Hillary Clinton collapses: Most US voters do not buy campaign’s reason for ‘fainting’ episode
Her campaign says the presidential candidate buckled at the knees due to mild pneumonia, allergies and being ‘overheated’ – but voters are not convinced
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Less than half of American voters believe Hillary Clinton about what caused her to apparently stumble and buckle at the knees as she tried to get into a car after the 9/11 memorial service in New York.
According to a YouGov poll, first obtained by The Times, 46 per cent of registered voters did not buy the Clinton campaign’s statement that the Democrat left the service after 90 minutes due to a mild form of pneumonia, allergies and that she felt “overheated”.
The poll of 1,910 responses shows a lack of trust in the presidential candidate, a worrying sign for her campaign with just two weeks to go before the first presidential debate in New York and two months until the election.
Ms Clinton was sent home after the 9/11 service to Chappaqua, New York, but not before she visited her daughter’s apartment and emerged onto the pavement to wave and smile to the cameras. Her campaign issued another statement to say she was feeling better and had been dehydrated.
She later tweeted that she was feeling better and “just anxious to get back out there”.
The democratic nominee was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday but her campaign only revealed the fact later on Sunday. The day of her diagnosis, she attended several scheduled events, including fundraisers, meetings and press interviews.
The news has done little to reassure voters that the conspiracy theories regarding her health, peddled by right-wing commentators, are unfounded.
Ms Clinton suffered concussion in 2012 following the flu and had vision problems for a several weeks afterwards, her two-page medical letter revealed in July.
Her rival, Donald Trump, refrained from commenting about Ms Clinton’s health on twitter on Sunday, but told Fox News yesterday: “Something’s going on but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and we’ll be seeing her at the debate.”
He also pointed to her prolonged coughing the previous week whilst giving an interview to CNBC.
Mr Trump has released a letter from his personal physician, which took "five minutes to write", the same month as his opponent. The letter promised the 70-year-old had “astonishingly excellent” test results – and the results were all "positive".
The Republican has promised to release a detailed health record with “very, very specific numbers”.
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