Morning Wire - Violence Engulfs Mexico & Britain’s Epstein Reckoning | 2.24.26

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

With help from the U.S., Mexican special forces killed longtime Jalisco Cartel leader “El Mencho,” sparking violence across 20 Mexican states, President Trump will deliver the annual State of the Union address tonight, and another high-profile name is arrested in the U.K. over their connection to Jeffrey Epstein. - - - Ep. 2648 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: Lean - Get 20% off when you enter code WIRE at https://TakeLean.com Vanta - Get started at https://Vanta.com/MORNINGWIRE - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning 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

The Halisco cartel declares war on the Mexican government after their leader is taken out. These are not drug cartels. These are terrorists and they've been designated. And that's why they're scrambling now at levels that we really haven't seen. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, February 24th, and this is Morning Wire. President Trump takes to the stage tonight for his State of the Union while Democrats gear up to voice their dissent. This is not business as usual. I will not give him the audience he craves for the lies that he tells.

And the Epstein files lead to another high-profile arrest in the UK, the former ambassador to the U.S. His nickname was the Prince of Darkness. So there was always something of the night about him. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. No, it's not your imagination.

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So, Tim, this exploded all over social media on Sunday. There was chaos and violence across Mexico as the cartel struck back at the Mexican government. Many Americans are still trapped in the country. What do we need to know about what happened? Right. The first point to note is that El Minchot is maybe the most powerful drug lord in the world. This was a major step by Mexico and a big win for the United States as well. Groups like the Halisco cartel are responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans a year through the drug trade. The second point is that, like you said, there are many Americans essentially trapped in Mexico right now because the violence has closed down roads and airports. And at least a couple dozen Mexican National Guardsmen have been killed so far in the fighting.

But so far, we haven't seen any reports of Americans directly caught up in it, and we hope it stays that way. Now, President Trump has taken a pretty aggressive stance toward these drug cartels, labeling them as terror organizations and leaning on Mexico through tariffs and other measures to really take action against them. Did that pressure play into this operation? Yeah, well, first credit for the operation has to go to the Mexican government and the special forces that carried it out. But to your point, the United States did play a role in the operation. and also in pushing the Mexican government to be more aggressive in fighting the cartels. Morningwire spoke to former DEA acting administrator Derek Malts about it. Maltz led the DEA Special Operations Division for a decade before he retired and is an expert on the drug trade that has flooded the U.S.

And he said that this is an unmistakable signal to cartels that President Trump is serious about taking them out. Recently in January, 37 high-level operatives were removed from Mexico to the United States, and this is because of the leadership of not only our president, but President Scheinbaum and Omar Hafouche down there, the security director. So this kind of activity is not being reported enough for people to understand that this is sustained activity, relentless work being done.

And Maltz says it's that kind of relentless effort that is necessary to combat these drug cartels. Aside from the actual military aspect of it, Maltz said that the United States should invest more in educating Americans about the dangers of the cartels products, everything from marijuana and its synthetics to fentanyl, cocaine, and meth. Now, there's been an explosion of violence in the past 48 hours in 20 of Mexico's 31 states. It's been reported there are at least 250 narco blockades. Those are cars or buses

set in flames to block traffic. How likely is it that President Trump sends in American military to assist? Right, but it's worth keeping in perspective that the Mexican government, does have a lot of experience dealing with the cartels. And according to Malts, as long as the Mexican government continues to cooperate to the extent that it is, he doesn't foresee any direct U.S. military involvement, though the U.S. will continue to support these operations like it has been. This administration, knowing the important partnership that we have with the Mexican government, that this administration is very experienced, especially with the State Department as well with Marco Rubio, they're actually going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

They're going to watch their actions, not their words. And right now, we're seeing really good activity. That said, this is new territory in some respects for the war against these cartels. And it's always possible that the violence could lead to major problems. Here's Maltz on what he thinks will happen after this latest operation. My instinct is telling me that it's going to be contained. It's going to obviously be in pockets of areas that these cartels. are kind of running wild in right now.

I think that Mexico has a lot of experience over the years in dealing with this type of violence and aggression. But I would say the one thing that is a little different now, people have to remember that our president declared these cartels as terrorists and they're going to be going after them like we have never done before in the history of America. So that obviously is going to potentially increase some of the violence. Well, it's worth reiterating the enormous damage.

these groups have done to not just Mexico, but Americans. Tim, thanks for reporting. Good to be on. This episode is sponsored by Brickhouse Nutrition. You've probably heard about those weight loss injections that everyone's been talking about. And for good reason. The results can be pretty incredible. They work by helping regulate blood sugar and keeping your appetite in check.

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Let's get you started with 20% off and free rush shipping so you can add Lean to your healthy diet and exercise plan. Visit TakeLean.com and enter Wire for your discount. That's promo code wire at takelein.com today. President Trump will speak to the nation tonight as he delivers the annual state of the union address,

a speech that's sure to garner wall-to-wall coverage and protests from his critics. Here to discuss is DailyWire's White House correspondent, Mary Margaret O'Lahan morning. So you're going to be part of Daily Wire's live coverage tonight. I should note that. First, give us a preview. What should we expect from the president tonight?

Well, good morning, you too. And yes, I will be live from the Capitol this evening. As we know, the president is very aware of the victories of his administration, and we're guessing tonight that he'll be focused heavily on his economic wins, on his progress securing the border, deporting illegal immigrants, ending almost 10 wars, reassessing his foreign victories and his relationships with foreign dignitaries all over the world, cleaning up American cities, making our city safer, championing American workers, strengthening the United States military, making it far less woke, Maha wins, and so much more.

He's going to be focused on all of this, and he's predicted that his remarks will be pretty lengthy, and I think we can guess that he will be accurate in his assessment. Yeah, we're all prepping for a very long night as well. So an exhausting list of topics that he'll likely dive into like we usually see with these so-toos, what do you think his main focus will be? Yeah, so I'm predicting the president is going to be very heavily focused

on his handling of the immigration crisis. As we know, John and Georgia, we haven't seen illegals coming across our border in many months now. What we've seen is many, many deportations. Obviously, this has led to what some would call a crisis in Minneapolis, Minnesota, prompting Tom Homan to head out there and deal with the mess. But he has, in fact, dealt with this very adeptly. And Trump officials are very happy with him. And on Monday morning at the White House, the president hosted a number of angel families. Not only do these families have these tragic stories to share highlighting the dangers of illegal immigration, but they also are strong supporters of the president and his agenda.

Laura Wilkerson, for example, she shared the story of her son's traumatic murder in 2010 at the hands of an illegal immigrant and how the president treated her in the wake of that murder. Here's a little bit of what she had to say. As I told him the story of how our youngest son Joshua was brutally beaten, tortured, strangled to death. and his body set on fire. The man next to me was President Trump. He never, ever looked away from my pain. He looked me straight in the eye, and he said, I will never forget the story of your sweet son,

and I will never give up fighting for the American family. Members of the president's comms team were very quick to point out the media outlets that weren't covering this event. They were very strongly criticizing CNN, for example. And we can guess that tonight, during the State of the Union coverage, they'll be very happy that the president will have the attention

of pretty much every network in the country, if not the world, to talk about these issues as well. Now, the Democrats have planned to counter-programmed tonight's events, and we're expecting some protests as well. What exactly do Trump's critics have in mind tonight? Yes, so a number of House and Senate Democrats

plan to skip the State of the Union and host their own program on the National Mall. They're calling it the People's State of the Union. It's hosted by two liberal groups, move on, civic action, and the far-left media group Midas Touch. And the program itself will actually be hosted by Joy Reid and another liberal TV commentator, Katie Fang. But we do know that there's other Democrats that do want to be in the room.

One of those Democrats is Ilhan Omar. So she's bringing two guests to the state of the union. Both of them were detained by ICE in Minnesota. And one of them is a woman that was depicted in a viral video. There were some concerns that if too many Democrats skipped, then Trump wouldn't have any dissenters in the crowd. And of course, the Democrats would not like that. No, they certainly would not. Meanwhile, hope you've rested up for tonight.

It's going to be a long one. Thanks so much for reporting. Thanks for having me. Former UK ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson, was arrested Monday over suspicion of misconduct in office. The charges stem from newly released Jeffrey Epstein Files. Joining us now to discuss this latest Epstein fallout is Bev Turner, host of the Late Show Live on G. Bev, thanks for coming on. My pleasure.

Thank you. So first, what exactly are these claims against Mandelson? So Lord Mandelson, as you know until recently, was the ambassador here in Washington, D.C., where I am a massive job. Now he's being potentially, he hasn't been charged, we have to be careful, but he's arrested under the idea that he might be charged with misconducts in public office. So acting in a way that was not in the interest of the country whilst being paid by the taxpayer. And it is a very serious allegation. And we know this is because of the Epstein files and the idea that he was giving confidential information to Jeffrey Epstein in terms of government policy or financial information that might have benefited the markets or benefited Epstein. We don't know if it benefited Madison personally. It is a big old mess. And he's been arrested in London now and will be investigated. Now, what would the consequence of this be if he were found guilty? It genuinely carries a risk of life imprisonment if you are found guilty of misconduct in public office.

It's an incredibly serious charge. A lot of people have been waiting for this, to be honest, George, whether he was going to be arrested. And in some sense, it looks like the UK is moving even more quickly than America when it comes to the Epstein files. in fact, much more quickly than America. You know, you had Les Wexner from Victoria's Secret having the overhouse committee go to visit him. I think it was in Ohio to ask him some questions on the record. But nobody's actually been arrested here in the States.

And so it does look like, to some degree, the UK is acting more swiftly. We've had Prince Andrew arrested, question for 10 hours and then released. That doesn't mean he won't be charged. It just means that the Crown Prosecution Service, the police officers are trying to work out what that charge might be and how much evidence there might be to take that case forward. And it will probably be similar in the case of Mandelson. There'll be a huge amount of digging to do. I mean, we see any of us who've dipped

into the Epstein files. There is so much in there. I don't know how as investigating officers, you can give the man hours that will be required for this, but they're certainly trying in the UK. Now, when it comes to Prince Andrew, he actually, of course, was arrested on pretty similar charges. But in his case, there was a lot more going on with him personally in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Are there similar allegations against Mandelson at this point? At the time, at this moment, it's very hard to know. We very much lack a transparency in the UK that you have here in the States. A lot of our investigations, all of them, are done behind closed door. It's only when the police may feel they can issue a statement that they will or when the royal family will issue a statement or the government will issue a statement. We did have an emergency statement this afternoon from Darren Jones. He's the chief secretary to the prime minister.

And he basically said we are going to cooperate with the police as the government. We're going to cooperate in both of these investigations into Mandelson and into Prince Andrew. And at the moment it's very difficult to know what will happen next in relation to these two individuals. the welcome reception for the new British ambassador in D.C. This is the official welcome of, if you like, the new Peter Mandelson. Of course, he would absolutely dispute that they have anything in common. He's an apolitical appointment, but it's an important job in this town. And of course, events may be slightly overshadowed by the arrest of Lord Mandelson, former Lord Mandelson, because of course he's lost that title. All right, well, Bev, thank you so much for coming on today.

My pleasure. Thanks for waking up with us and for those listening to the show. You can also now Watch the show free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.