Michael Pack has the distinction of being the very first person fired by the Biden administration. On Inauguration Day, the new president fired Pack before taking action on the pandemic, the economy, or immigration. How did sacking Pack, the mild-mannered, Trump-appointed head of the small, mostly obscure U.S. Agency for Global Media, earn such a high place on Joe Biden’s to-do list?

“I don’t know how to answer that,” a slightly bemused Pack said in a recent interview. All he knows is that at 12:21 p.m., as the inauguration ceremonies went on outside the Capitol, Pack received an email from Catherine Russell, director of White House personnel — a job she had held for 21 minutes at that point. “On behalf of President Biden, I am writing to request your resignation as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media,” Russell wrote. “If you do not resign by 2:00 p.m. ET today, President Biden will remove you from that office.”