On the Memorial Day edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski tried to bait liberal commentators Mike Barnicle and Paul Rieckhoff to use the national day of remembrance to attack President Trump. Fortunately, the two Trump critics, likely recognizing there is a time and a place for everything and that today is not that time, refused to go along. Brzezinski started by asking Barnicle about the attitude the country has towards the military, suggesting it could be a complicating subject in the age of Trump due to the deployment of troops along the border:

BRZEZINSKI: I want to ask you what your reflections are during this time in terms of our attitudes in America, our knowledge and our understanding of people who serve in the military, who serve multiple tours of duty, who have taken part in wars on behalf of this country, and also are being deployed by this president by let's say maybe perhaps controversial means interms of their deployments at southern border for caravans that are coming in. It's a convoluting time, is it not? -- Barnicle side stepped the issue and instead talked about how despite the fact that Memorial Day invokes memories and how Memorial Day used to mean something more than the start of summer. He lamented how social media and smartphones have caused us to lose those memories and that because only one percent of the country serves in the military, that the, "impact on [those who serve] and their families is pretty much off to the sidelines. That's the sadness."

Brzezinski then turned to Rieckhoff, the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "I would love for you to reflect on what Mike Barnicle just said and also, the work that you have done, how you're feeling about the way the military perhaps is being used by this presidency?" Reickhoff briefly concurred with Brzezinski in lamenting how Trump has used the military, but quickly said that despite that, "Memorial Day still can be a time where we come together as a nation and it's a time when we're so divided." Reickhoff encouraged the country to take, "One minute on the moment of silence observed at 3:00 local time everywhere in America, take one minute and reflect on someone that you know that has died or even if you don't know someone who has died, someone that has died on your behalf to give you the opportunity to have a barbecue or go to the beach or even if you're at work take one minute to reflect on what this means."

Reickhoff would go on to criticize the idea of "forever war" and to say that asking "hard questions" about potential future wars, specifically citing Iran, was a "good way to honor people who have died." MSNBC has had some troubled history with Memorial Day commentary and on Monday, Mika Brzezinski tried to use the occasion to give extra credence to her anti-Trump views, but two Trump critics refused to join her politicization of Memorial Day.

Mika Tries, Fails to Get Guests to Use Memorial Day to Attack Trump
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2019/05/27/mika-brzezinski-tries-fails-get-guests-use-memorial-day-attack