The Secret Service ignored regular protocol and brought Hillary Clinton to her daughter’s apartment instead of a state-designated Level I Trauma Center after she collapsed at the September 11 Memorial Ceremony on Sunday, The NY Post reported.
Secret Service protocol called for Clinton to head to the Trauma Center in Manhattan which would have been Bellevue Hospital. A campaign operative requested that Clinton not be taken to the ER because hospital staff could leak information to reporters.
According to a source, Clinton’s van was supposed to be escorted by an NYPD protective detail, but she wasn’t because the Secret Service transported her before they could arrive. Clinton said she didn’t want a police escort, but the NYPD overruled her request.
Shortly before noon, Clinton exited her daughter’s apartment and told reporters, “I’m feeling great. It’s a beautiful day in New York.”
Clinton’s “early departure was transmitted in real time by the Secret Service to the NYPD,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller.“There was no lack of communication, nor diminution of security.”
Clinton’s personal physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack said that Hillary Clinton was just suffering from being “overheated and dehydrated” but hours later, her campaign said that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday.
Campaign spokesman Glen Caplin said the Clinton campaign released a statement saying, “As soon as she got into the vehicle, she was feeling fine. Her preference was to go to Chelsea’s. Based on an assessment of her condition and after having conferred with her physician, the staff and the Secret Service thought it was appropriate.”
Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said Bardack was going to prepare more medical records of Clinton that will be made public “in the next couple days.”
“I can attest that it is the case that there is no other undisclosed condition. The pneumonia is the extent of it,” Fallon said. “I do think that in the 90 minutes that elapsed, we could have gotten information out quickly. That’s on the staff. That’s on us. We regret it.”
In a phone interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night, Clinton said “I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal.”
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