Remember the report that Hillary Clinton had “fainted” during the 9/11 ceremony in 2016, and then watching the video of her staff trying to help the stiff, seriously troubled Clinton into a van, and her body being so immobilized that she lost her shoe getting into the vehicle? Remember when Clinton’s campaign blamed her public coughing fits on “allergies” and then later revealed that Clinton had been diagnosed with walking pneumonia?
Remember President Trump’s personal doctor who wrote a public letter declaring Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” but who later said that Trump had dictated the letter he signed? Remember when Mark Meadows revealed that Trump had tested positive for Covid-19 three days before his first debate against Joe Biden? Remember when we belatedly learned that during his Covid-19 infection, Trump’s blood-oxygen levels fell into the 80s, and aides feared for his life?
Remember back in January 2020, when Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg announced that her fourth treatment for cancer was successful, and declared she was cancer free? Remember back on July 14, 2020, when Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released from Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment of an infection, and a court spokesman described the justice as “home and doing well”? Remember when RBG passed away about two months later from what the court described as “complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer”?
Remember when the then-78-year-old Joe Biden didn’t release any updates on his health for nearly two years, and then Biden’s physician declared the president was “fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations”? Remember just three weeks ago, when the 47-year-old White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed she had a hard time keeping up with Biden’s boundless energy level and stamina?
Are you starting to see a bipartisan pattern here? Powerful political figures do not like to admit that they are facing health problems, even when they’re serious or life-threatening. They always want the public to see them as the paragons of physical health, no matter their age. And these figures often feel their right to privacy outweighs the public’s right to know.
If John Fetterman’s Senate campaign feels like their declaration that he’s “getting better every day and will be back on the campaign trail really soon . . . his recovery is going smoothly and he is right on track” is being greeted with undue skepticism . . . cut the public and press some slack for being wary.
To hear the Fetterman campaign tell it, the candidate is back to normal:
Day to day, Mr. Fetterman is “living a pretty normal life right now,” his campaign spokesman said. He’s been going out on dates with his wife, to dinner with his family, and has taken day trips to Erie and Johnstown, Mr. Calvello added.
“Gisele has him running errands like picking up groceries at Aldi and Giant Eagle, driving his kids to friends’ houses and summer camp, and taking his truck to the auto shop to get worked on,” Mr. Calvello said.
He’s getting better, he is right on track, and he’s living a pretty normal life right now, in their words. It’s just that he can’t do campaign events and no one knows exactly when he will be able to do that again.
Experience has taught us that when a spokesman says a political figure is in fine health, they’re not always in fine health. If and when Fetterman makes a public appearance and sits down for a lengthy interview and appears to be in fine shape, those concerns and questions will dissipate. Until then, Pennsylvanians have good reason to wonder if they’re being told the whole story.