Newt rips 'junk medicine' worries about Clinton health

Newt Gingrich dismissed outright as "junk medicine" on Thursday theories about Hillary Clinton's state of health and treatment, after board-certified internist and media personality Drew Pinsky speculated that the Democratic nominee is not receiving a proper level of care.

The former speaker of the House and Donald Trump ally responded on "Fox & Friends" after the show played a clip of Pinsky speaking Tuesday on KABC Radio's McIntyre in the Morning. In that segment, Pinsky said he was "gravely concerned" about Clinton's health, noting her doctor's 2015 assessment that showed a "1950 level sort of care" by the evaluation of himself and a colleague.


Clinton, Pinsky remarked, is being treated for her hypothyroidism with "Armour Thyroid, which is very unconventional and something that we used to use in the 1960s."

"Then she falls and hits her head and as a complication of that has a transverse sinus thrombosis," Pinsky said, in reference to Clinton's 2012 medical episode. "This is an exceedingly rare clot. I have only seen one in my career. It just seems like she's getting care from somebody that she met in Arkansas when she was a kid and I just -- you gotta wonder. You got to wonder. It's not so much that her health is a grave concern, it's that the care she's getting could make it a concern."

Clinton's internist, based in Mount Kisco, New York, released the statement on the candidate's health in July 2015.

"Well, I think first of all, just to get down to the human level for a second, all of us ought to include Hillary Clinton in our prayers. You can be opposed to somebody without hoping they have bad health and I hope that she's all right," Gingrich responded. "Second, I’m always dubious, with all due respect to television doctors, when you have a doctor who has never seen the patient, begin to give you a complicated, fancy sounding analysis based on what? I mean, I would be very cautious and I would recommend to doctors for professional reasons to be very cautious deciding you’re going to start analyzing people. Because next you're gonna get a left-wing psychiatrist explaining Donald Trump in negative terms."

Co-host Steve Doocy responded, "Well they already have that."

"I think we ought to recognize that's kind of junk medicine," Gingrich said. "That’s not the real deal."

Trump himself has made repeated references to Clinton's "mental and physical stamina," which the Clinton campaign has criticized as "deranged conspiracy theories." Fox News host Sean Hannity has raised theories about Clinton's health as well, drawing the ire of CNN's Brian Stelter who denounced the "reckless speculation." Hannity, in particular, recently showed a clip of Clinton moving her head in an abrupt, jerking motion when speaking to a group of reporters. Hannity then asked whether Clinton had a stroke or a seizure, leading Associated Press reporter Lisa Lerer, who was present at the time, to firmly deny those allegations.