tornado-like events that happen each and every day in the news business—people might be immune to it, it might over their heads. But a sitting president of the United States using the word treason—treason, look up the definition—about another president of the United States is beyond shocking,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist and Jonathan Lemire about President Donald Trump today accusing former President Barack Obama of treason, claiming the former president plotted to sabotage Trump's first presidency by linking him to alleged Russian election meddling.

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Another Trump distraction

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Tim Barnicle, PhD, author of the Substack “American Times,” joins Morning Joe to discuss his latest article titled “Citizen Stern” which explores how shock jock Howard Stern’s run for governor of New York in 1994 served as a precursor for the new era of politics. "I understand that you grew up in a house where there were always printed newspapers around? Is that like, so old that I'm making myself even older than I am?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of his son, Tim. "What’s the story about the way to get to authenticity today for candidates?” Hear Tim’s answer and watch the conversation here. Only on MSNBC.

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Tim Barnicle discusses "Citizen Stern"

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Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire, the Atlantic’s Peter Wehner and Mike Barnicle as they weigh in on President Donald Trump’s latest flip-flop on his approach to the war between Russia and Ukraine, after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth held up a shipment of U.S. weapons headed to help Ukraine over what U.S. officials said were concerns about its own low stockpiles.

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U.S. flip-flop on Russia-Ukraine War

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/07/economic-uncertainty-in-america.html[/postlink][starttext]
“It's interesting that the BRIC nations meeting in South America this week, apparently according to the Wall Street Journal and other news reports, are now talking amongst themselves, ‘Well, let's just trade with each other and let the American situation settle down. We'll see what President Trump does eventually with the tariffs, but let's just keep business going and flowing with ourselves.’ Now, you wonder whether the contagion factor there transfers itself to European nations also being hit with high tariffs and that all of it is a mushroom cloud around the level of uncertainty that this has brought to the global economy,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Jonathan Lemire about the economic uncertainty caused by President Trump’s tariff policy amid the BRICS nations holding their annual summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Economic uncertainty in America

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Watch this Morning Joe discussion between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, about the hostages still being held in captivity almost two years after the Hamas-led attacks that resulted in roughly 1,200 people being killed in Israel and 251 others taken hostage. “We are incredibly just three months short of the second anniversary of October 7th. Three months from now, it'll be two years. How is it that the hostages have still not been released?” asks Barnicle. Hear Haass’ answer here.

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Haass on Hostages Two Years After Hamas Attacks

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/07/take-me-out-to-grocery-store.html[/postlink][starttext]
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle and Stew Leonard’s Grocery Chain President and CEO Stew Leonard, Jr. about the cost of grocery items and shoppers’ habits this year ahead of the July 4 holiday.

[endtext]

Take me out … to the grocery store

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/07/tax-bill-big-job-losses.html[/postlink][starttext]
Veteran columnist Mike Barnicle digs deeper into President Donald Trump’s tax and immigration bill with NBC News medical contributor Dr. Vin Gupta, who sets the record straight on pending hospital and clinic closures and the loss of many “good paying” jobs that will result if the bill is approved.

[endtext]

Tax bill = big job losses

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/07/barnicle-gop-turns-war-on-poverty-into.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between Wille Geist and Mike Barnicle as they discuss House Republicans being on the verge of passing President Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration bill, which would increase the nation’s deficit and make cuts to Medicaid, ahead of a July 4 deadline imposed by Trump.

“Just reading the internals of this particular piece of legislation that's about to pass, clearly, it's obvious that many Republicans are total amnesiacs. They have no sense of history. Nearly 60 years ago, probably 62 years ago, this very summer Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty. And now the Republican Party over the past few months in concocting this bill and putting this legislation together and getting it approved...They have turned the war on poverty into a war on the impoverished, a war on the vulnerable, the most vulnerable among us,” says Barnicle about President Trump’s sweeping policy bill that will certainly also impact the nation’s biggest employer — the health care industry. “They clearly have not thought this out."

[endtext]

Barnicle: GOP Turns War on Poverty into War on Poor

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/07/the-cia-had-book-club.html[/postlink][starttext]
Journalist Charlie English joined Morning Joe to discuss with Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle his new book “The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature,” which tells the story of the CIA's covert operation to smuggle millions of banned books into Eastern Europe during the Cold War, particularly Poland, to undermine Soviet censorship and promote intellectual freedom. Watch their conversation here.

[endtext]

The CIA had a book club?

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/07/big-beautiful-grief.html[/postlink][starttext]
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich who joins Morning Joe to discuss Senate Republicans pushing to pass President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, despite divisions within the party about its expected $3.3 trillion hit to the nation’s debt pile. "A Republican Party led by Donald Trump is on the verge of inflicting a tsunami of personal grief on millions of Americans. One in five Americans are on Medicare, and one in five Americans who are on Medicare. They're not wealthy....Governor Kasich, I want to know what you think of the differences in the Republican Party and this Republican White House from the days when you were in the House…(the) difference in politics today as compared to then, in terms of getting things done for people,” asks Barnicle. Hear Kasich’s response about how “unbelievably terrible” it is that lawmakers have put their own self interest above solving the nation’s problems. "The Republican Party was my vehicle not my master,” explains Kasich.

[endtext]

“Big, Beautiful” = Grief

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/06/dc-democrats-forget-it.html[/postlink][starttext]
“If you go out to the country and look at Democratic governors, Democratic legislators in various states, you'll see a different Democratic Party. You'll see people fighting back, you'll see people organizing protests. You saw the huge reaction this weekend. Millions of people, five million people, around the country, parading against Donald Trump and the military parades and all of that, and they were largely led by local Democrats, state Democrats, from state, to state, to state. Washington D.C.—forget it. They are hopeless,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about Democratic politicians at the federal versus state level during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough about a recent Quinnipiac University survey that found most Democrat voters disapprove of how their party's lawmakers in Congress are handling their jobs.

[endtext]

DC Democrats: “Forget it"

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/06/young-kids-danger-ahead.html[/postlink][starttext]
"I would suggest and submit that Robert F. Kennedy Jr's appointment is the most dangerous of the cabinet appointments. And I say that thinking of my grandchildren, because I think he poses a threat to normal health conditions of young kids in this country and even of adults in this country, but specifically young kids,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough about Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who has unveiled the eight people he has chosen to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel – just two days after taking the unprecedented step of removing all 17 sitting members. Find out more here.

[endtext]

Young kids: Danger ahead

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/06/the-red-soxs-major-league-trade.html[/postlink][starttext]
Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with three members of Red Sox Nation – Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle – as they unpack the stunning blockbuster trade in Major League Baseball that sent Boston Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. “Rafi is a terrific kid, but that's the underline – the kid. He's a child, a spoiled child, and the fact that he began disagreeing with the Red Sox front office when they made a trade for Alex Bregman, a much better defensive third baseman and a much better all-around ball player than Rafi. Rafi is one of the top ten hitters in Major League Baseball, but he's no Alex Bregman offense and defense. So, I mean, that's what happened there,” says Barnicle about his beloved Red Sox making a franchise-altering decision with their trade of Devers.

[endtext]

The Red Sox’s major league trade

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/06/are-we-now-nation-alone.html[/postlink][starttext]
Richard Haass, Council on Foreign Relations president emeritus, joined Morning Joe to talk with Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle about America’s relationship with its European allies in the President Donald Trump era following the chief of Germany’s foreign intelligence service warning that his agency has “concrete” evidence that Russia is planning an attack on NATO territory to test if NATO’s Article 5 guarantee of mutual assistance will be honored. "Are we now a nation alone?” asks Barnicle. Hear Haass’ response here.

[endtext]

Are we now a nation alone?

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/06/barnicle-troubled-country-with-troubled.html[/postlink][starttext]
Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss a Quinnipiac University poll that shows President Donald Trump's approval rating is underwater on every issue as immigration protests have erupted in major cities including Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, and Washington, D.C., in response to recent ICE raids. “With regard to the president's popularity on this, again, we go back to the visual. People see on their home screens watching the news; they see men jumping out of SUVs, wearing masks, grabbing American citizens off the street, and within 24 hours, that citizen—he or she—might end up in Texas at some prison or in Arkansas at some prison, whether they're taken off the streets in New York, or Boston or Somerville, Massachusetts—where that happened to a young woman. So, you've got all of that going on at the same time. This portends to be a long, hot summer because…the contagion factor has now set in, as we were just reporting from city, to city, to city, people are out, and sometimes the local police departments aren't up to handling to it. This is a troubled country with a troubled issue,” says Barnicle about the current immigration protests in America.

[endtext]

Barnicle: “A troubled country with a troubled issue"

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/06/a-tale-of-two-cities.html[/postlink][starttext]
“This is literally a tale of two cities. There's the tale of one city being told by the administration—by sending the National Guard and the combat ready Marine Corps, onto the streets of an American city. Then there's the other tale of another city, Los Angeles itself—and when told by the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, and the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, you realize the facts of the tale of the two cities. And the facts are that Los Angeles is calming down, that there are no riots in the streets, that the activities of the protesters is confined to about four or five square blocks in a city—a tumultuous, large, sprawling city in America. Four or five blocks, that's it,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe segment with Mika Brzezinski and Katty Kay about the immigration protests in Los Angeles over the ICE raids which led President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard and Marines to the city.

[endtext]

A Tale of Two Cities

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/06/what-is-authentic-life.html[/postlink][starttext]
“Suzy, there's so much in here in the book for people just getting off the launching pad as well as others; but I want to take you back to a specific moment that you mentioned in the book. You're going to Stanford, and you're taking your son to college, his freshman year, and they're playing 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters,' and you're starting to cry, okay; but, you know, it seems like the snap of a finger that, that occurred, but in terms of things that happen in the culture around us, it seems like ancient history. So today, young people or people, middle age, whatever, confronting job possibilities, job opportunities, the introduction of artificial intelligence in our lives. What does that do?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Suzy Welch who joins the Morning Joe panel to discuss her new book “Becoming You: The Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career.”

[endtext]

What is an authentic life?

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/06/elon-v-trump.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between Mike Barnicle and Chris Matthews about Elon Musk's rebuke of President Donald Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill, calling the GOP megabill currently making its way through Congress a "disgusting abomination.” Only on MSNBC.

[endtext]

Elon v. Trump

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/05/congratulations-to-barnicle-brothers.html[/postlink][starttext]
The Morning Joe panel congratulates Mike Barnicle on his sons—Nick and Colin Barnicle—winning the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Documentary Series for their Netflix docuseries "The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox" that tells the story of the Boston Red Sox's historic comeback, breaking an 86-year World Series drought and overcoming a 3-0 series deficit. “They won for a documentary called "The Comeback," a three-part documentary on Netflix that surprised everyone because sports documentaries don't usually shoot to the top of the top ten Netflix list and if it does, falls off right away; but this stuck on there, and it told a terrific story that was about more than baseball. It was about: Don't give up, come back,” says Barnicle about his sons’ docuseries. Watch the segment here.

[endtext]

Congratulations to the Barnicle Brothers

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/05/a-toast-to-norm-honoring-george-wendts.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they remember actor George Wendt who has died at 76 years old after earning six consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his role as Norm Peterson on the popular sitcom “Cheers,” which ran for 11 seasons. “Every character was perfect,” says Barnicle. See the tribute here.

[endtext]

A Toast to Norm: Honoring George Wendt’s Legacy on ‘Cheers’

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/05/how-trump-captured-movement-and-party.html[/postlink][starttext]
“How is it that one specific political party, the Republican Party, seems gravitated towards, captured by, and clings to one individual—Donald J. Trump. How did he do this? How did he transform politics in America and become so all-consuming to so many people, including Democrats, including people making $50,000 a year or less, including laborers, firefighters, police officers? What is it about him? You have to look at your enemy in order to defeat an enemy. You have to know who you're fighting. It seems to me and a lot of other people, I think, that the Democrats simply have never sat down and defined who he is and how to go about that,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel of Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Anand Giridharadas discuss the Democratic Party’s failure to pull American voters away from President Trump.

[endtext]

How Trump Captured a Movement — and a Party

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/05/president-bidens-cancer-diagnosis.html[/postlink][starttext]
“He is certainly used to being surrounded by death and dying. He's carried a cross for his children and his wife, who were killed within days after he won his first election to the United States Senate in the early 1970s. He lost his son, Beau, during the later parts of this...last decade. So, he's used to the sadness, and there's a permanent sadness to Joe Biden that is hard to register. On this one...I don't know enough about the diagnosis in terms of the medical future for Joe Biden, but there are treatments, as Mika pointed out. The family is going to seek second opinions and further treatment options. So, we'll see what happens, but he's had a tough ride these past six or seven months both publicly and now personally,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle during this conversation with Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough about the news that former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer.

[endtext]

President Biden’s cancer diagnosis

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/05/veterans-what-do-we-do-for-them.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Norman Ornstein, a political scientist with a new article in the New Republic about mental health month. “Most people who live an ordinary life know that mental health is a huge issue from grammar schools on up through life. A lot of people are aware of that; but how do we as a country and you as a specific individual get Congress to pay attention to one single group of people? Not that they're the most important, but one single group of people massively affected by mental health, and I'm talking about veterans of wars. The VA clinics in this country are overrun, an epidemic of people going in, not being able to find help because they're understaffed or it's closed. They’ve got to drive another 80 miles to find another VA facility. What do we do about that? They gave to us. What do we do for them?" asks Barnicle in a discussion about how we as a society can better assist American veterans who are suffering due to their mental health. Listen to Ornstein’s response here. Only on MSNBC.

[endtext]

Veterans: What do we do for them?

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/05/trumps-sagging-polls-means-what-for.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe discussion with veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Semafor’s David Weigel about Weigel’s latest article: “Trump’s falling in polls. Why aren’t Democrats benefiting?” "How does that happen to a party?” asks Barnicle. Weigel shares his findings here.

[endtext]

Trump’s sagging polls means what for the Democrats?

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/05/americas-air-traffic-troubles.html[/postlink][starttext]
“We accept it as passengers. We accept that when we go to the airport there's going to be a delay in our flight. We're going to sit on the runway. Yesterday because of the Newark situation…we sat on the runway for an hour and a half to two hours. We take off. We're coming to New York. It's very rainy and cloudy out, obviously on the ground. We're coming in for a landing, plane's coming in, and all of a sudden, we swoop upwards. The pilot comes on the air and says, you know, “sorry about that; the runway was a little overcrowded. We're going to take another round and take a run at it again.’ And that happens too often, and it's a miracle that something really, truly tragic and horrific has not happened—especially on the east coast of America with all of these airports in such a small geographical area and FAA traffic control problems,” says Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle during this conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist about the ongoing issues with the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control in America, following air traffic controllers temporarily having lost communication with aircraft flying in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

[endtext]

America’s Air Traffic Troubles

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/selective-service-in-vietnam-50-years.html[/postlink][starttext]
Tune in for this Morning Joe panel discussion with Mika Brzezinski, Mike Barnicle and U.S. Army Col. Jack Jacobs (Ret.), a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions during the Vietnam War, on this 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War ending. Hear Jacobs' views on the “selective service” in Vietnam and how it divided the country.

[endtext]

“Selective service” in Vietnam - 50 years later

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/vietnam-war-50-years-later.html[/postlink][starttext]
“We went to Vietnam really in the early 1960s...it was the first time that we were really in someone else's country fighting not for them, but for us—to get out of there; but years later we've done it again and again. We've done it in Iraq, and we've done it in Afghanistan. What impact do you think the failure, the defeat of the United States in Vietnam, had to do with the diplomacy going forward in terms of other countries that we invaded or went to?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Richard Haass, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, during this Morning Joe panel conversation about the impact of the Vietnam War, a “war of choice,” as Haass terms it, on America 50 years after the war ended. Watch the conversation here.

[endtext]

Vietnam War: 50 years later

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/where-does-european-union-sit-in-russia.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, about the Russia-Ukraine War and the Trump Administration’s push for a peace treaty, following Russia having launched one of the most devastating bombardments on Ukraine's major cities since the war began, killing at least 12 people, hours after President Donald Trump said he believed he had struck deals with both sides to end the war. "So, along this line of thinking about the pause and the fighting, the cease fire, the all caps warnings that the president issues on Truth Social. Where is the European Union's role in this with regard to Ukraine?” asks Barnicle. Hear Haass’ response only on MSNBC.

[endtext]

Where does the European Union sit in the Russia-Ukraine War

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/potus-approval-rating-in-decline.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Elise Jordan and Mike Barnicle as they weigh in on President Donald Trump's approval rating continuing to decline only a few months into his second term in the White House. “The level of incompetence is still there and the fact that it all revolves around him, what he thinks on a moment-to-moment basis. And you watch Republicans, you watch Democrats, the collective political group, looking at all of the issues, I would submit most Republicans, most Democrats in the House and Senate, pay more attention to policy on a daily basis than does the president of the United States because the policy that he thinks about is—him,” says Barnicle about President Trump.

[endtext]

POTUS’ approval rating in decline

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/nfl-draft-day-one.html[/postlink][starttext]
"Will, you have a reputation of having great talent and great credibility. We've been talking about the NFL draft this morning and all the personnel, and whether someone's arms aren't an inch longer or an inch shorter, or whatever. So, tell me the truth when I ask you this question: Do you ever have to tape your eyelids open in listening and talking about the NFL draft?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of New York Magazine contributing editor Will Leitch who joins Morning Joe on Day One of the 2025 National Football League draft as teams prepare to make their first round selection. Listen to Leitch’s response here about what to expect.

[endtext]

NFL Draft Day One

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/pope-francis-he-was-about-morality.html[/postlink][starttext]
“This man was basically, and always, right up until the day of his death, a parish priest. He related to the people he represented, to the people he served. And he also, in a larger sense, further defined what the Catholic Church at its core is all about. Catholicism and Catholics are in the forgiveness business. That’s why we have the sacrament called confession: ‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been' however, long since I have last been to confession. You confess your sins, and you are forgiven. Pope Francis was in the forgiveness business big time. And he was articulate about it, he was eloquent about it, and in his own way, he was vague enough about some of the things that he said, that he would cause millions of people to editorialize and think about ‘what did this Pope really mean’ and what this Pope really meant until the moment he died was about morality,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Barnicle about the late Pope Francis, with whom he’s pictured, during this Morning Joe panel conversation to remember the life and legacy of Pope Francis who died Easter Monday at 88 years old.

[endtext]

Pope Francis: He was about morality

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/pope-francis-unique-holy-man.html[/postlink][starttext]
“The Pope symbolized for Catholics, and I think for many, many other peoples of different religions in the world, someone they could approach. He was a parish priest at heart. He lived very modestly in an apartment building just at the edge of Vatican City. I was fortunate enough, lucky enough, blessed enough, to be in that building, to attend a mass that the pope said. And he was a uniquely ordinary individual at one level, despite the fact that he was the Pope. He was an incredible human being. I think that's the biggest thing you can say about him in terms of who he was. He was a human being who understood instinctively troubles, troubles of the damaged, troubles of those who were viewed as differently by different cultures, a unique, a unique holy man,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel remembers the life and legacy of Pope Francis who died on Easter Monday at 88 years old. Join the conversation here.

[endtext]

Pope Francis: “A unique, holy man"

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/potus-v-courts.html[/postlink][starttext]
“Joyce, in the past few days, we've seen the back and forth between various federal courts and the Supreme Court and the Trump Administration. Anybody who is vaguely familiar with American politics knows how easy it is to become totally isolated from reality when you live and work in the West Wing of the White House. Given what's going on, given the road that we seem to be on legally, what do you think the odds are that the Supreme Court—it goes to the Supreme Court again—they clean up the language, they make it specifically clear to anyone that the man must be returned by the United States to the United States and the Trump Administration, the president of the United States, says ‘no?’” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance as the Morning Joe panel discusses President Donald Trump testing judicial authority as the Trump Administration has said the U.S. government will not return a Maryland resident it erroneously sent to a hard labor prison in El Salvador despite the Supreme Court unanimously upholding a lower-court ruling ordering it to “facilitate” the man’s return to the United States. Hear Vance’s response about what this test will determine.

[endtext]

POTUS v. the courts

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/the-impact-of-trumps-tariffs-at-home.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe segment with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) about the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff war amid the economic uncertainty in America. "You are the chief executive of a very large business called the state of Connecticut. In order to run a large business, you need some sense of certainty and some sense of reality. How difficult is it to deal with the state of Connecticut, moving it forward, given the uncertainty that constantly comes out of Washington, D.C.?” asks Barnicle. Hear from Gov. Lamont on the challenges facing his state and constituents and the impact on Americans all over the country.

[endtext]

The impact of Trump’s tariffs at home

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/the-2025-masters-begins.html[/postlink][starttext]
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle about the 2025 Masters, which begins another star-studded affair with a loaded 95-man field featuring the best golfers in the world, including Rory McIlroy who is aiming to claim his first major title since 2014. "On Rory McIlroy, I would personally love to see him win the Masters title, and it doesn't matter that he won two weeks ago, another PGA title, another PGA tournament. The Masters has been the great white whale for Rory McIlroy, and it would be great to see him win that,” says Barnicle.

[endtext]

The 2025 Masters begins

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/the-death-of-due-process.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Mike Barnicle and NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley as they discuss her latest reporting that reveals a recently created Department of Homeland Security task force is using data analytic tools to scour the social media histories of the estimated 1.5 million foreign students studying in the United States for potential grounds to revoke their visas. “Is this not a definition of the death of due process?” asks Barnicle.

[endtext]

The death of due process?

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/the-future-of-mlb.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the future of major league baseball with New York Times investigative reporter Michael Schmidt who recently interviewed MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on a variety of topics including whether the players will go on strike next year when their collective bargaining period ends and the possibility of robot umpires. Find out more here.

[endtext]

The future of MLB

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/04/trump-man-uniquely-without-humility.html[/postlink][starttext]
"There is—for all practical purposes—no council of economic advisers, no secretary of the treasury, no one on Wall Street who's close enough to him to say: ‘You're wrong, stop this, give it a pause, give it a 90 day pause.’ And lastly and most tragically, if you speak to people who know him or think they know him, Wall Street people who think they know him, know what he might do, know what he might say, know that he is a man alone, that…the United States, Gillian, is now a nation alone, economically led by a man, who I was told yesterday, from someone who has known him for years, is uniquely without humility,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett as the Morning Joe panel discusses the ongoing concerns about the U.S. economy following President Donald Trump escalating his trade war with aggressive tariffs that have rocked the global markets. Watch the conversation here. Only on MSNBC.

[endtext]

Trump: a man “uniquely without humility"

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/03/mlb-opening-day-is-here.html[/postlink][starttext]
On this MLB Opening Day, the Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Willie Geist shifts to a memorable June 1986 column by the late Richard Ben Cramer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, titled “What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?” which provided an inside look into the life of baseball legend Ted Williams. “The Richard Ben Cramer piece captures Ted Williams in the winter of his life down in Islamorada, Florida, where he would go bone fishing all day long…He was supposedly the most expert caster that professional fishermen had ever seen….It’s a spectacular profile,” says Barnicle. Join the conversation here.

[endtext]

MLB Opening Day is here!

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/03/when-going-was-good.html[/postlink][starttext]
"The reflections on your life contained in this book are kind of a gift to anyone who is interested in print and in writers and in great editors. We mentioned Bob McFadden, Bill Geist, Nora Ephron, Ben Bradlee, Maureen (Orth). It’s always what you have on the page….I won't ask you to name the four or five most memorable pieces in your career, but the daily push towards excellence. Where did that come from?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, who joins Morning Joe to discuss his new memoir “When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines,” which revisits the glamorous heyday of print magazines when they were at the vanguard of American culture. Listen to Carter’s response here.

[endtext]

"When the Going Was Good"

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/03/leadership-is-about-trust.html[/postlink][starttext]
"You mentioned leadership. You’ve led troopers into battle. So, the signal flap that's going on right now in the front pages of every newspaper. We are still the tip of the spear around the world, the American military, from eastern Germany to Africa, troops on the ground, submariners in the arctic, South China Sea, all over the world. We are the force—still. So, what does it tell you in terms of leadership when we have the signal flap and not a single person involved, not one single person steps up and accepts responsibility?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) who joins Morning Joe to discuss President Donald Trump characterizing an extraordinary security breach as a minor transgression, insisting that top administration officials had not shared any classified information as they discussed secret military plans in a group chat that included the editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine. Watch Hertling’s response here: “Leadership is about trust,” he says.

[endtext]

Leadership is about trust

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/03/social-security-cuts.html[/postlink][starttext]
Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle as the Morning Joe panel discusses the uncertainty surrounding the future of social security as the Social Security Administration has been crippled by cuts to the agency pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “I can guarantee you that Elon Musk has absolutely zero sense of what a social security check for $375 means to an elderly couple living largely off of social security—none, zero. This is an item that is going to hemorrhage in terms of Trump’s weakness,” says Barnicle about the Trump Administration's cuts to the Social Security Administration. Join the conversation here.

[endtext]

Social Security cuts

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/03/doge-cuts-protested-in-wyoming.html[/postlink][starttext]
“About a month before he died, I called our old pal Al Simpson out in Wyoming, in Cody, Wyoming, just having a conversation with him about how things were going, and he raised the possibility that all of his neighbors—who he knew voted for Donald Trump twice; they voted for him in 2016, and they certainly voted for him last fall—that they would not know what to do when they went down to the local social security office and he said in the spring or early summer and the office was no longer there; he said, and then there's going to be hell to pay. Well, hell has already arrived I think,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist, Ali Vitali and Mark McKinnon as they discuss the state of the Trump Administration and Republican Party after a GOP town hall descended into chaos when a military veteran interrupted proceedings with an expletive-laden rant against DOGE cuts.

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DOGE cuts protested in Wyoming

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“This play is spectacular….It moves miraculously fast…But most importantly, it makes you think about what is happening right now, today. And we cover it every morning. The news each and every day contains some new nugget posing a threat to free speech, or to the judiciary, or to the media. Every day we hear this and you wonder if America has been narcoticized to what's going on now because people just shrug their shoulders. ‘Oh well, just one more day.’ No, it's not one more day. It’s one more danger. George Clooney has done a public service with this play,” says Morning Joe veteran columnist Mike Barnicle in his review of “Good Night, and Good Luck,” now on Broadway, written by George Clooney, adapted from his 2005 film of the same name.

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Clooney’s new play is “spectacular"

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/03/jackie-robinsons-military-career-erased.html[/postlink][starttext]
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire, Jason Crow and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the Trump Administration’s efforts to erase diversity, equity and inclusion from the federal government, following a report that an article about baseball great Jackie Robinson’s military career in the Army has been removed from the Department of Defense's website. “Jackie Robinson, that's only one of many. There is an African American recipient of the Medal of Honor who has been removed from the records in the Pentagon, a recipient of the Medal of Honor. That's not DEI. That’s courage under fire. That's what it is,” says Barnicle about the Department of Defense removing acknowledgements of Black history under Trump’s DEI removal policy.

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Jackie Robinson’s military career erased

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/03/lucky-loser-tennis-player-turns-comedian.html[/postlink][starttext]
"What is harder? The pursuit of a tennis goal is incredibly hard and incredibly competitive. The pursuit of writing comedy is both dangerous to your ego, very tough to crack, especially as a novice going into it. So, what's harder? Getting to Wimbledon or getting to the Daily Show?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of stand-up comedian Michael Kosta who joins Morning Joe to discuss his memoir “Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedy,” which provides insight into Kosta’s unlikely journey from professional tennis player (#864 in the world) to professional comedian. Watch their conversation here. Only on MSNBC.

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Lucky Loser: Tennis player turns comedian

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Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Mike Barnicle and NBC News medical contributor Dr. Vin Gupta about the possible consequences that could follow the abrupt cancellation of an FDA vaccine advisory committee meeting, which was scheduled for March to select the strains to be included in next season’s flu shot.

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FDA flu meeting cancelled

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Morning Joe's Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle remember the Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, who was found dead alongside his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, and their dog in their Santa Fe home. “He was quite a guy. He was a legitimately ordinary human being when you’d meet him. I had the good fortune of meeting him several times and went to see him in Santa Fe about 5 or 6 years ago, and he was the same then as he was when I first met him in 1973 on the set of “A Bridge Too Far” in Nijmegen, Holland, when he was the star of that cast. He had a lot of fun making that movie. We won’t go into it now. But he was really good guy,” says Barnicle about Hackman. Join the conversation here.

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Remembering Gene Hackman

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Tune in on this Morning Joe segment as Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle discuss House Republicans becoming weary of in-person town hall meetings after multiple lawmakers have faced hometown crowds irritated about the Trump Administration’s push to slash government programs, services, funding and staffing. “This is a disaster in the making for the Republican Party; but, worse than that, Mika, it's a disaster for the United States of America,” says Barnicle after House Republicans approved a budget framework for President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda, which calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade.

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House Republicans Face Backlash at Town Halls Over Trump’s Budget Cuts

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In case you missed it: Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Alexander Vindman, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, about Vindman’s new book “The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine,” which provides an analysis of how Western indecision and apathy made possible the return of brutal Russian expansionism with potentially catastrophic consequences. “Putin is winning,” he says, but we need to focus on “what really matters”—our relationships and democracy.

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Alexander Vindman on Morning Joe: How the West Enabled Putin’s Rise

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"There’s a lot of people who are viewing this peripherally everyday. People are busy. They have their own jobs, their own lives, getting the kids ready for school. But one of the things that's going on is: They're confusing motion with achievement. So, this flooding the zone, people think, ‘oh, boy, he's really working hard at it. Trump is really working hard at it.’ But Mitch, what happens when inevitably the Medicare stuff doesn't show up for people, the Social Security checks are short, the cost of living index? And that is bound to happen, it seems,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle to Mitch Landrieu, co-chair of the liberal group American Bridge, as the Morning Joe panel discusses the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the federal cost-cutting initiative championed by Elon Musk, after a federal judge declined to stop DOGE from accessing data systems at seven federal agencies and firing or putting their employees on leave. Listen to Landrieu’s response here. Only on MSNBC.

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DOGE: Motion or Achievement?

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Watch this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Pablo Torre and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the Philadelphia Eagles having dominated the Kansas City Chiefs with a masterful defensive effort to win Super Bowl LIX. “Patrick Mahomes’ offensive line could not protect him. They could not keep people away from him. He was getting crushed from two minutes into that game. He was running for his life….If you do a forensic autopsy on the Chiefs’ season, they had a very good record; but it was a hard-earned record. They won a lot of games in the last minute because of Patrick Mahomes, and the big difference again, we reflect back on it, we know what happened: They could not protect Patrick Mahomes yesterday, and they were going to lose, and they did,” says Barnicle about the Chiefs superstar quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. Join the conversation here.

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Monday morning quarterbacking

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Watch this Morning Joe panel conversation with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on a wide range of topics, one being illegal immigration. “Do you see anything wrong with sending people back to their country of origin who are here illegally?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle. Watch the conversation here. Only on MSNBC.

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Gov. Whitmer joins Morning Joe

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“I’m talking about the President of the United States. All he wants is the attention. ‘Look at me, look at me. Don't – shiny object over there, no, no, back here.’ And he does it multiple times a day incredibly successfully,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle about President Trump during this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough about the state of immigrant crossings along the southern border of the United States. Watch the segment here.

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Barnicle on POTUS: “Look at me, look at me"

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“The fact that President Biden and his wife, Hillary Clinton and former President Clinton, former President Bush and his wife Laura, and former President Barack Obama all sat in the same row alongside each other and witnessed what everyone witnessed yesterday was perhaps the one true ring of democracy that we saw yesterday—the one true ring of civility,” said Morning Joe contributor and veteran journalist Mike Barnicle during this panel discussion about President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. "The other thing that was shocking to me – maybe I’m the only one – was the absolute lack of grace and graciousness in President Trump's speech, especially when he announced to the crowd about the hostages, three hostages being released. The crowd erupts in applause; he never even looks at President Biden, who invited Trump's representatives to join in the talks to free the hostages. Never, never once looked at him when he uttered that, never once thanked him for his cooperation, or thanked him for allowing the two sides, the Trump people and the Biden people, to pursue the release of the hostages. Not once. That was the most shocking part."

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Trump’s "lack of grace and graciousness"

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"Ed, I don't think anyone would quibble with what you wrote today in your assessment of the Biden presidency; but that's today. It's a snapshot. It's not history. Don't you think that history's view of Joe Biden is going to be a little bit different than your view of Joe Biden in today's piece that you've written, in the sense that it's going to take into account Joe Biden's role in keeping NATO together, in keeping Ukraine alive, in the day to day tug of war match that he's had with Bibi Netanyahu for a year and a half, and most importantly, the economic underpinnings of legislation that he passed on a bipartisan basis in the first 18 months of his presidency that are going to transform many middle class cities and towns in this country over a longer period of time? Not today, not yet, but within 2 or 3 years, AI and all of the chip manufacturing that's going to happen in this country is going to transform and help a lot of American families,” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Financial Times US national editor Edward Luce, who joins Morning Joe to discuss his latest piece titled “Joe Biden’s tragic curtain call,” which argues hubris kept Biden too long in the presidential race and he will be remembered chiefly for easing Donald Trump’s return. Hear Luce’s response here.

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President Biden’s legacy

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“Yesterday's hearing was one of the most depressing aspects of politics in Washington that I have witnessed in a long, long time,” said Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle about the tense confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, after a report that the FBI background check on Hegseth does not include interviews with Hegseth’s ex-wives or the woman who accused him of sexual assault in a California hotel room in 2017. "Sitting there watching Pete Hegseth take questions from both sides—all I could think of was that most of the panel, both Republicans and Democrats, apparently have never seen the full FBI report….I’m also thinking that the principal client of the FBI was the Trump transition committee, which is shocking because the principal client of the FBI ought to be and is the American taxpayers, you and me, all of us here; but no, not in this case."

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