Republican strategist Karl Rove is skeptical about a fall former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took two years ago and is warning the 2016 presidential hopeful she will have to be forthcoming about her “serious health episode.”
Joined by former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and CBS correspondent Dan Raviv at a conference Thursday, Rove claimed that Clinton’s December 2012 fall is something voters should be wary of and argued the 2016 presidential hopeful likely suffered brain damage.
“Thirty days in the hospital?” Rove said, according to the New York Post. “And when she reappears, she’s wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? We need to know what’s up with that.”
A spokesperson for Clinton refuted Rove’s statements, saying, “Please assure Dr. Rove she’s 100 percent.”
“Karl Rove has deceived the country for years, but there are no words for this level of lying,” Clinton rep Nick Merrill said.
Clinton’s fall, which was attributed to weakness from a stomach virus, occurred around the time Congress pressured her to testify about the terrorist attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which left four Americans dead.
Rove also encouraged the GOP to keep digging into the Sept. 11, 2012, events.
According to the Associated Press, Clinton spent three days, not 30, in the hospital. Doctors at New York Presbyterian Hospital treated the former secretary of state for a blood clot, the result of a concussion, that had formed behind her ear. She did return to the hospital for tests after getting discharged, but stayed for a short period of time.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday morning, Rove said he does not believe Clinton has “brain damage,” but instead warned that she will have to provide details surrounding her “serious health episode” as the media scrutinizes her medical history.
“I never used that phrase, I never used that phrase,” he said. “But look, she had a serious health episode. And I don’t know about you, but if you go through a serious health episode, it causes you to look at life a bit differently. This was a serious deal.”
The political strategist noted that if she does decide to run for president, “she is going to have to be forthcoming” about the details of her fall.
“Get ready,” Rove said. “The New York Times is going to be asking a lot of tough questions about every candidate’s health. They always do. And it’s going to be an issue. It was an issue when George W. Bush ran. It was an issue when John McCain ran.”
