The White House’s top spokesman refused on Monday to wade into the controversy over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s health a day after she was rushed from a 9/11 ceremony and her campaign admitted to a case of walking pneumonia.
“I don’t have any advice to dispense” to the campaigns on how to handle questions about their candidate’s health, press secretary Josh Earnest said.
Dating back to his 2008 campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama chose to have his doctor sum up Obama’s health in a memo that was shared with the media, Earnest said. Obama has continued to do so since assuming office, indicating what he considers the appropriate way to handle questions about his health, Earnest said.
However, it is up to Clinton, GOP nominee Donald Trump and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson to decide how much to disclose about their own health, Earnest said.
“There’s a reason we have a long tradition in this country” of candidates letting voters know their overall health status while running for office, Earnest said. Voters want to know and believe they are entitled to the information. “But I don’t have any advice to dispense” on the subject, he said.
Earnest also dodged a question about whether Clinton should have revealed her diagnosis once she learned about it on Friday, and said nothing that has happened changes Obama’s mind that she is the best person to replace him.
