Hillary Clinton lapsed into a coughing fit while delivering the commencement address today at Wellesley College, her alma mater.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, the mainstream media dismissed questions about Hillary’s health (which became a Twitter hashtag) as conspiracy theories despite prior coughing episodes, at least until she collapsed at the 9/11 ceremony in lower Manhattan, which her doctor subsequently attributed to pneumonia.
While delivering the speech before a friendly audience at the Boston-area college this morning, a faculty member handed Clinton a bottle of water and a lozenge when she began experiencing difficulty speaking, and Clinton again played the “allergies” card, which she mentioned during the campaign under similar circumstances. During her remarks, which she managed to get through despite the coughing issue, Mrs. Clinton also threw a lot of shade at her former rival, President Donald Trump.
“Clinton sputtered through the talk at the school she attended nearly 50 years ago….Clinton’s coughs began seconds after she began speaking Friday morning, with the fit worsening to the point that it caused her face to turn red and her eyes to water,” the New York Daily News observed about today’s address to the graduates.
In the campaign season, Trump barnstormed across the country doing multiple rallies in different states each day while Clinton generally followed a relatively light schedule of appearances and attended various private fundraisers. There are conflicting accounts as to whether it is likely that she will seek the presidency in 2020 in what would be her third attempt.
In July 2015, the campaign released information indicating that Hillary Clinton takes prescription medications for an underactive thyroid and for blood clots. At that time, Clinton’s personal doctor pronounced her fit to serve as president. Clinton suffered a concussion in 2012.
Prior Hillary Clinton coughing fits
Last year, Hillary Clinton lapsed into what was described as a massive coughing fit during a Labor Day speech in Cleveland, Ohio, in which she alluded to being allergic to Trump. She also had a bout with coughing on the flight home from Cleveland.
She reportedly cleared her throat 22 times during her July presidential nomination acceptance speech at the DNC convention in Philadelphia.
In June 2016, she began coughing during an immigration reform-related event in Sylmar, California. On May 5, 2016, Hillary Clinton had a coughing fit while at a rally with the United Farmworkers in California.
In late April, Clinton started coughing during a radio interview on The Breakfast Club on the hip-hop FM station, Power 105.1 WWPR, in New York City. This is apparently the same interview in which Clinton claimed she always carries a bottle of hot sauce with her, which Twitter denounced as a form of pandering for votes. At the time, she attributed her discomfort to allergies, but Clinton didn’t make any quips about Donald Trump.
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While campaigning in Ohio prior to that state’s primary, she had a coughing fit mid-speech on March 12.
Hillary Clinton had another coughing bout on March 6, during the nationally televised debate against Bernie Sanders in Flint, Michigan. The former Secretary of State was consumed by coughing for about three minutes during a speech in Harlem, New York, in mid-February. She also suffered a coughing attack on January 25, during a speech in the run-up to the Iowa Caucus.
“Clinton had a similar moment during her lengthy Benghazi Select Committee testimony in October, briefly halting the proceeding when she began coughing almost uncontrollably and needed a cough drop,” the Washington Free Beacon separately recalled following the Iowa incident.
While the campaign was in full swing, Trump claimed that Hillary Clinton lacked the stamina to serve as U.S. president.
[Featured Image by Josh Reynolds/AP Images]
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