Michael Barbaro

Hey, it's Michael.

Before today's episode, I want to tell you about a new show from our colleagues over at Serial Productions.

It's a new five-part series featuring New York Times columnist Em Gessen, and it's a remarkable one.

In the show, Em tells a story about a cousin named Alan who is currently in prison for murder for hire.

It's a story about family, about what we do when members of our family do bad things.

It's about betrayal and the craving to know the truth.

It's thoughtful, it's complicated, and it's very funny.

You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts, and we hope you check it out.

The series is called The Idiot.

Okay, here's today's show.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro.

This is The Daily.

Today, how Pam Bondi went from being the loyal attorney general of President Trump's dreams to a blundering figure whom he abruptly fired on Thursday afternoon.

I turn to the journalist who broke the story that Bondi was about to be ousted, White House reporter Tyler Pager.

It's Friday, April 3rd.

Well, Tyler, here we go again.

Another one bites the dust.

Yes, a second cabinet member fired by President Trump in four weeks.

And arguably, this firing ends the career of a cabinet member who is even more important to the president than the last one, Kristi Noem, head of Homeland Security, because this is the attorney general.

And this attorney general, until the very end, strikes me as a very paradoxical figure because she is simultaneously as absolutely loyal a foot soldier as you could fathom, and yet somebody who keeps letting the president down.