Hillary Clinton — who waited two days before publicly revealing she has pneumonia — isn’t saying when she told her running mate of last week’s diagnosis.
During a press conference in Greensboro, North Carolina on Thursday, Clinton was pressed on when she informed Tim Kaine, running for vice president, of her condition. Clinton says a doctor diagnosed her with pneumonia on Friday, but she didn’t disclose it publicly until Sunday — after she was filmed collapsing as she exited a 9-11 memorial service.
“It appeared that your running mate, Tim Kaine, may not have been aware of your pneumonia on Friday,” Associated Press reporter Julie Pace said in her question to Clinton. “I’m wondering when you informed him? And if you didn’t inform him on Friday, what does that say about what your relationship would be like with him in the White House? How in the know he would be on minute to minute developments in your administration?”
Clinton replied: “My senior staff knew, and the information was provided to a number of people.”
Dodging the question on Kaine, Clinton said: “Look, this was an ailment that many people just power through, and that’s what I thought i would do as well. I didn’t want to stop, I didn’t want to quit campaigning. I certainly didn’t want to miss the 9/11 memorial. As a senator at that time, I consider it a sacred moment, and I was determined to get there. It didn’t work out, so I got the antibiotics up and going, got the rest that I needed and we’re going on from there.”
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell followed up on the question.
“I communicated with Tim,” Clinton said. “I talked to him again last night. He has been a great partner and he’s going to be a great vice president.”
She added: “I’m not going to go into our personal conversations and I feel comfortable and confident about our relationship and I really look forward to working with him closely.”
Clinton delivered a speech in North Carolina on Thursday — her first public appearance since Sunday’s health scare.
Earlier this week, Kaine declined to say when informed of her pneumonia. “I don’t want to talk about her and my conversations, the content of them, except just to say that I reached out to her as soon as the incident happened on Sunday as soon as I was aware of it.”
