It must have tested well with focus groups, because the Hillary Clinton campaign had one line it wanted to get out on Monday: Hillary Clinton was trying to power through her illness this weekend.
Campaign manager Robby Mook and spokespeople Brian Fallon and Kristina Schake all repeated the talking point ad nauseam in their cable appearances on Monday. The media picked it up as well, with reporters on CNN and MSNBC using the phrase to describe how Hillary Clinton bravely reacted to a pneumonia diagnosis on Friday.
The campaign did not disclose that she had pneumonia until after her near-collapse when she abruptly left New York’s 9/11 memorial on Sunday, initially saying she felt overheated.
In reality, she was just powering through.