Collapse takes Hillary Clinton’s health from fringe to mainstream headache

The Democratic presidential nominee’s health is no longer a fringe media issue.

Before: Hillary Clinton at New York’s 9/11 ceremony.

Is Hillary Clinton seriously ­unwell? The question has been doing the rounds on Twitter for at least six months but that was ­before Mrs Clinton collapsed at a ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York.

It’s not the stuff of fringe media any more. The conversation has gone mainstream and Mrs Clinton’s campaign — just 56 days out from the election — has switched urgently to damage ­control.

The video of Mrs Clinton’s stumble is shocking. She walks away from the sombre ceremony quite normally but then appears incapable of standing. She has to be helped into a black van that has zoomed up to collect her. Her feet drag, like she’s suddenly got foot drop. She almost loses a shoe.

Almost if not quite worse was the way the incident was handled: the media was given no information about her condition for 90 minutes. Then it emerged she had been taken not to hospital, but to the Manhattan apartment of her daughter, Chelsea, to rest.

A spokesman then said Mrs Clinton had “overheated” — it was 28C in New York and Mrs Clinton, 68, had to stand in the sun for about an hour — but a different explanation was later given by her physician, Lisa Bardack, who said Mrs Clinton “has been experiencing a cough related to allergies. On Friday, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on anti­biotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning’s event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now rehydrated and recovering nicely.”

The incident came after a coughing fit threatened to ­derail a speech by Mrs Clinton in Cleveland, Ohio, earlier this month; and after a sustained campaign by supporters of rival Donald Trump to make her health an issue in the presidential campaign.

Mrs Clinton suffered concussion and had a blood clot removed from between her skull and her brain in 2012. She experienced double vision and wore corrective glasses for two months. Speculation about the long-term effects of that incident emerged about six months ago, after she was filmed making unusual facial expressions while talking to reporters.

The conflicting reports; the ­incident itself; and the coughing fit have now hardened into a perfect storm of speculation about the true nature of Mrs Clinton’s health, a problematic development for a candidate whom many voters regard as dishonest. Her team is under pressure to release detailed medical records, which she has so far declined to do.

“I’m feeling great,” she said as she emerged from Chelsea’s apartment. “It’s a beautiful day in New York.” But then she cancelled plans to travel to California. Mr Trump said nothing when he was asked about Mrs Clinton’s condition. He has released only a four-paragraph report of his own health, in which doctor Harold Bornstein said Mr Trump, if elected, would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”. He also described Mr Trump’s blood pressure as “astonishingly excellent” and praised his “physical strength and stamina”.