Hillary Clinton is expected to return to the campaign trail Thursday, nearly four days after a health scare in New York City forced her to take some time off.
“She has spent the day catching up on reading briefings, making calls and she watched President Obama’s speech in Philadelphia on TV,” Clinton’s traveling press secretary, Nick Merril, announced Tuesday. “We will resume campaign travel on Thursday, more details to come.”
The news comes after an incident this weekend in which Clinton was recorded collapsing outside of a 9/11 memorial service. Her knees buckled and her aides had to lift her to help her into a van.
The Clinton campaign said at first she merely “overheated” at the event, but after the Democratic nominee disappeared for a full 90 minutes — leaving the entire press in the dark — her campaign eventually revealed that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia several days earlier.
Clinton responded Monday to questions about her health, and assured supporters on social media that she is doing just fine.
“Thanks to everyone who’s reached out with well wishes! I’m feeling fine and getting better,” she said on Twitter. “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.”
Former President Bill Clinton has been brought on in the meantime to stand in for the Democratic nominee at various campaign events and fundraisers.
“Given the recent changes in the Secretary’s schedule, President Clinton will now headline the Hillary Victory Fund events in California tomorrow,” a Clinton campaign aide said Monday.
Bill Clinton pinched hit for his wife at two fundraisers in Los Angeles Tuesday, and he is scheduled to appear Wednesday at a campaign event in Las Vegas.
America’s 42nd president was not, however, called in Monday evening to help with a Clinton fundraiser in San Francisco. The former secretary of state phoned into that event herself as she continued to recover from her fainting episode this weekend.
The nominee said later in an email to campaign volunteers that she is ready and eager to get back on the campaign trail.
“I wanted to tell you personally that I’m feeling fine and getting better. (It doesn’t hurt to be able to spend some time at home with my dogs),” the email read, adding, “I’m just anxious to get back out there. There’s so much at stake in this election, and we only have 57 days left in this campaign — I want to make each one count.”
“Thank you for being the warmest, toughest, and most dependable team I could hope for — you’ve lifted me up, today and every day,” it added.
Bill Clinton maintained Monday evening that the fainting incident was fairly unremarkable, and said the former secretary of state has had a few dizzy spells in the past.
“Rarely, on more than one occasion, over the last many, many years, the same sort of thing has happened to her when she got severely dehydrated,” he said in an interview with CBS News’ Charlie Rose.
Hillary Clinton confirmed his remarks later in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, saying she could recall at least two such incidents in the past five years.
“Oh, I think [it has happened] really only twice that I can recall,” she said. “You know, it is something that has occurred a few times over the course of my life, and I’m aware of it and usually can avoid it.”
She also said she didn’t tell the public about her pneumonia diagnosis last week because she didn’t see the point.
“Well, I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal,” Clinton said.
