| Wall Street Journal | - |
WHITE
PLAINS, N.Y.—Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will
release additional medical records this week, a spokesman said Monday, a
day after her campaign disclosed she had pneumonia and after a
health-related stumble exiting a 9/11 ...
Hillary Clinton to Release More Medical Records After Pneumonia Diagnosis
Campaign admits fault in delaying announcement that candidate was diagnosed with pneumonia
Hillary Clinton left a 9/11 ceremony in New York abruptly
Sunday. After videos surfaced showing the Democratic presidential
nominee stumble as aides helped lift her to a campaign car, Clinton's
doctor released a statement saying the 68-year old had been diagnosed
with pneumonia Friday. Credit: Twitter/Zdenek Gazda via Storyful
Press secretary Brian Fallon also said the campaign made mistakes handling the situation on Sunday, specifically by not responding to questions for 90 minutes about Mrs. Clinton’s exit from the memorial event in Manhattan.
Even then, a spokesman attributed her departure to feeling overheated, when she also had pneumonia—a fact the campaign didn’t disclose until late in the afternoon. Mr. Fallon said the campaign wanted the information about Mrs. Clinton’s diagnosis to come from her doctor, which he said wasn’t possible until she examined the candidate again later in the day.
Last year, Mrs. Clinton released a summary of her health, including the results of some medical testing. Until now, her campaign said that was sufficient, and pointed out her release was more detailed than that of opponent Donald Trump, who has tried to raise questions about her health. But after Sunday’s events, she decided to release more information, Mr. Fallon said.
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Mrs. Clinton was spending Monday at home resting, the campaign said, though she was expected to call in to a fundraiser being held in San Francisco that she had planned to attend. She was supposed to be in California for events on Monday and Tuesday and then in Nevada on Wednesday. It is possible she will return to the trail on Wednesday, but it wasn’t clear whether she would travel out west.
Mr. Fallon said Mrs. Clinton hadn’t planned on changing her schedule after her diagnosis of pneumonia on Friday. That day, she attended a national-security meeting, talked to reporters and attended a fundraiser. She also participated in meetings on Saturday and didn’t want to miss the 9/11 event on Sunday, he said.
“Her intention was to power through,” he said. “She was full-steam ahead.” He said that aides had to persuade her to cancel the California trip.
There were discussions about deploying her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to attend Los Angeles fundraisers in her stead. She also had planned to appear on Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show while in California.
Mrs. Clinton, who maintained a grueling travel as secretary of state and now as a presidential candidate, “continues to feel better, but intends to remain at home today, following her doctor’s recommendation to rest,” spokesman Nick Merrill said Monday.
Some Democrats pointed to her resilience. “ ‘Powering through’ illness is what women do: Stoically, every. single. day,” former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm wrote on Twitter.
But former Obama adviser David Axelrod said the way that she handled the situation was a problem, and fed the perception that the candidate isn’t always straightforward with the public.
“Antibiotics can take care of pneumonia,” he wrote on Twitter. “What’s the cure for an unhealthy penchant for privacy that repeatedly creates unnecessary problems?” The disclosure of Friday’s pneumonia diagnosis didn’t come until hours after a video emerged Sunday of Mrs. Clinton stumbling as aides helped her into her van.
Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri replied to Mr. Axelrod: “We could have done better yesterday, but it is a fact that public knows more about HRC than any nominee in history.”
On Monday, Mr. Trump wished Mrs. Clinton a speedy recovery, but he again aired questions about her health, citing a coughing episode during a rally earlier this month. Mrs. Clinton attributed the cough to seasonal allergies.
“I hope she gets well soon. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m like you, I just see what I see,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News. “The coughing fit was a week ago, so I assume that was pneumonia also. I would have think it would have been so something is going on but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail, and we’ll be seeing her at the debate.”
The candidates are scheduled to meet Sept. 26 in Hempstead, N.Y., for their first debate.
Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com
