early and awkward

Hillary Clinton Flip-Flopping on Bin Laden Raid ‘Cough’

We need answers. Photo: Pete Souza/This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.?

In the defining situation room photo of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Hillary Clinton is the center of the dramatic action, hand over mouth. Actually, it was probably just a scratchy throat, she said as secretary of State: “I am somewhat sheepishly concerned that it was my preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs. So, it may have no great meaning whatsoever.” But candidate Clinton now says otherwise. 

“We watched it all in real time, the helicopters that landed in the courtyard of Osama’s compound, our SEALs that attacked the building, the helicopter’s tail that hit the wall, but succeeded in touching down regardless,” she tells the Italian magazine Venerdì, in a new article titled “Me, President?” as reported by the New York Times, “and I closed my mouth to keep my heart from coming out of my throat.”

Which is it, gasp or cough? The American people deserve to know before picking our next president. What if she didn’t even care and was just yawning? Thankfully we’ll have plenty of time for thorough analysis of complex issues like this before 2016.

Hillary Clinton Bin Laden Raid Cough Was a Gasp?