Pam Bondi Fails to Make Her Case
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
The New Yorker contributing writer Ruth Marcus joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Pam Bondi’s removal from her post as Attorney General. They examine the series of missteps and failures that led to her firing—from her continued mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein files to her inability to effectively carry out Donald Trump’s efforts to target his political enemies. They also explore the long-term damage Bondi has done to the Department of Justice, and whether her ouster—alongside Kristi Noem’s dismissal as Secretary of Homeland Security—signals a new era of shakeups within the Trump Administration.
This week’s reading:
- “Pam Bondi’s Legacy of Flattery and Destruction,” by Ruth Marcus
- “A U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Is Here, but Trump’s Stone Age Mentality Endures,” by Ishaan Tharoor
- “Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?,” by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz
- “How the Internet Fringe Infiltrated Republican Politics,” by Antonia Hitchens
- “The Forest Service—a Force Across Rural America—‘Reorganizes’ Under Trump,” by Bill McKibben
The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week.
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, Ruth. |
| 0:08.0 | Hi, how are you? |
| 0:08.9 | I'm good. |
| 0:09.5 | Thank you so much for being here. |
| 0:11.1 | My pleasure. |
| 0:13.0 | When you look back on Pam Bondi's tenure as U.S. Attorney General, which just ended, what do you see as the defining moment or image of that time? |
| 0:24.1 | Oh, so many to choose from. It has to be Dow 50,000, which came out of nowhere at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in response to, I think, a question |
| 0:40.0 | about Jeffrey Epstein. |
| 0:42.3 | The Dow is over $50,000. |
| 0:44.6 | I don't know why you're laughing. |
| 0:45.9 | You're a great stock trader, as I hear Raskin. |
| 0:48.4 | The Dow is over $50,000 right now. |
| 0:52.3 | The S&P at almost $7,. And the NASDAQs smashing records. Americans 401k's and |
| 1:01.2 | retirement savings are booming. That's what we should be talking about. We should be talking about. |
| 1:06.2 | And this was that outburst that spawned a thousand memes, and it really kind of encapsulates Bondi's tenure. |
| 1:15.2 | So why do you think that her comment about the Dow being at 50,000 is so memorable |
| 1:21.5 | or reflective of kind of who she was as AG? |
| 1:25.5 | It's so jarring. |
| 1:27.6 | It's so off point. |
| 1:29.4 | The role of the Attorney General is not to be the cheerleader for the President of the United |
| 1:35.1 | States. |
| 1:35.9 | It's to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. |
... |
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