also with us for this conversation, msnbc contributor mike barnicle.ish in the bilateral meeting today. >> first of all, i think the key objective is, of course, to deepen our relationship. the bilateral relationship between ireland and the united states. and in president biden we have perhaps the most irish american president since john f. kennedy. and his election was greeted with great affection and warmth in ireland. i would be thanking him for his consistent support for peace in ireland and if for the good friday agreement. we would also discuss the transatlantic relationship between europe and the united states, which is now being reset by president biden. very significant degree of goodwill in europe for his decision to rejoin the paris accord, for example, in terms of climate change, rejoin the world health organization and also commitment to human rights across the globe. so dealing with covid and the impact of covid on our richt societies and how europe and the united states particularly ireland can work with the united states in making sure

mike barnicle, i mean, this is painfully obvious in so many ways. yeah.hour with the governor emotionally reacting to one years of dealing with the virus. in florida, it's a little different. the arrogance of governor desantis has been on display for quite a long time. one further example, in addition to the one you mentioned, was out of south florida, the ocean reef club. the former governor of illinois, bruise brown, former republican govern ofr illinois is a member of the ocean reef club. he contributed, gave $250,000 to governor desantis. and lo and behold, nearly everyone who wanted to get the vaccine, members of the ocean reef club, a wealthy enclave, got the vaccine. this in a country, and i assume in a state like florida as well, where people have been traveling hundreds of miles looking desperately to get a shot of the vaccine in order to help save their lives. but governor desantis has a shortcut to all of this. it is called just drop a dime, give me a cash contribution and you too can get a vaccine. not good. >> no, not at all. coming up, congr

with us, we have mike barnicle in the building with me. jonathan lemire, eddie glaude jr. this fake controversy. here's what president biden said on wednesday when asked by the decision of the leaders of texas and mississippi to lift mask mandates. >> a message to texas and mississippi? >> i think it's a big mistake. look, i hope everybody realized by now these masks make a difference. we are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because the way in which we are able to get vaccines in people's arms. the last thing, the last thing we need is neanderthal thinking in the meantime, everything is fine, take off your mask, forget it. it still matters. >> that's the president on wednesday. here's what republican senator masha blackburn of tennessee had to say about the president's comment. >> we were called neanderthals when i led the fight against the imposition of a state income tax in tennessee. so you know what i did? i started the neanderthal caucus. neanderthals are hunters, gathers, they're protectors of their family. they are resilie

the right to make your voice heard, and he's going to push to see this legislation passed. >> mike barnicle and has a question. mike? >> kate, can you tell us, give us a sense of what the president's sense of our relationship is with the government of mexico, given its relative inability to help us along the border with the problems that continue to build up there? >> we're working with the government of mexico. we are pushing them. we sent roberta jacobson, former ambassador there, who is a senior official in our government. she actually just traveled there last week, to continue to push, to work, to ensure that they are holding up their end of the bargain, but also that they are working to process folks who are coming up from central america. you know, part of the challenge here is ensuring that we are able to process quickly these migrants who are arriving. and there's responsibility on the mexican government to do that, as they're arriving at mexico's southern border. so, you know, this is something that we continue to work with the mexican government on. and this is -- you heard the pr

mike barnicle, this lisa murkowski story, the possibility that one republican senator could make thesh line if joe manchin is not being supportive just does show how dynamic this congress will be, how dynamic the next two years will be. not just in the senate but in the house where only four seats separate democrats and republicans. crazy things can happen at that point. . >> oh, absolutely, joe. first of all, the $1.9 trillion package of assistance for every american family, that should pass. after that, what follows after that. hr1 voting rights bill? terrible trouble. it is so precarious. it's 50/50. this is what you end up with, just like with lisa murkowski being the middle vote in neera tanden's confirmation. i'm looking forward to the day all of us, willie, mika, you, me and our families can take that high-speed train ride around alaska that will soon be built, with the coastal highways. lisa murkowski is going to get anything she wants. it's going to be beautiful. we'll have a great time. . >> it will be beautiful. >> i like it. >>> still ahead on "morning joe", the united st

msnbc contributor mike barnicle and white house editor for politico sam stein is with us as well.han lemire, why did the white house give up on neera tanden? >> well, joe, it has certainly become a messy fight. and her confirmation was far from assured. their hopes were resting on senator lisa murkowski, signaling she wanted to do trading. that alarmed progressives who thought the biden white house might be giving away too much. they also hadn't quite secured bernie sanders support just yet although aides signaled yesterday after tanden withdrew her name he would have voted for her. this was just going to become a prolonged, protracted fight and sense of political capital was wasted they couldn't afford or want to. tanden will get a job elsewhere in the administration but this battle is over. they'll find on to moving a replacement. >> claire mccaskill, they didn't have the votes. at the end of the day, they just didn't have the votes and from what i had heard from people in the white house, around the white house, they were concerned about this from the very start. >> yeah. clear

secretary, mike barnicle has a question for you. mike?re talking about has certainly improved vastly over the last few years, but what kind of progress do you think can be made in getting more access, more readily available access to those thousands of veterans who live in rural states and live quite a driving distance from critical va medical care. >> well, this is a big priority. obviously, a big priority of republicans and democrats on capitol hill, too. we had a chair in the ranking member in the senate who hailed from montana and kansas. and we know those are not only big rural states, but states that have a lot of veterans. that's a priority for them. the first answer, mike, is to make sure that we're staffing the va facilities we have. so that's a question of retaining the amazing staff, the medical staff that we have, recruiting new staff. we have new authority from congress. we're going to use those authorities to recruit new additional staff into those rural communities. and then it's a question of, as we use this process that w

what's got to come first is us. >> tim, mike barnicle has got a question for you. mike?his country and the virus has provoked enormous fear in order americans. there's the fear of the virus. there's the fear of the vaccine among some, there's the fear of the future, for themselves, for their families, and fear actually i think is the ultimate virus that's among us. how in this great, good nation of ours do we combat the ultimate root, i think, of what you're talking about coming together, fear. >> mike, it's funny, you mentioned arthur looks, conservative columnist, professor, writes in the book the opposite of fear is love. if you're feeling fear, you need more love. now, that doesn't sound like a political agenda but guess what, maybe it is. you and i grew up in a time when in our country people believed in accomplishing great tasks when we were confronted by the demons of discrimination and hate in our countries in the '60s and '70s. political figures actually believed in the country enough to try to challenge them. they weren't republican programs. head start is not

let's bring in msnbc contributor mike barnicle, pulitzer prize-winning columnist and associate editorpolitical analyst eugene robinson. and nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too early," kasie hunt is with us. she's got new reporting on the two men who were arrested and chandler on sunday with assault on capitol police officer brian sicknick, who later died from the injuries sustained in the january 6th attack on the capitol. kasie, what can you tell us? >> so these two men are behind bars this morning, mika, pending additional hearings. and they haven't been charged with the death of officer sicknick. that investigation is still ongoing. but federal authorities are releasing chilling new details about the alleged assault on sicknick and two other officers during the mob attack. >> reporter: this morning, two men now facing federal charges for assaulting police officers with an unknown chemical substance during the violent siege on the capitol on january 6th when a mob attacked officers. one of those officers, brian sicknick died next day. later, lying in honor in th

i know mike barnicle's going to be really excited again. he can have a couple days out at fenway. >>> plus, new reporting that the president may extend his first deadline for bringing u.s. troops home from afghanistan. nbc's carol lee joins us with her new reporting. we'll have those stories and a check your weather. g. we'll have those stories and a check your weather psst! psst! allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! you're good. did you know prilosec otc can stop frequent heartburn before it begins? heartburn happens when stomach acid refluxes into the esophagus. prilosec otc uses a unique delayed-release formula that helps it pass through the tough stomach acid. it then works to turn down acid production, blocking heartburn at the source. with just one pill a day, you get 24-hour heartburn protection. prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. it all starts with an invitation... ...to experience lexus. the invitation to lexus sales

we have mike barnicle in the building with me.jonathan lemire, and eddie glaude jr. and co founder of punch bowl news, anna palmer. joe and mika have the morning off. mike says for the second time in a year he is wearing pants, which is very exciting. . >> yes, it is. an exciting morning. >> good way to start the morning. let's go io

. >> i want to go to mike barnicle really quickly. in american politics, the kennedy moment, the ted kennedy moment, where, you know, you got to be prepared to answer the most basic of questions but also what a great lesson for every reporter from that time forward that sometimes the most effective questions are the simplest questions. unlike the -- >> obvious ones. >> 48 minute questions that i ask. sometimes you just go, why do you want to run for president? >> why? >> you know, actually joe you just got to it and mika just got to it and that was roger's background. roger began as a newspaper guy in richmond, virginia. and as a very young guy. sometimes you have to climb the ten meant stairs and the door opens to tragedy and you say can you tell me what happened? pretty simple, pretty basic. that was roger mudd's key. he remains that way all the way through his career. he was still the roger mudd from richmond, virginia, what's going on kind of question. you're absolutely right. ask a simple, direct question, you get a simple, direc

willie, talking about mike barnicle last august pitching against the tigers, it was just one of those moments. he really surprised fans, halfway took out a smoke, started smoking, like they did in the old days. . >> at the end of his career, he was throwing the 41-mile-per-hour knuckleball. put mike out there. he will get you some outs. garrett cole looked good. five strikeouts, jonathan. . >> whatever. >> we think we can. we think we can. adrienne, i know you want to talk baseball, but i'm just curious, what do you think is next for the biden white house. is the next battle hr-1? . >> yeah. i think the next battle is hr-1. we want to make sure they are doing everything to combat some of the efforts by republican state legislators to, you know, disenfranchise voters. but, look, this was a very monumental piece of legislation just signed into law. now they have to pass the things that we have been wanting to get passed for years, like an infrastructure plan. you all certainly remember when we had quote-unquote infrastructure week under donald trump. every kwraoer there would be a week

mike barnicle, great to see you.alk about his appetite for this, his drive for gun control. you know the president well. you know his staff. we know his record on guns. he stood next to president obama the day of the sandy hook shooting and how emotional that was for both men. what can he do now? what's the appetite now? we have been talking how ambitious his agenda is. there's going to be a lot of republican pushback. how big do you think biden can go on guns? >> jonathan, that's an interesting question because president biden is when you strip away the title and everything he is normal human being. and i think he is tired of the makeshift memorials. i think he is tired of crying about over 26 or 27 children being killed at sandy hook. i think he's tired of people, young people, who instead of going to graduation at parkland high school, you know, went to funerals. i think he's tired of all of that, the same as many americans are tired of that. and i think he is specifically tired of the fact that his former colleag

mike barnicle, and dana carvey, that was hysterical.mpersonation, a little bit less on the scene these days. but right there, the essence of the numbers, not a joke, folks, that to me got the essence of joe biden. what do you think? you've known biden for a long time. >> here's the deal, man, my word as a biden, okay? my uncle finias once told me, he said, hi, joe, i think -- i think that's what he said, that's what i remember. here's the deal, dana carvey, he's the best. >> he needs a little more malarkey, mika, but we approve. >> i did too. and dana biden yesterday is so much like her brother. and she was telling a story about how he would introduce her -- you know, as a kid, they would go out and play with the boys on the street or whatever, and they would say, oh, you're bringing a girl, and joe would say, i'm not bringing a girl, that's my sister, man. that's my sister. and when she was telling the story, i was like, oh, my god, she sounds so much like him. but they're a wonderful family and that's a great impersonation. joining us

with us, we have msnbc contributor, mike barnicle, and white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan lamir. joe and mika have the morning off. it is a busy morning, though, as kasie just mentioned, we're getting fans in the stands for baseball. >> good for you. >> mets, yankees, 20% capacity, a few thousand fans in there. at least it's a start. i know how excited you are about the yankees' hot start and spring training and seeing some of those great yankees' fans populating that stadium in the bronx. >> as my mother would say -- actually, i can't say that on the air. >> you better no. >> we're going to have 12% capacity at fenway park. >> lamir, you excited for the yanks? they're looking good in the spring? >> willie, my question is, as yankee stadium fills up to 10, 15, 20% capacity, that's obviously going to leave a lot of empty seats, particularly down low behind home plate. my question for you is how will that be different than any other season? >> that's true. >> that was a nice windup to one that really hits. >> that's true, though. the seats are so expensive down ther