Hillary Clinton struggled with a coughing fit that abruptly interrupted a stump speech — with the Democratic presidential candidate quickly blaming the more-than-minute-long spell on her campaign schedule.
The spasm came during a speech Monday in Iowa — where the Democratic presidential candidate is locked in a tight race with rival Sen. Bernie Sanders — as she was talking about the Iran nuclear deal to the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines.
Video of the disturbing spell was posted by the
Des Moines Register.
"Excuse me just one second," Clinton said as she unwrapped a throat lozenge, continuing to cough. She also took a sip of water to quell the spell.
"You do talk a lot in this campaign," Clinton then told the crowd, her voice still strained.
By her second event of the day in Knoxville, Clinton's voice had returned — though she coughed periodically, the
New York Post reports.
The attack recalled a
similar episode last October during her 11-hour Benghazi testimony before Congress, where the coughing prompted one congressman to ask if she need a break.
"No, just let me grab a lozenge," Clinton said at the time.
But conservative Matt Drudge, however, tweeted at the time her "health was the biggest revelation" at the hearing. "Coughing fit. Slow-speaking, obviously induced by meds," he tweeted,
Mediaite reported.
The tweet is no longer available online.
The subject of her health has dogged Clinton on the campaign trail.
In July,
Dr. Lisa Kisco, her physician, said Clinton regularly takes a thyroid hormone and an anticoagulant drug Coumadin to prevent blood clots, as well as an antihistamine for seasonal pollen allergies and vitamin B-12, and that she doesn't smoke and drinks alcohol occasionally.
But journalist
Ed Klein has repeatedly observed Clinton's health is a serious issue and should be of
concern to voters considering her White House bid.
"Her doctor says she's fine, but the sources I have … tell me she has a tendency to continue to blood clot, [and] has formed blood clots," Klein last September told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
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