Donald Trump’s Extremely Sick Campaign

First, the GOP nominee was an Obama Birther. Now he's a Clinton Deather.
BY JEET HEER
August 22, 2016

The 2016 race has taken an increasingly ghoulish and morbid turn as Donald Trump’s campaign has decided to start making allegations about Hillary Clinton’s health. In keeping with the chaotic nature of the campaign, these accusations are internally inconsistent but they all allege that Clinton is too physically fragile to be president.

Last Monday, the Republican nominee suggested that Clinton “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS, and all the many adversaries we face.” His spokespeople, surrogates and media allies have been much more blunt. On CNN on Thursday, Trump national spokesperson Katrina Pierson claimed that Clinton suffered from dysphasia, a dysfunction in the brain that hampers the ability to both understand and communicate. As a guest on Fox News Sunday, Rudy Giuliani attacked the media for failing to “point out several signs of illness by [Clinton].” Giuliani suggested viewers “go online and put down Hillary Clinton and illness and take a look at the videos for yourself.”

These rumors date back to at least 2014, when Republican operative Karl Rove used a three-day Clinton hospital stay to deal with a blood clot to suggest that the former Secretary of State might have a “traumatic brain injury.” Trump flirted with this rhetoric occasionally in the early days of his campaign, but since he’s been sinking in the polls, it has become the mainstay of his campaign. Yet by focusing on Clinton’s health, Trump is proving the frailty of his own campaign, not just because these desperate arguments are based on lies (although they are) but also because they show that Trump’s retreating from any sort of political debate with Clinton. Indeed, increasingly shrill speculation about Clinton’s health bolster the idea that Trump is already moving beyond politics and is trying to position himself for a post-election role as a media magnate.

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