Speculation is mounting that Hillary Clinton may run for president again in a potential rematch against Donald Trump. That might explain why she’s increased public appearances and media interviews in connection with a new, curiously timed book that probably no one will read. She recently sat down for a cringe-worthy, fawning interview conducted by Howard Stern on his SiriusXM radio show, during which she had yet another coughing fit (see clip below).
Despite past coughing episodes, Hillary Clinton’s apologists in the national and international media dismissed as a conspiracy theory any speculation about the 2016 (and perhaps 2020) presidential candidate’s health.
The perception changed somewhat when the Democrat politician collapsed at the 2016 9/11 commemoration ceremony in lower Manhattan and was whisked away by Secret Service agents in footage captured by an ordinary citizen and put out on social media. Who knows if a news agency would have ever released the clip into the public domain.
Clinton’s doctor attributed the fainting spell to pneumonia.
Her doctor previously pronounced her fit to serve as commander in chief in a July 2015 statement, Fox News reported at the time. The report indicated that Clinton takes medication for an underactive thyroid and also suffers from allergies. She also suffered a concussion in 2012 and takes a prescription for blood clots.
“Hillary Clinton coughed her way through the primaries, hacked her way through the 2016 election and now is rasping her way through a 13-city book tour with Bill,” The Daily Wire quipped.
The Clinton presidential campaign deemed unfounded any allegations that the candidate was unwell.
Coughing in Canada
On late November 2018, during a Trump-bashing presentation in Toronto, Hillary Clinton was unable to stop coughing, The American Mirror reported. “Before she could begin her usual spill about how Russia cost her the election, Clinton was completely overtaken by an uncontrollable cough.”
An extensive campaign schedule, with constant oratory, can undermine the health of any office-seeker, especially the vocal cords, particularly when it involves jetting around the country.
As history has shown, Hillary Clinton followed a more leisurely 2016 campaign schedule than rival Donald Trump, who indefatigably barnstormed the nation with rally after rally on his path to the White House. Along the way, Trump suggested that Clinton lacked the strength and/or stamina to be president.
Parenthetically, Trump foes and media talking heads have not been shy or hesitant about speculating about the former New York City real estate mogul and reality TV star’s mental health since he took office.
In October 2018, while visiting Oxford University for the dedication of an Eleanor Roosevelt statue, Hillary Clinton started coughing repeatedly.
Prior Clinton Coughing Episodes
For those who may be keeping score at home, here is a complete, more or less, history of Hillary Clinton’s public/caught-on-camera coughing bouts:
- February 2018: During a live-streamed eight-minute speech from New York to the MAKERS “Raise Your Voice” conference in Los Angeles, she began coughing repeatedly as she vowed to continue to speak out on behalf of women’s issues.
- May 2017: In the midst of delivering the commencement address at Wellesley College, her alma mater, Hillary Clinton encountered similar difficulties and attributed it to allergies. “Clinton…sputtered through the talk at the school she attended nearly 50 years ago. Clinton’s coughs began seconds after she began speaking Friday morning, with the fit worsening to the point that it caused her face to turn red and her eyes to water,” the New York Daily News reported at the time.
- September 2016: While speaking a Cleveland, Ohio, Labor Day campaign event, Hillary Clinton suffered what Real Clear Politics described as a “massive coughing fit,” adding that she “had trouble speaking and thanking local elected officials and had to stop multiple times to cough and clear her throat.” She joked at the time that thinking about Trump made her allergic. The coughing fit apparently returned on the flight home from Cleveland.
- July 2016: Hillary Clinton reportedly cleared her throat 22 times when she accepted the Democrat presidential nomination at the DNC convocation in Philadelphia.
- June 2016: While attending an immigration-reform-related event in Sylmar, Calif., Hillary Clinton had another coughing episode while listening (not talking) to another panelist.
- May 2016: In another trip to the Golden State, Hillary Clinton began coughing repeatedly while speaking at a United Farmworkers Union rally.
- April 2016: Stopping by a radio show on a New York City hip-hop station, Clinton began coughing, and again attributed the issue to allergies.
- March 2016: Campaigning in Ohio in the run-up to that state’s presidential primary against Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton lapsed into coughing during a speech.
- March 2016: Hillary’s coughing problem emerged during a nationally televised debate against Sanders in Michigan.
- February 2016: During a speech in Harlem, New York City, Hillary was consumed by a three-minute coughing binge.
- January 2016: A speech in Des Moines, Iowa, prior to the Caucuses there, Hillary Clinton experienced a mid-speech coughing episode.
- October 2015: “Clinton had a similar moment during her lengthy Benghazi Select Committee testimony in October, briefly halting the proceeding when she began coughing almost uncontrollably and needed a cough drop,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
You may recall that ubiquitous TV personality and board-certified internist Dr. Drew Pinsky lost his gig on CNN sister network HLN in September 2016, one week after expressing grave concern about Hillary Clinton’s health and the treatment protocol being administered by her doctors.
According to a report in The Wrap at that time, however, the Dr. Drew cancellation decision “was made several weeks ago and is unrelated to his controversial comments” and was related to a network rebranding effort.
“Clinton’s coughing fits were a repeated hindrance to her message throughout the 2016 campaign. The then candidate had frequent coughing fits on the campaign trail which she blamed on pollen,” the Daily Mail explained in February 2018.
[Featured image credit: John Hain/Pixabay]
Hillary coughs from the same asbestosis that keeps me coughing and for a similar reason. We both were exposed to high amounts of asbestos while removing it from steam lines. I, in the US Navy and Hillary in hell, where she came from!
“Re-Branding”. AKA going all Clinton all the time.