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Word around the social-media campfire is Pete Hegseth is finished. The Times reported that the US secretary of defense was involved in yet another Signal group chat, only this time he set it up himself. In Politico, a former Pentagon official said other shoes are ready to drop. “It’s hard to see [him] remaining in his role for much longer,” he said.

I don’t think it’s that hard, but first, the details.

The Times said the second Signal chat featured “essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.” But unlike that chat, the newly revealed one included his wife, his brother and his personal attorney. Hegseth also used a private phone, not a government phone....

WASHINGTON — Dismantling the federal government won’t be complete without upending the judicial branch — or so many conservatives argue, which is why rank-and-file Republicans are pressuring party leaders to fall in line and join White House efforts to purge the nation’s judiciary.

Before Congress left town for its two-week Easter recess, Speaker Mike Johnson tried to placate his right flank by ushering a bill restricting national injunctions through the House. Party leaders have also promised hearings.

None of that’s good enough for many rank-and-file Republicans, especially because President Donald Trump and his agency-gutting sidekick Elon Musk have tossed their support behind fringe-right proposals to impeach federal judges. ...

— Trump’s legal serfs: when law firms bow to the Don. Trump is bragging about how he’s forced five more major US law firms to kiss his a-- and give away $940 million in free services to his favorite causes. So far, the rogues gallery of cowardly law firms which have put money above principle includes Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Paul Weiss, Skadden Milbank & Willkie, and Farr & Gallagher. On the other hand, three major firms are suing Trump’s administration for their efforts to intimidate and extort them (my words, not theirs), including Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale. And over 1600 attorneys who work for the big firms that have bowed down to Trump’s intimidation have signed a letter demanding they do better.

They wrote: “When we are united, we cannot be intimidated. These tactics only work if the majority does not speak up. Our hope was that our employers, some of the most profitable law firms in the world, would lead the way. That has not yet been the case.” One of the very first things authoritarians do when they seize control of a country — from Hitler in the 1930s to Putin in the early 2000s — is to seize control of the country’s legal system.

Typically they follow a twofold strategy of punishing independent judges and terrifying attorneys; Trump is doing both with a shocking level of speed and zeal. This is how democracy dies, not with a bang but with a pro bono agreement....

When a radicalized US Army veteran mowed down 15 people in New Orleans, Donald Trump wasted no time pointing his finger, blaming immigrants and a non-existent ‘open border’ for the tragedy:

This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS... The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors… are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME.... Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our Country.

On-brand, Trump ignored police intelligence that identified the offender as a US citizen, a former U.S. Army staff sergeant and combat veteran from Texas. ...

On Tuesday, November 5th, 2024, a fuse was lit that will detonate the bomb planted in our nation’s capital on January 6th, 2021.

Because of a massive failure to bring the full weight of the law down upon the heads of the domestic terrorists in the Republican Party who coordinated the violent attack on America that cold, January day, good people in America are now forced to watch in horror as the fuse burns toward its terrible end on January 20th, 2025.

That is when the landscape of the United States of America will be blown to smithereens right in front of our tired eyes, and quite literally altered forever. We will no longer be able to recognize ourselves as Americans, or the ideals we alleged to care about for 248 years. ...

President Joe Biden’s 180-degree flip on Sunday from his promise not to pardon his son Hunter Biden prompted fierce backlash from politicians and pundits, calling the move a “tremendous strategic blunder that will haunt Democrats,” “the worst thing a president could possibly do to his party” and “the biggest public corruption scandal ever.”

While some legal experts have called Biden “justified” in the pardon of his son in anticipation of continued attacks from the incoming Donald Trump administration, departing Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) suggested that Biden could make the scales of justice “more balanced” by preemptively pardoning the president-elect.

Manchin doubled down on the idea on Tuesday, telling Raw Story at the Capitol, "I thought that would have been the balance that was needed here. It's the right thing. If you're gonna do one, then you do both and clear the slate, and then you move on." ...

A Republican Senate candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump froze, then laughed, when a debate moderator asked her to define the “reasonable access” to abortion she says she supports.

Republican nominee Michele Tafoya faced Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D-MN) on Friday in a debate for Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate seat.

It was the race’s only scheduled debate, according to MPR News, whose politics editor, Brian Bakst, moderated the hourlong broadcast....

President Donald Trump was interrupted yet again by a protester during a speech in a red state as he stumps for Republicans in the midterms.

Trump was speaking in Kalispell, Montana, about how he believes Democrats "want to destroy America" when he suddenly stopped as the crowd began booing. Trump began repeating, "That's not nice! That's not nice," even though it wasn't clear what the protester was doing to offend Trump. Meanwhile, the crowd began chanting, "Trump, Trump, Trump."

Protesters have been repeatedly heckling Trump during his midterm campaign speeches, including in red states like Texas, Tennessee and Alaska....

Donald Trump was called out on Friday morning for once again claiming gas prices are lower than under President Joe Biden, with a comparison to a “sweaty” Elvis Presley playing the greatest hits at the end of his career.

On MS NOW, “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough shared a clip of Trump claiming to a rally crowd on Thursday, “Remember your prices, your gas prices are lower than when Biden was president, and he didn't do anything about.”

“Come on, man, come on,” Scarborough exclaimed after the clip ended. ...