The Democratic presidential nominee “felt overheated” Sunday and left the ground zero ceremony after about 90 minutes, her campaign said. A video of her departure shows Clinton appearing to stumble as three staff members hold her up and help her into a van. Clinton’s doctor said later she had been diagnosed with pneumonia and prescribed antibiotics.
While the former secretary of state later emerged from her daughter’s nearby apartment, saying she was “feeling great,” the episode focused attention on Clinton’s health with eight weeks remaining in a contentious election in which Republican rival Donald Trump has sought to sow doubts about her health and fitness to serve.
Trump has repeatedly questioned Clinton’s health, telling supporters last month she “lacks the mental and physical stamina” to serve as president and fight ISIS. The billionaire businessman also attended Sunday’s memorial and said, “I don’t know anything,” when asked about Clinton. He said Monday on “Fox and Friends” he hopes Clinton gets well soon.
Despite the intense focus on Clinton falling ill on Sunday, Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University Langone Medical Center, said the moment told voters little about Clinton’s physical fitness.
“There are plenty of people who may stumble around on a hot humid day for lots of reasons,” Caplan said. “Without examining, without having the history … you don’t have a basis to say anything.”
In 2008, Republican nominee John McCain made public more than a thousand pages of his medical history to show he was cancer-free and fit to serve as president at age 71. Neither Clinton nor Trump has released anything approaching that level of detail.
Dr. Lisa Bardack, the internist who has been Clinton’s personal doctor since 2001, released a two-page letter in July 2015 that said Clinton was in “excellent physical condition and fit to serve as president of the United States.”
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