Clinton didn’t think pneumonia diagnosis ‘would be that big a deal’

Hillary Clinton didn’t disclose her pneumonia diagnosis on Friday because she didn’t think it would be a big deal, the Democratic presidential nominee said in her first interview since becoming ill at a 9/11 memorial event on Sunday. 

{mosads}”Well, I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal,” Clinton said during a phone interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night. 

Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday, but the campaign did not make it public until Sunday evening, after she was captured on video stumbling into a black vehicle before going to her daughter’s apartment to rest. 

Clinton’s doctor said in a statement Sunday evening, after examining her in her Chappaqua, N.Y., home, that Clinton became dehydrated at the event in New York. 

The campaign canceled events Monday and Tuesday in California to allow Clinton to rest. The Democratic nominee didn’t offer Monday a specific timeframe for when she’d return to the campaign trail, other than to tell Cooper that it will be “in the next couple of days.” 

The campaign also announced Monday evening that former President Bill Clinton would take her place at a scheduled rally in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

“Obviously I was supposed to rest five days,” Hillary Clinton said. “That’s what they told me on Friday, and I didn’t follow that very wise advice.”

“I’m feeling so much better, and obviously, I should have gotten some rest sooner. I probably would have been better off if I pulled my schedule Friday, but like a lot of people, I thought I could keep going and power through it, and that didn’t go so well.” 

She said she felt compelled to go to the 9/11 memorial in New York City on Sunday despite her illness because she was a senator representing the state at the time of the attacks.

“I was just incredibly committed to being at the memorial as a senator on 9/11. It was incredibly personal to me, and I could feel how hot and humid it was. I felt overheated. I decided that I did need to leave. As soon as I got in the air conditioned van, I cooled off, I got some water, and very quickly I felt better,” she said. 

The Clinton campaign on Monday said it would be releasing her health records soon. It has also acknowledged that it could have dealt with how it handled Clinton’s illness better, which she reiterated on CNN Monday night. 

“As soon as it became clear I couldn’t power through, we said what was going on,” she said. “If we weren’t fast enough [disclosing information] … I take responsibility for that.”

Earlier Monday, Bill Clinton said his wife has had problems with dehydration before. 

“Rarely, on more than one occasion, over the last many, many years, the same sort of thing’s happened to her when she got severely dehydrated, and she’s worked like a demon, as you know, as secretary of State, as a senator, and in the years since,” Clinton said during a Monday interview with CBS’s Charlie Rose. 

Asked about that on CNN, Hillary Clinton said such spells have ”occurred a few times over the course of my life.” When pressed, she said they’ve happened ”really only twice that I can recall.” 

Journalists and critics have challenged Clinton to release a detailed medical history following Sundays episode, which added to questions that have already surfaced about the candidate’s health.