--- title: Christiane Amanpour, Patton Oswalt Defend Hillary Clinton description: CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour asked during a segment of her show, "can't a girl have a sick day?" canonical: https://time.com/4489206/patton-oswalt-and-christiane-amanpour-defend-badass-hillary-clinton/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-13T14:54:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:21.904Z og:title: Patton Oswalt and Christiane Amanpour Defend ‘Badass’ Hillary Clinton og:description: 'Can't a girl have a sick day?’ asked Amanpour og:url: https://time.com/4489206/patton-oswalt-and-christiane-amanpour-defend-badass-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab79afd99ebba6fd/6988a5c497cdff06d06adc4d/christiane-amanpour-hillary-clinton-pneumonia.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: christiane-amanpour-hillary-clinton-pneumonia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Patton Oswalt and Christiane Amanpour Defend ‘Badass’ Hillary Clinton twitter:description: 'Can't a girl have a sick day?’ asked Amanpour twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab79afd99ebba6fd/6988a5c497cdff06d06adc4d/christiane-amanpour-hillary-clinton-pneumonia.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Patton Oswalt and Christiane Amanpour Defend ‘Badass’ Hillary Clinton by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 13, 2016 2:54 PM UTC  Kevin Mazur/Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 13, 2016 2:54 PM UTC Hillary Clinton’s recent pneumonia diagnosis has opened doors for supporters and critics alike to wonder what effect this health scare will have on the election. Clinton says she’s “[feeling fine](http://time.com/4488586/hillary-clinton-health-pneumonia-tweet/) and getting better,” but her health has become a flashpoint in her campaign. CNN anchor [Christiane Amanpour](http://motto.time.com/4209604/christiane-amanpour-ask-hard-questions/) addressed the recent events on her [show](http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/09/12/hillary-clinton-sick-amanpour.cnn) _Amanpour_ and asked, “Can’t a girl have a sick day or two?” Amanpour criticized the media and public’s response to Clinton’s [pneumonia diagnosis](http://time.com/4487345/hillary-clinton-pneumonia/). CNN [reports](http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/12/politics/amanpour-hillary-clinton-health-2016-election/) Amanpour said, “Surely this can’t be a case of a human being having an off day…Off to the races with another debilitating case of indignant outrage. This must be another typical Clinton conspiracy to fool them with a total transparency breakdown.” She also noted other presidents who have dealt with health scares in public. She mentioned President George Bush “throwing up over the Japanese prime minister and then fainting at a state dinner.”And he oversaw the fall of the Soviet Union and even won the first Gulf War.” [_Follow Motto on Facebook_](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/)_._ Comedian [Patton Oswalt](http://time.com/4316653/patton-oswalt-remembers-michelle-mcnamara/) took a stance similar to Amanpour. Oswalt was outraged by the critic’s responses to her diagnosis, so he defended her and called her “badass” in a tweet. > [](https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/775108467849781248) Oswalt then took a dig at Trump, implying his “dissociative narcissism” is much more a serious ailment than pneumonia. > [](https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/775120171262324736) Amanpour took one final dig at presidential health double standards: “If the boys can do it, why not the women.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4489206/patton-oswalt-and-christiane-amanpour-defend-badass-hillary-clinton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4489206/patton-oswalt-and-christiane-amanpour-defend-badass-hillary-clinton/"},"headline":"Patton Oswalt and Christiane Amanpour Defend ‘Badass’ Hillary Clinton","datePublished":"2016-09-13T14:54:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:21.904Z","description":"'Can't a girl have a sick day?' asked Amanpour","url":"https://time.com/4489206/patton-oswalt-and-christiane-amanpour-defend-badass-hillary-clinton/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab79afd99ebba6fd/6988a5c497cdff06d06adc4d/christiane-amanpour-hillary-clinton-pneumonia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab79afd99ebba6fd/6988a5c497cdff06d06adc4d/christiane-amanpour-hillary-clinton-pneumonia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"christiane-amanpour-hillary-clinton-pneumonia","caption":"","creditText":"Kevin Mazur/Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4489206/patton-oswalt-and-christiane-amanpour-defend-badass-hillary-clinton/","name":"Patton Oswalt and Christiane Amanpour Defend ‘Badass’ Hillary Clinton"}}]}] ```