President Trump took a lot from us the day he fired James Comey, the F.B.I. director. He took our sense of security, our patience and any lingering hope that this administration might be fueled by anything more than a noxious mixture of impulse and revenge. But more than that, he took from us a hero, freshly anointed by the American public. And man, is that a bummer.

The hero America needs right now isn’t Superman. It isn’t John Wayne or Bruce Wayne or even Wayne Newton. The hero America needs right now is a 56-year-old lawyer from Georgia named Sally Yates, a woman who coolly and competently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee for three hours on Monday afternoon.

And for an entire day, America had her. We watched as Ms. Yates faced off against an endless series of patronizing men, cheering and high-fiving our TVs as she swiftly laid waste to each and every one of them. Her straightforward resolve and understated agility made her seem more like a ninja than a career attorney.

Sally Yates wasn’t clad in a mask or a cape; she was wearing simple earrings and a colored blazer falling somewhere on the spectrum between plum and eggplant. (Maybe an off-boysenberry or a dark mauve?) We built her up that day and laid offerings at her feet in the night. But on Tuesday evening, all thoughts of our new deity had been eclipsed by the news that Donald Trump had straight-up kleptocrat-style fired Mr. Comey.