Clinton’s bout of pneumonia raises worries for Democrats 0 Democrat Hillary Clinton’s bout of pneumonia, kept secret until she nearly collapsed on Sunday, has raised an element of uncertainty about her health going into the final weeks of presidential campaigning and risks feeding a narrative from rival Donald Trump about her stamina.
The Clinton campaign was forced to admit on Sunday that the 68-year-old Democratic presidential nominee had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday after she complained of allergies and was seen coughing repeatedly in recent days.
The pneumonia disclosure was made public hours after her campaign said she had become “overheated” to explain why, knees buckling and unsteady, she was rushed from a ceremony marking the 11 September 2001, attacks in New York.
Democratic donor and fundraiser Bill Bartmann later fielded calls from about half a dozen Democrats worried about how the episode would look. The callers, he said, decided to wait and see how everything plays out.
For Democrats, the incident also brought up some familiar concerns about Clinton’s penchant for secrecy during an on-going debate about her use of a private email server while serving as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
“You’ve got Donald Trump promoting health conspiracy theories to begin with, so any time something even lends an air of credence to that conspiracy, it needs to be debunked right away,” Democratic strategist Bud Jackson said.
The issue also put pressure on both Clinton and Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, to reassure American voters about their health given the rigors of the presidential campaign, in which the food is often unhealthy, sleep is elusive and the packed schedule and extensive travel is stressful.
“The short term turbulence will be more about the handling of this than the substance, though I’m sure both candidates will be pressed for greater disclosure of health records,” said David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.
Late on Sunday, her campaign cancelled Clinton’s trip to California scheduled for yesterday morning.
The health problem was the latest blow for Clinton at a time when Trump has erased most of her lead in national opinion polls and is competitive again in many battleground states where the 8 November election is likely to be decided.
Her dismissal of half of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables” of racist, homophobic people on Friday triggered a firestorm of criticism and prompted her to roll back the comment.
During the Republican primary campaign Trump dispatched rival Jeb Bush by deriding him as a “low energy” candidate. His efforts to raise questions about Clinton’s stamina mirror that strategy.
Trump aides did not immediately respond to questions about whether Trump would seek to use the Clinton health incident to his advantage. Trump, normally voluble on Twitter, stayed silent on the issue on Sunday.
NAMPA/REUTERS