#HillarysHealth: A Genuine Issue or Partisan Junk?

By Al Perrotta Published on August 12, 2016

Talk of Hillary Clinton’s health — or alleged lack thereof — has in recent days jumped from whispers in conservative circles to open chatter in the mainstream media. The Drudge Report Thursday afternoon was only the latest salvo:

Drudge Hillary Health

But is there any “there” there? Is Hillary Clinton a teeter-tottering, brain-damaged, heavily-medicated shell of her former lioness self, or is she a vibrant, yoga-practicing picture of health who can still outwork and out-hustle most of the pudgy writers publishing the articles questioning her fitness?

I pray that Hillary is as fit as a dozen fiddles, and will be around long enough to watch her grandkids and great-grandkids blow through some of the $250 million she and Bill have pocketed since leaving the White House. But her history does raise legitimate questions and provide a lens through which certain incidents during the campaign can be viewed.

“The Terrible Concussion”

Early in December 2012, Hillary Clinton fainted, fell, struck her head and suffered a concussion. The State Dept. said at the time the fainting was caused by dehydration from a stomach virus. Two weeks later, a blood clot The New York Times called “potentially serious” landed her in the hospital.

According to an ABC News timeline, Clinton returned to work at the State Department on January 7, 2013. On the 23rd, she testified before a Benghazi hearing wearing thick, medically modified glasses that the New York Daily News said were designed to treat the double vision resulting from her concussion and blood clot. It’s at this hearing a testy Hillary uttered her immortal “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Three days later, in an email uncovered by Judicial Watch, Clinton’s right hand woman, Huma Abedin, warned another aide set to brief Clinton, “She’s often confused.”

In 2014, Bill Clinton revealed that his wife suffered “a terrible concussion that required six months of very serious work to get over.” It’s crucial to the current discussion to note that Hillary Clinton remained America’s top diplomat, yet kept the country unaware of her “often confused” state and the “very serious work” she was undertaking to recover from her “terrible” concussion.

The Conspiratorial Clues

But this is 2016. As the lady said, what difference, at this point, does it make?

Many of those talking up Hillary’s health issues suggest she’s still suffering from post-concussion syndrome. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms would include “headaches, dizziness, fatigue, irritability, anxiety, insomnia, loss of concentration and memory, noise and light sensitivity.”

We can set aside “irritability.” Irritability has been part of Hillary’s charm for so long any recent demonstrations could be dismissed as simply a matter of personality.

As for the other symptoms, Ed Klein’s book Unlikeable — The Problem with Hillary details how Clinton was complaining to friends about “blinding headaches” and insomnia. Klein also alleges Hillary has suffered a series of minor strokes.

Her occasional slips are a sign of dizziness, critics say. After Hillary’s mysterious extra-long bathroom break during a January debate in January, anonymous law enforcement sources separately told Breitbart that after speeches she would “have to sit and rest before making it back to the car because she was so fatigued, dizzy and disoriented.”

The dizzy and disoriented meme reached fever pitch last weekend with images of Hillary being helped up steps.

 

 

This image from April started making the rounds in the past 24 hours as well, appearing to show Clinton needing assistance at a rally in California.

 

U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to the overflow crowd who were unable to get into the venue during a campaign rally at the Southwest College in Los Angeles, California on April 16, 2016.)

U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to the overflow crowd who were unable to get into the venue during a campaign rally at the Southwest College in Los Angeles, California on April 16, 2016.

 

A loss of concentration and memory? This, the argument goes, is why she’s avoided press conferences like the plague, and rarely interacts with reporters embedded in her campaign.

But has there been any visible evidence of memory or concentration loss? In March Clinton sent the left into an uproar by oddly praising Ronald and Nancy Reagan for helping start a “national conversation” on HIV/AIDS. Reagan was villainized for not even talking about AIDS until long into the crisis.

Hillary’s repeated mischaracterization of FBI director James Comey’s assessment of her email statements (repeated under oath to the Benghazi committee) could also point to confusion. The other option is she’s flat-out lying, but if so, it was an oddly naked one. Clinton herself told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace that she “may have short-circuited” her answers about Comey. Just last week she mistakenly referred to Donald Trump as her husband and boldly declared she was raising taxes on the middle class.

With statements like these — and given Abedin’s email warning — wouldn’t it be up to Hillary to prove she isn’t still “often confused”? Said Fox News medical expert Dr. Marc Seigel earlier this week, “I want to know what her neurological records show.”

The Rebuttal

In July 2015, Hillary Clinton’s physician Dr. Lisa Bardack released a two-page statement declaring the candidate “in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States.” As Politico reported, the only thing the Democratic nominee is dealing with is “hypothyroidism, seasonal allergies and takes blood thinners as a precaution against clots.” Further, Dr. Bardack said a 2013 examination revealed “complete resolution of the effects of the concussion as well as total dissolution of the thrombosis.”

You can read the entire letter here.

Clinton’s friends in the media are also swatting down the health rumors. In “Armed with Junk Science and Old Photos, Critics Question #HillarysHealth,” The Washington Post blasted those questioning the condition of the candidate. “None of the evidence, often shared (or sent to reporters) with the hashtag #HillarysHealth, held up. In every case, a Clinton moment that had been captured by the media was reinterpreted and wrenched out of context.”

The Washington Post first challenged the photos plastered on The Drudge Report of an unsteady Hillary needing help up a set of stairs.

 

Democratic Presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slips as she walks up the stairs into the non-profit SC Strong, a 2 year residential facility that helps former felons, substance abusers, and homeless move into self-sufficiency Feb. 24, 2016, in North Charleston. The South Carolina Democratic Presidential Primary is held on Feb. 27.

Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton slips as she walks up the stairs February 24 in North Charleston, South Carolina.

 

As CNN’s Brian Stelter noticed, the picture was from February and as the Getty Images caption explained, Hillary had simply slipped. She may have looked like she was staggering like Johnny Manziel after a night of clubbing, but it was merely your average misstep.

The Washington Post also challenged a viral video which shows “Clinton’s head suddenly turning and shaking vigorously for several seconds.” Critics say she’s having a seizure.

 

 

Another angle of the same incident shows Hillary being swarmed by a gaggle of beaming beat reporters tossing questions her way about President Obama’s endorsement of her candidacy.

 

 

Hillary’s exaggerated head bobbing was seen by those reporters, says The Washington Post, as a “joke at how she’d suddenly been surrounded.”

The Post writer also mocks allegations that Hillary seized up when interrupted by protesters at a recent rally in Las Vegas.

 

 

But is Hillary prone to seizures? Among the signs raised by the #HillarysHealth army is her frequent fits of coughing — a common side-effect of seizure medicine, they say. Also, remember the bald, burly African-American agent who rushed to Hillary’s side and urged her to keep talking in the above video? According to The Washington Post, that’s Secret Service Assistant Special Agent in Charge Todd Madison. He’s the same guy who helped Hillary up those steps. And he’s also pictured walking alongside Bill and Hillary at the DNC Convention carrying a device that Internet detectives, led by Mike Cernovich, say is an auto-injector filled with Diazepam.

Diazepam is used for patients who experience recurrent seizures. Here’s a typical tweet showing the photo and close-ups of the objects in the agent’s hand.

 

 

A bunch of hooey, says the debunking website Snopes.com. They say the image in the DNC shot “is too blurry to positively identify the object in the agent’s hand. And a video of the agent using the above-pictured object shows that it is being used like a flashlight and not a Diazepam pen.”

 

 

Still, Hillary Clinton herself can shine more light on her health. She can release her full medical records. According to a Rasmussen poll out Thursday, 59% of the people she hopes to lead think those records should be made public.

It would be a simple step to take.

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