![A former NFL player who killed 6 had 'unusually severe' stage 2 CTE that can change behavior, expert says](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/211214121841-phillip-adams-2010-file-restricted-super-tease.jpg)
A former NFL player who killed 6 had 'unusually severe' stage 2 CTE that can change behavior, expert says
CNN
A former NFL player who fatally shot six people before taking his own life in South Carolina this year had "unusually severe" stage 2 CTE, a brain disease linked to head injuries, a Boston University neuropathologist said.
During a Tuesday news conference, Dr. Ann McKee said Phillip Adams, 32, had an extraordinary amount of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) pathology in both frontal lobes of the brain.
The disease is characterized by an unusual buildup of a protein called tau. Severity of the disease is categorized in four stages based on the amount and location of the tau buildup in the brain. Stage 4 is the most severe.
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Amid Democrats’ shock and bickering over how much to respond to President Donald Trump is a deeper question rippling through leaders across the Capitol and across the country: How much should they rely on the same institutional and procedural maneuvers they used during the first Trump term, and how much are they willing to wield their own wrecking balls?
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In less than a month in office the Trump administration has simultaneously dismantled foreign aid programs that support fragile democracies abroad and put on leave federal workers who protect US elections at home in a move that current and former officials say abandons decades of American commitments to democracy.
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Sen. Mitch McConnell was a generational force for the Republican Party — using procedural tactics and political will to stymie much of former President Barack Obama’s agenda, hand President Donald Trump key first-term political victories and deliver a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority. Now he’s the odd man out.