The continual commotion surrounding the 2016 election has increased after Hillary Clinton collapsed this past Sunday near her car after feeling ill. This race has had many candidates more focused on trying to criticize and expose their counterparts rather than their own goals and ideas of helping this country’s advancement. Debates between the two nominees- Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump- have been filled with an excessive amount of insults directed at both the others’ campaign and personal lives, which will have certainly not ceased following her fall.
Clinton was exiting the 9-11 commemoration ceremony in New York City Sunday and just before entering her waiting car, she began to stagger and tremble. As she attempted to step down from the curb, she suddenly collapsed just one or two feet from her car. Hillary was surrounded by her attendants and security guards, so luckily she had people there to help steady her. They then carried her seemingly dead weight body into the car. Naturally, in a world of 24/7 paparazzi and media scrutiny, the “collapse” was caught on camera.

Watch Clinton’s fall here

Clinton’s doctor reported that two days prior to this incident Hillary had been diagnosed with pneumonia. Clinton’s campaign told people that what they witnessed on Sunday was a result of the pneumonia in addition to dehydration. Clinton has come out saying that she “feels fine” and thought that her diagnosis of pneumonia “wasn’t going to be that big a deal.” However, Trump supporters have already proposed several conspiracy theories on Clinton- some saying that she won’t be able to finish the campaign, and more radical ones saying she has a few months to live. We know from her doctor that Clinton’s life is in no danger, and she has made it clear that this sickness would not affect the rest of her presidential campaign. Nonetheless, Clinton did fail to let the public know about her condition and many Republicans have demanded that she release all of her medical information to the public. Republicans also want, and have wanted Clinton to become less secretive and more open in terms of all the information she possesses. Clinton has had a reputation of being very private when it comes to disclosing information in the past. Still, Clinton managed to use this unfortunate event to her advantage by criticizing Trump in an interview held on Monday. Hillary responded to the attacks of Trump supporters  in this CNN interview by saying, “Compare everything you know about me with my opponent. I think it’s time he me met the same level of disclosure that I have for years.” Democrats are also trying to defend their nominee by saying that Trump supporters are simply making up rumors and blowing the incident out of proportion.

In terms of the polls, Hillary Clinton’s lead over Trump has decreased over the past few weeks. There has also shown to be a tightening in polls among swing states. However, a recent Washington Post poll still has Clinton up 5 percent against Donald Trump in terms of likely voters. There have been no signs or analysis on whether Clinton’s collapse will significantly affect the polls one way or another; but it is very likely that in the final closing months of the election, we will see much more transparency and openness from both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.