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Hillary Clinton’s Campaign to Release More Information on Her Health Hillary Clinton’s Campaign to Release More Information on Her Health
(about 4 hours later)
Hillary Clinton’s campaign, responding to enormous political pressure after she had to be helped into a van on Sunday — and after waiting hours before explaining that she was suffering from pneumonia — said Monday that it would release more medical information about her this week. Shortly after receiving a diagnosis of pneumonia on Friday, Hillary Clinton decided to limit the information to her family members and close aides, certain that the illness was not a crucial issue for voters and that it might be twisted and exploited by her opponents, several Clinton advisers and allies said on Monday.
A spokesman, Brian Fallon, said on MSNBC that the campaign was working with Mrs. Clinton’s doctor on a fuller release of medical information, and that those records would show she had “no other undisclosed condition.” To those she did inform, Mrs. Clinton was emphatic: She intended to “press on” with her campaign schedule, she said. Her confidants concluded that Mrs. Clinton did not want to be challenged over her preference to keep the pneumonia secret and continue working.
The campaign’s shift — it has until now resisted requests for the more comprehensive discussion of her medical history that is traditional for presidential nominees — came after Mrs. Clinton was videotaped being helped into a van by Secret Service agents on Sunday, her feet dragging on the ground, while departing early from the Sept. 11 anniversary ceremony in Lower Manhattan. Mrs. Clinton’s inner circle was mindful of both her guardedness and her expectation of loyalty once her mind is made up. And she herself was optimistic that she could recuperate over the weekend, when she had only two brief events on her schedule, said the advisers and allies, who insisted on anonymity to disclose private conversations.
The manner in which Mrs. Clinton’s illness became public revived concerns among supporters and criticism among her detractors about her seemingly reflexive tendency to hunker down and hoard information, often citing a “zone of privacy,” when she senses a possible political threat. But Mrs. Clinton’s penchant for privacy backfired. On Monday, her campaign scrambled to reassure voters about her health, a day after she grew visibly weak and was filmed being helped into a van: unsettling images that circulated widely and led her aides to disclose the pneumonia diagnosis, two days after the fact.
Mrs. Clinton had actually been given a diagnosis of pneumonia on Friday morning. But she said nothing about it late Friday, when she eagerly told reporters about her plans to defeat the Islamic State, called for a rethinking of the Obama administration’s approach to North Korea and ridiculed Donald J. Trump’s praise for the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. Mrs. Clinton’s aides acknowledged that they should have been more forthcoming and said she would release more details about her physical fitness and medical history this week, a concession to the political pressure that she is now under because she chose not to disclose her diagnosis sooner.
Even Sunday morning, when reporters learned that Mrs. Clinton had departed early from the ceremony for the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a campaign aide explained only that Mrs. Clinton had been “overheated.” But the manner in which Mrs. Clinton’s illness became public has also revived concerns among supporters, and criticism among her detractors, about her seemingly reflexive tendency to hunker down and hoard information, often citing a “zone of privacy,” when she senses a possible political threat. Her desire for tight control over personal information deepened during the partisan wars of the 1990s, influenced her use of a private email server as secretary of state, and now threatens to make her look, again, as though she has something to hide.
It took until more than five hours after the startling video surfaced online — shot by an onlooker, showing an ailing Mrs. Clinton being helped into a van — before her campaign released a statement from her physician, Dr. Lisa R. Bardack, saying Mrs. Clinton had been told that she had pneumonia and put on antibiotics on Friday. The statement said Mrs. Clinton had become dehydrated and overheated at ground zero. “Usually you would think that the truth sets you free, but in the experiences that Hillary Clinton has lived through, that’s not necessarily accurate,” said Jay Jacobs, a Democratic Party leader in New York and close ally of the Clintons. Referring to 1990s investigations of the Clintons, he said: “Whether it’s Whitewater or Travelgate or other things, when the facts came out, it still didn’t solve the problem. They did nothing wrong, but there was still controversy. She is a very private person, and she would rather not put out information that she did not feel needed to be shared.”
The sequence of events quickly intensified pressure on both Mrs. Clinton, 68, and Mr. Trump, 70, to be more forthcoming with information about their health and medical histories. But it has also reinforced a central vulnerability for Mrs. Clinton that has nothing to do with physical stamina. The new onslaught of questions about her physical fitness and medical records has been deeply frustrating to Mrs. Clinton and her team, who have sought to highlight the disparity between her and her Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, over issues of transparency. Mrs. Clinton has released her tax returns, while Mr. Trump has not. She has provided sometimes exhaustive details about her policy proposals, while he has not. And she released considerably more medical information last year — in a letter from her physician, Dr. Lisa R. Bardack — than Mr. Trump did in his own doctor’s letter, which contained little more than over-the-top boasts about Mr. Trump’s “strength and stamina.”
Allies and critics alike drew parallels between her handling of her illness and, among other things, her decision to use a private email server for official business when she was secretary of state. Yet as much as they want the pressure to be on Mr. Trump, Mrs. Clinton and her advisers are now on the defensive about her medical condition.
“She has been totally transparent on the important issues, including public policy ideas, far more than Trump,” said former Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, a longtime ally of Mrs. Clinton’s. “But there’s also a combination of a natural desire for privacy and the fear that information will be politically misused.”
Mrs. Clinton has long relied on a tight-knit, intensely loyal group of aides who share her instincts for political warfare and her skepticism and even hostility toward calls for fuller disclosure. Some of these advisers, like Huma Abedin and Cheryl D. Mills, have worked with her since the 1990s, when Mrs. Clinton complained that a “vast right-wing conspiracy” was targeting her and her husband, President Bill Clinton.
Ms. Abedin and Ms. Mills were among those Mrs. Clinton told about her diagnosis on Friday. Neither replied to emails on Monday.
Her campaign manager, Robby Mook, said Mrs. Clinton had not wanted her illness to deter her. “She just wanted to plow through it,” he told MSNBC, “and I think that’s part of what’s going to make her a great president.”
Most voters have not been moved by questions about Mrs. Clinton’s health: 74 percent of registered voters said they were unconcerned about her being healthy enough to carry out the job of president, a Fox News poll last month found.
But trustworthiness is a glaring problem for Mrs. Clinton: Six in 10 voters said they did not trust her, about the same who said they distrusted Mr. Trump, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released last week.
Mrs. Clinton had several opportunities before Sunday afternoon to disclose that she was battling pneumonia, including at a news conference late Friday afternoon where she discussed her plans to defeat the Islamic State, called for a rethinking of the Obama administration’s approach to North Korea and ridiculed Mr. Trump’s praise for the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin.
(At a fund-raiser that night, Mrs. Clinton, better known for more carefully calibrated phrasings, loosely suggested that half of Mr. Trump’s supporters fell into what she called a “basket of deplorables” — bigots of one kind or another, essentially. She apologized the next day.)
On Sunday morning, when reporters learned that Mrs. Clinton had departed early from the ceremony in Lower Manhattan for the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a campaign aide explained only that Mrs. Clinton had been “overheated.”
It took more than five hours after the startling video surfaced online — shot by an onlooker, showing an ailing Mrs. Clinton being helped into a van — for her campaign to release a statement from Dr. Bardack saying Mrs. Clinton had been told she had pneumonia and put on antibiotics. The statement said she had become dehydrated and overheated at ground zero.
The sequence of events quickly intensified pressure on both Mrs. Clinton, 68, and Mr. Trump, 70, to be more forthcoming with information about their health and medical histories. Mr. Trump has said he will release more medical information later this week.
But the incident has also reinforced a central vulnerability for Mrs. Clinton that has nothing to do with physical stamina.
“Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What’s the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?” David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Obama, wrote on Twitter.“Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia. What’s the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?” David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Obama, wrote on Twitter.
Matthew Dowd, a former strategist for George W. Bush, advised “a miracle drug called transparency.”
On Monday, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign acknowledged that it had come up short in providing information about her illness, though it insisted that she was still a model of transparency.
“We could have done better yesterday, but it is a fact that public knows more about H.R.C. than any nominee in history,” Jennifer Palmieri, a campaign spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter in response to Mr. Axelrod’s criticism.
Many of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters said privately that they believed she would have been criticized whichever path she chose: Had she skipped the ceremony, she risked feeding doubts about her health. But by keeping her schedule, she risked getting sicker. Pneumonia, particularly in people older than 65, can be challenging to recuperate from.
But most of those supporters also acknowledged that by not revealing she had pneumonia immediately after the sick spell Sunday morning, she had fed the perception that her campaign was secretive.
The announcement late Sunday that she had been put on antibiotics Friday morning also cast something of a new light on her demeanor and gaffe later that day.
She had sounded subdued, as if trying to preserve her voice, during her news conference late Friday afternoon, which followed a meeting with a bipartisan group of national security experts about combating the Islamic State.
And at a fund-raiser that night, Mrs. Clinton, better known for more carefully calibrated phrasings, loosely suggested that half of Mr. Trump’s supporters fell into what she called a “basket of deplorables” — bigots of one kind or another, essentially. (She apologized on Saturday for painting with such a broad brush, but on Monday Mr. Trump seized on the remark in a speech and a new ad suggesting Mrs. Clinton was “viciously demonizing hard-working people.”)
Clinton aides have ample reason to be careful on the subject of her health: Political opponents on the right have spread a variety of conspiracy theories insinuating that she is physically unfit for the presidency, and Mr. Trump has fanned those theories, repeatedly questioning her “stamina.”Clinton aides have ample reason to be careful on the subject of her health: Political opponents on the right have spread a variety of conspiracy theories insinuating that she is physically unfit for the presidency, and Mr. Trump has fanned those theories, repeatedly questioning her “stamina.”
After she had a coughing attack last week, Matt Drudge, editor of the Drudge Report, posted a spoof photo of Mrs. Clinton’s traveling press corps wearing surgical masks on her campaign plane.After she had a coughing attack last week, Matt Drudge, editor of the Drudge Report, posted a spoof photo of Mrs. Clinton’s traveling press corps wearing surgical masks on her campaign plane.
Most voters have not been moved by this line of attack: 74 percent of registered voters said they were unconcerned about Mrs. Clinton being healthy enough to carry out the job of president, a Fox News poll last month found. But on Monday, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign acknowledged its error. “We could have done better yesterday, but it is a fact that public knows more about HRC than any nominee in history,” Jennifer Palmieri, a campaign spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter in response to Mr. Axelrod’s criticism.
But trustworthiness is a glaring problem for Mrs. Clinton: Roughly six in 10 voters said they did not trust Mrs. Clinton, about the same as said they distrusted Mr. Trump, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released last week. Mrs. Clinton does not plan to return to the campaign trail until Thursday at the earliest, advisers said, and it is unclear how she and her doctor will respond to interview requests about her health.
Mrs. Clinton, who sustained a concussion in December 2012 after becoming dehydrated, fainting and hitting her head on a toilet, had spoken publicly last week about her struggle with seasonal allergies. Late Monday, she expressed gratitude to well-wishers. “Like anyone who’s ever been home sick from work, I’m just anxious to get back out there. See you on the trail soon,” Mrs. Clinton said on Twitter, signing her post “H” to indicate that she wrote it herself.
After a lengthy coughing fit during a speech at a Labor Day rally in Cleveland, she casually told reporters on her campaign plane that she had increased her antihistamine load.
“It happens like twice a year, in the spring when the pollen comes and it happens in the fall,” she said. “It lasts a couple days and then it disappears.”
“There is a long video recording that someone is compiling right now, going back decades,” she added, jokingly.
And Mrs. Clinton’s aides initially ridiculed reporters who took note of her cough. “Get a life,” a Clinton spokesman, Nick Merrill, posted on Twitter to an NBC News reporter who wrote about it.
But Dr. Bardack’s statement said that Mrs. Clinton’s prolonged cough had developed into the pneumonia that led to her near-collapse on Sunday.
Mrs. Clinton canceled her scheduled trip Monday to San Francisco for a fund-raiser, but planned to call into the event. “H.R.C. continues to feel better, but intends to remain home today, following her doctor’s recommendation to rest,” Mr. Merrill told reporters on Monday.
Also postponed was a planned speech in Los Angeles on Tuesday about an “inclusive economy.”
“We’re going to be down the next two days,” Mr. Fallon, the Clinton campaign spokesman, said on MSNBC. “She’s going to take this opportunity to rest.”
Additional medical disclosure by Mrs. Clinton will add to the pressure on Mr. Trump to release more information about his health.
Until now he has provided only a widely mocked note from a doctor that contained little more than over-the-top praise for Mr. Trump’s “strength and stamina.”
On Thursday, Mr. Trump is expected to appear on an episode of the “Dr. Oz Show” to discuss his health.