“This coughing stuff, I hope [Hillary’s] alright," Newt Gingrich said. “It’s a little disturbing.”
Moments later, he had a coughing fit of his own.
The former House Speaker appeared Tuesday on conservative talk-radio star and fellow Trump booster Sean Hannity’s radio program, and the pair gave ample airtime to conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health, citing video of her struggling with a “coughing attack” during a Labor Day rally in Ohio.
After listening to a montage of Clinton’s public coughing fits over the course of the campaign—a subject that has become grist for the conservative conspiracy-theory mill—Gingrich noted to Hannity that the Democratic nominee‘s coughs are “deeper” and “last much longer” than her husband Bill’s.
“It lasted for four minutes and 20 seconds this weekend,” Hannity said. “I think we need to know if she’s healthy,” he added before pivoting to the concussion she suffered several years ago.
Shortly thereafter, while praising Trump’s recent visit to Mexico, Gingrich began coughing.
“Now you sound like Hillary,” Hannity joked. “By the way, yours didn’t last four minutes and 20 seconds, thank God,” he added, seeking to distinguish between the dry, unproductive coughs of Newt Gingrich versus those of Hillary Clinton.
“No, I’m in good shape,” Gingrich replied. “At least I’m in better shape than Hillary,” he declared.
“A three-second cough does not equate to a four-minute-and-20-second cough,” the talk-radio host exclaimed.
“That’s true,” Gingrich replied before unironically explaining that he travels so much and performs so many speaking gigs that “my throat dries out.”
“It does,” Hannity agreed. “You have to keep hydrated big time.”
Take note, fellow frequent flyer Hillary Clinton.
