Even the snippet that was publicly aired, showing the president prostrate and gray with nausea, shocked the American people. Newsweek has viewed a copy of the entire tape, and it clearly demonstrates that the sight of Bush passing out and vomiting was truly frightening to those around him, especially to his normally stoic wife. Hoping to avoid further embarrassment for the president, Japanese public television kept under wraps last week a tape of Bush losing his dinner all over the prime minister. "Just the flu, just the flu," said the president's men, and that's all it was-a passing stomach bug, and not another heart-skipping atrial fibrillation of the kind that struck the president last May as he jogged at Camp David. Burton Lee, "Roll me under the table until the dinner's over." The panicky moment passed within a few minutes, Bush was on his feet, white as a sheet, but gamely smiling. The president's eyes fluttered open, and he quipped to his personal physician, Dr. As Prime Minister Miyazawa cradled the head of his guest, Bush's entourage gently lowered him to the floor. Horrified, Barbara Bush leaped to her feet and held a napkin to her husband's mouth, and a Secret Service agent vaulted over the table to catch the president before he tumbled. His chin slumped to his chest, his body reeled to his left, and he vomited onto the pants of his host, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. Between the second course (raw salmon with caviar) and the third (grilled beef with peppery sauce), the president pushed back in his chair and fainted.
Still, the Secret Service was quietly warned that he might not make it through the meal. But Bush, ignoring the advice of his doctor, doggedly returned to his duties.
Most ordinary men would have called it a night and headed for bed. As he stood in the receiving line before a state dinner in Tokyo last week, President Bush had to excuse himself to go into the bathroom and throw up. He had traveled through 16 time zones in 10 days and had just been creamed by the Emperor of Japan at tennis. (Saturday Night Live famously spoofed the incident, with Dana Carvey playing Bush.) Here is how Newsweek covered the story in 1992. ABC News obtained and aired a video of the moment (which you can watch above), and Bush's blunder became instant fodder for headline writers and late-night comedians. On January 8, 1992, in the middle of a 12-day trip through Asia, the 41st president became nauseated and lost his lunch during a state banquet. Bush made history: He became the first sitting president to vomit on the prime minister of Japan.
0 kommentar(er)
