Comment About Clinton and Parkinson’s Disease Goes Viral

LONDONDERRY, NH — A local state Representative is being hit from both members of the political press and Never Trump activists after suggesting that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton might have Parkinson’s Disease after her recent fainting spell in New York City yesterday morning.

Outgoing State Rep. Daniel Tamburello, R-Londonderry, a co-chairman of Veterans for Trump, a coalition of volunteers supporting the Republican presidential nominee that started here in New Hampshire, wrote on Facebook this morning that the symptoms Clinton had been displaying recently reminded him of his father’s Parkinson’s Disease symptoms. His father, he noted, contracted the disease in the late 1980s. The revelation by the campaign that she had pneumonia solidified his suspicion that she might have it, too.

“Pneumonia is one of the most common secondary conditions that occurs,” Tamburello noted on Facebook, “and is a high degree secondary issue complicating Parkinsons (sic) patients’ health that causes eventual mortality – again, very common to have Parkinsons (sic) patients die of pneumonia.”

Tamburello added that patients are often unable to control their throat valve that prevents water from going into the lungs when drinking. He noted that his father had a deep brain stimulator and wondered if Clinton was “concealing” one that “counters her tremors.” He added, “They have admitted HRC has pneumonia, but that’s not WHY she has pneumonia. I believe she has pneumonia cause by Parkinsons (sic) disease.”

The post – and another on his Facebook account, a graphic of a re-do of a the “Weekend at Bernie’s” movie poster, featuring actors Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy propping up Clinton – caught the eye of the beltway media crowd, including BuzzFeed.com, which immediately ran with the story. The article – which has been aggregated by a number of other outlets, including Raw Story, the Daily Mail in the UK, and Talking Points Memo in the last six hours – also intrigued Dan Joseph, the self-proclaimed “America’s most underrated conservative vlogger” and a Never Trump activist who attempted to goad Tamburello into a Twitter war about his comments.

“Many people are saying that @GO_Tambo (Tamburello’s Twitter account) lied about his father having Parkinsons (sic) and that he shouldn’t spread rumors about other candidates,” Joseph wrote in a Tweet that has now been removed.

Tamburello later removed his Facebook posts and replaced them with family pictures and other comments about the media coverage. When contacted about the post, he refused comment.

However, his eldest brother, Raymond Tamburello Jr., confirmed to Patch that their father, Raymond Tamburello Sr., did, in fact, have Parkinson’s Disease. Raymond Sr., who is now 74, contracted the disease in his mid-40s, he said. He has had a deep brain stimulator for a little less than 10 years and has had to have his battery changed once already, he noted. Usually the patients don’t last that long, "to be honest," he added.

“He’s a champion for fighting it,” he said. “We all wish we had his mental and physical fortitude. I don’t think that the generation that exists now knows what that means. He’s just tougher than we are. I could not go through that … I would need divine strength.”

About 10 to 12 years ago, his father had to retire from the family business – he was the owner-operator of a car wash business in New Jersey – because he could no longer work there.

“My father has had it … he’s fighting it … and Danny is correct in what he said,” Raymond Tamburello Jr. said.

File photo.