Karl Rove on Tuesday defended comments he reportedly made questioning Hillary Clinton's health, saying that her time in and out of a hospital surely will reemerge as a concern should she run for president in 2016. 
 
 "This is going to be an issue," Rove told Fox News. 
 
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 The New York Post reported that Rove, a Fox News analyst and former George W. Bush administration adviser, said at a recent conference that if Clinton runs for president, voters should be told what happened when she fell at her home in December 2012. 
 
 "Thirty days in the hospital? And 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 reportedly said. 
 
 Rove clarified on Fox News that he was never claiming Clinton had brain damage. 
 
 But he suggested details are scant on what medical issues she was dealing with in late 2012 and early 2013. 
 
 "This was a serious deal. She basically was out of action," he said Tuesday. "She spends over a month fighting this. ... And they're not particularly forthcoming." 
 
 Rove said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., faced similar health questions when he ran in 2008. 
 
 A representative for Clinton slammed Rove for the remarks reported by the Post. "Karl Rove has deceived the country for years, but there are no words for this level of lying," a spokesperson said, according to the Post. The spokesperson said: "She is 100 percent. Period." 
 
 Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill also told The Associated Press: "They are scared of what she has achieved and what she has to offer." White House Press Secretary Jay Carney referred to Rove as "Dr. Rove" when asked about the comments. 
 
 Clinton was not in a hospital for 30 days straight. Rather, she was in and out of treatment for about a month in late 2012. 
 
 At the time, she had a stomach virus -- and then fell at her home, struck her head and endured a concussion, according to her representatives. Doctors later discovered a blood clot behind her right ear. She was treated with blood thinners. 
 
 According to The Associated Press, her doctors said she suffered no neurological damage and was expected to make a full recovery. 
 
 The glasses Rove reportedly referred to are typically used by people with traumatic brain injuries -- but that's a broad category that includes concussions. And it's already well known that Clinton suffered one. 
 
 Clinton wore special glasses last year after her injury but has not been seen in them lately. ||||| 
 
 This March 2, 2013 file photo shows Republican strategist Karl Rove speaking in Sacramento. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) 
 
 Republican strategist Karl Rove on Tuesday distanced himself from a provocative New York Post headline, saying he does not believe -- as the newspaper asserted -- that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton suffered "brain damage" from a head injury in 2012. 
 
 "Of course she doesn't have brain damage," he said in an interview with The Washington Post. 
 
 But Rove said that it is apparent that Clinton suffered "a serious health episode." He added that if she runs for president in 2016, "she is going to have to be forthcoming" about the details of where, how and when it happened. 
 
 He noted that major media organizations will demand her medical records, as they do for every major presidential candidate and as they did for former vice president Richard B. Cheney, who suffered a series of heart attacks. 
 
 "She didn't feign illness," Rove said of Clinton's failure to show up at an early round of congressional hearings on Benghazi, Libya -- an absence that some conservative commenters dubbed the "Benghazi flu." 
 
 And as Clinton contemplates whether to make another bid for president, Rove said, "she would not be human if it didn't enter into her considerations." 
 
 The report in New York Post’s “Page Six” column said Rove addressed Clinton’s health during a conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, when he appeared alongside former Obama administration spokesman Robert Gibbs and CBS correspondent Dan Raviv. 
 
 Noting reports that Clinton had suffered a blood clot after a fall in December 2012, Rove said, “Thirty days in the hospital? And 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.” 
 
 The tabloid said Rove “repeated the claim a number of times to the audience.” The headline on the item read, “Karl Rove: Hillary may have brain damage.” 
 
 According to news reports, Clinton was hospitalized for three days, not 30. The secretary of state was admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center for a blood clot that developed after a fall from dehydration related to a stomach virus, according to Clinton aides and hospital officials. ||||| Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) 
 
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 Karl Rove stunned a conference when he suggested Hillary Clinton may have brain damage. 
 
 Onstage with Robert Gibbs and CBS correspondent and “Spies Against Armageddon” co-author Dan Raviv, Rove said Republicans should keep the Benghazi issue alive. 
 
 He said if Clinton runs for president, voters must be told what happened when she suffered a fall in December 2012. 
 
 The official diagnosis was a blood clot. Rove told the conference near LA Thursday, “Thirty days in the hospital? And 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 repeated the claim a number of times to the audience. Clinton’s rep said, “Please assure Dr. Rove she’s 100 percent.” 
 
 Despite Rove’s claims, then-Secretary of State Clinton was discharged from New York Presbyterian Hospital after spending three days undergoing treatment for a potentially life-threatening blood clot. 
 
 
 
 She was seen walking out of the Manhattan hospital for another series of tests but returned to the hospital shortly thereafter. She needed more tests related to her condition, the AP reported, citing unnamed officials. 
 
 
 
 Clinton, weakened by a stomach virus, fell in her Washington, DC, home in December 2012 and sustained a concussion. Her doctors said a blood clot had formed behind her right ear in the space between her brain and skull. 
 
 A spokesperson for Clinton added, “Karl Rove has deceived the country for years, but there are no words for this level of lying.” 
 
 As for her health, “She is 100 percent. Period.” ||||| This post has been updated. 
 
 Republican strategist and American Crossroads founder Karl Rove says he didn’t say Hillary Rodham Clinton may have “brain damage” from a 2012 concussion and blood clot, as reported in the New York Post on Thursday. But he says the former secretary of State “has hidden a lot” about the episode and will have to reveal more if she runs for president. 
 
 “I never used that phrase. But look, she had a serious episode, a serious health episode,’’ Rove said Tuesday in an interview on Fox News. “We don’t know what the doctor said about what does she have to be concerned about. She’s hidden a lot of this.’’ 
 
 Rove made the comments about Clinton and brain damage last week at a conference in California, the Post reported Monday. “Thirty days in the hospital? And 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,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. 
 
 Clinton, 66, was hospitalized for three days and was away from the State Department for a month during her illness, which began in December 2012 with a virus. While ill, she fell and suffered a concussion; in a follow-up exam, doctors discovered a blood clot located between her skull and brain behind her ear. She was treated with blood thinners. 
 
 Clinton’s illness caused her to cancel an overseas trip and postpone congressional testimony on the deaths of American diplomats in Benghazi, Libya. When she returned to public view, she wore glasses to correct lingering double vision from the episode. 
 
 Rove said he is simply raising questions that will be asked by news organizations — he cited The New York Times — if Clinton runs for president. “This will be an issue in the 2016 presidential race whether she likes it or not.’’ 
 
 Rove says Clinton and her advisers will have to weigh health issues in her decision to seek the presidency. “Have them stand up and say ‘No, she’s not going to be concerned at all about her health, this is not going to be a part of her calculation.’ They won’t be telling the truth.’’ 
 
 Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said via e-mail that the former first lady’s health is “100%, period,” and he pointed out that when Clinton first fell ill, some politicos on the right accused her of fakery. Then-Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., for instance, said she had “Benghazi flu.” 
 
 “Now they’ve resorted to the other extreme — and are flat out lying,” Merrill said. Rove wants to “inject the issue into the echo chamber, and he’s succeeding. It’s flagrant and thinly veiled. They are scared of what she has achieved and what she has to offer. What he’s doing is its own form of sickness.”
– Karl Rove insists he never said Hillary Clinton might have suffered brain damage, despite a headline to that effect today in the New York Post. "Of course she doesn't have brain damage," Rove tells the Washington Post, one of several interviews in which he was distancing himself a bit from the earlier story. "I never used that phrase," he said in an interview on Fox, notes USA Today. But the GOP strategist reiterated that Clinton did have a "serious health episode" after a fall in 2012 and will have to be more "forthcoming" about the details should she run in 2016. "This is going to be an issue," Rove tells Fox News. Here's what the New York Post quoted Rove as saying: “Thirty days in the hospital? And 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.” News stories of the time had Clinton in the hospital for only three days, notes the Washington Post, while Fox News points out that the glasses she was wearing are often used by those who suffer concussions, and Clinton has said she suffered one. White House spokesperson Jay Carney laughed off the remarks today, with a dig at Rove's election punditry on Fox: "Dr. Rove might have been the last person in America on election night to recognize and acknowledge that the president had won re-election."