Reporter: Clinton Campaign Mishandled Medical Incident
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - T Becket Adams, who covers Hillary Clinton's campaign for the Washington Examiner, reacted to their handling of her medical episode at the 9/11 memorial ceremony, saying they've mishandled the incident at every occasion.
Adams, who talked with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, stated her team should have just been honest from the beginning.
"If what they said Sunday is the accurate story, that she had pneumonia and she's dehydrated, why not just say that? The way that they went about it, there was about seven different versions of that story they told in one day, in less than 24 hours. It's so ridiculous, one can't help but ask, wait, is there something else there? The campaign doesn't have any good options. Either there's a serious health concern that they are desperately trying to cover up or that they are habitual liars. There's really no in between."
He believes that just coming clean about her health would've engendered more support for the Democratic nominee.
"What they're claiming now is that she was just powering through it because she's a woman and that's what women do. First of all, why didn't you say that at first? That would've been a great marketing ploy. You're going to tell me she did this great, brave thing that you're all so proud of and you weren't going to tell anyone? Come on, they don't believe that."
Adams thinks Clinton's staff has made numerous mistakes in attempting to shape her public image, and this case is no different.
"It's genuinely funny to me how they've handled it. If they wanted to put this to bed, I thought there was not a lot of merit to any of this, if they thought that, they have gone about doing that in every way possible that is wrong. It's funny that a candidate, that her campaign has tried so hard to humanize, recall 17 months ago, they did that spontaneous Chipotle burrito run, she' so human, she's just like us. 17 months ago, from that, we now have, she doesn't like water. She really hates water. It would've been so much easier to just say she had pneumonia. We actually have people in her camp leaking to Politico she dehydrates every now and then because we can't get her to drink water."
