(Wednesday) Morning Run: Dolly COD, Storm “Dolly,” Man Kills 8 Family Members, Last Day for Lindsay Clancy, Kennedy Center “Taken Down, Ghislaine Denied, Serena Loses, & MORE!

00:00:11
Speaker 1: Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Morning Run. It is Wednesday, August 26th. I'm Amy Robach.

00:00:18
Speaker 2: The day that will forever be remembered, certainly in my life, Robach, as the first day of my life that I lived without Dolly Parton. Isn't that crazy?

00:00:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: Our whole lives we've known Dolly Parton.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: She's been around. She's been, oh my goodness.

00:00:32
Speaker 2: It's weird to think.

00:00:33
Speaker 1: We've been listening to her music. And I even said, I want to watch 9 to 5. What a great film. But God, she was good. And you know what the cool thing is? Even though she's gone, she is still with us because she lives on in her art and in our hearts.

00:00:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a rare one. She's a rare bird. Nobody, this isn't, she was not polarizing, right? There's no one side is saying this or she was ours. There's no politics. She was everybody's. Who else do we have like that? they could pass and we would all collectively feel the same and not, I don't know. She's a rare artist and entertainer. She's some, it's unbelievable.

00:01:15
Speaker 1: You make such a good point. Who else could you say didn't offend anyone? And if there was any kind of controversy, she brought everyone together. She found a way to make you feel like she cared about you, no matter what you looked like, no matter where you came from, no matter who you voted for.

00:01:31
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of another. Weirdly, he's not the same level of legendary. Like Will Ferrell. We kind of just like him. He's our goofy guy. We know him and like him. They're just rare. Even the biggest stars will Dwayne Johnson has people that hate him for some reason, right? Sorry, The Rock, I didn't mean to throw you into this.

00:01:51
Speaker 1: Because he's like one of the nicest guys you and I both know.

00:01:53
Speaker 2: But still, she's just rare. And it was a weird moment yesterday. I say weird. We will certainly always remember. I can ask people right now, where were you when you heard Michael Jackson died? Most of you listening could say so. And we happen to have a weird experience, Robes, and we will never forget where we were when we heard the news.

00:02:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. We were walking into the U.S. Open in Flushing, Queens when we heard the news and our hearts stopped. It was just one of those moments where you thought, oh no, we were afraid. She gave us little nuggets of information, but nothing to alarm us. But still, I think most of us were concerned that she was not headed in the right direction health-wise.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: But we all thought things were being delayed or canceled or put off or I can't make it to this one. I said to you this morning, she was so maternal in how she took care of all of us. Does any parent, do you ever want your kids to know how much pain you're in, how difficult it is, how dangerous an upcoming situation might be? No, you always want them to feel better. She did that for all of us.

00:02:58
Speaker 1: She protected us from her own health condition.

00:03:02
Speaker 2: It's unreal. So, yes, we're walking in. We had to make the announcement to the U.S. Open crowd yesterday. We happened to be there for an event, and we had to go on stage. And it wasn't the plan, but we had to change up everything we were going to do and go, guys, we got to let you know. And this whole crowd of U.S. Open folks, we broke the news to them yesterday. They hadn't heard.

00:03:21
Speaker 1: I know because we felt like you couldn't start talking. We had a whole plan about a love story to New York, basically, and then to not acknowledge what we just all found out felt wrong. So. Yes, we shared the news, and it was collectively felt. I think you could hear everyone, their hearts just sank a little bit.

00:03:42
Speaker 2: So we do, and we'll get into this in just a moment, but they did let us know her cause of death. We'll explain that in just a moment. But yes, we've got a lot to get to on this morning run. We'll be making stops, of course, in Nashville. Also a stop in Montana. We'll swing by the Kennedy Center as well, while we still can, apparently. Also... make a stop in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, along the U.S.-Canada border, as well as South Carolina, Texas, and yes, at the U.S. Open. But Robes, several statements yesterday, the initial one came from her nephew, right, making this, the nephew who put out the initial statement that she had passed. But we heard from her reps later in a statement, Robes, telling us what her cause of death was.

00:04:22
Speaker 1: Yes, we learned that Dolly died after a brief battle with cancer. This was her Statement from her reps, our beloved Dolly Parton spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched. Her unmatched generosity reached the lives of countless people whom she would never meet, yet she was always there to offer a helping hand. Whether it be the hundreds of millions of books donated through her invaluable imagination library or funding research that helped create a life-saving vaccine used around the world, Dolly's unconditional love for all people was the guiding force for her lasting impact. After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her earthly life today at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center, surrounded by loved ones.

00:05:16
Speaker 2: It's been a hell of a few days and a week just of Roe's deaths and birthdays and anniversaries and things, and we just lost Dolly Parton. I mean, is there a bigger entertainer we could lose? I didn't see it live yesterday here in New York, but apparently I saw the video of it. Empire State Building was pink.

00:05:34
Speaker 1: That's amazing.

00:05:34
Speaker 2: It would have been cool if they could have thrown a big rhinestone up there. But that was the coolest line, and it sounded like one she wrote, that she wants to lay on a bed of cotton now because she's been uncomfortable in rhinestones lately. Her whole life.

00:05:45
Speaker 1: Yes. Her nephew said that she had planned this. She asked him years ago to do this for her when she did pass. And I just what. Yes, she planned it out. She wanted there to even be some levity in her announcement of in the announcement of her death.

00:06:00
Speaker 2: Every single health update she gave. Had a couple of jokes in there. Had a couple of lines. It was fantastic. Of course, we know the half staff, the flags will be flown all week at half staff around the country. The president ordered that. Star on the Walk of Fame in Dollywood and her home, of course, in Tennessee all have memorials and folks stopping by. At this point. And then here's another ropes to add to. What do you make of this?

00:06:22
Speaker 1: This is wild.

00:06:23
Speaker 2: This is weird.

00:06:24
Speaker 1: I don't know. I feel like this is, you know what? We said Dolly, Dolly had a sense of humor. Oh my. Like none other. I feel like this is the universe confirming that or just giving us one little last.

00:06:34
Speaker 2: This is odd.

00:06:34
Speaker 1: Laugh. Hopefully as long as this doesn't wreak any havoc, but the next tropical storm or hurricane that develops in the Atlantic, guess what? The name of that storm is going to be again, pure coincidence. Dolly. What the actual, huh?

00:06:51
Speaker 2: In a matter of days, we could have a literal hurricane dolly somewhere.

00:06:55
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Now, I don't know, but because aren't we in an El Nino year I've been seeing so much about, so it doesn't seem as though these storms are supposed to hit the U.S. coastline. We're supposed to be spared that at least because of the way the waters are. Now, I don't want to say that and then something catastrophic happens, but that would be about right.

00:07:14
Speaker 2: What are the chances? And I think a lot of people saw this and may have Jump to the conclusion, wow, they're going to honor her this way? That's weird. No, these things, these are on six-year rotations, and they do them in alphabetical order every year. They give us an official list. We just had, what, Cristobal was the last one? Up next on the list is Dolly.

00:07:33
Speaker 1: So when I first saw the story, I too thought that they were doing it, and I was like, wait, that'd be a weird way to honor someone, to name a storm after you. So yeah, this is pure Dolly. Coincidence.

00:07:43
Speaker 2: We'll see what happens with that. All right, we'll turn to some other news now, and we can absolutely not believe we are talking about this again, and this has happened again. A man in Montana killed eight family members, including four children, before taking his own life. Rose? This is, well, we were saying it's happening once a month. This is once a week now lately we have seen this.

00:08:03
Speaker 1: Or every couple of days. I don't know. And we have done several stories. We'll do more on this one because this is now becoming an epidemic. This one happened on Sunday near Billings, Montana. We're just now. learning about this, but according to the Associated Press, yes, a man opened fire on his family at Sunday dinner, and he took out four generations of his own family, a woman and her four kids, ages 7, 12, 13, and 15.

00:08:32
Speaker 2: So that was his sister then. So this is this guy's sister is the woman.

00:08:36
Speaker 1: So his sister and his four nieces and nephews, as well as His grandparents and his great-grandmother, who was in her 90s?

00:08:50
Speaker 2: What is happening? More details to come on this. We haven't gotten a lot from authorities yet on this, but they do have family members that are talking to places like the AP, but they said this guy had been recently told by family he needed to move out. He needs to get out of the house. And whatever happens, Sunday dinner, he goes in and opens fire ropes. Eight folks are dead, including his sister, his, like you said, niece and nephews, his own parents, and then his grandmother are among the dead here.

00:09:15
Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness.

00:09:17
Speaker 2: So, yeah, the kid's there. It was their great-grandmother who's in her 90s and in a wheelchair.

00:09:21
Speaker 1: My goodness.

00:09:22
Speaker 2: More to come on this, but we have had just a string robes of, they call them familicides. We're going to get more familiar with that number. We've had 22 mass killings in this country this year. Fifteen of them were family-related. And they say, Robes, that is a higher proportion than we're used to seeing.

00:09:39
Speaker 1: Okay, because we knew something was going on. Something is different.

00:09:41
Speaker 2: Numbers are backing it up, baby.

00:09:43
Speaker 1: And because we knew it. Look, we cover these types of stories. We're always reporting on this kind of thing. And we have never seen it in this quantity, this concentrated. All right, next up on the run, today is expected to be the last day of testimony in the Lindsay Clancy Triple. murder trial. The Massachusetts mom who admits to strangling her three young children has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, specifically postpartum psychosis, and that has been the central point of this entire trial.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, five-week trial, but in the past certainly several days and even week, it has been the battle of the experts. So the prosecution has been putting up rebuttal witnesses this week, experts who are testifying that Clancy, in their opinion, was not in psychosis and knew right from wrong when she killed the kids. We had another abrupt end to the day yesterday after an objection from Kevin Reddington, the defense attorney. He just got frustrated and just, I don't know what was going on with that last psychiatrist who was up, but he was meandering and he had a long pause. He seemed like he had no idea what he was talking about. And that was the objection. And then they closed for the day.

00:10:50
Speaker 1: It was a little bizarre end, but we're going to get more. The psychiatrist will wrap the testimony this morning and then we will possibly have one more rebuttal witness. But we do believe this is the final one by all accounts. Obviously, the prosecution can do what it wants to do. But this is the last one we have been told about. And the judge did tell jurors he joked that his His predictions about what may happen have not proven to be correct, but he did predict that closing arguments should happen as soon as tomorrow, Thursday.

00:11:23
Speaker 2: They probably roll their eyes like we do, jokingly, but it's been kind of a mess of a trial. Sometimes things keep coming up, and every time he says it's going to be one thing. It ends up something else, and it's kind of out of his hands, but I like this judge.

00:11:35
Speaker 1: I do, too. I do, too.

00:11:36
Speaker 2: All right, continuing on the run here now. President Trump looking to change the name of another body of water. First, we have, well, yeah, I forget. It's the Gulf of America.

00:11:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get it right. Is it, though?

00:11:46
Speaker 2: Okay, but Lake America. It actually sounds cool.

00:11:49
Speaker 1: Lake America.

00:11:49
Speaker 2: Lake America does sound good.

00:11:51
Speaker 1: Right, but I don't know. Is it Great Lake? It just.

00:11:54
Speaker 2: Lake America.

00:11:55
Speaker 1: Okay.

00:11:55
Speaker 2: My problem with it is that we're stealing the name of another lake that I like.

00:11:58
Speaker 1: Right. So Trump has threatened to change the name of Lake Ontario amid his escalating tariff war with Canada. So he wrote this on Truth Social. The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don't expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump.

00:12:21
Speaker 2: And then, of course, he posted an AI-altered map showing the Lake Ontario name crossed out with Lake America in a larger gold-colored font. On top has an American flag. Canada's industry minister gave a blunt response to Trump's post, saying Canada would always call it Lake Ontario and would stand up for the Great Lakes. We're fighting over Great Lakes. Yes.

00:12:41
Speaker 1: Well, in the meantime, Canada is standing up for itself when it comes to Trump's newly announced 50% tariffs with... retaliatory tariffs of its own. Yes, let the games begin. Our neighbors to the north announced 50% tariffs on U.S. products, including steel and aluminum goods, dairy and paper products, as well as furniture and clothing.

00:13:02
Speaker 2: These will go into effect on the 8th of September. Prime Minister says its tariffs will match the U.S. tariffs, dollar for dollar, rate for rate. They are our second biggest exporting trading partner after Mexico. that actually makes sense.

00:13:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to have significant impact on just about everybody. I just, if we're both doing tit for tat, what's the point?

00:13:21
Speaker 2: You know, I heard a great comment from someone yesterday, I want to give him credit, but he was a political commentator. The question about the real beef between America and Canadians, we like each other just fine. The citizens, this is not hurting the relationship and what we feel about Canadians or what they feel about Americans. This is just the politics of it all. So That kind of made me feel good. We don't have any animus towards Canadians.

00:13:45
Speaker 1: We just spent a week there days ago and had a blast.

00:13:49
Speaker 2: And were received well every time we said we were married. Yes.

00:13:52
Speaker 1: All right. Next up on the run. For the first time in 35 years, Pennsylvania officials have announced two of its residents have died from the measles, and those deaths also mark the first deaths from measles in the United States this year. Officials have not released the names or ages of the residents, but... but said, yes, they were not fully vaccinated. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is pointing the finger squarely at Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr., calling his vaccine messaging confusing and harmful.

00:14:24
Speaker 2: Anybody call him Secretary Kennedy? It's always RFK, RFK Jr. I don't know.

00:14:28
Speaker 1: It seems weird.

00:14:29
Speaker 2: Shapiro told reporters he spoke with Kennedy and told him the rhetoric coming from the administration was having a negative impact on communities across the country.

00:14:37
Speaker 1: R.P.K. Jr.

00:14:37
Speaker 2: Has said the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine. He also falsely said vaccines were not safety tested.

00:14:46
Speaker 1: So it's like mixed messaging. So like, sure, this is the best way to prevent measles, but.

00:14:50
Speaker 2: Do it at your own risk.

00:14:52
Speaker 1: And so, yes, people who are already vaccine-averse are now given basically a validation that maybe they're dangerous and maybe we shouldn't give these to our kids. And that is contributing to these rising measles numbers because right now, Pennsylvania has 393 confirmed cases, and the U.S. has the most measles cases in any year since 1991. I think it was last week the CDC confirmed 2,777 confirmed cases, and we still have many, many months to go.

00:15:23
Speaker 2: All right. Well, folks, stay with us here on this. Wednesday? Is it Wednesday?

00:15:28
Speaker 1: It's Wednesday.

00:15:28
Speaker 2: On this Wednesday morning run, when we come back, you better get to the Kennedy Center as quickly as you can, because the Trump administration is threatening to tear the damn thing down. Seriously. Also coming up, Lindsey Graham's little sister had a big night last night in South Carolina. Ghislaine Maxwell had a very bad day, to be expected. Also, did you know there was a law that bans drag shows in Texas? A major ruling on that just came, and Serena, well, she had a Big comeback to the U.S. Open. Didn't last long.

00:16:09
Speaker 1: Welcome back to your Wednesday morning run. Oh, we didn't say hump day. No? Okay. All right. Next up on the run, the Trump administration threatening to tear down the Kennedy Center. Yes, demolish it unless he can put his name on the building. This is insane. The administration is actually arguing in a court filing that in order to move forward with its plans for much needed renovations, they have to raise additional funds. And the only way they can do that is to have Trump's name on the building. Really? Seriously? As they put it, without these efforts, the center will deteriorate further and be required to be taken down.

00:16:47
Speaker 2: They're making the argument that people will only donate if they see his name. They're making this argument that only he can raise the funds, and the way he has to do this is people need to know his name is on the building.

00:16:58
Speaker 1: Isn't that?

00:17:00
Speaker 2: That's remarkable. Yes, that's the argument that's being made, but Robes, what it comes off like is... I'm not going to help unless I can put my name on the building.

00:17:08
Speaker 1: That's exactly what's happened.

00:17:09
Speaker 2: Dammit. The Justice Department went on in the filing to say, quote, the board underscores the undisputed evidence demonstrates that without the prominent recognition of the Trump administration and President Trump's efforts, the donors will not contribute and the center will continue to be in a financial and structural death spiral. This is the line.

00:17:26
Speaker 1: The line, this last line is insane.

00:17:29
Speaker 2: Quote, the Trump administration... And President Donald J. Trump should, therefore, be given the respect and dignity of acknowledgement.

00:17:39
Speaker 1: Respect and dignity.

00:17:41
Speaker 2: This is a memorial to a president that we saw shot, that we all learned. And you're telling me that the respect and dignity belongs to Donald Trump for this guy's memorial? Babe, what are we doing with this?

00:17:57
Speaker 1: It's delusional, and the fact that no one's calling him out for it is mind-blowing.

00:18:01
Speaker 2: So they actually propose possibly putting an amphitheater there, babe. In fact, to tear it down, we'll put just an amphitheater. That'll be cheaper. I don't know what's going on. There is a hearing for this on Thursday to decide which direction to go now. By the way, the tarp is still up. They don't want the world to see that his name is down. They don't want the world to see that it's still the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center.

00:18:22
Speaker 1: Honestly, this is just embarrassing. That's how I look at it. But anyway, moving on in the political world here, Lindsey Graham's little sister won a special election last night and will now officially be the Republican nominee for the November general election.

00:18:36
Speaker 2: She's like 62, but she is his little sister.

00:18:38
Speaker 1: Right? Always, always his little sister. Darlene Graham was initially appointed to serve out the remainder of Lindsey Graham's term after he suddenly passed in July, but then she decided to run for a full term, so she now has secured the Republican nomination and will face Democrat Annie Andrews. Good luck, Annie, because... Yeah. I think Darlene's got this.

00:18:59
Speaker 2: Pretty red state. Continuing on the run here now. Nice try, Ghislaine. That was essentially the response from a federal judge who rejected Jeffrey Epstein, associate Ghislaine Maxwell's bid to vacate her conviction. Five counts, I think it was. Felony counts. She's in prison for 20 years, but she was given another shot here, Robes.

00:19:15
Speaker 1: Yes, Maxwell was trying to argue that the information that was released in those Epstein files shed some new light on her case, but I love what the judge had to say to her. And I was like, thank you, judge. I can already hear all of the Epstein victims who have all called out Ghislaine Maxwell clapping in unison here. The judge said that the recently released Epstein files are largely irrelevant to the charges against Maxwell and don't support her claims. On the contrary... It incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings. Amen.

00:19:49
Speaker 2: Okay, he did not stop there. He called her claims, quote, frivolous, also, quote, demonstrably meritless. He even called her long and meandering in her filing. And finally, Robes, just to put a button on this, he refused to certify the case for appeal. She asked for that. Like, even if you reject it, can you at least certify that I can do this on appeal? He said no, wouldn't certify, saying there's not even a substantial argument to waste any more court time. She's kind of out of options. Trump might be it.

00:20:18
Speaker 1: All right, she just needs to stay club fed and keep her mouth shut. All right, next up on the run, a judge has struck down the so-called drag show ban in Texas. Yeah, didn't know this was in place. That is so sad. They don't know what they're missing. Yeah.

00:20:35
Speaker 2: You know what? That's a good point. No matter what you think. If you can't go to a drag show and be entertained. Come on.

00:20:40
Speaker 1: You can't tell me that that isn't fun. And if you've never tried it, don't speak on it.

00:20:44
Speaker 2: We have favorite drag queens. I mean, Jacqueline Hyde is my favorite drag.

00:20:49
Speaker 1: Come to New York. go to the West Village, you will find a drag show, and you will come out in a better mood. A 2023 law put restrictions on drag shows and called for fines for places that host drag shows and even charges for performers. This is just sad.

00:21:07
Speaker 2: They passed this in 2023, so it's been caught up for years. They've been fighting over it, Robes, and it went into place for a little while, then it got struck down, so it's been held up. So finally, this is supposed to be the definitive argument The law has been tied up, like we said. So the judge now is saying this is unconstitutional and this should be it, Robes. This was a 34 or 35 page ruling. On the next to last page at the very bottom, Robes, this is the very last opinion he gave to wrap it up. He said, quote, finally, for those who find such activities as described in this case offensive, the solution is relatively simple. Just don't go.

00:21:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know why people want to legislate what they think is right or wrong on other people when they're just having fun. You're literally telling people they can't dress how they want to dress or wear makeup they want to wear.

00:22:02
Speaker 2: They make an argument that it's some way deteriorating society, that it's some kind of way contributing to it, so we need to get this out of there. And there was something in the law about you couldn't certainly perform if there was anybody under 18 that was on the premises.

00:22:15
Speaker 1: They might catch the disease and drag. I mean, what is that all about? Okay, well, thank God at least a judge had some sense. Next up on the run, Serena's US Open is over, and this is the final leg of our run. Say it ain't so. She returned to this year's Open after a four-year absence, but instead of playing singles, she chose to play in mixed doubles with the world number three, Carlos Alcaraz.

00:22:40
Speaker 2: Sound like they would be a pretty good duo, but they got bounced. Mixed doubles and doubles is a different skill set, so... Um, he was the one that's kind of rusty. He's, uh, been actually dealing with some injuries, so he's making his way back. He admitted he was rusty. I think he double faulted on the first serve of the game or something. Uh, but yeah, she's out now. Don't think there was some talk of her possibly doing, uh, doubles with her sister, but don't know about that. She's not doing singles, but, uh, but yeah, they won their first match, but then they lost yesterday. A match that was, wow. We had an eventful. It really was open yesterday.

00:23:12
Speaker 1: Yes.

00:23:13
Speaker 2: It was such a gorgeous day. It was a gorgeous day.

00:23:16
Speaker 1: Perfect day. All right. And for your quote of the day on this Wednesday, instead of asking, what do I need to be happy? Ask yourself, what can I appreciate right now without needing anything to change?

00:23:31
Speaker 2: What can I appreciate right now? So what is your answer to that? What can you appreciate right now with not needing anything to change?

00:23:36
Speaker 1: That I get to sit across from you and have the fun banter I love.

00:23:40
Speaker 2: You told me a couple days ago you need me to change a lot about myself.

00:23:45
Speaker 1: I'm very happy to be sitting here with you.

00:23:47
Speaker 2: After I made the changes.

00:23:50
Speaker 1: Stop! I didn't say anything about changes right now. I'm looking at you and I'm smiling and I'm happy. How about you? What can you appreciate right now?

00:23:58
Speaker 2: That my left... Achilles doesn't hurt.

00:24:01
Speaker 1: That's amazing. How about that moon this morning?

00:24:04
Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh.

00:24:05
Speaker 1: We had the most beautiful moon. That was one of the benefits of getting up at, for me, 4 a.m., because I got to see this gorgeous, huge, low-hanging moon. It was like a Halloween moon.

00:24:14
Speaker 2: I had been looking at it for two hours by the time you saw it.

00:24:17
Speaker 1: I came running in going, did you see the moon? Did you see the moon?

00:24:20
Speaker 2: I did, baby. It was quite a while ago. No, really, the whole open area there was lit up when I came out.

00:24:26
Speaker 1: Gorgeous. All right. So there's always something to appreciate. And with that, everyone... Thank you for listening to us. I'm Amy Robach.

00:24:32
Speaker 2: And I'm TJ Holmes. We'll run soon.