On Tuesday afternoon, Hillary Clinton delivered a speech addressing systemic racism at Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, but I have zero recollection of a single point she made. Instead, my brain is filled with the echoes of the nightmarish coughing fit that she suffered as she attempted to say something about improving inmates’ lives.
Unbelievably, this is not the first time this has happened. She also had a coughing fit while giving a speech in Iowa:
And one during the interminable Benghazi hearing.
Listen, girl. I’ve been there. When I had to deliver my closing argument in seventh grade social studies (I was the lawyer arguing for a girl’s right to wear a hijab in my class’ mock trial, so the stakes were there), I was whacked with the same humiliating ailment, and had to say my speech in tiny little word bursts with tears streaming down my face. So, I don’t even care that she keeps coughing. I just want her to be happy and healthy, you know? I’m just amazed that she’s been able to continue her run of public speaking after that first terrifying spell of the cough.
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