She and her VP nominee Tim Kaine stressed importance of winning Ohio

Hillary Clinton caught a case of dry mouth on Monday afternoon that caused her to choke and cough through the first few minutes of her stump speech at a Labor Day event.

Clinton welled up as the coughing fit continued and told a park full of people in Cleveland, Ohio, that it was an 'allergic reaction' to Donald Trump.

'Every time I think about Trump I get allergic,' she whispered before she whipped out a glass of water from behind the podium and took a big gulp.

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Hillary Clinton caught a case of dry mouth on Monday afternoon that caused her to choke and cough through the first few minutes of her stump speech at a Labor Day event in Ohio

She tried again.

'Boy we have 63 days to go.' The coughing persisted.

The crowd could sense she was struggling and chanted her name as she waited for it to pass. Running mate Tim Kaine was sitting on stage behind her but didn't attempt to assist her. He clapped along with the crowd as she pushed ahead.

She moved on to plan B and popped in a throat lozenge. 'Woah,' she said, grabbing and gulping the water again.

The Democratic presidential nominee regained enough strength to finish the speech. 'Now, as I get over my allergic reaction,' she said, moving on from her introductory statement.

At a critical moment, though, her first public remarks on Trump's trip to Mexico, her voice gave way again.

'He can't even go to a foreign country without getting into a public feud with the president,' she said.

Clinton washed down a throat lozenge after the coughing fit, which she comically wrote off as an allergic reaction to Donald Trump

As she charged that he is 'temperamentally unfit' and 'totally unqualified' to be president, her cough got the best of her for a second time - blunting what may have otherwise been an effective attack on her opponent.

Her voice raw and strained, Clinton ran down her regular list of complaints about Trump in the speech and stressed the importance of winning Ohio, something Kaine did in his remarks, as well.

'You guys have a habit of being there,' he told Ohioans at the afternoon event.

Pointing out that Labor Day is the unofficial kick-off of the general election, Kaine said, 'This is a big day.'

We're 'battle tested,' he said, and 'ready for the home stretch.'

Kaine met Clinton at the airport in Cleveland. The Virginia senator, who hadn't been seen with her since a bus trip at the end of the July, boarded the plane while Clinton was still on it, then deplaned with her minutes later.

He appeared at an event earlier in the day with Vice President Joe Biden.

Warming up the crowd for Clinton in Cleveland Kaine bashed Donald Trump for saying at his Labor Day event that she doesn't look 'presidential, fellas.'

'Can I tell you something that made me mad today? Donald Trump put out a tweet today about our nominee for president and the tweet essentially said, "She doesn't look presidential, does she fellas?"' Kaine said, misidentifying the place Trump made the remark.

He told the crowd, 'Listen to that again. Listen to that again. This is what he said, "She does not look presidential, does she, fellas?" Does she, fellas? Does she, fellas?'

After her 'allergic reaction' subsided, Clinton attacked Trump's Mexico visit, saying 'He can't even go to a foreign country without getting into a public feud with the president'

Kaine predicted Trump would be making the same claim eight years from now at the end of Clinton's second term 'as he's hawking bottled water somewhere, and we've forgotten he'd ever run for president of the United States.'

The Democratic lawmaker seemed to suggest with his remarks that Trump's commentary on Clinton's fitness for the presidency was sexist.

Clinton played coy with reporters on her plane during a media avail. 'Hmm,' she said, as she was asked to reflect on whether 'conspiracy theories' about her health fell into that category.

'I'm not concerned about conspiracy theories. There are so many of them I've lost track of them. And so I pay no attention to them,' she said.

She brought up Trump's comments about her look yet said of the possibility of underlying sexism, 'I don't know that's for you guys to opine on.'