Former US President Bill Clinton wished his supporters a “happy and healthy holiday season” after being discharged from the hospital.
The former President, 78, was admitted to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, in the Washington area, on Monday after developing a fever, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña wrote on X, adding that he remained “in good spirits”.
In an update on Tuesday, Ureña said that Clinton had been discharged after being treated for the flu.
“He and his family are deeply grateful for the exceptional care provided by the team at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and are touched by the kind messages and well wishes he received,” he wrote. “He sends his warmest wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season to all.”
Clinton was at home in Washington when he was taken to the hospital, CNN reported previously.
The former president was hospitalized with a non-Covid infection that spread to the blood stream in 2021.
He also has a history of cardiac issues, requiring a stent to open an artery in 2010 and a quadruple bypass heart surgery in 2004.
Throughout the fall, Clinton campaigned on behalf of fellow Democrat vice-president Kamala Harris in her ultimately unsuccessful race against Donald Trump.
On the trail, Clinton hammered Trump and made the occasional joke about his own age.
“Two days ago I turned 78 – the oldest man in my family,” Clinton told the Democratic National Convention in August. “And the only personal vanity I want to assert, is that I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”
“How does Donald Trump use his voice? Mostly to talk about himself—his vengeance, vendettas, complaints, conspiracies,” the former president added. “The next time you hear him, don’t count the lies, count the I’s. He’s like the tenor warming up before the opera: me, me, me, me.”
Clinton’s name also surfaced during lighter fare this year, when actor Gwyneth Paltrow told the long-running YouTube series Hot Ones that Clinton very publicly fell asleep during a screening of her 1996 film Emma at the White House.
“True – he was snoring right in front of me,” Paltrow said.
In November, Clinton published a memoir, Citizen, about his time in public life after leaving the presidency.
He was the 42nd president of the United States, and served two terms, holding the White House from 1993 to 2001.
Clinton, who took office at the end of the Cold War, was the first president from the Baby Boom generation, and the first Democrat to serve two terms since Franklin D. Roosevelt. He’s remembered for steering the party towards centrism on issues ranging from the welfare state to criminal justice.
His time in office was marked by both considerable achievements, including a booming economy, and personal scandals.
Clinton was the second president in US history to be impeached, after lying about the affair he had with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
He was ultimately acquitted in the Senate and remained in office.
After leaving office, both Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton pursued public service.
Hillary Clinton served as a US senator for New York then Secretary of State during the Obama administration, while Bill Clinton remained active as a key figure within the Democratic party, and worked on global affairs through the Clinton Global Initiative.
