Bondi's Heated Hearing, Pushback On Trump's Tariffs, Revised 2025 Jobs Report
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
President Trump’s tariff agenda faces a rare Republican pushback in Congress, even as the White House argues the policy is bringing money into the United States.
And a new jobs report shows stronger hiring to start the year, but revised data suggests the labor market was far weaker in 2025 than previously believed.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukhananov, Rebekah Metzler, Rafael Nam, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.
Our director is Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.
(0:00) Introduction
(02:07) Bondi's Heated Hearing
(06:04) Pushback On Trump's Tariffs
(09:54) Revised 2025 Jobs Report
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning, up first listeners in a world that changes fast, staying informed matters. |
| 0:04.4 | Follow up first on your podcast apps so the day's top stories are waiting for you when you wake up. |
| 0:12.2 | A lawmaker asked Attorney General Pam Bondi have her department prosecuted anyone linked to Jeffrey Epstein. |
| 0:17.8 | How many have you indicted? |
| 0:19.3 | Excuse me. I'm going to answer the question. |
| 0:21.5 | I answer my question. |
| 0:22.5 | No, I'm going to answer. |
| 0:23.6 | We'll hear questions answered and not answered. |
| 0:26.1 | I'm Steven Skiyp with A. Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:32.6 | Six, House Republicans joined Democrats in a vote to oppose tariffs on Canada. |
| 0:40.3 | Congressional numbers show the effects of tariffs, two big points. Tariffs really are bringing lots of money into the government, |
| 0:44.3 | and if you live inside the United States, you are the one paying almost all those extra taxes. |
| 0:50.3 | Also, January looks like it was a pretty good month for hiring, |
| 0:53.3 | but revisions to the job numbers show that last year's job market was a lot weaker than it seemed. |
| 0:58.4 | Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day. |
| 1:05.0 | The Attorney General Pam Bondi's appearance before Congress on Wednesday turned into a shouting match with lawmakers. |
| 1:12.6 | This hearing was, in theory, supposed to focus on oversight of the Justice Department. |
| 1:17.7 | Bondi instead insulted lawmakers and mostly ducked questions about documents relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. |
| 1:24.4 | NPR's Kerry Johnson followed the hearing. |
| 1:27.0 | Kerr, I mean, even for Congress, |
| 1:28.6 | this one was a doozy. Definitely not business as usual. There was a lot of hostility. Pam Bondi |
| 1:35.0 | came into this House Judiciary hearing prepared to attack Democrats on the panel when they tried to ask her |
... |
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