Mike Barnicle

Lame: Barnicle Says Menino's Passing Could Be to Blame for Coakley Loss
By Mark Finkelstein | November 5, 2014 | 9:39 AM EST

Mike Barnicle could be the early leader in the race for the lamest excuse for a Dem loss.  On today's Morning Joe, Barnicle claimed that the death of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino "disrupted" the Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign, and that but for it, Martha Coakley might have "pulled it out."

Really?  Menino might not have been the most silver-tongued speaker, but the five-time Beantown mayor was a popular figure in the Bay State.  It's not hard to imagine that far from hurting Coakley's campaign, Menino's passing might have prompted some sympathy votes for her, a fellow Dem.

Mike Barnicle: Shut Up, Jimmy Carter! People Would Rather Have Obama Than You as President
By Tim Graham | October 10, 2014 | 10:15 AM EDT

You know it's getting bad for Obama's foreign policy when Jimmy Carter attacks him for being weak and vacillating. On Thursday's Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski read the Carter critique on the air, and they talked about Leon Panetta's argument against Obama's weakness. Mark Halperin added that the Panetta view is shared by people inside the Obama adminstration and Democratic circles. This was too much for Mike Barnicle, who shot back:

"I would like to see a poll on how many Americans would feel more comfortable with Jimmy Carter leading the United States right now rather than Barack Obama."

Vote: Which Was Lamest Excuse by Morning Joe Panelists for Obama ISIS Failure?
By Mark Finkelstein | September 30, 2014 | 8:36 AM EDT

With about a month to go before the elections, let's loosen up our lever-pulling arms by inviting NewsBusters readers to vote on the lamest excuse offered by three Morning Joe panelists today for President Obama's failure to heed the intelligence about the threat ISIS posed. 1. Columbia prof Dorian Warren: congressional intelligence committees are to blame for not raising the issues with President Obama. 2. Mike Barnicle: James Clapper is to blame for not assembling the intelligence to the point that it got the president's full attention. 3. Eugene Robinson: not fair to blame the president considering there could have been 15 things in the intel briefing that day deserving urgent atention. 4. Bo the dog ate President Obama's intel briefing. OK, scratch that one; I made it up.

MSNBC's Mika Bemoans 'Unprecedented' Foreign Policy 'Crises' Obama Has to Deal With
By Matthew Balan | September 2, 2014 | 12:45 PM EDT

On Tuesday's Morning Joe, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski felt sorry for President Obama and all the crises overseas that he is currently facing: "You look at just the President, and the incoming on foreign policy crises, I think it's possibly unprecedented, except for extreme times of war."

Moments earlier, the morning newscast played a montage of video clips looking back at all the tumultuous events from the summer. Joe Scarborough expressed his disbelief at the amount of chaos, while Brzezinski replied to the mash-up by setting up her lament for the chief executive: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]

Zbigniew Blames 'Disgustingly Destructive' Netanyahu
By Mark Finkelstein | July 22, 2014 | 9:48 AM EDT

The man who suggested that the US shoot down Israeli airplanes is at it again.  Surveying the Israeli/Hamas conflict, Zbigniew Brzezinski couldn't summon up one word of condemnation for Hamas' intentional targeting of Israeli civilians with thousands of rockets and mortars.

Instead, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser had harsh words for only one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Brzezinski said he didn't include Netanyahu in the category of leaders man enough to negotiate, accusing the Israeli PM of having "scuttled" peace efforts--again without a word of criticism for Hamas. Zbigniew ended his anti-Israel tirade by decrying that "the ideologues, hard-liners, the ones that promulgate confrontation are in charge, and that's what's so hard and so disgustingly destructive."  Any disgustingly destructive hard-liners in Gaza, Zbig?  View the video after the jump.

'Morning Joe' Pundits Fear Media 'Clinton Exhaustion' Already Underway
By Randy Hall | July 3, 2014 | 10:00 PM EDT

It's only July of 2014, but two panelists on the Morning Joe program expressed concern during Thursday's edition that people within the media are already suffering from “Clinton Exhaustion” even though the former secretary of state has yet to announce whether she will be a candidate in the 2016 presidential election.

If that's the case, then one of the worst offenders is the staff of that MSNBC morning show, which usually finds a way to spend up to 15 minutes a day discussing the latest “news” about Hillary Clinton, ranging from her “Hard Choices” book -- which is suffering from poor sales -- to question if she's a victim of “sexism” and “ageism.”

MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle: ‘Harry Reid Is Right’ Cliven Bundy Is A ‘Domestic Terrorist’
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 18, 2014 | 10:03 AM EDT

In the wake of the standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal government, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) jumped into the controversy and proclaimed that Bundy was “nothing better than domestic terrorists and I think that we are a country that people should follow the law.

Following Reid's controversial comments, MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle jumped to support Reid on Morning Joe on Friday April 18. Barnicle maintained “Those people on the ground in Nevada are terrorists under that definition. Harry Reid is right. The prosecution rests. [See video below.]

Mike Barnicle Calls Palin a 'Moron'
By Mark Finkelstein | March 10, 2014 | 8:11 AM EDT

Here was the Morning Joe panel bemoaning Ted Cruz's supposed incivility at CPAC in allegedly insulting war hero Bob Dole, when up pops Mike Barnicle to ask "what does it say about CPAC, where the most popular speaker they had, the one who received the most rousing reception is a moron, Sarah Palin?"

A bit later, Mika Brzezinski piled on, calling Palin a "multi-million dollar moron."  When Joe Scarborough challenged her, saying "you don't think that, right?", Mika didn't retract her slur, saying only that Palin is "savvy in selling a message that makes a lot of money." View the video after the jump.
 

Scarborough To Rich Who Shield Money Abroad: 'You're Not Welcome in the USA: Leave!'
By Mark Finkelstein | January 21, 2014 | 8:49 AM EST

Is Joe Scarborough taking tips from NY Governor Andrew Cuomo? Cuomo recently declared that conservatives who are pro-life, pro-Second Amendment and opposed to gay marriage "have no place in the state of New York."

On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough took things a step further, telling rich people who shield money abroad to reduce their taxes "you're not welcome in the United States of America."  Thundered the self-righteous Scarborough: "Follow your damn money.  Leave! Go!"  Wonder if Scarborough's banishment order applies to corporations as well as individuals?  If so, say sayanora to Apple, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard . . . not to mention MSNBC's previous owner, GE, from whom Scarborough took paychecks for years.  All are among the 15 US corporations with the most money held offshore.  View the video after the jump.

'I'd Tell Rand Paul To Stick That Where It Belongs': John Heilemann on Paul's Unemployment Insurance Theory
By Mark Finkelstein | December 23, 2013 | 7:48 AM EST

After Martin Bashir lost his MSNBC job for making a vile anatomical suggestion, you might think that others at the "Lean Forward" network would be circumspect about engaging in comparable crudeness.

But that didn't stop John Heilemann on today's Morning Joe. Whereas Bashir's remark focused on the beginning of the alimentary canal, Heilemann's went to its other extremity. Asked how he'd deal with Senator Rand Paul's theory that extending unemployment benefits does the unemployed a disservice, Heilmann said "I'd tell Rand Paul to stick that where it belongs." View the video after the jump.

Ted Cruz As Lord Voldemort: He Who Must Not Be Named By 'Morning Joe'
By Mark Finkelstein | October 2, 2013 | 8:13 AM EDT

Move over, Lord Voldemort.  Ted Cruz has taken your place as the man so evil he must not be named .  .  .

Today's Morning Joe featured a strange trope in which Cruz was being unmistakably referred to by various members of the panel, but, at least in the first hour, never mentioned by name.  Instead, Joe Scarborough, Mike Barnicle and Willie Geist variously alluded to Cruz as "one Republican senator specifically" or as one of "a couple of Republican senators" or "certain members of the Senate."  Why the aversion to calling Ted Cruz by name?  Were the Morning Joers trying to deprive Cruz of publicity?  View the video after the jump.

Shocking! MSNBC Panel Agrees Congressional Exemption from High ObamaCare Premiums 'Crazy'
By Andrew Lautz | August 2, 2013 | 4:14 PM EDT

It’s rare when the Morning Joe crew unanimously agrees on an issue. It’s simply extraordinary when the issue is ObamaCare.

Host Joe Scarborough and a liberal panel mocked congressional Democrats on Friday for griping about high premiums under ObamaCare, after the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced Thursday that the federal government would continue to subsidize health care premiums for members of Congress and their staffs.