The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, and former Alaska governor, once again tested positive for COVID-19, considering she has the antibodies from a previous infection, and yet, despite ordering a serological test which could prove her positive is just a sign that she had it in the past, a judge announced Monday the trial will now be delayed.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan, who is heading the case, announced that "Ms. Palin had tested positive for Coronavirus." "She is, of course, unvaccinated," he added.
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Rakoff said Palin's positive test came from an at-home test with lower reliability than tests administered at the courthouse and needed for the trial. She will be retested to decide if jury selection can start later Monday or the trial should be suspended, presumably until Feb. 3.
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Palin's suit claims that The New York Times defamed her in an editorial that seemed to link her to political violence after the shooting of House Republican Whip Steve Scalise in 2017.
In an editorial titled "America's Lethal Politics "— an unsigned piece by the paper's editorial board — the newspaper possessed language from a political action committee associated with Palin among examples of "how vicious American politics has become."
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Citing the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in Tucson, the editorial said: "Before the shooting, Sarah Palin's political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs."
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The gunman's writing in the 2011 case made it clear that he'd been preparing the attack for a long time before the Palin map was circulated. Moreover, the map didn't show Giffords and the other Democrats themselves in cross-hairs — only summaries of their congressional districts.
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Palin vehemently objected to the editorial in a Facebook post, calling it "sickening" and describing it as an attempt "to destroy innocent people with lies and more fake news."
The Times soon corrected the editorial, saying there was no link between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting, as well as clarifying its depiction of the map. The correction didn't cite Palin by name.
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Palin and members of her family also tested positive for COVID-19 in April of last year. At the time, she encouraged people to continue social distance and wear face masks.
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“It’ll be over my dead body that I’ll have to get a shot,” Palin told a cheering crowd. “I will not do that. I won’t do it, and they better not touch my kids either.”
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In March, Palin, who tested positive for COVID, was speaking at AmericaFest 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona, an event hosted by the Conservative student organization Turning Point USA, which attracted other staunch vaccine opponents, including Tucker Carlson of Fox News and extremist Republicans Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.