CNN 'demanded Dr Drew take back comments on Hillary Clinton's health'

CNN 'demanded Dr Drew take back comments on Hillary Clinton's health just days before his show was axed' after he claimed she was 'suffering from brain damage'

Dr. Drew Pinsky's HLN show Dr. Drew On Call has been cancelled by CNN

A source claims CNN allegedly demanded Pinsky take back his comments

Source added Pinsky received nasty calls and emails after the comments

Pinsky said that he is 'gravely concerned' about Hillary Clinton's health

Comment was made on radio, Pinsky's show was cancelled eight days later

Pinsky claimed that Clinton is suffering from brain damage

He added that Hillary's medical condition was 'dangerous and concerning'

Spokeswoman for Pinsky said the cancellation is not related to comments

Published: 08:18 EST, 5 September 2016 | Updated: 11:43 EST, 5 September 2016

Dr Drew Pinsky (pictured), 57, was allegedly told to take back the statements he made about Hillary Clinton's health by CNN before the cancellation of his show

Dr Drew Pinksy was allegedly told by CNN to take back his comments about Hillary Clinton’s health.

Days later HLN is alleged to have cut him loose when he refused.

Pinsky’s show Dr Drew On Call on HLN, which is the sister network of CNN, will go off air on September 22.

He allegedly told a friend that Clinton supporters are so rampant in their distaste for him he said he ‘just want them to go away’, a source told Page Six.

The cancellation of the show came just eight days after Pinsky discussed Clinton’s health on a radio show saying he was ‘gravely concerned not just about her health, but her health care’.

‘CNN is so supportive of Clinton, network honchos acted like the Mafia when confronting Drew. First, they demanded he retract his comments, but he wouldn’t,’ an unnamed source told Page Six.

The source said Pinsky has since received nasty phone calls and emails.

‘It was downright scary and creepy,’ the source said.

Pinsky's HLN show Dr. Drew On Call (above) will air its last episode on September 22. He was told the show was being cancelled eight days after he made the comments on a radio show

However, a spokeswoman for Pinsky said the show was being cancelled anyway as a part of HLN's attempt to revamp and had nothing to do with the comments about Clinton

However, a spokeswoman for Pinsky contradicted the anonymous source saying the cancellation had been decided weeks earlier as HLN revamps the network.

This includes dropping Pinsky and Nancy Grace’s show

‘I know the timing is suspicious, and I know it’s hard to believe, but the two things had nothing to do with each other,’ Pinsky’s rep Valerie Allen told Page Six.

The show will go off air a little over five years after it first premiered on the network.

One of the disparaging statements Pinsky made was that Clinton was suffering from brain damage.

Pinsky, 57, also stated that he and another physician were 'gravely concerned' about the 'health' and 'health care' of Clinton.

DR. DREW PINSKY'S COMMENTS ON HILLARY CLINTON'S HEALTH

Dr. Pinsky: But the fact is she released her medical records some time ago, and if you listened to my show last week, I just called a friend of mine, Dr. Robert [name unclear], who’s an excellent internist-pulmonologist, and we just dispassionately sat and evaluated the medical record that she had released. And based on the information that she has provided and her doctors have provided, we were gravely concerned not just about her health, but her health care.

Radio host: Why?

Dr. Pinsky: It’s hard for people to understand. Both of us concluded that if we were providing the care that she was receiving, we’d be ashamed to show up in a doctor’s lounge. We’d be laughed out. She’s receiving sort-of 1950-level care by our evaluation. So we took a look at her record, and here are the basic facts. She had two episodes of what’s called Deep-Venous Thrombosis. Common problem. Blood clots in the leg. She also has hypothyroidism, and she’d been treated for hypothyroidism with something called Armour Thyroid, which is very unconventional and something that we used to use back in the ’60s. And both he and I went, “Hmmm, that’s weird.” And by the way, wow, Armour Thyroid sometimes has some weird side effects.

Oh well. OK. So she goes on Coumadin. That’s weird, because Coumadin really isn’t even used anymore. Now we use Eliquis or Xarelto, things like this. Certainly the presidential candidate would get one of the newer anti-coagulates. Then she falls, hits her head, and as a complication of that has something called a Transverse Sinus Thrombosis. This is an exceedingly rare clot. I’ve only seen one of these in my career, which is a clot in the collecting system for the cerebral spinal fluid, and it essentially guarantees that somebody has something wrong with their coagulation system. Well, she’s had two clots, a Transverse Sinus Thrombosis.

What’s wrong with her coagulation system? Has that been evaluated? And oh, by the way, Armour Thyroid associated rarely with hyper-coagulability. So the very medicine the doctors are using may be causing this problem, and they’re using an old-fashioned medicine to treat it. What is going on with her health care? It’s bizarre. I got to tell you. Maybe they have reasons, but at a distance, it looks bizarre. There ought to be some sort of standard for people that are going to lead the country or are going to making these important decisions. Again, Hillary may be fine with all of this. I mean, it’s dangerous and it’s concerning, but you can see—and by the way, there were two other things that gravely concerned us. When she hit her head, she had to wear these prism glasses when she came out.

Radio host: Right, right.

Dr. Pinsky: That is brain damage, and it’s affecting her balance. Now clearly, it hasn’t affected her cognition, but tell us a little more about that. That’s profound. And then number two, when they screened her for heart disease, again, they did an old-fashioned screen. It just seems like she’s getting care from somebody that she met in Arkansas when she was a kid, and you’ve got to wonder. You’ve got to wonder. It’s not so much that her health is a grave concern. It’s that the care she’s getting could make it a concern.

These conclusions were not reached after an extensive review of Clinton's medical records or following a conversation with an individual who has treated the Democratic nominee for president, but rather after Pinsky read an eight-paragraph letter that was written by Clinton's doctor of 15 years.

That letter, which was publicly released last July, states that Clinton is 'in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States.'

Pinsky's comments about brain damage came from a line in the letter detailing the concussion suffered by Clinton in December 2012 when she fainted and hit her head while suffering from a stomach virus.

The letter mentions that after the incident, Clinton seemed to benefit from wearing Fresnel prism glasses, which she was seen in a month after her fall while testifying before the Benghazi committee in Congress.

'When she hit her head, she had to wear these prism glasses when she came out,' said Pinsky.

'That is brain damage, and it’s affecting her balance. Now clearly, it hasn’t affected her cognition, but tell us a little more about that. That’s profound.'

Pinsky previously made mention of Clinton having an issue brought on by a 'brain injury' this past January.

He claimed that a 'strong source' from the website Breitbart had informed him that Clinton was late returning to the stage at the Democratic debate because of an incident related to this past injury.

It was ultimately revealed that Clinton had in fact been using the restroom, and Pinsky was forced to apologize on-air, closing out his statement by saying: 'I regret the error and will make sure, in the future, to apply the rigorous editorial standards we have in place here. I apologize to our viewers and Secretary Clinton for falling short tonight.'

Donald Trump and a handful of his most fervent supporters, among them the former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani and Fox News host Sean Hannity, have also called into question the mental and physical health of Clinton in the past few weeks as a way of implying she is possibly unfit to serve as president.

Trump's attacks seemed to amp up around the same time he brought Steve Bannon onto his campaign team, who is the executive chairman of Breitbart, the website that made the January claim about Clinton's brain injury that Pinsky picked up and reported.

The claims of Trump and his polotical pals are far more general though than the ones being made by Pinsky, who is an American board-certified internist and graduate of the University of Southern California School of Medicine.

'Dr. Drew and I have mutually agreed to air the final episode of his show on September 22,' said CNN executive vice president Ken Jautz in a statement on Thursday.

'Dr. Drew and his team have delivered more than five years of creative shows and I want to thank them for their hard work and distinctive programming.'

He then took some time to applaud the work of Pinsky and his team, saying: 'Their audience-driven shows, in particular, were innovative and memorable TV. And Dr. Drew has been an authoritative voice on addiction and on many other topical issues facing America today.'

No mention was made however about the comments made by Pinsky the week prior while he appeared on the KABC show McIntyre in the Morning.

During the radio interview Pinsky also stated that he had issues with the medicines that Clinton was taking for her hypothyroidism (Armour Thyroid) and her anti-coagulate (Coumadin), claiming both medications are outdated and not used by most doctors.

From there, he suggests that the transverse sinus thrombosis which Clinton suffered as a result of her 2012 concussion could be the result of one of these medications.

He then says it is 'dangerous and it’s concerning' that this 'old-fashioned medicine' was prescribed to Clinton.

Wild speculation: Pinsky claimed that Clinton is suffering from brain damage that affects her balance (Clinton above in 2013 a month after suffering a concussion) and attacked the 'old-fashioned medicines' she is prescribed

Clean bill of health: Clinton's physician declared her fit to serve as President of the United States (above)

Towards the end of the interview he also takes issue with the method used for when Clinton was tested for heart disease, calling it an 'old-fashioned screen.'

Pinsky then closed out by going after those individuals who have treated Hillary, saying: 'It just seems like she’s getting care from somebody that she met in Arkansas when she was a kid, and you’ve got to wonder. You’ve got to wonder.

'It’s not so much that her health is a grave concern. It’s that the care she’s getting could make it a concern.'

The letter declaring that Clinton had a clean bill of health came from Lisa Bardack, an internist in Mount Kisco, New York.

The cancellation of Pinsky's show is the latest setback for the polarizing media personality, who in April ended his long-running radio show Loveline after three decades.

He began work on the HLN show shortly after he wrapped production and filming on the sixth and final season of his incredibly controversial VH1 program Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Rehab has been a booming business though for Pinsky, who lives in a multimillion Pasadena mansion with his wife Susan and triplets Douglas, Jordan and Paulina, who are in their 20s (family above in 2001)

Pinsky walked away from Celebrity Rehab after saying he was tired of the criticism he faced from members of the public and media, who called into question his methods and abilities after five people who were treated on the program died.

Jeff Conway of Grease fame, Alice in Chains guitarist Mike Starr, country singer Mindy McCready, MTV reality star Joey Kovar and Rodney King all died shortly after appearing on the program.

He also hosted one season of Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew on VH1 as well as two seasons of Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House, which also featured King before his death.

Pinsky himself regularly snorted cocaine in the 1980s, a DailyMail.com investigation discovered last June, with the host revealing his drug past on his HLN show when questioned about his past.