Labor Day marked the first takeoff of the Hillary Clinton campaign plane that has room for reporters to tag along. Clinton went back to the press section to welcome the traveling group and answer questions, but "Fox and Friends" sees something sinister.
"This is why I think [Hillary Clinton] talked [to the press on board her plane] — because when she was speaking at the podium in Ohio she had a hacking fit. She could not — she coughed for two minutes," Ainsley Earhardt said.
Co-host Steve Doocy picked up the conspiracy ball from there. "Now people are saying, why is her, you know, throat sore, why is she hacking? I know Ed Klein, who's written a couple of books about the Clintons, he has talked about how famously she fell down a couple of years ago, got the blood clot in her brain and then she's been taking medicine for that and for a thyroid condition, and one of the side effects of the thyroid medicine is you do wind up with these bouts of coughing."
Earhardt tried to dismiss that coughing was a symptom of the various diseases right-wing activists have diagnosed Clinton having. "See, I was thinking, 'So, she coughed?' We all have allergies, we all have our coughing spells, but it doesn't look good when you have all of these conspiracy theories about her health," she said, admitting the attacks from Breitbart News and Donald Trump aren't real.
"I'm sure when she was at the podium she was freaking out, thinking, 'Oh my gosh, what am I going to say?' She came up with that clever line, which diverted the attention," Earhardt continued. "Everyone started clapping, thinking she came up with a good line. Then she goes on her plane and I think she thought, 'I needed to divert attention away from my hacking, from my coughing so let me speak to the press.' That's why she went on the plane and was so excited. Then she started coughing on the plane."
Watch the full video of the exchange below thanks to Media Matters:
