Morning Wire - The Clancy Case Nears Its End & Dolly Parton’s Legacy Lives On | 8.28.26

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

The fate of Lindsay Clancy is in the hands of the jury after a polarizing five-week trial, the leftwing Spanish government asks the EU for emergency funds as the Moroccan migrant crisis in Ceuta spirals further out of control, and the tributes to Dolly Parton continue to unify the country, while the public awaits her final, unreleased song, “My Place In History.” Reporting from Lynden Blake & Megan Basham. Plus, we speak to Simon Hankinson, immigration and border expert at the Heritage Foundation. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 3062- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsors:Balance of Nature - Go to https://BalanceofNature.com today and subscribe to the Whole Health System—or any of their other subscriptions—and get an additional 10% off your subscription with promo code WIRE.Lean - Get 20% off when you enter code WIRE at https://TakeLean.com - - -Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacymorning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if a few minutes with God could change the direction of your entire day? With pray.com, you can begin each morning with powerful daily prayers, inspiring Bible stories, and messages created to strengthen your faith. Whether you need peace, encouragement, or a fresh start, pray.com helps you make prayer part of your everyday life. Download the pray.com app today. The fate of Lindsay Clancy is in the hands of the jury after a polarizing five-week trial. Your function is to determine the facts of this case. You alone determine what evidence to accept how important any evidence is that you do accept and what conclusions to draw from all the evidence.

I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley, with Georgia Howl. It's Friday, August 28. This is Morningwire. The left-wing Spanish government asks the EU for, emergency funds as the Moroccan migrant crisis in Ceuta spirals further out of control. And the tributes to Dolly Parton continue to unify the country while the public awaits her final unreleased song, My Place in History. I don't know what they'll do with it, but I have regretted that because it was a really good song. You know, I'm serious.

You know, I'm serious. I keep warning them to let me dig it up and put something else in it that's not as good. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. The Lindsay Clancy trials in its final phase with the jury out for deliberations. The chosen 12 jurors made up of nine women and three men debated for nearly four hours yesterday before getting released for the day. Lyndon Blake, host of That So Criminal is here now with what each side had to say in the courtroom on their final day.

So, Lyndon, the jury is deliberating as we speak. First, let's hear what the defense had to say. Yes, the defense really focused on the failure of. the health care system for Lindsay Clancy's postpartum psychosis and why she killed her three children by strangling them in the basement back in January of 2023. Kevin Reddington, the lead defense attorney, really went for the emotions. He was showing pictures of Lindsay as a happy mom with her kids, with her family, and he was saying, how did these three children end up dead?

And he said, it was because of the medicine, all the medications she was on, and the lousy health care she was provided. That was really the defense's big argument, that this was a woman that was happy that wanted to be a mother that had these dreams for her children that had a wish fund from their honeymoon where they would put things in there about what they wanted for their kids. But then by the time this happened in January, 2003, she had lost her mind. She was out of her mind when she took her three children's lives. And in your opinion, how strong was that defense on that final day? Yeah, so Kevin Redington is been one to control the courtroom throughout this entire trial. I mean, there was someone today outside of the courtroom that asked to kiss his shoulder, like he's turned into that type of

person. But I didn't think he had that great of a closing argument. I did not think it was his best day. He looked a little defeated when he got to the prosecution's closing arguments and they pan to him. He just didn't have that commanding presence, that confidence that he's had throughout the trial, he was actually asked afterwards by a reporter, how did you think you did some critics or saying that wasn't your best work? And he kind of like gave like a funny like little like, come on. And then he said, I did the best I could. So for someone with his experience and for how he handled questioning and he was tough and on some days, we're better than others, but in the closing arguments when you're supposed to be at your best, give your strongest

argument, I just didn't think it was there for him today. Now on the other side, the prosecution obviously delivered their closing argument as well. How did they approach that and how effective was it? Okay, on the flip side, I thought this is the prosecution's best day. The prosecution, in my opinion, throughout this trial has been wordy in some of their questioning, been kind of hard to follow. You were like, why are they talking about this? But in the closing arguments, they stuck straight to facts and spoke directly to the jury and they laid out that there was intent here and there was planning. And I thought, thought when they started out saying this is not a case about the mental health system, this is not a case about was she depressed or not depressed. They said, no, we know she was suffering and we know she was trying to get help, but this is not a case about that. This is about did she know right from wrong when she killed her three children? And the way they laid that out with the planning, talking about how she was able to calmly talk to Patrick while he was gone to CVS after they

say the three children were already strangled in the basement, they hinted to this was her controlling the narrative, keeping him away so she could finish her plan, which they said was, of course, to kill herself. And then she did jump out the window and she ultimately survived. And they really finished with this, it is graphic, but this strong imagery of her just leaving the children there to die. Now, the jury went into deliberation yesterday. Do we have any sense of how long they'll be there? In these cases, you really just don't know normally if you have a short deliberation. It normally tends to be a guilty verdict. They're obviously still deliberating, not saying that's going to be guilty or not guilty.

Kevin Reddington even said he has no idea how long this particular deliberation could last because it's an unusual case. He said it's an emotional case and there is a lot of evidence to sort through. Final question. So the judge gave the instructions to the jury. What are their options in their ruling? Yeah. So we knew about the first-degree murder. We knew about the not guilty by reason of insanity.

There's the hung jury. That could be a conclusion. You also have second-degree murder. And then the manslaughter charge was added this week. This is a lesser charge. So if she's guilty of manslaughter, then she'll spend less time in prison. Well, no good outcome possible here. But I'm looking forward to having this out of the news cycle.

Lyndon, thanks for reporting. Of course. If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you've probably noticed that food seems to be making headlines almost as often as politics. One week, it's a recall. The next, it's concerns about contaminated produce. Then there's another report telling you something that you've been eating isn't as healthy as you thought. At a certain point, taking care of yourself can start to feel unnecessarily complicated. That's one reason we've been talking about balance of nature around the office. Balance of nature's whole health system is made from real fruits, vegetables, spices, and fiber,

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so that you can add lean to your healthy diet and exercise plan. Visit takeleen.com and enter Wire for your discount. That's promo code wire at takelein.com. The left-wing Spanish government is now asking the European Union for emergency funds, as they've admitted that several thousand Moroccans still remain in the Spanish territory of Seuta. Meanwhile, reports suggest citizens there are beginning to fight back. Joining us now to discuss is Simon Hankinson, Immigration and Border Expert at the Heritage Foundation,

and a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer, Simon, thank you so much for coming on. My pleasure. So we've been tracking this disaster in Suta where 70,000, mostly young men from Morocco invaded en masse. We were quickly told by the Spanish government they had removed swiftly, most of them, except for maybe 2,000, but now we've learned it's far more than that that remain,

something like 7,000. So what have you seen on the ground there? This is such a massive amount of people in such a short amount of time. They're camped out on beaches. They're hiding out in the woods. You know, a lot of them are just kind of shell-shocked and waiting for someone to give them food

and help them out. But others have taken matters into their own hands. They've broken into people's houses. They've relieved themselves on the street. They've vandalized. They've protested. They want to be given asylum and allowed to stay. So it's kind of a mess.

What about the reports of rape? We've seen a girl as young as 10 years old reportedly saying she was raped by one of these migrants. Yeah, I've read reports. that up to 14 young women, many of the minors, have been sexually assaulted. Again, it's very difficult to know for sure because you get conflicting statements and conflicting records. Some new footage coming out of the area shows a group of Spanish citizens armed with clubs, some of them, walking through the streets, and reportedly to remove some of the migrants.

Do we have any details about that? Yeah, there have been some clashes between, riot police and illegal immigrants. They fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and then there have also been groups of angry locals out protesting sort of Frankenstein style with the pitchforks. Obviously not a good idea for

individuals to go out there and try to enforce immigration law by themselves, but they're intensely frustrated. They've got neighborhood watch-type patrols trying to stop vandalism and vagrancy and, you know, protect their neighborhoods. Yeah, maybe not a good idea, but fully understandable for

somebody that's in that situation. Yeah, I mean, they're incredibly frustrated. They've been sold out by the Spanish central government, which is far left and largely is okay with open borders and large mass migration from the global south, but it's channeling through this tiny little enclave of only 80,000 people. They have a shelter for 500 people. They do not have the resources or law enforcement or anything else to cope with a population of even 8,000 illegal immigrants. Now, speaking of the Spanish government, they are now asking for emergency funds from the EU to deal with this crisis. Is Spain's government actually learning any lessons here, or how are they responding to this, and how do the Spanish citizens seem to want them to respond?

Well, the Sanchez government is a left-wing government, so they are generally supportive of mass migration. Sanchez himself has said, just like what Biden said, we need to channel it, you know, we need to make it easier, safer, nicer, but we don't have to stop illegal mass migration. Many Spaniards don't feel that way, and he might lose an election next year because of that one factor. I think what realists understand is that this is a bit like Australia when they drew a line and said, we will not allow a single person who comes by sea illegally to remain in Australia, and their numbers went from hundreds of thousands a year down to zero, and the number of people drowning at sea trying to get there illegally went down to zero.

The Spanish are in a similar bind. If they even allow a percentage of people, 1,200, a couple thousand, to get into Spain via Seuda, it's game over. Sub-Saharan Africa's got plenty more to come if they are allowed to. Yeah, meanwhile, we have now reports that there's going to be a protest in mainland Spain on September 2nd. So we'll see what comes of that. Simon, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. The tributes to Dali Parton have continued throughout the week as a usually divided country has found one

person that they appear to be able to unite around. Meanwhile, she's managed to leave us still creating buzz about a mysterious final song. Joining us now to discuss is culture reporter Megan Basham. Megan, thanks for coming on. Yeah, absolutely. Now, Dolly's passing has been on a lot of minds all week, and we wanted to close out the week talking about her and some of the tributes that we've seen come in. Yeah, it's been really an amazing outpouring. Obviously, President Trump talked about how there will never be another like her. The royal band played in England, nine to five. That was really something.

I think the Indiana governor also announced, along with President Trump, that American flags would fly at half staff in her honor. So really just an outpouring all across the ideological landscape. And I think that's what's really noteworthy is it's not just stars who are remembering Dolly. It's not just average fans. But it's also heads of state, political leaders, all, not just all. across the nation, but all across the world. So that's just an amazing impact for an artist to have had. Now, can you talk about why her passing struck such a chord? You know, I think one of the key things about Dolly is that, one, she's such an American success story. She grew up in a one-room shack,

literally, with 12 children. Her parents had very little. So she came from really nothing in Appalachia, and she grew to establish this amazing empire, the Dollywood Empire. her music, her publishing. So, you know, she was just a force to reckon with. But as she did these things, you know, she was very strident in saying, I do not want to be political. I do not want to be claimed by any one tribe or any one particular ideological outlook. And you really saw the media constantly pressing her to try to get her to do that. And she consistently refused. You know, I remember back in 2023 when the Hollywood reporter really kind of, you know, pressed her about doing a duet with Kid Rock, who is known for being, you know, very political himself and MAGA. And she pushed back and said,

you know, just because I love you, don't mean I don't love Kid Rock. And that was Dolly. And so, you know, I think that is why she's so beloved. She's kind of the last figure that represents that. Right now, I will say, I'm seeing some attempts to rewrite that biography from the Communist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America who are trying to say that like nine to five was a communist anthem. But I think it's important to know that Dolly rejected those things in life. And she always said, no, this is not a political message. That's not what's happening. And so, you know, I think that's why she was beloved. And I think that's why it's important that we don't let her biography be rewritten. Now, we also have this final song, My Place in History is the name of it that's set to be released,

but not anytime soon at all. Tell us about that. Yeah, that's really fascinating. It's very Dolly to leave this, you know, mysterious song. So she apparently recorded it in 2015. She put it in a box. She then put it at the, at the Dollywood facilities. It's called My Place in History, is the name of this song. And so she put it in this wooden time capsule. And the song is not expected to be available to the public until 2045. So that was what she said she wanted. So we're not going to get to hear this song until then. But I think all of us are sort of dying to know what was it that Dolly wrote and sang with this song that's going to be her legacy. So we've all got a little bit of time to wait, but in 2045, we'll find out.

Well, you know, Megan, here in Nashville, it really hits close to home. I can say I have a Dolly Parton license plate. She does. There's not a lot of stars that get a license plate, not just for her music, not just for her acting and her wonderful personality, but also for what she did for the people of Appalachia and the South that, you know, every time disaster hit, Dolly was there contributing money to Western North Carolina after weather disasters. She was. was obviously, you know, very involved in literacy and starting the imagination library to give kids free books because her father couldn't read and write. And so she said that was very important to her because he was a smart man and she always said, I don't know what he could have done if

he had been able to read. And so literacy was a huge cause to her. And I think that is another thing that makes her so beloved. She picked causes that everyone is invested in that weren't divisive and that brought Americans together. And so I really think, you know, that should be the legacy that we remember of Dolly. Absolutely, one of a kind. Megan, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of our Daily Wire subscribers. To enjoy the show, ad free and join our mission, become a member at DailyWire.com. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know. What if a few minutes with God could change the direction of your entire day? With pray.com, you can begin each morning with powerful daily.

prayers, inspiring Bible stories, and messages created to strengthen your faith. Whether you need peace, encouragement, or a fresh start, pray.com helps you make prayer part of your everyday life. Download the pray.com app today.