For anyone left unsated by the recent blanket coverage of the president’s recent physical, who may want a little more information about the health of other figures in the United States government in general and whose curiosity extends toward ex-members of the administration, in particular the Treasury, ABC’s Jake Tapper found time in an interview with former secretary Hank Paulson to address the famed audible, violent, and repeated barfing scene in Todd Purdum’s Vanity Fair story earlier this year. It was not, Hank helpfully clarifies, a stomach virus that caused his bout of energetic ralphing.
It was because he was working too hard. For you, the people.
What was it — nerves?
All my life, if I’m really exhausted — it doesn’t happen much — I will have dry heaves. When I was seeing Purdum I had been in Asia [for a quick trip]. I was working. I got off the plane at 2 in the morning. I was in the office a few hours later working and I just had a bout of the dry heaves.
One more thing:
I’ll say something: I didn’t miss a single day or an hour because of illness, and I worked around the clock for two and a half years.
Puking all the while. Loudly, audibly, ferociously, with great exhilaration. Now you know.
The D.A.M [ABC News via Dealbreaker via Heidi N. Moore/Twitter]
Earlier: Hank Paulson’s Valley of the Dolls Moment
