Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president has confirmed it is pressuring journalists not to report on her health, and already one news story on Thursday dismissed “false reports” of “widely discredited” concerns about the Democratic Party candidate.
Questions about Clinton’s health arose long before she announced her run for president last year, precipitated by the special glasses she wore during the Benghazi hearings, her coughing fits, her own confession of suffering a serious concussion and her husband Bill’s comment that it took her months to recover.
Even an aide said during an investigation into Clinton’s email scandal that she’s often confused.
But in recent weeks, many questions have surfaced based on her behavior, such as a violent shaking of her head while she was being interviewed, the increase in coughing fits and the need to be helped up steps. A recent WND report cited the concerns of 10 prominent doctors. And on Thursday came news that nearly 71 percent of physicians informally surveyed by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons said concerns about Clinton’s health are “serious” and “could be disqualifying for the position of president of the U.S.”
The Hill reported Thursday that the campaign was warning media to “tread carefully” in their reporting.
A “former aide” told the Hill that the Clinton campaign “wants to put pressure on the press.”
“I think that the fact that any mainstream publications would do anything but make this is a story about Donald Trump is completely out of the mainstream and why these claims have gotten worse,” the former aide told the Hill. “Some reporters have taken these claims at face value, and it’s the reason this story is still out there.”
Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill also “took to task an NBC reporter who wrote about the coughing spell,” the Hill reported.
Merrill posted the reporter should “get a life.”
Andrew Rafferty’s story was headlined “Hillary Clinton fights back coughing attack.”
Another of Clinton’s aides, Jon Favreau, then posted a challenge to “anyone” willing to “defend” the story.
“They’re trying to work the refs a little bit as they try to push back on the mainstream media’s willingness to pick up on some of this stuff that’s usually left to the fringes,” said Jim Manley, described by the Hill as a Clinton surrogate.
Other attacks on reporters from Clinton supporters haven’t been quite as polite.
The New York Daily News quoted Sarah Silverman, a comedian, saying “anyone bringing up her health is a f—— a——.”
The Daily News reporter characterized reports of health issues as “widely discredited” and said Clinton has “endured a variety of false reports from the far right.”
In reporting on a recent fit of uncontrollable coughing Clinton suffered, the London Telegraph referenced “wild conspiracy theories” about Clinton’s health.
The Telegraph said the campaign was concerned it would turn into “a sustained point of attack,” reporting Clinton “felt the need to address the controversy on her plane when she walked to the back of the aircraft to speak to journalists.”
And when the London Daily Mail asked her what she told the FBI regarding a concussion that “hampered her memory” while she was secretary of state, she responded, “Read the reports.”
The paper noted the FBI’s summaries of a three-hour interview with Clinton about her use of a private email account revealed that she cited the concussion as the reason she could not remember some things.
“The first set of notes from Clinton’s July 2 FBI interview suggested that she was unable to remember some security briefings, and whether she was advised on how to correctly preserve records when she was leaving the State Department, because of complications from a fall that resulted in a blood clot in her brain,” the Daily Mail reported.
The FBI said that in December 2012, Clinton suffered a concussion and then around the New Year had a blood clot.
The “shut up” strategy is one that appears to have been developing for some time, although the campaign’s direct involvement probably is new.
WND previously reported when the Huffington Post sensationally censored an article about Clinton’s health and banned the journalist who wrote it from posting on its website altogether.
And there was the report from late last month that a tech writer for the New York Times suggested Google hide evidence of Clinton’s “failing health.”
Breitbart News reported New York Times tech columnist Farhad Manjoo wants Google to hide the evidence.
“Google should fix this. It shouldn’t give quarter to conspiracy theories,” he wrote.
His comment followed a simple challenge from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who on “Fox News Sunday” cited her “several signs of illness.”
A video shows a number of questions being raised.
[jwplayer Nq8kkj0R]
In addition, television psychologist Dr. Drew Pinsky, in an interview on KABC’s “McIntyre in the Morning” radio show discussed Clinton’s medical records.
He and another physician found reason for “concern.”
“Both of us concluded that if we were providing the care she was receiving, we would be ashamed to show up in a doctor’s lounge,” Drew told the show’s hosts. “We would be laughed out. She’s receiving sort of 1950s-level care by our evaluation.”
He cited the “bizarre” medications she’s taking for blood clots and hypothyroidism.
Within days, Pinsky’s show was canceled.
An award-winning surgeon wrote a commentary that put the concerns about Clinton’s health in perspective.
“Imagine, if you would, that tomorrow Donald Trump suffers a concussion. Suppose he trips on a flight of stairs, falling down and hitting his head,” writes Gerard Gianoli, M.D., a member of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, or AAPS.
“The head injury is so severe that he is unconscious for a time and has to be hospitalized for a week. After getting out of the hospital, the Trump campaign tells us that he has fully recovered and that there are no lingering effects of the head trauma. During the following weeks, he is seen in public to wear glasses with a Fresnel lens on one side. He also seems to have trouble maintaining his balance, loses his thoughts in the middle of speeches, and has episodes of spasmodic movements suggestive of seizures.”
He continued: “In this imaginary scenario, would it surprise anyone if the media became skeptical and pressed for release of Mr. Trump’s medical records? Would it surprise anyone if the Clinton campaign made an issue of Mr. Trump’s health status during speeches and in TV ads? Would the media cry ‘foul’ over the Clinton campaign doing so? I think the answers to these questions are self-evident. The media and the Clinton campaign would be all over this like white on rice, and no one would question the appropriateness of their actions.
“To my knowledge, Mr. Trump has had no such issues with his health. However, Mrs. Clinton has had multiple problems – some she has revealed and some that she has not revealed.”
Gianoli, in private practice in Covington, Louisiana, and a faculty member at Tulane University School of Medicine, has pioneered treatments in his specialty areas. He has been granted the American Academy of Otolaryngology’s Honor Award, among others.
Among the situations that have caused alarm for many are several on Video:
One appears to show her losing her concentration while speaking.
She simply comes to a halt and stares at the audience.
See the video:
[jwplayer bXIvVLkE-pszPfxYQ]
And a July 21 video posted on YouTube shows Clinton’s head suddenly turning and shaking vigorously for several seconds.
[jwplayer QWQuFq7s-pszPfxYQ]
Blogger Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit headlined it, “Wow!” Did Hillary Clinton Just Suffer a Seizure on Camera?”
“The poor woman is in worse shape than we thought,” he wrote.
