Evening Wire: Trump Ousts Bondi & Hershey’s MAHA Makeover | 4.2.26

If you're listening to The Daily Wire, you know how important the fight for fundamental freedoms is. We're Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal ministry advancing free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and parental rights. We've helped secure major victories, including at the Supreme Court, and we're actively defending issues like women's sports and free expression. We rely on your support to keep going. Right now, every dollar you give will be matched. Go to joinadf.com slash wire or text wire to 83848 to double your impact today. Pam Bondi is out as Attorney General. A rising Democrat star in Florida is found dead in her home and Hershey's goes maha. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Thursday, April 2nd. This is Evening Wire. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been removed from her position. President Trump announced her departure and a post on Truth Social, writing, quote, we love Pam and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector to be announced at a date in the near future. White House insiders report that Bondi received the news yesterday, shortly before President Trump addressed the nation regarding Iran. Trump said he would replace Bondi with Todd Blanche, her deputy on an interim basis as rumors circulate that EPA administrator Lee Zeldin is poised to take up the mantle. Trump met with Zeldin in the Oval Office on Tuesday ostensibly to discuss wildfire prevention. The House of Representatives has adjourned without passing the Senate approved bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Daily Wire homepage editor Jordan Schroeder has the details. President Donald Trump suggested today that he will order pay for all Department of Homeland Security employees as a record long partial shutdown continues expanding a prior move covering TSA workers, though it's not yet clear how the broader payroll would be funded. Meanwhile, the Senate led by John Thune unanimously passed the bill to partially reopen DHS, now sitting with the House under Speaker Mike Johnson. Republicans are considering a two-step plan to reopen the agency short term and pass a larger immigration funding package later, as lawmakers remain on recess and pressure builds to end the standoff. The president last week signed an order to pay all TSA agents as the partial government shutdown nears its seventh full week. He announced today the plan to expand paid the entire department in a post on Truth Social. He wrote, quote, because the Democrats are fully and 100% committed to the radical left policy of open borders and zero immigration enforcement. I will soon sign an order to pay all of the incredible employees at the Department of Homeland Security. A seven month old baby girl is dead after she was struck by a stray bullet in a tragic act of violence in Brooklyn. Daily Wire reporter Ginny Tear reports. Police say two suspects on a moped opened fire into a crowd before riding off, later crashing the moped nearby. One of the bullets struck the infant while she sat in a stroller. A suspect was taken into custody as a person of interest after seeking medical treatment. The child was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. Authorities say the infant was not the intended target. A manhunt is underway for the second suspect. Here's NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on that. The outstanding suspect, still being sought, is a young male described as wearing light gray pants and a white t-shirt with a black surgical mask over his lower face. He was last seen fleeing towards the Marcy Houses. At this time, the shooting is believed to be gang motivated, with the victim being an unintended target and no gun has yet been recovered. New rules around fundraising as well as work requirements for Medicaid recipients are expected to reduce the federal Medicaid burden by over $1 trillion in the next decade. Now, more than 400 hospitals claim they may have to shut down over the losses in revenue. But billionaire investor Mark Cuban, who has been no friend to Trump in the past, responded to the reports, putting the blame for money troubles squarely on the hospitals themselves. Cuban wrote on X, quote, why aren't any of these at-risk hospitals publishing their full accounting so everyone can see where they spend their money? All but one group of hospitals that I looked at potentially investing in spend so much on consultants and fees that it's no wonder they're at risk. If Cuban is to be believed, Medicaid cuts may be the final straw to force efficiency within hospitals. New audit reports and indictments allege what many have long suspected. California is an empire of fraud. Daily Wire contributor Tim Pierce has the details. A report from City Journal reveals that while California collects some of the nation's highest taxes to fuel a $300 billion annual budget, systematic fraud has siphoned off at least $180 billion during Governor Gavin Newsom's tenure. The most documented failure occurred within the Employment Development Department during the pandemic. According to fraud specialist Haywood Talcove and subsequent state admissions, the Newsom administration, quote, suspended all of the rules for eligibility to expedite payments. This included over $700,000 to Memphis rapper Nuka Bizzle. Bizzle pleaded guilty to federal charges after recording a music video bragging about exploiting the Edd. And that's really just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned for in-depth coverage on the next full episode of Morning Wire. A rising star Democrat in Florida politics has been found dead. Daily Wire reporter and host of the new podcast That's So Criminal, Lyndon Blake, has more. The vice mayor of Coral Springs, Florida, Nancy Medier-Bowen, was found dead at her home Wednesday morning. Authorities later arrested her husband, Stephen Bowen, at an apartment complex in Plantation, Florida, about 13 miles south of the crime scene. He faces charges of premeditated murder and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. Medier-Bowen, a Haitian-American, was first elected to the city commission back in 2020 and re-elected in 2024. She received a master's degree in environmental health sciences and interned for the Obama administration and former Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. Coral Springs police chief Brad Mock said the case has quote, being investigated as a domestic violence incident, but declined to reveal additional details as this remains an ongoing investigation. If you're listening to The Daily Wire, you know how important the fight for fundamental freedoms is. We're Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal ministry advancing free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and parental rights. We've helped secure major victories, including at the Supreme Court, and we're actively defending issues like women's sports and free expression. We rely on your support to keep going. Right now, every dollar you give will be matched. Go to joinadf.com slash wire or text wire to 83848 to double your impact today. Dozens of Christians are feared dead after gunmen in Nigeria opened fire on a Palm Sunday crowd. Daily Wire reporter Zach Jules-Moore. The massacre took place in a majority Christian town in Nigeria's northern Plateau state. Some witnesses have said the attack was carried out by the Islamic terror group Boko Haram. Others have accused the Fulani militia, a largely Muslim group, that has targeted Nigeria's Christian communities. North Carolina congressman Mark Harris sent a letter to the State Department today calling for decisive action over the slaughter of Christians. He wrote, quote, when Christians are targeted for worshiping, gathering, and living openly in their faith, the United States should speak with moral clarity and act with resolve. After nearly a decade, China has resumed its construction campaign in the South China Sea, growing its footprint in the disputed territory. According to the Wall Street Journal, Beijing's next project could turn Antelope Reef into China's largest military base in the region. Analysts say the new base would likely give Beijing another runway as well as additional missile and surveillance capabilities. And being close to the Chinese mainland, the new base would provide a compelling reason to build new civilian infrastructure as well. China has sought to expand infrastructure on islands throughout the South China Sea to bolster its claim on the region against other countries. This has already given China an advantage in waters that will be critical if any conflict were to break out over Taiwan. The cousin of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was convicted in a federal court in Virginia last week after being caught in a sting by U.S. authorities. Antuan Qasees was arrested in Kenya and extradited to the U.S. in May of 2025. The Justice Department caught up with Qasees after he attempted to traffic military-grade weapons to a Colombian terror group in exchange for a shipping container full of cocaine. The scheme was carried out all under the guise of buying fruit. He now faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 2. New body cam footage from Tiger Woods' recent DUI arrest has been released. Daily Wire Lifestyle reporter Lauren Baer has more. The footage shows a cooperative Woods kneeling in the grass explaining that the crash happened when he looked at his phone. Officers on scene describe the golf champion as sweaty, lethargic, glassy-eyed and unsteady. Woods had two opioid hydrocodone pills in his pocket at the time of the arrest. This comes almost nine years after Woods' first DUI arrest also in Jupiter, Florida, when he was found asleep behind the wheel with a mix of drugs in his system, including Vicodin, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ambien and THC. For the first time ever, the U.S. government will start tracking microplastics and pharmaceuticals in drinking water. Here's HHS Secretary RFK Jr. announcing the initiative at a press conference today. The EPA and HHS are acting together to confront microplastics as a human health threat, and we are doing it with urgency and discipline. Plastic has become embedded in modern life, it's also become embedded in the human body. We can't treat what we cannot measure, we cannot regulate what we don't understand. Also present was EPA Chief Lee Zilden. Here's a clip from his remarks. This is a direct response to the concern of millions of Americans who have long-demanded answers about what they and their families are drinking every day. And Hershey's announced a return to its classic chocolate formula for all products, spurred by public criticism from the founder's grandson. Daily Wire Assistant Editor Andy Valdez has the story. In an open letter posted to LinkedIn, Brad Reese said, quote, How does the Hershey company continue to position Reese's as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly replacing the very ingredients, milk chocolate and peanut butter, that built Reese's trust in the first place. While Reese's peanut butter cups have always contained real milk chocolate and peanut butter, some of the spin-off products have begun to use cheaper imitation ingredients. The brand also announced increased spending on quality control and innovation and the phasing out of artificial dyes by 2027. The European Union swerving right on immigration and the Daily Wire winning a landmark free speech legal case against the State Department. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.