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Before the debate even ended on Thursday night, President Joe Biden's team seemed to be in damage control.

Kelly O'Donnell, senior White House correspondent for NBCNews, tweeted that two sources familiar with the "situation" offered a possible explanation: “President Biden has a cold.”

O'Donnell reported, citing multiple sources, that the president tested negative for COVID-19.

The explanation predictably didn't appear to land with social media users watching the debate, which could send Democrats into full-blown panic mode.

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"Mop up operation," wrote @Cernovich.

"Biden has dementia, not a cold," tweeted @pepesgrandma.

"Are you sure he doesn’t have a coma?" chortled @BurtMaclin_FBI.

"Longest cold I’ve ever seen," wrote @GoPackGo541.

Within the first hour, Intelligencer political columnist Jonathan Chait asked what many Democrats across the country were thinking: "Time to panic?"

"Joe Biden has started this debate looking wan," he wrote. "His voice is soft, he has looked down, and he lost his train of thought during one answer, ending on the garbled note 'we beat Medicare.' He meant they beat Pharma by winning a provision to allow Medicare to negotiation prescription drugs, but it did not track in real time."

If Biden does not turn around his performance over the course of this, I think Democrats will reach full-blown panic."

During a portion of the CNN debate on the Middle East and the Israel/Hamas War, former President Donald Trump took a bizarre turn by using "Palestinian" as a slur when addressing President Joe Biden.

Biden has "become like a Palestinian" Trump said — except he's a "weak one."

Commenters on social media barely knew how to process this remark.

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"Trump just throwing around 'Palestinian' as a pejorative. Brazen anti-Palestinian racism has been normalized in America," wrote former MSNBC commentator Mehdi Hasan Thursday night.

"I’m sorry but did Donald Trump just say that Joe Biden is a bad Palestinian?!?" wrote the account @ArmandDoma, a San Francisco-based anti-Trump activist.

"Did Trump just call Biden a 'weak Palestinian'?! this is really bad….." wrote the account @D_Radiance.

"Trump just called Biden a Palestinian... 'a bad one.' So many things are wrong and gross and despicable about this statement..." wrote CUNY presidential professor Marc Lamont Hill.

The Republican Party may not survive former President Donald Trump losing his debate against President Joe Biden Thursday night and they know it, a new political analysis finds.

Salon columnist Brian Karem made this case just hours before history is made on a CNN soundstage in Atlanta where a standing U.S. president will debate a convicted felon who has not yet been officially nominated by his own party.

"The fear the [Republican] party could lose control of the Senate and House in the fall elections is palpable," Karem writes.

"If Trump suddenly appears vulnerable in November, the RNC could resemble a roadhouse bar in Mid-Missouri on a hot Saturday night after the beer taps run dry. The Trump faithful will be battling the non-believers for control of a party headed toward doom."

The odds of Trump winning the debate are stacked against him, Karem argues.

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Trump won't be able to play off an audience or dominate the debate by interrupting (moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will have the ability to cut his mic), and Republicans have unwittingly helped Biden by lowering the bar he must clear, according to Karem.

And Biden's position is strong, he adds.

"Biden has several advantages over Trump," writes Karem. "First, he’s not a convicted felon. He’s actually accomplished something as president. He’s less apt to ramble on about shark bites and electrocutions at sea."

But ultimately Karem predicts the debate will be "Trump's last act" not because of his opponent, but because of his own backers: the Republican party.

"The GOP is a party addicted to winning," he writes. "If, in fact, winning were heroin, there’d be a lot of trainspotting going on in Milwaukee in mid-July. And that’s where it gets dicey for Trump."

Up until now, the party of "Law and Order" has ignored Trump's 34 criminal convictions and civil court rulings that found him liable for fraud, sex abuse and defamation.

But that could change.

"We could also be looking at a chaotic situation in both conventions where one or both parties choose a different candidate after the consumption of copious amounts of pizza, alcohol and cigarettes and the rending of hair, gnashing of teeth and blood-curdling screams of despair and doom," Karem concludes.

That's why he wants Americans to tune into the debate tonight.

"If you aren’t sitting at the table, then chances are you’re on the menu," he writes. "Sit at the table."

A U.S. Supreme Court decision was leaked Wednesday after Idaho v. United States was accidentally uploaded to the court's website amid the release of other cases.

Though it was quickly removed, the document appeared to detail the decision on the Idaho case regarding women facing emergency care due to pregnancy complications.

In the dissent, Justice Samuel Alito compared an abortion to having an experimental cancer treatment that hasn't been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration.

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Speaking to MSNBC Wednesday afternoon, Supreme Court reporter Dahlia Lithwick noted that the court claims to publish decisions as they're ready — but Wednesday's slip makes it appear that they are actually releasing whenever they see fit. She speculated that the Court may be more political than previously known.

"Predictable, but depressing and certainly not helpful to the court," said host Nicolle Wallace.

She went on to read the comments from Alito, reading his comparison between cancer drugs and abortion.

"Dr. Patel," Wallace asked, speaking to guest Dr. Kavita Patel, the former Obama White House policy director, "there is still this delusion that women are out there demanding abortions like they demand, you know, Spanx or undergarments, or it is a view obviously seemingly shared in the household. It is wrapped in the disinformation that has been peddled by the extreme wing of the pro-life movement for decades.

"It is incredibly out of step with American public opinion and it is incredibly out of step with anything that happens in a doctor's office. Between a patient and a doctor."

Patel agreed, but said it may help to explain what women are facing in emergency rooms. She said that they come in for a variety of reasons — either high blood pressure or bleeding.

It happened 54 times at St. Luke's in Boise, Idaho, where the case first began.

In one case, a patient's water broke before the fetus could live outside the womb, but the fetus still had a heartbeat. "You could have infection quickly spread. We've talked about sepsis, which is life-threatening. Without a ban in place, what would happen is the doctor would recommend termination of the pregnancy to avoid sepsis and death or potential death of the mother."

In Idaho, that was blocked.

"Keep in mind the nearest place is Portland or Seattle," the doctor explained. "And that is about eight hours away."

The comments by Alito, she said, "just makes my blood boil because we're not talking about on-demand health care. Making that analogy to cancer is disrespectful to cancer patients. And what we're really talking about is access to care. And that's why I think you saw the outrage in Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's statement."

See the full comments in the video below or at the link here.

'Just makes my blood boil': Doctor trashes Alito for comments about cancer patients www.youtube.com

Eleven years ago, Donald Trump delivered an uncharacteristically short and all-but-forgotten speech before a decidedly unfriendly crowd.

But Trump's extemporaneous address to professional wresting luminaries and fans during the 2013 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony in New York City — Trump himself was an inductee — is a curiosity worth momentarily revisiting, if only for what Trump prophesied about a pair of presidential debates with Joe Biden, the first of which is scheduled for tonight, June 27.

Here are five notable foreshadowings:

Trump loves twins

“We had back-to-back WrestleManias, and it was really terrific. It was a terrific time," Trump said in his WWE Hall of Fame speech, referring to WrestleManias IV and V, which the then-World Wrestling Federation staged in Atlantic City, in a convention hall next to Trump's Trump Plaza hotel and casino. (Trump Plaza fell into disrepair during the 2010s and was imploded in 2021.)

Trump has an affinity for twin billings. He wasn't satisfied with one Atlantic City property, so he launched another. (And then another.)

They all failed.

Trump wasn't satisfied with one stint as president, either, so he's attempting to become the second former president — Grover Cleveland was the first — to win two non-consecutive terms.

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And Trump's second impeachment acquittal in two years helped embolden him to again run for president. "Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun," Trump said at the time.

So it's no surprise that Trump agreed to debates against Biden — one tonight on CNN, the next in September on ABC. It's the same number — two — that the two men participated in during the 2020 presidential campaign.

It's all about the ratings

“To this day, it has the highest ratings, the highest pay-per-view, in the history of wrestling of any kind. I’m very honored by that. And perhaps that’s why I’m being inducted," Trump said of his "Battle of the Billionaires" proxy match with then-WWE CEO Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 23.

The match ended up with McMahon getting his head shaved — and Trump being slammed to the canvas by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

A spectacle it certainly was — one that allowed Trump to engage in a most cherished pastime: boasting about how he alone can make or break a televised event.

Donald Trump, Stone Cold Steve Austin and WWE wrestler Bobby Lashley get ready to shave Vince McMahon's head after McMahons lost the main event of the night, "Hair vs. Hair", between Vince McMahon and Donald Trump. WrestleMania 23 at Detroit's Ford Field in Detroit, Mich., on April 1, 2007. (Photo by Leon Halip/WireImage via Getty Images)

Since the first Trump-Biden 2024 debate is scheduled to air on CNN — and will not be broadcast on all national networks simultaneously as was standard practice for Commission on Presidential Debates-sanctioned debates — viewership could be massive.

And given that Trump has endlessly ragged "failing" CNN for its ratings, bet that Trump will use the first debate as proof — if there is proof to be had — that he alone has captured the imagination of America's body politic.

Expect Trump to play the heel

"Tough. Tough people. Thank you very much everybody," a smirking Trump said as the crowd booed him as he started his WWE speech.

"I really do love you people, even the ones that don’t like me so much," Trump said in conclusion, as a version of The O'Jay's hit song, "For the Love of Money," reverberated through the arena.

Writing for The Baffler, Mike Edison defined a wrestling "heel" as such: "The role of a heel is to get 'heat,' which means spurring the crowd to obstreperous hatred, and generally involves cheating and pretty much any other manner of socially unacceptable behavior that will get the job done."

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And to paraphrase the late wrestling legend Gorilla Monsoon: Trump resembles that remark.

Trump — ever the provocateur — will almost certainly avoid the high road en route to the June debate in Atlanta as he bills himself as Biden's physical and mental superior.

For example, a lectern nearly toppled over while Trump delivered a recent speech in Minnesota. Trump posted to social media: "As far as the podium, I actually stopped it from falling due to good reflexes and strength, two elements which Joe Biden does not possess."

Hype machine in overdrive

"Now, Vince has been trying for the last six years to break our pay-per-view record. He’s had some great people on. But it’s not going to happen. And the same enthusiasm and love that you have for me tonight — I feel it. That’s why you all came down to watch me get my ass kicked and my head shaved, but it didn’t happen," Trump bragged to the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony crowd, which again showered him with jeers.

Compare that to Trump's acceptance last month of Biden's debate challenge.

“I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.

Donald Trump celebrates his victory over Vince McMahon at the main event of the night, "Hair vs. Hair", between Vince McMahon and Donald Trump. WrestleMania 23 at Detroit's Ford Field in Detroit, Mich., on April 1, 2007. (Photo by Leon Halip/WireImage via Getty Images)

"It’s time for a debate so that he can explain to the American People his highly destructive Open Border Policy, new and ridiculous EV Mandates, the allowance of Crushing Inflation, High Taxes, and his really WEAK Foreign Policy, which is allowing the World to 'Catch on Fire,'" Trump continued. "I am Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe at the two proposed times in June and September."

Trump added: “I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds — That’s only because he doesn’t get them. Just tell me when, I’ll be there. 'Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!'”

Trump could yet pull out

"I will challenge Vince next year to a fight. And I will kick his ass. If he wants. I will kick his ass!" Trump bellowed in reference to McMahon.

Despite his bluster, Trump did not pursue another "battle of the billionaires" melee. Rather, Trump went into political business with McMahon's wife, Linda McMahon, who would later become a Trump megadonor and his administrator of the federal Small Business Administration.

Little of this is surprising — and speaks to how Trump's political career, like his pro wrestling dalliance, is peppered with backtracks, flip-flops and about-faces.

Consider that Trump has been a Democrat, independent and Reform Party member before becoming a Republican.

He used to donate money to A-list liberals before strictly supporting conservatives.

He first flirted with a run for president in 1988. Ahead of Election 2000, at the behest of former pro wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, Trump briefly sought the presidency as a Reform Party candidate, but quit. Trump flirted again with a run ahead of Election 2012 before withdrawing from consideration after "considerable deliberation and reflection." He even publicly pondered running for governor of New York in 2014, then didn't.

Meanwhile, Trump has been all over the map on issues such as abortion, Social Security, Medicare, gun background checks and a host of others.

Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump stands next to a podium placed next to him to challenge President Biden to a debate as he speaks at a rally outside Schnecksville Fire Hall on April 13, 2024, in Schnecksville, Pa. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

And lest we forget, Trump nixed a scheduled debate between himself and Biden on Oct. 15, 2020. Trump simply refused to participate in what would have been a virtual event — the Commission on Presidential Debates made it such because Trump, who had contracted COVID-19 earlier that month at a time when vaccines weren't yet available, declined to say whether he had tested negative for the virus.

Trump refused to participate at all in any of the several 2024 Republican presidential primary debates.

Trump for weeks has demanded Biden take a drug test before the first debate, and he hasn't relented despite Biden ignoring him.

The takeaway?

While the June 27 Biden-Trump tilt is all but chiseled in granite, there's still plenty of time for Trump to withdraw from September's royal rumble.

This article originally published on Mary 21, 2024, and has been updated to reflect new developments.

Vermont State Rep. Jim Carroll, a Democrat, has been reluctant up until now to publicly discuss an embarrassing video involving a GOP colleague, Rep. Mary Morrissey — who, according to Vermont publication Seven Days, can be seen pouring liquid into a tote bag hanging from a hook outside a committee room.

But now, Seven Days' Kevin McCallum reports, Carroll is speaking out.

In a written statement, the Vermont state lawmaker said of Morrissey, "I have been very reluctant to disclose the video because I believe it will deeply embarrass Representative Morrissey. However, it has become clear to me that the media are aware of the details of Representative Morrissey's behavior, and likely will continue to report on that behavior in the near future."

Carroll shot the video himself using a remote spy camera.

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According to McCallum, Morrissey can be seen "approaching a bag outside Carroll's committee room and dumping a cup of water directly into it."

The videos were filmed on March 23 and March 26.

"Carroll initially told his committee chair, Rep. Mike Marcotte (R-Coventry), about his stuff getting soaked and asked for help figuring out how it was happening," McCallum explains. "After ruling out other explanations, Carroll concluded he was being targeted. So, he conducted a one-man statehouse sting operation."

McCallum adds, "He installed a small $23 spy camera in the hallway pointed at the coatrack outside his committee room. He took the video evidence to House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington), who confronted Morrissey about it."

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