Mike Barnicle on TV: 2025

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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.

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The CIA had a book club?

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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.

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“Big, Beautiful” = Grief

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“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.

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DC Democrats: “Forget it"

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"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.

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Young kids: Danger ahead

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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.

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The Red Sox’s major league trade

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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.

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Are we now a nation alone?

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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.

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Barnicle: “A troubled country with a troubled issue"

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“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.

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A Tale of Two Cities

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“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.”

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What is an authentic life?

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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.

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Elon v. Trump

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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.

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Congratulations to the Barnicle Brothers

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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.

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

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“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.

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How Trump Captured a Movement — and a Party

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“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.

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President Biden’s cancer diagnosis

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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.

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Veterans: What do we do for them?

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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.

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Trump’s sagging polls means what for the Democrats?

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“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.

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America’s Air Traffic Troubles

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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.

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“Selective service” in Vietnam - 50 years later

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“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.

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Vietnam War: 50 years later

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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.

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

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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.

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POTUS’ approval rating in decline

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"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.

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NFL Draft Day One

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“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.

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Pope Francis: He was about morality

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“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.

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Pope Francis: “A unique, holy man"

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“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.

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POTUS v. the courts

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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.

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The impact of Trump’s tariffs at home

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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.

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The 2025 Masters begins

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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.

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The death of due process?

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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.

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The future of MLB

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"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.

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Trump: a man “uniquely without humility"

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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.

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MLB Opening Day is here!

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"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.

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"When the Going Was Good"

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"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.

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Leadership is about trust

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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.

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Social Security cuts

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“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"

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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

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/01/barnicle-on-potus-look-at-me-look-at-me.html[/postlink][starttext]
“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"

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/01/president-bidens-legacy.html[/postlink][starttext]
"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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Pete Hegseth confirmation hearing: “depressing"

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Watch this Morning Joe conversation between Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle as they discuss Peter Baker’s New York Times article, “Trump Sees the U.S. as a ‘Disaster.’ The Numbers Tell a Different Story,” which examines how President Joe Biden is bequeathing President-elect Donald Trump a nation that by many metrics is in good shape, even if voters remain skeptical. "Facts do matter and they matter to everyone’s life in America,” says Barnicle. "Joe Biden can stand on his legislative record. The Republicans have that record now. They are standing on it in terms of the economy. The strongest economy in the world. If it slips, if it slips, it's on them,” says Barnicle about President-elect Trump and the GOP.

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Facts do matter

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Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss a New York Times op-ed that argues against Senate Republicans suggesting the terrorist attack in New Orleans has increased the urgency to approve Donald Trump’s choices for top national security positions. “Their proposed picks have nothing to do with solving what happened in New Orleans….It has to do with the mind of the killer….It has to do with tracking whatever incident set him off on the path that brought him to Bourbon Street the other night….This crime builds up in the mind, the human mind. What triggered it? What happened to this man? When did it happen? Did it have to do with ISIS? Did it have to do with his travels? Did it have to do with his family? All of those things are separate and apart from whoever is appointed to be the next attorney general or the next national intelligence person in the White House or the next FBI director. All of those things are separate and apart from it. It’s an age-old situation. It requires expertise. It requires time and it requires patience,” says Barnicle about the terror attack in New Orleans where at least fourteen people were killed and dozens injured when the man plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street in a pickup truck.

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The Mind of a Killer Requires Investigation

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/01/whats-next-for-afghanistan.html[/postlink][starttext]
Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation among host Jonathan Lemire, veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and film director Ibrahim Nash’at about his new documentary “Hollywoodgate,” which looks at the Taliban in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. "Do you think there is any hope for a civilized version of Afghanistan led by the Taliban?,” asks Barnicle. Hear Nash’at’s answer here.

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What’s next for Afghanistan

[postlink]http://www.mikebarnicle.tv/2025/01/the-future-of-democratic-party.html[/postlink][starttext]
"America is about the future. It’s not about the past. It’s about the future. (Democrats) have to address the future in solid, sensible ways that are meaningful—from the price of gas, to the price of eggs, to the price of a college education. Talk about the things that impact people’s lives—that’s it,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during a Morning Joe discussion about the future of the Democratic Party with Joe Scarborough, Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Democratic strategist James Carville and Jonathan Lemire. Watch the whole conversation here.

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