Nightly Newsy: Why EVERYBODY’s Freaking the F Out About Hillary’s Health
Is the weekend over already? Sadly, yes. And the news waits for no one, so there’s plenty to catch up on, but luckily you’ve got us to find out what you need to know. Read on!
1. #HillarysBodyDouble is totally not a joke lol/sigh: Last week, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton coughed and the whole world listened. Now it turns out she’s not the picture of perfect health, as her supporters had claimed in response to conservative cries that she’s on her last legs. She’s been diagnosed with pneumonia, which puts her somewhere in between dying and doing Iron Man competitions. Her campaign has promised to release more medical information (as has Donald Trump’s, though he hasn’t been as forthcoming to date). Undeterred by a doctor’s diagnosis, Twitter users have created the hashtag #HillarysBodyDouble to theorize how and when the candidate has used a lookalike to hide what they assume must be her TOTALLY SERIOUS illness. It’s all a bit silly, but then, that’s kind of par for the course for elections, right?
Mike Pence: 'Donald Trump and I are both going to release our tax return;' Pence says he will release his next week. #TrumpPence16
— Kris Cruz (@rc_kris) September 4, 2016
2. Donald’s tax returns are worth jail time: Like medical records, most presidential candidates release their tax information for the public to examine before we decide if we want them in charge of the country for four years. So far, Republican candidate Donald Trump has declined to share his tax returns, though his running mate Mike Pence has said that both of them will release their records… at some point. New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet has said that he would publish that information if he gained access to it, even over objections from newspaper lawyers and the possibility of jail time. Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward (of All the President’s Men fame) concurred.
View this post on InstagramThe new poster for @TheBirthofaNation dropped exclusively on @tidal 🙌
A post shared by Fox Searchlight Pictures (@foxsearchlight) on
3. Filmmaker Nate Parker has a dark past: Nate Parker, the writer/director/star of upcoming film The Birth of a Nation who was until a few months ago fêted as a likely breakout star, avoided questions on Sunday about his 1999 rape trial (he was acquitted). His movie’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival has kept questions in the public consciousness about what to do with a rising artist whose alleged misdeeds come to light, especially when they track closely with the art at hand (The Birth of a Nation asks us to examine the monumental historical wrong of slavery, while Nate attempts to sidestep inquiries into his own past behavior).
Devin McCourty & Martellus Bennett both with raised fists during national anthem. #Patriots pic.twitter.com/zCXjZXOHKV
— Trenni Kusnierek (@trenni) September 12, 2016
4. Even more athletes join Colin Kaepernick: Sunday marked both the 15th anniversary of 9/11 and the first Sunday NFL games of the regular season. This season, players from several teams, starting with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, have opted to sit or kneel during the national anthem. That’s been perceived by some as an attack on the military, making the overlap of the anniversary and a possible protest all the more fraught. Nonetheless, Marcus Peters of the Kansas City Chiefs raised a fist in solidarity with Colin on Sunday, echoing the iconic photo of two athletes at the 1968 Olympics. The New England Patriots’ Devin McCourty and Martellus Bennett also raised fists during the anthem on Sunday, and four members of the Miami Dolphins took a knee.
5. Apple takes issue with reporting: Always know what “off the record” means if you’re going to invoke it with a reporter! To wit: you and the reporter need to agree something is off the record before you say it. An Apple spokesman learned that the hard way today when he neglected to get that crucial consent before sending an email detailing his issues with an article on Mic. The site had criticized the diversity at Apple’s product launch last week. The PR flack cites, as part of the company’s success on that front, that Apple had “a Canadian and a British woman” onstage. Hoo boy.
(Photos via @foxsearchlight/Instagram, Stephen Lam/Getty Images)