Vice President Joseph R. Biden said Monday that Hillary Clinton’s health is good, and he worried aloud that Republicans have been “very successful” in raising doubts about her candidacy for president.
Speaking to campaign workers at a new Clinton campaign office in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mr. Biden said the Democratic nominee’s bout with pneumonia is not a big concern.
“Hillary’s health is good,” Mr. Biden said. “I’ve had walking pneumonia. What you do, you take antibiotics and you rest a little bit. So we’re in good shape. And I’m encouraging her — if the doctor says take three days off, take six days off. Take the time.”
Mrs. Clinton canceled a fundraising trip to California Monday after she collapsed Sunday at a 9/11 memorial event in New York. Her campaign said at first she was “overheated,” but her doctor later said she has pneumonia.
The vice president rejected accusations that Mrs. Clinton is deceiving the public about her health.
“She’s been transparent about her health,” he said.
But Mr. Biden also made the surprising comment that he believes the GOP has been effective in its campaign against Mrs. Clinton, who has lost much of her lead to Republican nominee Donald Trump in the latest polls.
“One of the things that the Republicans have done very successfully so far is raise doubt about our candidate,” Mr. Biden said. “There’s overwhelming doubt [about Mr. Trump]. I want people to understand the Hillary I know. I want them to know the woman I have known for over 35 years. I want them to understand the woman who understands it’s more than economics. It’s about peoples’ lives.”
He also addressed Mrs. Clinton’s comment that half of Mr. Trump’s supporters should be considered a “basket of deplorables.”
“I’ve know Hillary a long, long, long time. She gets a bum rap,” Mr. Biden said. “For every time she will say something where she says, ’Well, maybe I should have said something different,’ think if they held Trump to that standard. He’d be in trouble. He is in trouble.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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