Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Tzipi Livni Blames Sexism for ‘Hysteria’ Over Hillary Clinton Stumble

WASHINGTON — Tzipi Livni, a former foreign minister of Israel, said the intense media focus on Hillary Clinton’s health after she stumbled in public amounted to “hysteria” and would not be applied to a man.

“I don’t know what Hillary Clinton has and I don’t intend to engage with the U.S. elections,” Livni, a leading figure in the opposition, wrote Monday on her Facebook page. “But nonetheless it’s clear to me that if a man underwent a similar incident, it would not be treated with the same hysteria. It’s amazing in an era where everything appears so close and unmediated, we still can’t accept that leaders are people, too.”

Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, left a 9/11 memorial service in New York on Sunday after feeling faint and was helped into a van by Secret Service agents, appearing to stumble as she entered.

Her campaign later said she was being treated for pneumonia with antibiotics. Her doctor, Lisa Bardack, said Clinton had overheated during the campaign and became dehydrated.

Clinton later Sunday emerged from her daughter’s Manhattan apartment and said, “I’m feeling great.”

The stumble received blanket news coverage.

Clinton’s Republican rival, Donald Trump, has sought to make an issue of his stamina vs. hers in the election, and conspiracy theories about her ailments have circulated on right-wing media, with some mainstream outlets examining them as well.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.