Carlos Barria/ZUMA
A new poll suggests that gender bias might account for a lot of those questions about Hillary Clinton’s health.
With the exception of her recent bout of pneumonia, Clinton is apparently in fine health. She’s released multiple letters from her doctor over the course of the presidential campaign, and none revealed any serious health concerns. But that didn’t stop the right-wing media from continuing to suggest that Clinton had some vague—but surely deadly—health problem that should prevent her from taking the presidency. Trump himself hinted at this during Monday’s debate, saying Clinton “doesn’t have the stamina” for the job.
Apparently the perception of Clinton’s health depends on whether the perceiver is a man or a woman. According to a new AP-GfK poll, there’s a distinct gender gap in who is willing to buy the conspiracy theories. The poll found that 45 percent of men said they were “only slightly or not at all confident” in Clinton’s physical fitness. Women were far less likely to think the first major-party female presidential nominee wasn’t physically up to the task, with just 34 percent lacking confidence in her health. Despite the fact that Trump hasn’t released as detailed a medical history, voters overall were more reassured, with 51 percent surveyed saying his health wasn’t a concern.
