Donald
Trump questions Clinton’s health at Ohio rally: ‘You think this
is easy?’
The
Republican nominee made his most direct reference to his rival’s
recent diagnosis of pneumonia and often deviated from his
teleprompters
Ben Jacobs in
Canton, Ohio
Thursday 15
September 2016 07.22 BST
Donald Trump
publicly raised questions about Hillary Clinton’s health for the
first time since the former secretary of state was forced on Sunday
to leave a ceremony for the victims of 9/11.
Speaking in an
air-conditioned minor league basketball arena in Canton, Ohio, Trump
made his most direct reference to Clinton’s recent diagnosis of
pneumonia and her campaign saying she left the event in New York
because she felt “overheated”.
“You think this is
easy?” Trump asked. “In this beautiful room that’s 122 degrees.
It is hot, and it is always hot when I perform because the crowds are
so big. The rooms were not designed for this kind of crowd. I don’t
know, folks. You think Hillary Clinton would be able to stand up here
and do this for an hour? I don’t know.”
The Republican
nominee later went on to add of his Democratic rival, “Now she’s
lying in bed, getting better and we want her better, we want her back
on the trail, right?”
Sounding like the
classic unscripted Trump, the Republican presidential nominee often
deviated from his teleprompters in a 40-minute speech that ranged
from Clinton’s health to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Flint residents
bristle at Donald Trump's visit to beleaguered city
Read more
The issue of
candidate health and medical records has come to the forefront after
the Clinton campaign revealed that the former secretary of state was
diagnosed with pneumonia on Sunday, eight hours after she abruptly
left the ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial. The
Democratic nominee had to be helped into a van while leaving.
Afterward, Clinton cancelled all public events for three days.
Clinton has since
released more detailed medical information from her doctor describing
her as “healthy and fit to serve as president”. In contrast,
Trump has yet to share further medical information to the public
besides a brief letter written in December that said he would be “the
healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”. However, in
an interview with controversial TV doctor Dr Oz, set to air on
Thursday, the 70-year-old Trump reportedly said that he would like to
lose 15 pounds, doesn’t exercise and is fond of fast food.
Trump also addressed
the water crisis in Flint, a former car manufacturing hub that has
seen tens of thousands of jobs disappear in recent decades. “It
used to be cars were made in Flint and you couldn’t drink the water
in Mexico,” the Republican nominee said. “Now the cars are made
in Mexico and you can’t drink the water in Flint.” Ford said on
Wednesday that it was moving all its small-car production to Mexico.
Earlier in the day,
Trump had visited the city and ended up in a confrontation with a
local pastor. Trump was visiting a church that serves as a water
distribution center for residents when he started critiquing Clinton.
The pastor, Faith Green Timmons, interrupted and made clear: “Mr
Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we’ve done in Flint,
not give a political speech.”
Later in Ohio,
Trump, buoyed by recent polls that showed him taking the lead in that
crucial swing state, was in high spirits in front of a cheering
crowd. His supporters, many of them wearing Trump-themed apparel, ate
up applause lines such as when Trump asked who would pay for his
famous border wall. He received loud shouts in return of “Mexico”.
The crowd also booed
and hissed when Trump told them, “President Obama just announced a
30% increase to refugee admissions coming into this country.” Trump
added after the loud chorus of boos subsided that “that was hard to
take”. The Republican nominee added of the proposal: “It’s
bringing the total to 110,000 refugees in just a single year, and we
have no idea where they come from, it’s a great Trojan horse.”
Looking ahead to history’s judgment, Trump noted, “I don’t want
be known in 200 years for having created a Trojan horse by a
different name.”
The uncharacteristic
return to his unscripted rally style comes the day before the
Republican nominee is scheduled to make a major economic policy
speech at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. There, the Republican
nominee will introduce a tax reform proposal.
Trump has previously
introduced two other tax reform plans. First, in 2015, where he
emphasized that half of Americans in lieu of paying taxes would
simply mail a card to the IRS saying “I win”, and more recently
in August where he proposed to reduce the number of tax brackets to
three while drastically cutting rates. The speech Thursday is
expected to be a more expansive elaboration of the August proposal.
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