S2E4 · In This White House

Complete story — includes the ending

Josh returns to work. On a television political talk show a young woman Southern Republican lawyer, Ainsley Hayes ( Emily Procter ), soundly trounces Sam on the subject of competing bills under consideration in the House for funding of improvements in public education. The president of the African nation of Kundu, representing several African countries, visits the White House during a summit of officials of US pharmaceutical firms in an attempt to make certain drugs more accessible to HIV -blighted regions of Africa. At the direction of President Bartlet, Leo hires Ainsley as an associate counsel, and she takes the job after angrily telling her Republican friends that their disagreements with the Bartlet Administration are both personal and utter garbage. The Kundunese President learns there has been a coup in his country and his family is either dead or has fled the country; he is offered sanctuary in the United States but says he must return to help his people--where coup forces murder him at the airport upon his arrival in Kundu.