Fox News host Andrea Tantaros misleadingly cited a newly released email from Hillary Clinton's records of her time as secretary of state to question her state of health.
In December 2012, Clinton sustained a concussion after she fell at her home due to an illness, resulting in the postponement of her congressional testimony about the Benghazi attacks, which occurred that September. Many Fox News personalities swiftly accused her of faking the concussion to avoid her testimony, including Fox contributor John Bolton who suggested that Clinton had “a diplomatic illness.” After Clinton made a full recovery from her concussion and delivered her testimony in January 2013, Fox contributor Karl Rove repeatedly speculated that Clinton continued to have major health problems from the concussion.
Tantaros renewed this speculation, citing a recently released email exchange between Clinton and her aide Phillipe Reines where NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked for advice following the concussion. On the December 1 edition of Outnumbered, Tantaros cited the email and then said Clinton should be asked about her health:
ANDREA TANTAROS: The news yesterday for me out of those emails was how much she sought the advice of the NFL on her concussion. And I think the question needs to be asked, is she well?
HARRIS FAULKNER: Is she OK?
TANTAROS: Is she in OK health? No one wants to ask that question, but that's -
FAULKNER: Huma Abedin had said sometimes she seemed confused --
TANTAROS: Huma said she's confused -
FAULKNER: -- in those emails.
TANTAROS: -- but no one wants to conveniently ask if she's in [INAUDIBLE] health.
Contrary to Tantaros' claim, it was not Clinton who reached out to Goodell, but Phillipe Reines. And Reines did not ask for medical advice, but rather for help in communicating the seriousness of her concussion because of efforts by Fox News personalities to dismiss her injury. The Chicago Sun Times reported that “a former aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton contacted NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in an effort to stymie bad press about the incident”:
Phillipe Reines, a longtime aide of Clinton's, sent an email to both Goodell and the former Tennessee Republican Frist on Dec. 12, according to a newly released email chain.
"[S]peaking of your cracked head, I reached out to both the Nfl commish (I remembered that his dad held your Senate seat) and Bill Frist," Reines wrote. “Frist responded wonderfully and is ready to help.”
“Thanks for the outreach, but i'm ok in the doctor department for now,” wrote back Clinton.
Reines then clarified his angle: “I meant I enlisted their help in my ongoing efforts to undermine the John Boltons and Laura Ingrahams of the world who are belittling your health. I sent Ingraham a long note. Crafting one to Bolton now. Don't worry, no profanity. Not that kind of note,” Reines, who is known for his sometimes coarse language with the media, noted.
Clinton had been facing mounting attacks from conservative pundits in 2012 who questioned if she was faking illness to avoid having to testify to Congress about the Benghazi attacks earlier that year.