A mother to six children has raised concerns that the tragedy of Lindsay Clancy’s three young victims has been overshadowed by the growing public support for the mother now facing murder charges.

Lindsay Clancy, aged 36, stands accused of three first-degree murder charges related to the deaths of her three children—Cora, Dawson, and Callan—all under the age of six. They were found strangled at the family home in January 2023. As the prosecution concluded its case on Monday morning, Clancy’s defense began to argue that she suffered from postpartum psychosis when the tragic incident occurred.

Bethany Mandel, a conservative columnist and mother of six herself, expressed in an interview that she feels the focus has shifted away from the deceased children of Lindsay Clancy. She lamented that the names of Cora, Dawson, and Callan seem to be lost in the larger narrative.

“We all recognize her name,” Mandel highlighted, alluding to Lindsay Clancy. “But very few people remember the names of her children.”

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Particularly, Mandel was disturbed by the hundreds of people who stood outside the Plymouth Superior Court on Thursday in support of Lindsay Clancy. Those who have gathered in pink say the show of support is not an endorsement of what happened, but a stand for maternal mental health awareness and for mothers suffering from postpartum conditions.

LINDSAY CLANCY’S PARENTS GET MASSIVE GLOBAL DONOR SUPPORT AS FUNDRAISER SURPASSES $830K

“We don’t see any of them standing out there with a button with the three children’s faces on them. When you listen to interviews with all of the women who are standing out, they almost never mention the three child victims,” Mandel said.

A not-guilty verdict by reason of insanity would not result in Clancy’s release; instead, she would be committed to a state psychiatric hospital and subject to periodic reviews.

Just days after Lindsay Clancy killed her kids in January 2023, Patrick wrote on a GoFundMe page, “I want to ask all of you that you find it deep within yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I have…The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone – me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients.”

Jonathan Hatami, deputy district attorney in the complex child abuse section in the office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney also agreed that much of the conversation has been surrounding how Lindsay Clancy has conducted herself during the trial, not on her children who were killed.

“This shouldn’t be about the defendant even though it’s become that, it’s became this entire show about her, really should be about the victims and what the defendant did to those victims. And we try to do that in our trials and in our cases. And it seems like that’s gotten lost. In this specific case, and it’s really disappointing, and people don’t realize these children matter,” Hatami told News Media.

“These children died,” he added.

Expert witnesses called by both the defense and prosecution focused their Friday testimony on Lindsay Clancy’s mental state at the time she killed her children, specifically whether she was experiencing psychosis.

Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist and authority on filicide, said Lindsay Clancy was functioning for much of the day she killed her kids, even making a snowman with her children, until she suffered the hallucination and what he called a “delusion of influence,” feeling her body was taken over and out of her control and was feeling like a “puppet.”

Dr. Avram Mack, a child and forensic psychiatrist, a prosecution expert, said Lindsay Clancy’s actions on the day her children died were methodical and organized, stating she should be found criminally responsible for their deaths, directly rebutting the defense.

“My opinion is that she retained the capacity required for having criminal responsibility for these actions,” Mack testified.

Closing arguments could begin as soon as Monday or Tuesday before jurors begin deliberating in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky recently revealed disagreements with ousted Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, pointing out what he sees as missteps. Fedorov’s involvement in massive protests and his push for elections are, according to Zelensky, a miscalculation, marking the first time Zelensky has publicly aired their differences.

Zelensky also touched on complications regarding defense expenditures, mentioning that the Defense Ministry’s misleading information resulted in an uncomfortable moment with US President Donald Trump concerning the deployment of Starlink technology in Russia.

Further, Zelensky shared statistics highlighting Ukraine’s growing shortage of vital Patriot air-defense missiles. Western allies’ shipments have been dwindling over the past three years, creating a worrisome gap as Russia ramps up missile attacks.

Nonetheless, Zelensky pointed to battlefield successes, noting that Ukrainian troops have nearly reclaimed the entire Dnipropetrovsk region, with only a small area of approximately 4 square miles still under Russian control.

These insights were shared during a two-hour, off-the-record session with journalists on Saturday, though a transcript was made public by Sunday.

Zelensky’s first public comments on Fedorov dismissal

His comments ranged widely, covering the latest battlefield developments, efforts to counter Russian ballistic attacks, the state of peace negotiations, Ukraine’s budgetary challenges and the political turmoil surrounding Fedorov’s dismissal.

“I really had and still have a very positive attitude toward Mykhailo. We have been through a lot together. But I believe that he himself goes, or is pushed, into the wrong things,” he said.

Fedorov, a popular minister credited with modernizing Ukraine’s armed forces and accelerating the military’s embrace of technology and drone warfare, was dismissed last month after reportedly falling out with the country’s top military commander.

His removal triggered mass protests that lasted for weeks, but ultimately failed to force a reversal of the decision. Fedorov later called for an election.

Zelensky said that he had offered Fedorov four different options to continue working in the government. Fedorov, he said, rejected all of them.

The Ukrainian leader told journalists that he believes holding an election during the war would be a huge risk with the potential to “split Ukraine apart.”

“I believe elections during a war like this would generally pose enormous risks. Holding elections right now would be a tsunami for the state that would split Ukraine apart,” he said.

Zelensky said he had previously faced pressure to hold an election during the war, but no partners had come up with a plan for how a poll could be held safely, legitimately and democratically.

Inaccurate information led to uncomfortable White House encounter

Zelensky appeared to link Fedorov to an awkward episode involving Starlink and Elon Musk.

Zelensky said that earlier this year, the Defense Ministry had told him that SpaceX had agreed to allow Ukraine to use Starlink over Russian territory to carry out deep strike operations, subject to political approval.

Acting on that, Zelensky said, he raised the issue directly with US President Donald Trump. He told Trump that Musk had confirmed the proposed use. Zelensky said the two sides subsequently sought Musk’s confirmation and discussed financing for the project.

But at a later meeting, Zelensky said that Trump told him that Musk had rejected the proposal and accused him of having misled the US president. Musk considered the move a dangerous escalation, according to Zelensky.

“He said that I had supposedly deceived him, because Musk had denied Ukraine the use of Starlink on Russian territory. I went back to our Ministry of Defense and they said that maybe it was so,” he said.

Zelensky didn’t explicitly accuse Fedorov of lying. He said that the situation was among the reasons behind “some of the steps.”

Zelensky also pushed back against protesters’ vilification of former army chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, who he dismissed, and current Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Yevhen Khmara, saying they had gone too far.

“Maybe someone doesn’t like Syrskyi for one reason or another. But the slogans ‘Syrskyi is the devil, Khmara is the devil,’” he said. “Listen, this is too much. Do you understand? In principle, you can’t treat the military like this and tolerate it, especially when it was the military that made it possible for any peaceful protests to take place in the Ukrainian capital at all.”

Pressure on defense budget but military successes

Zelenskyy also described severe financial pressure on Ukraine’s defense effort. He said that the Defense Ministry faced a $27 billion budget shortfall after spending decisions earlier in the year brought forward funds originally intended for the second half of this year.

Touching on a corruption inquiry that led Zelensky to fire one of his most senior officials this week, he said that anti-corruption investigators don’t believe that the president was involved.

The investigators had named a deputy head of the presidential office among the suspects in a money-laundering case.

“The heads of anti-corruption agencies have zero questions for me. They understand perfectly well that I am not involved in anything like that. And this is important to me,” he said.

On the battlefield, Zelensky was optimistic.

In addition to Ukraine almost completely regaining control of the Dnipropetrovsk region, he said that another operation was underway elsewhere and that its results were expected by the end of August.

He also predicted that by the end of the year, Ukraine could reach parity between the territory occupied by Russia since the beginning of the year and the territory retaken by Ukrainian forces.

Zelensky said that Russia had occupied about 380 square miles since the start of the year, while Ukraine had restored control over roughly 315 square miles.

The president said that Russia’s principal objective remained the Konstantynivka-Sloviansk-Kramatorsk axis, and that Moscow was still demanding that Ukraine withdraw from the Donbas region as a condition for a settlement.

Still struggling for access to Patriot missiles

Zelensky said that Ukraine was receiving substantially fewer Patriot interceptor missiles even as Russian ballistic attacks are increasing.

He said that Ukraine received 675 Patriot missiles in 2023, compared with 364 in 2025 and an expected 264 this year. Zelensky said that he wanted to secure 300 additional Patriot missiles for the coming winter, while Ukraine’s air force had requested 360.

The shortfall is particularly serious, because the United States and European partners are struggling to expand production. Zelensky said that he hoped Ukraine could obtain even 5% or 10% of US reserves and was able to pay for them.

Zelensky said that Russia could eventually produce up to 1,300 ballistic missiles a year, compared with an estimated current capacity of 600.

He said that Ukraine was also preparing alternatives to Starlink, including a European communications project, as Russia and China work on their own competing system.

In a notable interview, Dr. Mehmet Oz countered former President Donald Trump’s assertion that the MMR vaccine could be ‘lethal.’ This clarification came after Oz faced persistent questioning regarding Trump’s statement.

As head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Oz appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation this past Sunday. During the interview, Trump had alleged, without substantiation, that combining vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella into a single dose might be dangerous.

Host Margaret Brennan pressed Oz repeatedly to clarify whether Trump’s claims were inaccurate. Initially, Oz veered the conversation toward patient autonomy and the importance of consulting healthcare professionals.

It wasn’t until Brennan asked the question a third time that Oz provided a definitive response.

“The MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine,” he asserted clearly.

The exchange came less than two weeks after Trump signed an executive order overhauling federal childhood vaccine recommendations and called for the three components of the MMR vaccine to be separated.

While signing the order, Trump claimed there was a ‘possibility’ the combined shot could be ‘quite lethal’, but offered no evidence to support that assertion.

‘Together there could be a possibility they are quite lethal,’ Trump said. ‘Separately it looks like they are not at all lethal, but just very effective.’

The comments immediately raised questions because separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are not currently available in the United States.

The combined MMR vaccine has been administered for more than four decades, and more than 800 million doses have been given across over 75 countries since 2021, according to research cited by Politico.

Brennan confronted Oz directly over Trump’s remarks on Sunday morning’s program.

‘The president twice said that the shot may be lethal,’ she told him. ‘Do you want to clarify that?’

Oz initially began: ‘We want the patients to make the —’

But Brennan interrupted and again pushed him to address the president’s specific assertion.

Rather than immediately saying whether the MMR vaccine was lethal, Oz turned to Trump’s broader position on patients seeing their doctors.

‘The president wants Americans – he said this many times – to get to the doctors as often as they can,’ Oz responded. ‘And it’s hard for parents to answer the questions.’

Brennan was not satisfied.

She returned to the practical problem with Trump’s suggestion that the three vaccines should be administered separately.

‘MMR is not offered in three shots,’ Brennan said. ‘Merck could not offer that. The president called that single shot lethal. Do you want to clarify that?’

Only then did Oz categorically state the MMR jab was not a lethal one.

Oz’s declaration put one of the administration’s most recognizable health officials in the position of publicly correcting a claim made by the president weeks earlier.

He suggested that one of the administration’s concerns was whether parents feel able to raise questions about vaccination requirements.

‘The challenge we’re running into is that many states have not clarified that, and actually, it’s harder for parents to ask these difficult questions,’ he said.

The CMS chief also claimed that the MMR vaccines are available separately in other countries and argued that the broader debate should center on the ability of parents to question medical recommendations and vaccination requirements.

‘The request of the president is to make sure that states offer parents either eligibility because of religious beliefs or other reasons why they may not want to have their kids take all the vaccines in order,’ Oz said.

The debate comes at an especially sensitive moment for US public health officials as measles cases have climbed to their highest level in 35 years.

The Trump administration itself has encouraged parents to vaccinate their children against measles as cases have surged.

At the same time, vaccination rates among young children have continued to slip.

Figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week showed that 92.4 percent of US kindergarteners had been vaccinated against measles during the 2025-2026 school year. 

That was down from 95.2 percent in 2019-2020.

The latest national rate is also below the roughly 95 percent vaccination level generally cited as necessary to achieve herd immunity against the extraordinarily contagious virus.

Measles can cause fever, cough, runny nose and a distinctive rash, but serious cases can lead to complications including pneumonia and encephalitis.

The MMR vaccine has been a cornerstone of childhood vaccination programs for decades.

Trump’s executive order earlier this month nevertheless called for a significant rethink of federal recommendations surrounding childhood vaccinations, including his push to separate the three MMR components.

But turning that proposal into practice presents an immediate obstacle: individual measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are not currently marketed separately in the United States.