In CNN Interview, Hillary Clinton Says She Did Not Faint

By Mark Joyella 

In a telephone interview Monday night with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Hillary Clinton said she did not reveal her pneumonia diagnosis to the news media last Friday in part because, she said, “I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal.”

Clinton’s early exit from the 9/11 observance in Lower Manhattan Sunday led to special coverage from broadcast and cable news networks—and new questions for the Clinton campaign.

Cooper asked Clinton “How many times over the course of the last, say, five years you’ve been dehydrated and gotten dizzy? I know you passed out, hit your head back in 2012 which led to the concussion. How often has this happened?” Clinton said “only twice that I can recall,” and then explained the incident that was captured on camera:

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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, you know, 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. So, I felt fine, but I’m now taking my doctor’s advice, which was given to me on Friday that I ignored, to just take some time to get over pneumonia completely.

Asked if she had, in fact, fainted as she got in her van to leave, Clinton said no. “I felt dizzy and I did lose my balance for a minute, but once I got in, once I could sit down, once I could cool off, once I had some water, I immediately started feeling better.”

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