FLASHBACK: State Cited ‘Mild Allergies’ for Hillary Clinton Schedule Shuffle

NEW YORK – Monday’s coughing fit is not the first time seasonal allergies have been blamed for interfering in Hillary Clinton’s public schedule.

State Department statements and recently released Clinton emails show the politician was missing in action in early May 2009, with a State spokesperson at the time blaming “mild allergies.” The corresponding emails reveal Clinton’s health problems prompted her at the time to request an Air Force plane instead of taking a shuttle from Westchester, New York, apparently to get to Washington, D.C.

Those events started May 1, 2009, when a reporter noted Clinton looked “a little ill,” and asked about it during a briefing with Robert Wood, an acting department spokesman. Wood explained that Clinton was suffering from “mild allergies.”

Here is that exchange, also from the State Department website:

QUESTION: This is slightly odd, but the Secretary, in her two appearances this morning, appeared to be a little ill. Is she suffering from a cold or something? And I ask only because of the whole swine flu thing and the fact that she was in Mexico in March and the fact that a member of the – one member of the President’s delegation did come down with it.

WOOD: Matt, you’ll be happy to know it’s just mild allergies. She suffers from mild allergies. That’s all it is.

QUESTION: All right. Thank you.

WOOD: You’re welcome, sir.

Three days later, on May 4, 2009, the State Department’s website posted that Clinton’s meetings that day were rescheduled due to “mild allergies.”

Toner was asked about Clinton’s health during a press briefing that same day, and he said she was “just recovering from the allergies, and she’ll be back tomorrow.”

Emails released earlier this month show that on the same day – May 4, 2009 – Clinton wrote to her top aide Huma Abedin, “I still don’t feel great,” and requested an Air Force plane to fly her instead of the shuttle from Westchester, New York.

The emails, first reported by Breitbart News, were part of 725 pages of new State Department documents released in response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information (FOI) lawsuit.

In the email, Clinton wrote to Abedin on May 4, 2009:

“Do you think we could get a plane for Westchester flight back tonight? It’s going to rain all day and I still don’t feel great so the idea of playing a guessing game w the shuttle is pretty burdensome to me. What do you think? Could be anytime that works for the Air Force.”

The email exchange shows that Abedin helped to arrange a C21 cargo and passenger airlift plane to pick Clinton up in White Plains, New York.

About one month later, on June 19, 2009, Clinton was said to be resting in her Washington home after surgery on a broken right elbow from a reported slip-and-fall incident at the State Department garage on her way to a meeting at the White House.

On Monday, Clinton suffered a very public coughing fit disrupting her speech for over four minutes during a Labor Day campaign event alongside running mate Tim Kaine in Cleveland, Ohio.  That same day, Clinton retreated to the back of her campaign airplane while speaking to the press because of yet another coughing incident.

Clinton blamed the pesky cough on seasonal allergies.

Reported the Washington Post:

And Clinton gamely talked about a pesky cough, which caused her to retreat to her section of the plane about 15 minutes into the session with reporters. After the plane landed here, she returned for several more minutes.

Clinton said the cough — which also surfaced during the start of a rally in Cleveland — was the result of seasonal allergies

A letter released by Clinton’s physician in July 2015 dubbed Clinton in “excellent physical condition,” but noted she was diagnosed at the time with hypothyroidism and seasonal pollen allergies and was taking the medications Armour Thyroid and Coumadin daily. The letter, from Clinton’s physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, further stated that in 2009 she suffered from deep vein thrombosis and the elbow fracture that year.

Bardack provided some information about a 2012 incident in which Clinton was said to have suffered from a blood clot and concussion.

Time magazine reported at the time:

Bardack’s letter provides the most detailed accounting of the 2012 episode, which came as Clinton was set to testify before Congress on the 2012 Benghazi attacks shortly before leaving office.

According to Bardack, Clinton fainted after becoming dehydrated from a stomach virus and suffered a concussion during the fall. During subsequent evaluations, Bardack said, Clinton was diagnosed with a “transverse sinus venous thrombosis,” a type of blood clot in the brain, and was given anticoagulants to dissolve the clot. After the concussion, Clinton experienced double-vision and wore glasses with a Fresnel Prism.

“Her concussion symptoms, including the double vision, resolved within two months and she discontinued the use of the prism,” Bardack wrote. “She had follow-up testing in 2013, which revealed complete resolution of the effects of the concussion as well as total dissolution of the thrombosis. Mrs. Clinton also tested negative for all clotting disorders.”

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.