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Plouffe: Trump Is Heaviest Presidential Candidate Since Taft

September 13, 2016

The former campaign manager for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential election, David Plouffe, called Donald Trump the heaviest presidential candidate since former President William H. Taft on Tuesday.

"He is 70, OK?" Plouffe said to CNN’s Chuck Todd. "And he’s the heaviest president we’ve had–candidate, since William Taft."

Plouffe was responding to a question about if David Axelrod’s tweet critiquing Hillary Clinton’s delayed disclosure of her pneumonia diagnosis was fair.

"One more quick question," Todd said. "I got to ask you about the tweet that was sort of heard around the political world yesterday from your long time compadre there, David Axelrod, when he says, ‘antibiotics can cure pneumonia, what cures this is penchant for privacy.’ Essentially, I am paraphrasing, I don’t have it right in front of me. Tough critique. A fair one?"

Plouffe said he would rather see Axelrod tweet about his Cubs.

He did acknowledge that the Clinton campaign admitted that they could have handled the situation better and hoped that they would do this in the future.

"Listen, there is no doubt the campaign themselves said they could have handled it better," Plouffe said. "I think that had Sunday morning gone differently, even taking away the issue of whether they should have said something Friday, I think we’d be in a different place. Again, I don’t think there is a single voter in America that is going to cast a different vote based on this. I really don’t."

He then laid into Trump.

"And, let’s talk about medical records," he said. "So, here’s Trump, who, you know, Dr. Feel Good put out a one-page letter. He is 70, OK? And he’s the heaviest president we've had– candidate, since William Taft. There’s legitimate issues."