In a phone interview Monday with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Hillary Clinton said she is feeling better after fainting from pneumonia at Sunday’s 9/11 anniversary ceremony in New York.
“I’m feeling so much better,” said the Democratic presidential nominee, who called into Anderson Cooper 360 from her home in Chappaqua, N.Y. “I should have gotten some rest sooner, I probably would have been better off if I just pulled down my schedule Friday. But like a lot of people I just thought I could keep going forward and power through it. And obviously that didn’t work out so well.”
Cooper asked her about her fainting spells in the past, including the concussion she sustained in December 2012, and how many times in the last five years something similar has happened.
“Really only really twice that I can recall,” she told him. “It is something that has occurred a few times over the course of my life, and I’m aware of it and usually can avoid it.”
Clinton continued: “What happened yesterday was that I just was incredibly committed to being at the memorial. As a Senator on 9/11, this is incredibly personal to me. And I could feel how hot and humid it was, I felt overheated. I decided that I did need to leave and as soon as I got into the air conditioned van, I cooled off, I got some water and very quickly, I felt better.”
She said she’s now taking her doctor’s advice, which she previously ignored, to take some time to get over her pneumonia completely. Clinton canceled her public schedule for Monday.
She also clarified that she did not lose consciousness or pass out, but “felt dizzy and I did lose my balance for a minute.”
Clinton left Sunday’s ceremony and retreated to her daughter’s nearby apartment. A video of the incident circulated and her doctor released a statement shortly after saying she was “overheated and dehydrated.”
Clinton told Cooper that her grandchildren are “the best medicine for anything in life.”
“I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal,” she said when asked why she kept the pneumonia a secret. Initially, Clinton thought her cough was allergy-related, but she says it didn’t dissipate and that’s why she went to the doctor and was diagnosed with pneumonia. “It’s just the kind of thing that if it happens to you and you’re a busy, active person, you keep moving forward.”
When pressed about her campaign’s lack of transparency, Clinton turned the conversation to her GOP opponent’s refusal to release his health records.
“Oh, my goodness, Anderson,” she replied. “You know, compare everything you know about me with my opponent. I think it’s time he met the same level of disclosure that I have for years. You know, you’ve got a medical report on me that meets the same standard as Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. Donald Trump’s doctor said he’d be the healthiest president in history. That’s just not even serious.”
Trump supporters have tried to make the case that Clinton, 68, is physically unfit for the White House. Trump, who has not yet released his health records, has said he’s now had a physical and plans to release that soon.
“I’ll be releasing very, very specific numbers,” he said on Fox and Friends. “The report should be finished this week.”
Clinton said she plans to return to the campaign trail in the next couple of days, but that she was advised to rest for five days.
The presidential candidate was due at two Los Angeles fundraisers on Tuesday, which husband Bill Clinton will now headline. The former president will fill in for his wife Tuesday afternoon at the Beverly Hills home of Seth MacFarlane, and later at a dinner at the Beverly Hills home of Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller, according to the Washington Post.
Bill Clinton also will headline his wife’s previously scheduled campaign events in Nevada on Wednesday.
