Hillary Clinton said she made a mistake by continuing to campaign after learning she had pneumonia in 2016, recalling that she attended a Sept. 11 commemoration despite her doctor’s advice to take several days off.
Clinton discussed the episode on a podcast with journalist Kara Swisher while talking about Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico. Talarico had been away from public campaign events for nine days after saying he had the flu. The source report said his absence prompted an online rumor that he had been admitted to a mental health facility in Ohio; Clinton and Swisher characterized the claim as easily disproved.
Clinton compared the attention surrounding Talarico’s absence with the reaction to video of her struggling to reach a vehicle after the 2016 ceremony. In her account, medical testing had revealed pneumonia, and her doctor advised her to rest for five or six days. She said she felt she could not miss the Sept. 11 event because of its personal importance to her as a senator at the time of the 2001 attacks. She acknowledged that continuing to campaign was the wrong decision.
Clinton said the footage showed her having difficulty getting to a car and needing time to recover. She argued that the coverage and online discussion focused on claims that she was gravely ill or had misrepresented her health. She also criticized former President Donald Trump over what she described as a lack of honest medical information about him. Those comments were Clinton’s characterization; the supplied report did not provide medical records or independent assessments to substantiate them.
At the time of the 2016 incident, a law enforcement source described Clinton as having some kind of medical episode as she appeared to fall while heading to a van and was assisted by security personnel. Her campaign later confirmed that she had pneumonia and said she had felt overheated. The campaign also faced press criticism over when it disclosed the diagnosis and how it handled media questions.
A White House spokesman, Davis Ingle, responded to Clinton’s comments by saying she should move on from the 2016 election. Ingle praised Trump’s energy and accessibility, asserted that he was in excellent health, and accused Democrats and media outlets of concealing former President Joe Biden’s physical and mental decline. His remarks were the administration’s response and were not accompanied in the supplied material by supporting medical evidence.
The exchange revisited a long-running argument over how candidates’ health is disclosed and covered. Clinton’s remarks acknowledged her own decision to campaign while ill, while also renewing her criticism of the attention paid to the incident and Trump’s health disclosures. The supplied report does not include a response from Talarico or additional medical documentation about the people discussed.
