Donald Trump has been showing unusual restraint, expressing sympathy and using a light touch, in discussing Hillary Clinton‘s health since her campaign announced she has pneumonia.
This measured response could change at any moment, but so far Trump is not taking aim at his adversary’s health and is not exploiting what he sees as a vulnerability or personal weakness. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee known for his slashing attacks and who earlier questioned Clinton’s stamina, told Fox News that Clinton’s health will be “an issue” but expressed hope that she will recover soon. “I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail,” Trump said.
He was also following one of the iron rules of politics: Don’t get in the way when your opponent is making a blunder. Instead, Trump has been escalating his attacks on Clinton in an entirely different area — for her remarks last week in which she described half of his supporters as a ” basket of deplorables,” such as racists, homophobes and sexists. Clinton later expressed regret for making the comments.
Trump said in Baltimore, “I was deeply shocked and alarmed to hear my opponent attack, slander, smear, demean these wonderful, amazing people who are supporting our campaign by the millions.”
Democratic nominee Clinton is still struggling to get beyond her pneumonia scare. She told CNN Monday night that she didn’t reveal her pneumonia diagnosis sooner because she “just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal.” She said she is now “feeling so much better” and will be making appearances again in “the next few days.”
What precipitated the health furor, the latest of many tempests in the 2016 presidential campaign, was Clinton’s early departure from a public ceremony Sunday in New York marking the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A video showed she nearly collapsed as she entered a Secret Service vehicle while leaving the event.
At first, her campaign spokesman said she was feeling “overheated.” It was only later on Sunday, when her health was coming under new scrutiny, that the campaign revealed that she had been diagnosed the previous Friday with pneumonia. This set off a wave of criticism that Clinton was not candid about the pneumonia or her overall condition, and it revived arguments that she is too secretive.
[READ: Hillary Clinton Pneumonia Flap Highlights the Public Fight Over Privacy]
Brian Fallon, her campaign spokesman, told MSNBC, “I think that in retrospect, we could have handled it better in terms of providing more information more quickly.”
Clinton canceled her appearances in California Monday and Tuesday while she is being treated with antibiotics.
Clinton told CNN her doctors advised her Friday to rest for five days, but she went ahead with a schedule that included the 9/11 ceremony, two fund-raisers and sessions with the news media.
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“If it happens to you and you’re a busy, active person, you just keep moving forward,” she said, referring to catching pneumonia. “As soon as it became clear I couldn’t power through, we put it [information about the diagnosis] out.”
She said she would soon release more information about her health and urged Trump to do the same. The GOP candidate said Monday he would also release more health-related information.
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Donald Trump Shows Restraint Over Hillary Clinton’s Health originally appeared on usnews.com
