How you reacted to Hillary Clinton’s “medical” situation this morning says a lot about who you are as a person. For many people, the first reaction to seeing a video showing the Democratic nominee appearing to stumble as she is helped into her car after reportedly not feeling well was genuine concern. Her campaign released a statement saying she was suffering from “overheating” - not hard to do on a muggy summer day in New York City. Soon, social media was full of people sharing stories of their own scary encounters with heat exhaustion.
I got heat stroke standing in line for a film at Cannes. Blacked out in the lobby of the Grand Palais. I had a 102-degree temp for 3 days.
— DrewAtHitFix (@DrewAtHitFix) September 11, 2016
REMINDER: Models fainted from the NYC heat Wednesday at Kanye's Yeezy show. With far less on than Hillary's wearing. https://t.co/BPvJcxOQr0
— Laura (@WeeLaura) September 11, 2016
But a certain segment of Republicans began openly cheering. Having spent months lying about Hillary Clinton’s health with tales of her imminent death (ex. The National Enquirer predicted Clinton would be dead in 6 months… 12 months ago), they saw the incident as vindication.
It would be short-lived. Clinton’s doctor has released a detailed account of what Clinton has been suffering from these past few days - and it’s not a brain tumor.
HRC's doctor (1/2): "has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. diagnosed Friday w/pneumonia, put on antibiotics, advised to rest"
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) September 11, 2016
HRC's doctor (2/2): "this morning, she became overheated/dehydrated. just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely."
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) September 11, 2016
So her “cough” that Matt Drudge took to mean she was dying? It was allergies. The light-headedness Rudy Giuliani assumed was brain cancer? It was dehydration and overheating due to pneumonia. A serious illness, no doubt, but not exactly rare or disqualifying. George H.W. Bush famously vomited into the lap of the Japanese Prime Minister during a bout of the flu and nobody called on him to resign from office.
In a hilarious twist, with Clinton’s doctor weighing in, any medical mystery in the election is directly upon Donald Trump. Like his tax returns, Trump has thus far refused to release any medical information about himself save for a ludicrous letter allegedly written by his stomach doctor that referred to Trump as the healthiest person to ever run for president. Trump’s doctor has since recanted his involvement in the letter, saying he wrote it in “five minutes” while a limo waited outside to take it to Trump Tower and admitting, on camera, that he shouldn’t have written it.
On the other hand, Trump is, in a delightful turn of phrase by Politico, a “70-year-old, corpulent, junk-food-gobbling opponent, who has proudly posed with a KFC chicken bucket.” Stuart Stevens, a former adviser to Mitt Romney, put Trump’s health status more bluntly: “Donald Trump is hardly a physical specimen. He’s a 70-year-old fat guy who doesn’t exercise — let him run a hard mile on a treadmill.”
And we know nothing about his medical status. Since the implosion of his “medical letter” he has refused to talk any more about it.
Clinton is on antibiotics and will be fine in a few days. Now the ball is in Trump’s court to prove he’s fit to lead. Unless…
Might be smart move for Trump now to release his medical records. Unless…
— Brit Hume (@brithume) September 11, 2016
Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
