Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is reported to be in “excellent health” and capable of taking on the presidency, as stated in a medical report released by the White House. Her campaign has challenged rival Donald Trump to disclose his own health records.
“Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician, Joshua Simmons, noted in the report, emphasizing that she “has the physical and mental resilience necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of the presidency.”
Shortly after, Harris’s spokesman, Ian Sams, directly urged Donald Trump to release his medical records, questioning, “What’s he hiding?”
As Kamala Harris’s team increased pressure on the 78-year-old Donald Trump regarding his physical and mental health, the former president’s campaign mounted a strong response.
A journalist inquired about Trump’s medical records in August, to which he responded, “Oh sure, I would do that very gladly, sure.”
However, he has not provided any detailed medical records since that time.
In contrast, Kamala Harris’s latest physical exam, performed in April, was deemed “unremarkable,” according to Mr. Simmons.
In his detailed report, he mentioned that Ms. Harris experiences seasonal allergies and hives, managed with both over-the-counter and prescription medications.
Additionally, the report indicated that Ms. Harris is slightly nearsighted and uses contact lenses.
Republican Donald Trump became the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history after 81-year-old President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race in July.
Kamala Harris is 59 years old.
After a problematic debate with Donald Trump raised concerns in the Democratic Party about Joe Biden’s mental sharpness, Biden passed the torch to Kamala Harris.
Donald Trump stated he would “gladly” release his health records when approached by a journalist in August.
Election battle on a knife-edge
Despite Trump’s apparent vitality, his age has not so far negatively impacted his polling chances in a tightly contested race with Ms. Harris for the November 5 presidential election.
Harris’s campaign highlighted a recent series of articles from the New York Times that expressed concerns about Trump’s lack of disclosure regarding fundamental health information.
The newspaper also analyzed Trump’s speech patterns, indicating they have become increasingly lengthy, “confused,” and filled with vulgarities, a trend experts interpret as possible cognitive decline.
Trump has consistently maintained that he is fit, and his campaign today republished affirmations from his former White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, made after a July assassination attempt where a bullet grazed Trump’s right ear.
In the statement dated July 26, Mr. Jackson, who is now a Republican congressman from Texas, claimed that Mr. Trump was doing “extremely well” and “rapidly recovering” from his injuries.
The campaign also renewed a note from another physician who examined Trump in September 2023.
In that note, Bruce Aronwald declared Trump to be in “excellent” health but provided minimal details and did not specify the tests conducted during the physical examination.
The campaign asserted that Donald Trump maintained “an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history,” while criticizing Ms. Harris’s campaign schedule as demonstrating she is “wholly unqualified to be President of the United States.”
On occasion, Trump’s personal and White House doctors have made seemingly inflated claims regarding his health, often lacking in specific details.
In 2015, when Trump was running for the presidency, his doctor Harold Bernstein stated that Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
Mr. Jackson claimed in 2018 that if Trump improved his diet, he could live to be 200 years old.
If Donald Trump wins the election in November, he would be 82 by the end of his second term.
