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9/11 memorial

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Hillary Clinton says she is “feeling great” hours after her early exit from a 9/11 ceremony raised health fears.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign said earlier she had left the event in New York because she had “felt overheated” and had gone to her daughter’s apartment.

Hillary Clinton’s Republican opponents have queried her physical fitness.

Doctors say Hillary Clinton made a full recovery from surgery she underwent in 2012 for a blood clot.

Photo Getty Images

Photo Getty Images

Her personal doctor, Lisa Bardack, said last month Hillary Clinton was “in excellent health and fit to serve as president of the United States”.

The Clinton campaign has accused opponents of pushing a “deranged conspiracy about Clinton’s health”.

Hillary Clinton is 68. Her rival Republican candidate Donald Trump is 70.

Emerging from her daughter’s home, Hillary Clinton said: “I’m feeling great. It’s a beautiful day in New York.”

Hillary Clinton later left for her home in Chappaqua, New York, according to her campaign.

A video posted on Twitter purports to show Hillary Clinton being supported by aides at the 9/11 ceremony before being helped into her van.

The statement from the Clinton campaign said: “Secretary Clinton attended the September 11th Commemoration Ceremony for just an hour and thirty minutes this morning to pay her respects and greet some of the families of the fallen.

“During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter’s apartment, and is feeling much better.”

The weather was warm and humid in New York on September 11, and there was a breeze during the ceremony, the Associated Press reports.

Hillary Clinton came to the ceremony fresh from a political storm over comments she made about Donald Trump’s supporters at a fundraiser on September 9.

On September 10, she had apologized for suggesting half of the Republican’s supporters were “deplorables”.

Hillary Clinton is next due to appear on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on September 14 and attend a rally in Las Vegas on the same day.

Services marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks have taken place in New York and around the world.

Passions are high just over two weeks before the first election debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on September 26.

The National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is an awesome spectacle that moved and inspired some 4.5 million visitors in its first year.

But all that magnificence comes with a jaw-dropping price tag. The foundation that runs the memorial estimates that once the $700 million project is complete, the memorial and museum will together cost $60 million a year to operate.

The anticipated cost has bothered some critics and raised concerns even among the memorial’s allies that the budget may be unsustainable without a hefty government subsidy.

By comparison, the National Park Service budgeted $8.4 million this year to operate and maintain Gettysburg National Military Park and $3.6 million for the monument that includes the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Running Arlington National Cemetery, which has more than 14,000 graves and receives 4million visitors a year, costs $45 million annually.

The foundation that runs 9-11 memorial estimates that once the $700 million project is complete, the memorial and museum will together cost $60 million a year to operate

The foundation that runs 9-11 memorial estimates that once the $700 million project is complete, the memorial and museum will together cost $60 million a year to operate

Officials at the 9/11 memorial say they face unique challenges that make comparisons to other national memorials difficult.

The foundation plans to spend at least a fifth of its operating budget, or around $12 million per year, on private security because of terrorism fears. Visitors to the memorial plaza pass through airport-like security, and armed guards patrol the grounds.

“The fact of the matter is that this was a place that was attacked twice,” said Joseph Daniels, the foundation’s president and chief executive.

Just operating the two massive fountains that mark the spots where the twin towers once stood will cost another $4.5 million to $5 million annually, according to a spokesman.

Foundation officials have refused to answer to requests for information about other costs at the site, including the anticipated expense of running the museum, which is still unfinished.

The museum was supposed to open this month, but construction all but ceased a year ago because of a funding squabble between the foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land the memorial sits on.

Joseph Daniels said it will take at least a year for the museum to open once construction resumes, meaning the site may not be fully complete until at least 2014.

The failure to open the museum on time has thrown off the foundation’s financial planning. Officials had expected to use the museum, being built mostly with money from various government agencies, plus private donations, as its main source of revenue.

While visitors will be allowed into the above-ground portions of the memorial for free, the foundation plans to charge people to descend into the museum’s exhibition space, where they will see portraits of the nearly 3,000 victims, hear oral histories of the tragedy and view artifacts such as the staircase World Trade Center workers used to flee on 9/11.

The admission price hasn’t been set. Foundation officials say they may also charge a ‘suggested donation’ where visitors would be allowed to enter for free but would be strongly encouraged to pay.

But if the museum gets the 2 million visitors a year the foundation expects, a $12 fee, like the one charged at the memorial to the victims of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, would cover 40% of the operating costs. More money will be generated through fundraising and the sale of memorabilia.

In addition, the foundation and several elected officials have proposed that the American public pick up one-third of the operating costs.

So far, Congress has balked. A bill proposed by Hawaii’s Senator Daniel Inouye that would have had the National Park Service contribute $20 million per year ran into opposition from Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who pointed out that the federal government had already spent $300 million on the project.

A National Park Service official testified at a hearing that $20 million is more than the agency can afford, and larger than the entire annual appropriation for nearly 99% of the parks in its system.

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