Hillary Clinton joined ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and she was asked about the false rumors surrounding her health that the Trump campaign has been promoting - she described it as being part of a ""wacky strategy."
Kimmel said, "Speaking of rumors, the new one is that you;'re unhealthy. That you had a concussion. Rudy Giuliani was on Fox News yesterday and today and was saying you seem to be sick - you look tired...Are you in good health?"
Hillary asked Kimmel to take her pulse while she was talking to him and said, "Make sure I'm alive."
She continued, "Back in October, The National Enquirer said I'd be dead in six months...I don't know why they are saying this. On the one hand it's part of the wacky strategy. Just say all these things and maybe you can get some people to believe you. On the other hand, it just absolutely makes no sense."
She then was put to the "pickle jar test" and she passed with flying colors.
Ari Rabin-Havt wrote a piece on Right Wing Watch about "Hillary's Health Trutherism":
Hillary health truthers have also released fake letters, fake medical records claiming to be from Clinton’s doctor and even a fake MRI.
Just as racism drove birtherism, health trutherism is undoubtedly driven by misogyny. There is an extensive history of demeaning women by calling them “crazy,” not to mention undercutting their ability to serve in positions of prominence and power.
Accusing the first female presidential nominee of a major political party of being brain damaged is simply an attempt to use fake medicine and outright lies to elevate this sexist trope into the mainstream political discourse.
The media has been put in a bind by these stories. Because the accusations are emerging from the Trump campaign itself, not covering them is nearly impossible. Yet even coverage that debunks this health trutherism also helps to spread it. In that way, even well-meaning reporters providing factual information— even, I admit, this piece— have the potential to give legs to these lies. Once again, the Trump campaign has successfully hacked the media.
The Hillary Health Truthers are playing their old game called Cokie's Law.
They just want to get it out there.
*Cokie's Law is "it doesn't matter if it's true or not --- it's out there."
