Jonathan Bernstein: “In October 1973, Nixon ordered his attorney general to fire a special prosecutor, fired the attorney general when he refused, and then had the second-in-command at Justice resign as well. The strong reaction against what Nixon had done brought the possibility of impeachment into the mainstream.”

“That example was surely helpful to the Justice Department officials who resisted Trump’s scheme to install Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general. Trump took their threats to resign seriously in part because of this famous precedent; he was convinced it would go badly for him because it had gone badly for Nixon.”

“The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a death row inmate in Georgia who is challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol and seeks to die by firing squad – a method not currently authorized in the state,” CNN reports.

“The court said the inmate could bring the challenge under a federal civil rights law that allows individuals to seek remedies when their Constitutional rights are violated. The decision could make it easier for inmates to challenge their potential execution method.”

“Senior White House aides have in recent days explored new ideas for responding to high gas prices and looked again at some that they had previously discarded, desperate to show that the administration is trying to address voter frustration about rising costs at the pump,” the Washington Post reports.

“Biden officials are taking a second look at whether the federal government could send rebate cards out to millions of American drivers to help them pay at gas stations — an idea they examined months ago before ruling it out.”

“New York’s highest court on Tuesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s last-ditch effort to avoid testifying in the state attorney general’s civil investigation into his business practices, clearing the way for his deposition next month,” the AP reports.

“The state’s Court of Appeals said there was no “substantial constitutional question” that would warrant its intervention in the matter following an intermediate appellate court’s ruling last month enforcing a subpoena for Trump’s testimony.”

Carl Paladino (R), whose new campaign for a House seat in New York has the endorsement of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), shared a Facebook post claiming the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde were false flags and “the Texas shooter was receiving hypnosis training” apparently under the CIA’s direction.

Donald Trump touted victories in a Fox News interview for the nearly two dozen candidates he endorsed who won their primary races in Ohio and Indiana Tuesday night, predicting the night was just the beginning of a “tremendous season” for Republicans he supports.

Said Trump: “I was 22 and 0. I won every race.”

Politico: “The written plan to handle a summertime migration surge at the border isn’t satisfying purple-state Democrats who were pointedly asking for one.”

“Instead, even after reviewing a Department of Homeland Security memo laying out how the agency will deal with an influx of migrants at the border, several Democratic lawmakers are still calling for a delay in lifting the pandemic-era border restrictions known as Title 42. And some of them want a vote in Congress to push back against President Joe Biden’s polarizing reversal of his predecessor’s policy.”

“As Florida legislators were rushing through passage of a bill to repeal the special district that governs Walt Disney World last week, they failed to notice an obscure provision in state law that says the state could not do what legislators were doing — unless the district’s bond debt was paid off,” the Miami Herald reports.

“Disney, however, noticed and quietly sent a note to its investors to show that it was confident the Legislature’s attempt to dissolve the special taxing district operating the 39-square mile parcel it owned in two counties violated the ‘pledge’ the state made when it enacted the district in 1967, and therefore was not legal.”

“The result, Disney told its investors, is that it would continue to go about business as usual.”

“For decades, Democrats insisted that Republicans would invite a major voter backlash if they took aggressive action to curtail abortion rights,” Politico reports.

“Now, as a growing number of GOP-led states do just that, passing a slew of bills curtailing abortion with no exemptions for rape and incest, they fear that voters are uninformed or misinformed about the stakes. And they are sounding the alarm that more is needed to engage voters and warn them that the current slate of laws is just the beginning.”

“The federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election appears to be gaining traction, with the Justice Department having brought in a well-regarded new prosecutor to help run the inquiry and a high-profile witness seeking a deal to provide information,” the New York Times reports.

“Alex Jones, the host of the conspiracy-driven media outlet Infowars and a key player in the pro-Trump ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, is in discussions with the Justice Department about an agreement to detail his role in the rally near the White House last Jan. 6 that preceded the attack on the Capitol.”

It’s certainly interesting, but Jones is hardly a reliable witness.

“The Biden administration is preparing to announce another substantial military aid package for Ukraine this week,” NBC News reports.

“Three officials said the package is expected to be similar in size to the $800 million one the administration announced last week. Two officials said the package is expected to include more artillery and tens of thousands more artillery rounds.”

New York Times: “Defying the odds, Ukraine held on to its capital and pushed Russia from the north. Now, as the Kremlin switches gears and begins a concerted effort to capture eastern Ukraine, Washington and its allies are pivoting as well, scrambling to supply Ukraine with bigger and more advanced weapons to defend itself in a grinding war.”

A former staffer for Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) pleaded guilty to a federal theft of public funds charge for giving himself nearly $80,000 in unauthorized salary bumps and bonuses, ABC News reports.

Jonathan Bernstein: “It’s not just that they have no financial or professional interest in the party winning elections. It’s that their incentives run the other way. In a familiar pattern, since Joe Biden became president, Fox News ratings are up and MSNBC ratings are down. Negative partisanship is crucial for media consumption; nothing gets partisans paying attention to political news more than strongly disliking the president and other elected officials.”

“And while I doubt that Sean Hannity (at Fox) or Rachel Maddow (at MSNBC) actively want their parties to lose, the fact that professional incentives call for just that cannot help but make a difference to what those networks do overall.”

Representatives of the American Bar Association lauded the qualifications of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Thursday, saying everyone they interviewed used terms such as “brilliant,” “beyond reproach,” “impeccable” and “A-plus” to describe her, the Washington Post reports.

John White: “In an era when norms are often cast aside, one cardinal rule of the presidency remains intact: expect the unexpected. That rule is being vindicated once more. On Election Day 2020, few expected Russia to invade Ukraine and begin the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.”

“But the war is here, and President Biden is dealing with an issue most Americans believed had been resolved by the norms established on the European continent since 1945. How Biden measures up, and what the political implications for his presidency are, remain unclear. But as John F. Kennedy reportedly said during the Cuban Missile Crisis, ‘I guess this is the week that I earn my salary.’ Biden is certainly earning his.”