Violence Engulfs Mexico & Britain’s Epstein Reckoning | 2.24.26

Summary

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Morning Wire Podcast Summary

Episode: Violence Engulfs Mexico & Britain’s Epstein Reckoning

Date: February 24, 2026
Hosts: John Bickley, Georgia Howe
Notable Guests: Derek Maltz (former DEA Acting Administrator), Mary Margaret Olihan (White House Correspondent), Bev Turner (GB News)

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Overview

This episode centers on two headline stories:

1. The eruption of cartel violence in Mexico following the assassination of the Jalisco cartel leader, with widespread implications for U.S.–Mexico relations and drug policy.
2. The ripple effects of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal in Britain, including the arrest of former U.K. Ambassador Peter Mandelson.

Through insightful interviews and expert commentary, the hosts shed light on the geopolitical, social, and legal ramifications of these developments.

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1. Chaos in Mexico After Cartel Leader’s Death

Segment Start: 02:36

Key Discussion Points

• Assassination of ‘El Mencho’
  • Jalisco cartel leader, ‘El Mencho,’ killed in a joint operation by U.S. and Mexican special forces.
  • "He was regarded as one of the most notorious drug traffickers in the world." — Mary Margaret Olihan (02:36)
• Escalation of Violence
  • Jalisco cartel retaliates, unleashing violence across 20 of Mexico’s 31 states.
  • American tourists and expatriates trapped as airports and roads are closed; at least two dozen Mexican National Guardsmen killed.
• U.S. and Mexican Cooperation
  • The operation credited in part to U.S. pressure and policy designating cartels as terrorist organizations, and ongoing operational and intelligence support.
  • "First credit... goes to the Mexican government and the special forces... but the United States did play a role in pushing the Mexican government to be more aggressive." — John Bickley (04:00)
• Expert Insight: Derek Maltz
  • Former DEA Special Operations chief discusses increasing U.S. involvement and the crucial strategy shift:
  • “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.” — Derek Maltz (00:39)
  • The U.S. removed 37 high-level operatives to the U.S. in January as part of this strategy.
    "This is sustained activity, relentless work being done." — Derek Maltz (04:32)
• Likelihood of U.S. Military Intervention
  • Despite the large-scale violence, direct U.S. military intervention is viewed as unlikely unless cooperation with Mexico collapses.
  • “As long as the Mexican government continues to cooperate... he doesn't foresee any direct U.S. military involvement, though the U.S. will continue to support these operations.” — John Bickley (05:35)
  • “They're going to watch their actions, not their words. And right now, we're seeing really good activity.” — Derek Maltz (05:54)
• Potential Outcomes
  • Maltz predicts the violence will be “contained... in pockets of areas,” though the new U.S. policy might provoke an uptick in short-term violence.
  • "We're going to be going after them like we have never done before..." — Derek Maltz (06:28)

Memorable Moments

• Detailed descriptions of narco blockades and infrastructure shutdowns paint a vivid picture of the chaos.
• Emphasis on Trump’s administration labeling cartels as terrorists and the impact of that on operational tempo.

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2. State of the Union: Preview and Political Tensions

Segment Start: 08:09

Key Discussion Points

• President Trump’s Address
  • Anticipation for an extensive State of the Union focusing on economic achievements, immigration management, foreign policy successes, and “cleaning up” American cities.
  • “He's going to be focused on all of this and he's predicted that his remarks will be pretty lengthy.” — Daily Wire Correspondent (08:31)
• Central Themes
  • Immigration crackdown highlighted; deportations up, illegal crossings reportedly down.
  • Trump's appeal to “angel families”—families of victims of crimes by illegal immigrants—expected to feature prominently.
• Notable Testimony
  • Laura Wilkerson recalling her son’s murder and Trump's response:
    • “He never, ever looked away from my pain. ...I will never give up fighting for the American family.” — Bev Turner, quoting Wilkerson (10:22)
• Opposition Response
  • Democrats staging a counter “People’s State of the Union” event.
  • Some Democratic lawmakers, like Ilhan Omar, will attend the State of the Union but bring guests with personal ties to immigration controversies.

Memorable Moments

• Direct contrast drawn between Trump’s messaging and the opposition’s efforts to offer alternative narratives.
• A sense of theatricality and tension around both events.

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3. Britain’s Epstein Reckoning: Arrest of Peter Mandelson

Segment Start: 12:30

Key Discussion Points

• Arrest of Former Ambassador Peter Mandelson
  • Mandelson arrested in London for alleged “misconduct in public office,” with charges relating to sharing confidential information with Jeffrey Epstein.
  • “It is a very serious allegation. ...the idea that he was giving confidential information to Jeffrey Epstein in terms of government policy or financial information.” — Bev Turner (13:06)
• Potential Penalties
  • Conviction could result in life imprisonment.
  • Comparison drawn to the slower pace of U.S. legal action on Epstein associates.
  • “In some sense, it looks like the UK is moving even more quickly than America when it comes to the Epstein files.” — Bev Turner (14:03)
• Comparison to Prince Andrew
  • Prince Andrew also arrested and questioned as part of the fallout; the investigations are largely happening behind closed doors in the UK.
  • Transparency in British investigations contrasted to U.S. proceedings.
• Political Fallout
  • The incoming ambassador’s reception in D.C. overshadowed by the news; Mandelson loses his title.
  • Ongoing uncertainty about further charges or revelations.

Memorable Moments

• “There was always something of the night about him.” — Bev Turner, on Mandelson's reputation (01:23)
• Observation on the immense scale of evidence involved in the Epstein files and challenges for investigators.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “These are not drug cartels. These are terrorists.”
  — Derek Maltz (00:39)
• “He never, ever looked away from my pain. ...I will never give up fighting for the American family.”
  — Bev Turner, quoting Laura Wilkerson (10:22)
• “There was always something of the night about him.”
  — Bev Turner (01:23)
• “In some sense, it looks like the UK is moving even more quickly than America when it comes to the Epstein files.”
  — Bev Turner (14:03)
• “We're going to be going after them like we have never done before in the history of America.”
  — Derek Maltz (06:28)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Mexico cartel violence & ‘El Mencho’: 02:36–07:10
• State of the Union address preview: 08:09–12:09
• Epstein files and UK arrests: 12:30–16:48

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Tone and Style

The episode maintains a brisk, urgent news tone typical of Morning Wire, pairing in-depth expert analysis with direct, at times emotive testimonies and first-person accounts. The hosts balance coverage of hard news with concise explanatory context, using clear, direct language and highlighting the implications for listeners both in America and abroad.

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End of Summary

Transcript

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[Georgia Howe]

The Jalisco cartel declares war on the Mexican government after their leader is taken out.

[Derek Maltz]

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.

[Georgia Howe]

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, February 24th, and this is Morning Wire.

[Mary Margaret Olihan]

President Trump takes to the stage tonight for his State of the Union while Democrats gear up to voice their dissent.

[John Bickley]

This is not business as usual.

[Daily Wire Correspondent]

I will not give him the audience

[Mary Margaret Olihan]

he craves for the lies that he tells.

[Georgia Howe]

And the Epstein files lead to another high profile arrest in the uk the former ambassador to the US his nickname

[Bev Turner]

was the Prince of Darkness, so there was always something of the night about him.

[Mary Margaret Olihan]

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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[Mary Margaret Olihan]

with help from the U.S. mexican Special Forces on Sunday killed the longtime Jalisco cartel leader known as El Mincho. With a US bounty of $15 million, he was regarded as one of the most notorious drug traffickers in the world.

[Georgia Howe]

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about what happened in Mexico over the weekend and what it means for Americans. 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?

[John Bickley]

Right. The first point to note is that El Mencho 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 Jalisco 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.

[Georgia Howe]

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?

[John Bickley]

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. Morning Wire spoke to former DEA Acting Administrator Derek Maltz 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 US and he said that this is an unmistakable signal to cartels that President Trump is serious about taking them out.

[Derek Maltz]

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 Sheinbaum 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.

[John Bickley]

And Malt says it's that kind of relentless effort that is necessary to combat these drug cartels, aside from the actual military aspect of it. Malt said that the United States should invest more in educating Americans about the dangers of the cartel's products, everything from marijuana and its synthetics to fentanyl, cocaine and meth.

[Georgia Howe]

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?

[John Bickley]

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 Maltz, as long as the Mexican government continues to cooperate to the extent that it is, he doesn't foresee any direct US Military involvement, though the US Will continue to support these operations like it has been.

[Derek Maltz]

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. They're going to watch their actions, not their words. And right now, we're seeing really good activity.

[John Bickley]

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.

[Derek Maltz]

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, we'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.

[Georgia Howe]

Well, it's worth reiterating the enormous damage these groups have done to not just Mexico, but Americans. Tim, thanks for reporting.

[Mary Margaret Olihan]

Good to be on.

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[Georgia Howe]

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.

[Mary Margaret Olihan]

Here to discuss is Daily Wire's White House correspondent, Mary Margaret Olihan. Morning. So you're going to be part of Daily Wire's live coverage tonight, I should note. Give us a preview. What should we expect from the president tonight?

[Daily Wire Correspondent]

Well, good morning, you two, 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 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, peace, 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.

[Mary Margaret Olihan]

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 Sotos. What do you think his main focus will be?

[Daily Wire Correspondent]

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 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

[Bev Turner]

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

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[Bev Turner]

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[Daily Wire Correspondent]

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 examp. 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.

[Mary Margaret Olihan]

Now, the Democrats have planned to counter program tonight's events and we're expecting some protests as well. What exactly do Trump's critics have in mind tonight?

[Daily Wire Correspondent]

Yeah, 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 in 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.

[Mary Margaret Olihan]

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.

[Daily Wire Correspondent]

Thanks for having me.

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[Georgia Howe]

Joining us now to discuss this latest Epstein fallout is Bev Turner, host of the Late show live on GB News. Bev, thanks for coming on.

[Bev Turner]

My pleasure. Thank you.

[Georgia Howe]

So, first, what exactly are these claims against Mandelson?

[Bev Turner]

So Lord Mandelson, as you know, until recently, was the ambassador here in Washington D.C. where I am. 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 interests 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.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, what would the consequence of this be if he were found guilty?

[Bev Turner]

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, questioned 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

[Georgia Howe]

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

[Bev Turner]

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 doors. 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 dc. 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.

[Georgia Howe]

All right, well, Bev, thank you so much for coming on today.

[Bev Turner]

My pleasure.

[Mary Margaret Olihan]

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.

[Bev Turner]

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