Michael Barbaro

And one of the things that became clear as we were reporting this story out is that this group of conservative lawyers, their views on climate change were not in the mainstream, even of their own party.

But they were persistent and they did an enormous amount of planning.

And that persistence paid off in the form of President Trump.

Who?

You know, we all know his views on climate change, calls it a hoax, calls it a scam.

And when President Trump was elected, these two forces joined and they were ready to get this anti-climate agenda done.

And later today, when the endangerment finding is repealed, it will be, in the words of one climate contrarian, total victory for their cause.

Well, Lisa, thank you very much.

Thanks so much.

We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today.

On Wednesday, the mystery surrounding the federal government's decision to abruptly shut down the airspace around El Paso, Texas originally for 10 days appeared to be solved.

The Times reports that the closure was announced after officials from U.S.

Customs and Border Protection decided to try out a new anti-drone laser technology in order to shoot at what they believed was a drone from Mexican drug cartels.

But the border protection officials failed to give officials from the Federal Aviation Administration enough time to assess the risks of the new technology on commercial planes.

That prompted the FAA to shut down the airspace before quickly reversing their own decision.

During a combative hearing on Wednesday, Democratic members of Congress sharply criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi for her department's handling of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and her repeated efforts to prosecute enemies of the president.

He tells you to go after James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa... Bondi forcefully defended her actions, frequently interrupted lawmakers, and at times insulted them, as she did to Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland when he instructed Bondi to stop filibustering in response to questions from Democrats.

Today's episode was produced by Eric Krupke, Michael Simon-Johnson, and Anna Foley.

It was edited by Maria Byrne and Devin Taylor, contains music by Alishaba Etube, Marion Lozano, and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Chris Wood.