Hillary Clinton is defending her decision to appear at campaign events last weekend despite having pneumonia, and argued at an address in Washington, D.C., that working through illness is what women do every day.
“I’m thrilled to be back on the campaign trail,” Clinton said at the Black Women’s Agenda 39th Annual Symposium, drawing applause. “As the world knows, I was a little under the weather recently.
“Now, looking back, I know, I should have followed my doctor’s orders to rest. But my instinct was to push through it. That is what women do every single day,” she said, echoing a line already used this week by Clinton surrogate and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
To press lamenting @HillaryClinton‘s health/transparency: “powering through” illness is what women do: Stoically, every. single. day.
— Jennifer Granholm (@JenGranholm) September 12, 2016
“Life has shown us that we have to work harder at the office, while still bearing most of the responsibilities at home. That we always need to keep going because our families count on us. And I think it is more than fair to say that black women have an even tougher road,” Clinton said.
The Democratic nominee’s address Friday in the nation’s capital comes days after she was seen collapsing outside of a 9/11 memorial service in New York City.
Clinton’s physician since 2001, Dr. Lisa Bardack, said in a letter Wednesday that she diagnosed the candidate last Friday with “mild non-contagious bacterial pneumonia.”
