Pelosi: Karl Rove Claim Only Makes Hillary Stronger

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. The top Democrat in the Republican-controlled House said she would prefer if Congress stayed i... House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. The top Democrat in the Republican-controlled House said she would prefer if Congress stayed in Washington rather than leave for the rest of the week following the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Wednesday that “the strength, the popularity” that Hillary Clinton has enjoyed “has driven the Republicans to their wits’ end.”

Appearing on CNN, she responded to Republican operative Karl Rove’s reported claim that Clinton may have a “traumatic brain injury” from when she suffered a concussion in December 2012.

“What he said is just — he only makes her stronger,” said Pelosi.

Rove said afterward he “never used that phrase,” as first reported by the New York Post, but said on Fox News the former secretary of state had a “serious health episode” that “causes you to look at life a little bit differently.”