Bondi Out. The War on the War. Miscarriage of Justice: Cop Killer Verdict a ‘Gut Punch’ to NYPD. You’ll Never Guess Where the Kids Are Going? Church.

President Trump has ousted his second Cabinet official.

Former AG (it was that fast!) Pam Bondi learned her fate Wednesday in a ride to the Supreme Court with President Trump: 

During the drive, Trump told her, “I think it’s time,” she would later tell an associate. 

The ensuing hours were as awkward and chaotic as Bondi’s 14-month tenure as the nation’s top law-enforcement official. Trump and Bondi briefly sat near each other during the Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship, but the president soon switched chairs. Later, Bondi would ask Trump if she could keep her job until the summer. The president declined.

The President called Bondi “a Great American Patriot” in a Truth Social post announcing her departure after a 14-month tenure that started with the declaration, “We love Pam.”  Well, it was a nicer send-off than Jeff Sessions got. The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal comments:

Is there a worse job in Washington, D.C., than Attorney General under President Trump? We can’t think of many, and on Thursday Pam Bondi learned this the hard way as the President sacked her after only 14 months on the job….

Ms. Bondi’s great fault is that she was never good at saying no. She blundered on the Epstein files by boasting about big revelations that never materialized. This fed the conspiracists who fretted about a cover-up. A manageable problem turned into a political fiasco that has hurt the President.

Among the moments that defined Bondi was her claim that the late convicted pedophile Epstein’s client list was sitting on her desk and would be released. It was never released (probably because there wasn’t such a list). Whenever there is a breaking legal story, Ms. Musts asks herself: What does Andrew McCarthy say? McCarthy says that “Bondi couldn’t do the impossible“:

From the president’s standpoint, lawfare — the leveraging of the government’s law enforcement apparatus against political enemies and for partisan ends — is a strategy that must be used because it was used against him. …

There are many ways in which Bondi came up short: She didn’t have DOJ experience, she’s not a good communicator, her instincts aren’t great. But in the end, the job on the terms offered was one at which it was impossible to succeed.

Offering a different perspective, The Federalist headline is “The Only Criterion For Trump’s Next AG Is How Many Antifa And Russia Hoaxers He’ll Arrest.” Eli Lake of The Free Press counters that “Bondi Did What Trump Wanted—Not What He Needed.” Lake cites the Epstein files, where doing Trump’s bidding, Lake argues, backfired.

There Are Two Wars. “The War—and the War on the War” is the headline on a Free Press piece by classicist and military historian Victor Davis Hanson. VDH argues:

Militarily, the war is going as well as could be envisioned, yet Democrats seek to turn it into another Vietnam or Afghanistan—hoping to win control of Congress at the expense of national security….

AEI’s Danielle Pletka has been hitting it out of the ballpark on the Iran conflict. In her latest, she takes on our NATO allies, which is akin in polite society to saying the canapes suck. Pletka writes:

So now, as we engage in a war to squelch the nuclear, missile, and terroristic ambitions of the Islamic Republic (not to speak of stopping them from killing their own people), is it presumptuous of us to ask — not for help, mind you — but to overfly or use bases in our NATO allied nations?

We’re not asking for troops; not for planes; not for fuel; not for love. Just overflight and landing rights. And guess what? We had to bully our “bestie” in Europe, Sir Keir Starmer, to allow us to use Diego Garcia. Our pal Giorgia Meloni denied us landing rights on Sigonella in Sicily. The Spanish won’t let us fly over their precious Jew-hating country. France has reportedly refused us overflight to resupply Israel. …

These are our “allies.” These are nations in which Iran has conducted multiple terrorist attacks. These are nations that acted to refer Iran’s nuclear non-compliance to the UN Security Council. These are nations that import more oil via the Strait of Hormuz than the United States. Far more.

The New York Post’s cover headline: “Justice Was Not Served.” It refers to the verdict in the trial of Guy Rivera, who shot and killed hero cop Jonathan Diller in 2024:

Cop-killer Guy Rivera was stunningly acquitted of first-degree murder Wednesday for fatally shooting the married dad and officer. He was instead convicted of the lesser charge of aggravated manslaughter in Diller’s death — and found guilty of attempted murder in the shooting of Diller’s partner, who survived the March 2024 carnage in Queens.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the verdict a “gut punch” to the NYPD. But how did it happen? It is worth considering whether juries in New York absorb their mayor’s anti-policing agenda. Let us hope that a jury will not take such a cavalier attitude if this terrible New York shooting of a 7-month-old baby in Brooklyn comes before them.

More Crime. What kind of hospice has a 97% survival rate and has received more than $7 million in Medicare funds? This kind:

The FBI arrested a married couple Thursday accused of fraudulently billing Medicare for $7.45 million while running a hospice with a survival rate reported to be more than 97% after five years. They were the first in a series of arrests planned Thursday, federal officials told CBS News….

A high survival rate at a hospice provider is one of a series of red flags identified by state auditors for fraud because most people enter hospice care in the final stages of a terminal illness. In past cases of fraud, operators were found to be using false or stolen identities to collect federal reimbursements for palliative care. 

The FBI raid took place in San Dimas, California, where the hospice is located. Kudos to CBS News (linked above) for the hospice scoop. I linked yesterday to “Gavin Newsom’s Empire of Fraud” in City Journal. Don’t expect blue state politicians to necessarily crack down—these scams involve federal welfare money, the lifeblood of the Left.

USA TODAY’S Ingrid Jaques has written a column that needed to be written. Love or hate former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, she doesn’t deserve the humiliation brought about because of pointless stories about her cross-dressing husband.

It’s the over-the-top mocking and apparent glee so many people are taking from this family’s pain that rubs me the wrong way. And it’s coming from both sides. Since Noem lost President Donald Trump’s support, apparently, it’s fair game for the right to pile on, too. 

That said, Malcolm Clark uses the unfortunate Noem story to make a point about what the headline calls “the dark secret of trans.” “Men who wear women’s clothes were not ‘born in the wrong body’ – they do it for a sexual thrill,” Clark argues in Spiked Online.

While we’re about gender, see “How Gender Medicine Set Itself Up for Disaster” in Compact Magazine. Just one wrong way:

It’s likely no one has done more to push pediatric gender medicine toward more liberal prescribing practices than Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who until recently directed the gender clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Charismatic and indefatigable, the pediatrician has been particularly vocal in questioning the comprehensive psychosocial assessments WPATH’s guidelines recommend for minors seeking gender-transition interventions. What some have held up as invaluable safeguards, she has disparaged as stigmatizing and counterproductive. 

Some Good News. U.S. hiring rebounded in March.  

Since it’s Good Friday, it’s the perfect day to mention that young people are turning to church in record numbers (here and here). Meanwhile, Unherd asks, “Can We Have the Good without Good Friday?” The article suggests that the movie “The Exorcist” is helpful in deciding.

Wishing you a good Good Friday and a happy Easter.