Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. 

By Britt Nelson

The 15^th sad anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy has come and gone, while Hillary Clinton is making excuses for her ‘deplorable’ comments about Trump supporters and Trump continues his rise in national polls.

All this just as the man who shot President Reagan in 1981 — John Hinckley Jr. — is released from a mental hospital and then all of a sudden Clinton almost hits the sidewalk with pneumonia and cancels campaign fundraisers and rallies in California. What a weekend!

Both Democrat Hillary Clinton and her presidential challenger Republican Donald Trump attended a Sunday morning memorial service along with thousands of others at Ground Zero in New York City on the site where both towers of the World Trade Center crumbled due to actions attributed to radical Islamic terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.

Neither Clinton nor Trump spoke during the memorial, but national TV news shows were abuzz as soon as a video was released showing Clinton leaving the event early in obvious distress and stumbling as she attempted to get into a black Secret Service van. However, she appeared later in the day and looked refreshed as she spoke to well-wishers on the sidewalk outside of her daughter’s apartment in Manhattan.

The Clinton campaign later Sunday released a statement that their candidate had contracted pneumonia over the past few weeks apparently causing several much-talked-about coughing incidents while speaking at campaign events.

Rick Leventhal, with FOX News, broke the Clinton stumbling story after interviewing two witnesses who were no more than 20-feet away from Clinton as she tried to enter the rear seat of the van. Leventhal also noted that when Trump entered the memorial service he was cheered by the crowd while Clinton was not.

With this latest incident involving Clinton’s health, both Clinton and Trump are demanding release of each other’s medical records. Every time this issue comes up Trump says he will release his medical records if Clinton releases her medical information. But so far neither candidate has released any medical records, however, Monday morning Trump said he would be releasing some medical records by the end of this week.

Speaking of records, Trump has yet to release his tax returns while Clinton has. But Trump keeps asking Clinton to release transcripts of her speeches made to Wall Street bankers in which she made millions of dollars from speaking fees. And on and on it goes without end until the Nov. 8 national election.

Meanwhile, last Friday during a campaign rally and fundraiser in New York City, Clinton called Trump supporters a bunch of “deplorables,” and then Saturday she came back with a ‘sort-of’ apology after a fire storm of controversy erupted following her comments. Here’s what she said.

“To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up,” Clinton told a cheering crowd of supporters.

The Clinton campaign released a statement on Saturday which is more of a clarification than an outright apology concerning her remarks.

“Last night I was grossly generalistic, and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ – that was wrong,” Clinton said in the statement.

Trump, in the past, has commented on Clinton’s health saying she does not “have the stamina” to be president of the United States, but on Monday morning TV news Trump took a different approach in his remarks.

“I hope she gets better and gets back on the trail,” Trump said on Fox News Monday morning. “We’ll see her at the debate.”

National polls are now showing Clinton only ahead of Trump by 2.2 percentage points in a 4-way split with Clinton, Trump, Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein on the ballot.

Real Clear Politics has analyzed 10 national polls that show Clinton ahead of Trump in eight polls, but not by more than 5 points. Trump leads in one poll by 2 points and ties Clinton in another. Clinton’s 10 point lead in national polls is gone for now, but polls change as events play out.

All the while a 61-year-old Hinckley went home to his 90-something-year-old mother in Williamsburg, Virginia after a federal judge declared him to no longer pose a threat to himself or society. I wonder if they can the same about Clinton and Trump?

 

About the Author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.