Did Bill Clinton Fall Asleep During Hillary’s Nomination Speech? Cameras Appear To Catch Bill Napping At The Democratic National Convention
Bill Clinton appeared to fall asleep during his wife’s historic speech on Thursday, with cameras catching the former president shutting his eyes while Hillary spoke about her plans to take on the terrorist group ISIS.
The moment took place during Hillary Clinton’s historic speech on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, when Hillary became the first woman in United States history to accept the nomination of a major party. As Hillary began to mention ISIS, cameras panned to Bill Clinton and showed him with his eyes closed.
A short video of the moment can be seen below.
It’s not clear if Bill Clinton was actually sleeping during Hillary’s speech or if cameras just caught him in a moment of reflection, but the Daily Caller seemed to think it was the former. The news outlet published a story claiming that Bill Clinton was indeed sleeping.
“Sitting in between Tim Kaine and Chelsea Clinton, Bill grabbed some quick shut eye while Hillary Clinton talked about ISIS.
“The former secretary of state was saying, ‘We will disrupt their efforts online to reach and radicalize young people in our country. It won’t be easy or quick, but make no mistake – we will prevail.’
“Apparently, Bill Clinton did not prevail over the desire to sleep.”
If Bill Clinton really was napping during Hillary’s speech, he wasn’t out for long. Cameras later turned back to find Bill awake and alert, and at the conclusion of Hillary’s address he joined her on stage as balloons fell from the rafters of the arena.
The photo quickly made the rounds on the internet, drawing some disgusted reactions.
“Yuck,” one commenter wrote, via Radar Online. “Where’s Bill’s left hand? What’s with the woman clasping Bill’s neck?”
Another person wrote, “Boy, he never stops does he, young or old.”
While it’s most likely that the picture just made it look as if the kiss was more passionate than it really had been, the photo surfaced at a difficult time for Hillary’s campaign. At that time, she was still locked in a primary battle with Bernie Sanders while Donald Trump had already dispatched his remaining opponents to shore up the nomination.
This gave Trump the latitude to put his full focus on Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton’s questionable past with women was one of his first lines of attack.
Bill Clinton isn’t the only person this election season getting caught in some compromising photos — and actually not even the first to fall asleep during an event. Over the Memorial Day weekend, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders showed up unannounced to a ceremony for members of the armed forces who had died.
The ceremony took place outside on a hot day, and in a series of pictures it appeared as if Sanders was taking a brief nap. The pictures were uploaded to Facebook by Zoe Dunning, who said it seemed to be disrespectful of Sanders.
“I was there — there was no prayer going on in the program at that time,” she wrote. “He can fall asleep at other events — if he is going to fall asleep while honoring our fallen I would rather he stay home.”
It wasn’t clear if Bernie Sanders was actually sleeping or just reflecting on the moment, just as it’s not clear if Bill Clinton was actually caught sleeping during Hillary’s DNC speech.
[Photo by Carolyn Kaster/AP Images]
