00:00By now, you've heard President Trump has fired Attorney General Pam Bondi,
00:03confirming the move in a Truth Social post that read,
00:06We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the
00:10private sector to be announced at a date in the near future, and our deputy attorney general
00:14and a very talented, respected legal mind Todd Blanche will step in to serve as acting attorney
00:19general. The president reportedly broke the news to Bondi in person on Wednesday. The very same day,
00:24she accompanied Trump to the Supreme Court and was in attendance for his address to the nation
00:29updating Americans on the war in Iran. After the news became official, the now former AG posted on
00:36X, quote, Over the next month, I will be working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney
00:41General to the amazing Todd Blanche before moving to an important private sector role I'm thrilled
00:46about and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this administration.
00:51Now, Trump had previously expressed frustration with Bondi's lack of aggressiveness in prosecuting
00:56his foes, such as former FBI Director James Comey, as well as the Department of Justice's handling of
01:02the Jeffrey Epstein files. I asked The Post's political reporter Ryan King about why Bondi was
01:07let go now and who may take charge of the DOJ permanently.
01:11President Trump didn't publicly give a specific reason why he decided to fire Pam Bondi, but this was
01:18a long time coming. We have heard for months from people inside the White House and Republicans in
01:25Congress that they had a lot of frustrations with her performance as the head of the Justice Department.
01:32And one of the big issues, of course, was her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein situation.
01:37President Trump himself was personally frustrated with Bondi for the Justice Department not prosecuting
01:45some of his political foes such as James Comey and others more quickly. And some of those
01:53prosecutions we know, of course, later fell through. So there were a lot of complaints against
01:59Bondi and there were people, very prominent people within Trump's orbit, privately lobbying him to get rid
02:05of her. Now, in terms of who replaces her, we've heard rumors from around the White House that the
02:13president is looking closely at Lee Zeldin. He's the EPA administrator. But there are a lot of other
02:20names that have been floated around sort of in the Beltway, including Senator Mike Lee, Senator Eric
02:28Schmidt, Hermit Dillon. There's been a handful of names that have been suggested. And so ultimately,
02:37we'll see. But for the time being, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche is going to take the reins
02:43for the interim while President Trump decides on a permanent replacement for Bondi.
02:50New York City Congresswoman and lefty firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has declared she will
02:55no longer support any military aid to Israel, even for defense purposes, after facing intense pressure
03:01from the far left. While AOC has been critical of sending arms to the pivotal U.S. ally, she previously
03:06backed legislation to replenish Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. The squad member posted to
03:11I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that
03:17consistently ignores international law and U.S. law. She added that Israel is perfectly capable of
03:22funding the Iron Dome system themselves. AOC's apparent cave to the farthest left comes after she
03:27was the target of critics like young Turks pundit Anna Kasparian, as well as hecklers in the audience of
03:32some of her own town hall meetings. A new report out of Iran suggests the terror regime is so desperate
03:38to rebuild its military that it's recruiting children, some as young as 12 years old, to take
03:43up machine guns and carry out security checks. A less diplomatic term one could use might be cannon
03:48fodder. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claims these kids are volunteers who want to stand up to,
03:55in their words, the global bully, meaning the U.S. An IRGC official actually said, and I quote,
04:02considering the ages of those requesting to join, we have now lowered the minimum age to 12 years old
04:07because children aged 12 to 13 want to be involved. I don't even know what to say to that kind
04:14of
04:14absurd rationale. In addition to these so-called security checks, Iranian state media says these
04:20middle school-aged soldiers are also tasked with helping victims of strikes, cooking food,
04:25and distributing items needed by fire crews. This recruitment drive is just the latest Iranian
04:30violation of international law. It's considered a war crime to recruit children under 15, which
04:35even that is far too young. But an official with Human Rights Watch put it succinctly, quote,
04:41what this boils down to is that Iranian authorities are apparently willing to risk children's lives
04:45for some extra manpower. And unfortunately, the move seems to be nothing new in Iran. During the
04:502022 protests, a picture circulated on social media showing children wearing helmets and carrying riot
04:56shields. The regime has been accused of hiring children as young as 13 to carry out attacks on
05:01Israeli targets in Europe and recruited Afghan migrant children to fight in Syria.
05:06For more on these stories and everything else you could possibly want to know, check out the New York
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