It’s not her health that’s worrying Democrats. It’s her secrecy.
Hillary Clinton went dark on Monday, a day after collapsing on a New York City street and only belatedly disclosing a pneumonia diagnosis that she learned of two days earlier. She was finally heeding her doctor’s prescription of rest, she said. And while her surrogates hit the airwaves promising the imminent release of more information about Clinton’s medical records to quell any uncertainty that she is not, overall, healthy, Democrats supporting Clinton’s campaign worried, once again, about a deeper problem with the candidate herself.
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"I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal,” the Democratic nominee explained to CNN’s Anderson Cooper by phone on Monday from her home in Chappaqua of her decision to keep her pneumonia private. She noted that her former Senate colleague Chuck Schumer had also chosen to keep his current bout of pneumonia private.
Her explanation was reminiscent of the one she has used to dismiss questions about her unsanctioned private email server — saying it was merely for convenience, and noting that other people did it, too.
And it’s a reflection of her stubborn expectation of privacy amid her pursuit of the most public office in the world that has Clinton’s allies and adversaries alike now anxious about how she will deal with the continuing fallout of the health episode.
“People get ill every now and then, especially when you are under the stress they are under,” said a former Clinton aide, of the presidential candidates. “The bigger issue is whether she has been way too secretive about her medical issues — it adds to the whole backdrop that she’s too secretive in general."
On Sunday evening, Clinton’s campaign released a note from her doctor explaining that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days earlier. Prior to that, the campaign released a two-page medical note last year during the Democratic primary, declaring her in "excellent" health. Donald Trump has revealed even less — just three paragraphs from a doctor who has admitted he jotted the note down in five minutes — but on Monday, seeing an opening to take the high road, promised more detailed information about his physical state.
Former Clinton aides said that while Clinton can be frustratingly stubborn about privacy — often to her own detriment — the “extra responsibility gene” she often references make them highly skeptical that she would have entered the race if she was truly in frail health. And the campaign said on Monday that she had no other undisclosed conditions.
The Clinton campaign on Monday tried to hint that it also understood the need for more transparency. Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon admitted to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that the campaign could have “handled better” the flow of information about Clinton’s whereabouts and health status on Sunday, when reporters were kept in the dark for hours after her abrupt departure from the 9/11 Memorial in New York.
Fallon also said the campaign plans to release more medical information about the candidate as early as this week. But he demurred when asked if the campaign would make Clinton’s doctor available for interviews. “I think the first step is going to be to release this additional information, and then we'll take it from there,” he said.
And campaign manager Robby Mook didn’t crush the sense of a campaign withholding information about Clinton’s health either when he told CNN: “I’m not going to get into details about who knew her medical information.” Internally, many aides said they did not know Clinton had pneumonia until Sunday night.
Democrats on Monday criticized the candidate for creating yet another proof point for the narrative that Clinton has something to hide. “The Clintons always take the hard road,” another longtime ally sighed.
And Democratic observers of the race seemed to want to exert some pressure on the campaign to break Clinton of her information-hoarding habit so questions of her health and trustworthiness could begin to be settled before the first presidential debate less than two weeks from now.
“We will have a new era of transparency for the Clinton campaign,” predicted Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, a former top strategist for candidates like Al Gore and John Kerry. “The need for transparency is clear. They’re going to put out extensive medical records — that will help.”
Before Clinton's health problem on Sunday, the campaign had been starting to open up after a summer of stonewalling the press. Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri had convinced the reluctant candidate that regular meetings with the press corps that covers her were necessary for the final stretch of the general election.
On Monday, the campaign appeared to be enacting a two-pronged strategy: promising more disclosure while challenging the press and the public to hold both candidates up to the same standard.
“We look forward to Donald Trump releasing his medical information,” Mook told CNN. “Let’s just make sure everybody is meeting the same bar here.”
But Clinton allies expressed frustration that the campaign’s best defense was begging for an even playing field instead of realizing she will never get one. “People are inured to the fact that he lies all the time and doesn’t tell you very much,” said the longtime Clinton ally. “She’s held to a different standard. You can whine about it, but she is. It’s unfair, so is politics.”
Indeed, longtime allies were skeptical that the dawn of a new age of information sharing would ever change hardened perceptions about Clinton or her husband — perceptions that in no small part are the result of actions they have taken over decades in public life.
“No matter what she releases, there will be continued questions of, has she given us the full monty, and should she?” the ally added. “Is there an obligation for her to basically get undressed in public? If there is, there will always be the nagging questions of, did she? That’s tough.”
