Bill Clinton downplayed Hillary Clinton’s recent health scare by claiming Wednesday there’s nothing unusual about someone having a touch of the flu.
This is the first that anyone has mentioned the Democratic nominee having the flu. A Clinton spokesman noted immediately after the former president’s remarks that he meant to say the Democratic nominee is recovering from pneumonia.
“I just talked to her. She’s feeling great,” Bill Clinton told an excited crowd in Las Vegas.
“It’s a crazy time we live in, you know, when people think there’s something unusual about getting the flu. Last time I checked, millions of people were getting it every year,” he said.
Approximately 5-10 million Americans are diagnosed every year with pneumonia.
Spoiler: People call stuff that isn’t the flu “the flu.” Especially people in their 70s. https://t.co/BdRSOD0H0W
— TV MoJoe (@TVMoJoe) September 14, 2016
Questions about Hillary Clinton’s health have dominated news headlines this week after she was seen collapsing Sunday afternoon outside of a 9/11 memorial event in New York City. Her knees buckled and her aides had to help her into a van.
Her campaign said at first that she was merely overheated, and claimed after she disappeared for 90 minutes that she made a quick recovery and felt great.
They then revealed she had been diagnosed with pneumonia days earlier.
Members of her campaign team claimed later that her fainting episode was brought on by dehydration.
Bill Clinton said Monday that the former secretary of state has had a few dehydration-related dizzy spells in the past. Hillary Clinton later confirmed his claim and said she has become dizzy from dehydration at least twice in the last five years.
On Wednesday, Bill Clinton said she had the flu.
Clinton responded Monday to questions about her health by posting a series of notes to social media saying she felt much better.
On Tuesday, the Clinton campaign announced she would return to the campaign trail later this week. She is scheduled to appear Thursday in Greensboro, N.C.
In the meantime, Bill Clinton has been brought in to stand in for the Democratic nominee at various campaign events and fundraisers.
“I’m glad to have a chance to stand in for Hillary today,” he said Wednesday in Las Vegas. “She did it for me for a long time. It’s about time I showed up and did it for her.”
