The latest Public Policy Polling numbers show a surprising presidential hopeful overtaking Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, and Scott Walker in North Carolina — and he's dead even with Marco Rubio, too. The independent candidate, registered as "Deez Nuts," is officially polling at 9 percent in North Carolina.

"Deez Nuts," according to Know Your Meme, originated as "a video remix series containing a clip of internet personality WelvenDaGreat saying the phrase 'deez nuts' into a phone, which is often added as the punch line into a variety of videos on Instagram and Vine." The phrase actually dates back to Dr. Dre's 1992 studio album, The Chronic, which features a track titled "Deeez Nuuuts." In the song's intro, Snoop Dogg tells the titular "deez nuts" joke to a woman on the phone. The phrase was added to Urban Dictionary — and thus made truly official — in 2004, Know Your Meme reports.

Deez Nuts filed a statement of candidacy in late July with the Federal Election Commission, which means he's shown surprising momentum in just a few weeks. It all just goes to show — only in America. Jeva Lange

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has announced he'll vote "no" on the GOP health-care bill in its current form — but he doesn't want to cast that vote this coming week. "We don't have enough information. I don't have the feedback from constituencies who will not have had enough time to review the Senate bill," he said Sunday in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press.

Johnson said he would like to delay the vote if possible. "I have been encouraging leadership, the White House, anybody I can talk to for quite some time, [saying] let's not rush this process," he continued. "Let's have the integrity to show the American people what it is."

The bill cannot pass the Senate if more than two GOP senators vote against it; at present, five Republicans say they will vote "no." Watch a clip of the interview below. Bonnie Kristian

Republican supporters of the GOP legislation to replace ObamaCare are making promises they can't deliver, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday on ABC's The Week.

"The fundamental flaw of ObamaCare," Paul argued, "was that it added regulations to insurance, mandates which made insurance more expensive, but then it also told individuals, 'You know what, if you don't want to buy now, you can wait and buy [insurance] after you're sick.'"

The problem with the GOP health-care bill currently under development in the Senate, Paul continued, is that it doesn't significantly change those flaws. "Ten of 12 regulations that add cost to insurance remain under the Republican bill," he said, "and we still say you can still by insurance after you're sick. If you add those two together, you still get the death spiral," which is a cycle of rising premiums and healthier people dropping insurance coverage until they get sick.

Too little change from current legislation is why Paul says GOP leadership has "promised too much. They say they're going to fix health care and premiums are going to down. There's no way the Republican bill brings down premiums. ... It's a foolish notion to promise something you can't provide."

Of course, the libertarian-leaning senator's objections to ObamaCare and the GOP plan alike go beyond pragmatic considerations. "Shouldn't the individual in a free country be able to decide what they want for insurance?" he asked ABC host George Stephanopoulos. "The government shouldn't tell you what you have to buy for insurance." Watch an excerpt of Paul's comments below. Bonnie Kristian

President Trump advocated bipartisanship while attacking his partisan opponents in a Fox & Friends interview Sunday. "One of the things that should be solved — but it probably won't be — is that Republicans and Democrats don't get together," Trump said. "And I'm open arms [to Democrats], but I don't see that happening."

Trump turned to the subject of the embattled GOP health-care bill currently under consideration in the Senate to expand on his point. "It would be so great if Democrats and Republicans could get together, wrap their arms around it, and come up with something that everybody's happy with. It's so easy," he continued. "But we won't get one Democrat vote, not one. And if it were the greatest bill ever proposed in mankind, we wouldn't get a vote."

From there Trump moved on to "the resistance," a name for the popular protest against his presidency. "That's a terrible word. Think of it: Their theme is 'resist.' Their theme should be, 'Let's get together. Envelop,'" Trump said. Apparently remembering the belligerent tone of his own campaign, he conceded "resist" is a good theme for winning an election, but maintained it is "terrible" for right now.

Trump also addressed The Washington Post's Friday article detailing former President Obama's inaction in response to Russian election interference in 2016. "The question is, if [Obama] had the information, why didn't he do something about it?" Trump asked. He suggested the media is suppressing the story while actively referencing the Post report, a widely publicized story in a major media outlet.

Watch Trump's comments in context below. Bonnie Kristian

A black St. Louis, Missouri, police officer was shot by a colleague while off duty this week, an encounter in which the injured officer's lawyer says race was a factor. "In the police report you have so far, there is no description of a threat [the shooter] received," said attorney Rufus J. Tate Jr. in a local news interview. "So we have a real problem with that. But this has been a national discussion for the past two years. There is this perception that a black man is automatically feared."

The off-duty officer was at home when he heard commotion outside and took his police-issued firearm to investigate. When two cops pursuing a suspect saw him, they "ordered him to the ground." He complied, and was recognized by his coworkers, who told him "to stand up and walk toward them."

At that moment, a fourth officer arrived. "[F]earing for his safety and apparently not recognizing the off-duty officer," the police report says, he immediately shot the off-duty cop in the arm.

All officers involved have been placed on administrative leave while the departmental investigation proceeds. The officer who was shot was released from the hospital after treatment. Bonnie Kristian

An oil tanker overturned and exploded in Pakistan Sunday, killing 153 people and leaving dozens more injured, including around 50 in critical condition. About 20 children are among the dead.

The truck tipped over on a highway after it blew out a tire, local officials said. A crowd gathered to collect the spilling fuel, putting them close to the truck when it exploded nearly an hour later.

"I have never seen anything like it in my life. Victims trapped in the fireball. They were screaming for help," said Abdul Malik, a police officer involved in rescue efforts. "We saw bodies everywhere, so many were just skeletons. The people who were alive were in really bad shape." Bonnie Kristian

No less than 18 large wildfires are burning in the West and Southwest regions of the U.S., aggravated by extreme heat and lack of rain. The two largest blazes are in Utah and Arizona, but there are also fires in California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Oregon.

Wildfires have burned more than 2.5 million acres in the United States in 2017 alone, about 1 million acres more than is typical for this time of year. In Utah, 800 people have been evacuated, and 13 homes have burned. That fire began June 17 and is only 5 percent contained. Bonnie Kristian

The health-care proposal to replace ObamaCare expected to come to a vote in the Senate this week is insufficiently conservative, said Tim Phillips, president of Americans For Prosperity, a political outfit in the Koch brothers' network, in an Associated Press report published Sunday.

Phillips said the Koch network is "disappointed that movement has not been more dramatic toward a full repeal or a broader rollback of this law, ObamaCare," labeling the Senate bill "a slight nip and tuck" of current law which changes so little it is "immoral." To net his support, he added, the "Senate bill needs to get better."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has indicated he is willing to alter the health-care legislation to make it viable, but he faces incompatible demands from across the political spectrum. Bonnie Kristian