Last summer when Donald Trump announced he was running for the GOP presidential nomination, few, if any, political pundits were willing to give him a chance. Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski, however, was willing to stick her neck out and buck conventional wisdom, saying Trump should not be underestimated and she predicted he may very well end up as the GOP nominee. That got a laugh out of Morning Joe regular Mike Barnicle, who was so certain that Trump had zero chance, he offered to buy Mika a brand-new truck if Trump won the nomination.
As the months went by and Trump remained atop the polls, Barnicle continued to say he wasn’t worried about having to pony up for the truck.
Well, on Tuesday it became official: Donald Trump is now essentially the GOP nominee and Mika was not ready to let Barnicle off the hook. She (jokingly) said Barnicle needed to get ready to go to the Toyota dealership so she should pick out her new FJ Cruiser.
WATCH:
So, it might sound like a bit of fun, but since we are legal website, we got to wondering could this offer by Barnicle be enforceable? Is he on the hook to buy Mika a truck? LawNewz.com reached out to New York City contracts attorney Keith Stein to find out whether Barnicle is obligated to buy Mika the new truck. Mika is in luck, Mr. Barnicle might be on the hook. Let’s explain.
“Under New York law, a valid contract requires an offer, acceptance, consideration, reliance and capacity to enter into an agreement,” Stein said. “It appears all of those elements are met in this case.”
“Barnicle clearly made an offer to buy Mika a new truck if Trump won the GOP nomination and Mika accepted the offer, in front of multiple witnesses and a television audience,” he said. “As for the issue of consideration, although Mika did not specifically offer anything in return, Barnicle did receive a great deal of publicity and exposure on Mika’s show that is likely sufficient to satisfy the consideration requirement.”
Lastly, Stein said, “It certainly appears that both Mika and Barnicle were of sound mind at the time they entered into the contract. However, one may question the sanity of smart people wanting to spend four hours every morning over the past ten months discussing this election cycle on live television.”
So, there you have it. Sorry, Barnicle. Time to get the checkbook out.
[image via screengrab]
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
