U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ team aims to put the spotlight on the physical health and mental acuity of 78-year-old Donald Trump, who has so far refused to release any detailed medical information.
| Photo Credit: AP

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 on Saturday (October 12, 2024), as she aims to put pressure on rival Donald Trump 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.”

According to Dr. Simmons, Ms. Harris’s most recent physical exam, conducted in April, was “unremarkable”.

Dr. Simmons noted that Ms. Harris suffers from seasonal allergies and hives, which are managed by non-prescription as well as prescription medications. Ms. Harris is also slightly nearsighted and wears contact lenses, the report said.

The U.S. Vice President’s team aims 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.

Republican Trump became the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history after 81-year-old President Joe Biden withdrew from the White House race in July.

Mr. Biden passed the torch to Ms. Harris after a disastrous debate against Mr. Trump raised concerns in the Democratic Party about his own mental sharpness.

But Mr. 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 Ms. Harris in the November 5 presidential election.

Ms. Harris’s campaign drew attention to a recent series of articles in the New York Times that raised concerns about the fact that Mr. Trump had failed to disclose basic information about his health.

The newspaper also published an analysis of Mr. Trump’s language showing that his speeches are increasingly long, “confused” and vulgar, which it said were seen by experts as a possible sign of cognitive change.

Mr. Trump insists he is fully fit, but he has not released any full medical report for his campaign.

In late 2023, Mr. Trump released a note from his former White House doctor declaring him to be in “excellent” health, but it was short on details and did not say what tests Mr. Trump had undergone when he had a physical in September 2023.

The same doctor, Ronny Jackson, issued a statement in July after Mr. Trump’s ear was wounded by an assassin’s bullet at a rally in Pennsylvania, saying the former President was doing well.

Mr. Trump meanwhile boasted about a cognitive test he had underwent with Jackson while president in 2018 — but then immediately flubbed his doctor’s name, calling him “Ronny Johnson.”

If Mr. Trump wins the election in November, he would be 82 at the end of his second term in the Oval Office.

Chicago:

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump set out Friday on the final 10-week sprint to election day, with the Democrat surging after an electrifying speech accepting the Democratic Party nomination.

Less than three weeks before the presidential debate between the US vice president and the Republican ex-president — and only a month before early in-person voting begins – polls show the race for the White House is neck and neck.

The former senator and prosecutor leaves Chicago with the wind in her sails, having outraised Trump and erased the polling leads he was enjoying before she replaced President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket last month.

But Dan Kanninen, battleground director of the Harris campaign, cautioned at a Bloomberg event on the sidelines of the convention that the race “is not fundamentally changed” and still “very, very tight.”

“We have tremendous enthusiasm — I think momentum is on our side — but we now need to do something with it and engage the electorate effectively this fall,” he said.

Harris accepted her party’s presidential nomination on a glitzy final night in Chicago, buoyed by a galaxy of stars, that set the stage for the gruelling run-in to November 5.

Razor thin margins

The 59-year-old Californian has edged ahead by razor-thin margins in polling, reversing what had started to look like a likely Trump victory against Biden before he dramatically pulled out and endorsed Harris.

In just a month, Harris has raised a record-breaking half a billion dollars, enjoying a political honeymoon that shows little sign of ending.

Party leaders have cautioned that headwinds could still buffet the campaign, however.

These include internal protests over US policy on the Israel-Hamas war and possible shifts in polling with the expected withdrawal on Friday of independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who may endorse Trump.

The controversial scion of America’s revered Kennedy clan is planning an announcement in Arizona, while Trump is also campaigning in the state, and promising to showcase a “special guest.”

Analysts are mixed on the effect a Kennedy exit would have.

He is polling in the low single digits and his embrace of conspiracy theories has made him a fringe figure.

However, in a very tight race, it is possible that even a few thousand votes in a crucial swing state could ultimately determine who takes the White House.

Democratic heavy hitters, from Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton to vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, have warned that the party could still lose to Trump’s Republicans if complacency creeps in.

“If we see a bad poll — and we will — we’ve got to put down that phone and do something,” the former first lady told the party faithful in Chicago.

Walz, a former school football coach, used a sporting analogy, saying that Democrats were “down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball.”

Reaching for the centre

Trump has largely been singing to the choir, mobilizing his right-wing base with apocalyptic warnings about migrant criminals and painting a dark picture of a country in “decline” that only he can save.

Harris and her Democrats have been reaching toward the centre.

Party strategists spent the week in Chicago showcasing a parade of anti-Trump Republicans, including ex-cabinet officials, a small-town mayor and a former statewide officeholder.

“If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot,” former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan said.

While they previously characterised Trump as a demagogue, Democrats have instead begun making fun of the Republican nominee in a manner designed to belittle him and dent his aura of invincibility.

Harris called him an “unserious” person.

Harris, who has no events announced for the weekend, heads back to Washington with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on Friday to begin sketching out a battle plan for the next 70-plus days.

“I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,” Harris said in her keynote speech, earning uproarious applause.

“A president who leads and listens, who is realistic, practical and has common sense and always fights for the American people.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)