“To defeat crime and radical Islamic terrorism in our country, to win trade in our country, you need tremendous physical and mental strength and stamina. Hillary Clinton doesn’t have that strength and stamina.”
— Donald Trump, speech in West Bend, Wis., Aug. 16, 2016
“Importantly, she also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS.”
— Trump, speech in Youngstown, Ohio, Aug. 15, 2016
Two days in a row, in prepared speeches, Trump asserted that that his rival Clinton lacks “mental and physical stamina” to do the job as president.
That’s surely no accident, but a campaign official did not respond to a query about why the GOP presidential nominee was making this claim. We assume Trump’s rhetoric is related to a not-so-quiet campaign among right-leaning news entities to highlight “concerns” about Clinton’s health, often shared on social media with #HillarysHealth.
Our colleague David Weigel has already taken a good look at the smorgasbord of junk science being used to promote such claims. But now that Trump has raised the issue himself, we thought it would be a valuable service to collect all of the claims in one place — and assess whether any hold water.