The Republican National Convention chose to elevate a clip of some eyebrow-raising frat boy behavior on Wednesday.

The original viral clip, filmed in early May, emerged from a collision between a Palestine solidarity protest and a group of counter-protesters at the University of Mississippi. One fraternity brother, dressed in a blue shirt and cheered on by a crowd of white men, harassed a Black woman in the pro-Palestine group by dancing and screaming at her like a monkey.

“Not all college students have gone woke,” the RNC announcer praised over a shot of the video. “They should be celebrated.”

Maybe not a good idea to include this clip pic.twitter.com/vRESazdPep

While that level of racism was apparently perfect for the Republican convention, it was too extreme even for the fraternity and the school. The behavior sparked an investigation by the University of Mississippi, and led University Chancellor Glenn Boyce to issue a statement describing the counter-protesters’ chants and actions as containing “hostility and racist overtones.”

The Phi Delta Theta fraternity that the student belonged to also opted to kick him out, noting in a statement shortly after the video was publicized that “the racist actions in the video were those of an individual and are antithetical to the values of Phi Delta Theta and the Mississippi Alpha chapter.”

“After reviewing the incident, it was determined that the individual’s behavior was unacceptable,” an updated version of the statement read. “The action in question was offensive, outside the bounds of this discourse, and contradictory to our values.”

Sounds like the RNC got a different message.

The gunman who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday reportedly had President Biden and the Democratic National Convention in his search history, in addition to Trump.

The FBI released new details about Thomas Matthew Crooks Wednesday to members of Congress, revealing in addition to pictures of Biden and Trump, the 20-year-old also searched for F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and a member of the British royal family. The New York Times reported these details, citing anonymous sources.

What still isn’t known is Crooks’s motive. While he told fellow users of a gaming platform, Steam, that he planned to make a “premiere” on July 13, little else has been discovered. The FBI has searched through Crooks’s possessions, including two phones and at least one laptop, and haven’t found any proof of strong political views in any particular direction.

Crooks received several packages over the past few months that were marked “hazardous material,” and federal law enforcement also found three explosive devices connected to him: two in his car, and one in his house. The two in his car used a radio-controlled system normally used in commercial fireworks.

Investigators haven’t found any evidence of co-conspirators or ties to any organizations, and are reportedly puzzled by the lack of evidence on the two phones. One hypothesis is that Crooks may been dealing with depression, as one of his phone searches was for “major depressive disorder,” but little has been discovered beyond that.

In the week following the shooting, Trump’s right-wing allies and supporters have spouted all kinds of conspiracy theories, including that it was a plot by the Democratic establishment and that the Secret Service was weakened by “DEI hires,” meaning women and minorities. But the revelations so far don’t show any kind of wider plot, or a political motive. So far, the limited discoveries only hint at a man looking up famous people near him.

Senator Bernie Sanders basically admitted that President Biden is declining, but said he will support him anyway.

In an interview with The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner, the Vermont senior senator confessed Biden “sometimes [gets] confused about names.”

“You’re right—sometimes he doesn’t put three sentences together. It is true,” Sanders told Chotiner, before adding a big caveat.

“But the reality of the moment is, in my view, he is the best candidate the Democrats have for a variety of reasons, and trying, in an unprecedented way, to take him off the ticket would do a lot more harm than good,” Sanders added.

Sanders spoke about how impressed he has been with Biden’s record in office, but didn’t entirely dismiss the question over whether Biden could serve as president for another four years.

“Look, I have concerns about everything, you know? And everybody should have concerns about everything. As a nation, we do a very poor job, both in Congress and in the media, of focusing on issues that impact the working class,” Sanders said, dodging the question. “So I would much prefer to have somebody who can’t put three sentences together who is setting forth an agenda that speaks to the needs of working-class people.”

When Chotiner described Biden as having “trouble completing a single sentence,” Sanders replied simply, “He does.”

Still, Sanders said that he’d prefer Biden stay despite showing signs of decline. It is a candid description of Biden that one would not hear from any of the president’s other supporters, and that is probably because of Sanders’s outsider reputation as an avowed socialist and independent in the Senate.

Unlike Biden’s other supporters, Sanders isn’t just offering warnings about the dangers of convicted felon Donald Trump returning to the White House, with Project 2025 in tow. He is steadfastly defending Biden’s record over his nearly four years as president, with some criticisms.

“My supporters are very upset, and justifiably so,........

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