Democratic White House candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House Saturday, as she aims to put pressure on rival Donald Trump, nearly 20 years her senior, to publish his own health records.
“Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”
Trump’s campaign was quick to react, saying that he was also “in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief” and charging that Harris lacked his strength to lead the country.
According to Simmons, Harris’s most recent physical exam, conducted in April, was “unremarkable.”
In a detailed report, Simmons noted that Harris suffers from seasonal allergies and hives, which are managed by non-prescription as well as prescription medications. Harris is also slightly nearsighted and wears contact lenses, the report said.
The US vice president’s team seeks to put the spotlight on the physical health and mental acuity of 78-year-old former president Trump, who has so far refused to release any detailed medical information. Harris is 59.
Republican Trump became the oldest presidential nominee in US history after 81-year-old President Joe Biden withdrew from the White House race in July.
Biden passed the torch to Harris after a disastrous debate against Trump raised concerns in the Democratic Party about his own mental sharpness.
But Trump’s apparent vitality means that his age has not so far weighed against his chances in the polls, in a knife-edge battle with Harris in the November 5 presidential election.
Harris’s campaign drew attention to a recent series of articles in the New York Times that raised concerns about the fact that Trump had failed to disclose basic information about his health.
The newspaper also published an analysis of Trump’s language showing that his speeches are increasingly long, “confused” and include vulgarities, a trend seen by experts as a possible sign of cognitive decline.
Trump insists he is fit, but he has not released any full medical report during his campaign.
On Saturday, Trump’s campaign republished statements from his former White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, that were released following the assassination attempt on Trump in July, in which a bullet grazed his right ear.
In the statement dated July 26, Jackson, who is now a Republican congressman from Texas, said Trump was doing “extremely well” and “rapidly recovering” from the wound.
Trump’s campaign also re-upped a note from another doctor who examined Trump in September 2023, which said that his health was excellent. In the note, Bruce Aronwald declared him to be in “excellent” health but provided few details and did not say what tests Trump had undergone as part of the physical.
The campaign said that Trump had maintained “an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history,” and asserted that Harris’s campaign schedule shows her to be “wholly unqualified to be President of the United States.”
“Her schedule is much lighter because, it is said, she does not have the stamina of President Trump,” the campaign said.
If Trump wins the election in November, he would be 82 at the end of his second term.
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