Former President Bill Clinton said he was "dumbfounded" by Karl Rove's suggestion that his wife might have suffered from a traumatic brain injury, but shrugged off the comment and suggested it was just the beginning of a GOP effort to raise questions about Hillary Rodham Clinton's stamina.
"I've got to give him credit -- that embodies that old saying that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," Bill Clinton said Wednesday when asked about Rove's comments. "First they said she faked her concussion, and now they say she's auditioning for a part on The Walking Dead.
"Whatever it takes," Clinton continued with a chuckle. "Look, she works out every week. She is strong. She is doing great -- as far as I can tell she's in better shape than I am. She certainly seems to have more stamina now. And there's nothing to it."
Hillary Clinton was hospitalized at the end of 2012 after doctors discovered a blood clot behind her right ear. They said it stemmed from a concussion that she had suffered after fainting while weakened by a stomach virus.
The injury led the then-secretary of state to delay her testimony to Congress on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. At that time, some Republicans questioned whether she actually had a medical condition or was simply trying to put off the hearing.
Rove, the former White House adviser to President George W. Bush, raised questions about Hillary Clinton's health at a conference in Los Angeles last week. According to a report in the New York Post, Rove erroneously said that Clinton spent 30 days in the hospital, although she was hospitalized for just three days.
"When she reappears, she's wearing glasses that are only for people who have traumatic brain injury? We need to know what's up with that," Rove continued, according to the Post.
On Tuesday, Rove denied that he had said Hillary Clinton suffered "brain damage" -- terminology used in the Post's headline -- but insisted that the public needed more information about what he called a "serious health episode."
Offering a vigorous defense of his wife's health Wednesday, Bill Clinton told his interviewer, PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill, that he was dumbfounded, particularly after Republicans "went to all this trouble to say she faked what was a terrible concussion that required six months of very serious work to get over."
"It's something that she never lowballed with the American people, never tried to pretend it didn't happen. Now they say she's really got brain damage," he said with a laugh. "If she does, then I must be in really tough shape because she is still quicker than I am."
When pressed by Ifill about whether Rove's comments were an attempt to raise Hillary Clinton's age as an issue as she weighs a 2016 run for the presidency, the former president said he wasn't sure of Rove's motivations.
"But if it is, you can't be too upset about it, it's just the beginning," he said. "They'll get better and better at it. I mean, you know, I'm still waiting for them to admit there was nothing to Whitewater."
The Clintons' investment in a real estate development known as Whitewater led to one of the longest-running controversies of Bill Clinton's presidency. Under fire from Republicans, the administration eventually bowed to calls for an independent investigation that eventually came to encompass a probe into Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern with whom he had an affair.
The former president also defended his wife's response to the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
"In my opinion, Hillary did what she should have done, she impaneled a very high-level review committee," he said.
The House is pushing ahead with a GOP-led special select committee to investigate the attacks, U.S. security at the diplomatic mission, the military's response and President Barack Obama's administration's explanation of what happened.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton spoke to the American Jewish Committee on Wednesday, saying she was "personally skeptical" that Iran would agree to a comprehensive deal to remove its nuclear-weapons capabilities but said the Obama administration faced a promising opportunity that required it to "give diplomacy space to work."
Hillary Clinton said the ongoing talks in Vienna between six world powers and Iran represented an opportunity to reduce Iran's potential nuclear weapons-making ability.
"To get there we will have to be tough, clear-eyed and ready to walk away and increase the pressure if need be. No deal is better than a bad deal," Clinton said, adding that any agreement that endangers U.S. or Israeli national security should be rejected.
During her speech to the prominent Jewish organization, Hillary Clinton also defended her tenure at the State Department and highlighted her work to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions and promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
She did not address Rove's statements or her health.
Information for this article was contributed by Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times and by staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/15/2014