(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris released a report with details about her health and medical history on Saturday, as the Harris team tries to place former President Donald Trump’s health and advanced age under new scrutiny.
Harris “remains in excellent health,” her physician, Dr. Joshua Simmons, said in a letter on Saturday. “She possesses the physical and mental resilience required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”
The doctor pointed to seasonal allergies and hives (urticaria) as a “notable” part of her health history. He also listed a number of over-the-counter medications used to improve her symptoms, which he said have never been “severe.”
Simmons details Harris’ most recent physical exam, which was in April 2024. He said the results were “unremarkable.” The doctor also said he found her routine bloodwork was “unremarkable,” though he noted that her Vitamin D levels were “in the insufficient range.”
Simmons also noted that the vice president has a family history of colon cancer. He detailed no other personal history of a number of conditions.
A senior Harris aide said they see the release of the vice president’s medical report as an opening to highlight how little is known about the health of 78-year-old Trump.
The most comprehensive details that are known of Trump’s health care are from a nearly 7-year-old report from his physician at the time following a physical exam. In that report, it was learned Trump had high cholesterol, was overweight and had rosacea, a benign skin disease.
Trump refused to release his medical records during his first campaign in 2016, and despite promising multiple times to release his medical records in this race, he’s not done so yet.
In response to ABC News’ requests concerning Trump’s medical records, his campaign is pointing to previous letters released by former White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Trump’s personal physician, Dr. Bruce Aronwald.
Jackson’s letters, released in July after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, describe in detail the former president’s ear injury but doesn’t detail Trump’s health conditions. In one of the two letters, Jackson wrote that he reviewed Trump’s medical records from Butler Memorial Hospital and said he was rapidly recovering from the injury.
Aronwald’s letter, released in November last year, said he conducted “several comprehensive examinations” and reported that his “overall health is excellent,” without providing any details.
“President Trump has voluntarily released updates from his personal physician, as well as detailed reports from Dr. Ronny Jackson who treated him after the first assassination attempt,” Trump campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said. “All have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief.”
Cheung added that Trump “has maintained an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history, whereas Kamala Harris has been unable to keep up with the demands of campaigning and reveals on a daily basis she is wholly unqualified to be President of the United States.”
Not much was known about Harris’ health prior to this new report, either.
For example, in contrast to President Joe Biden, whose physician has issued memos following his routine physicals, no such reports have been made available for the vice president. Only her annual check-up in 2021 was announced by the White House, but results from that visit were not released.
The White House had also previously announced that Harris tested positive for COVID-19 in April 2022, for which she was treated with the drug Paxlovid.
Ahead of the release of Harris’ medical report, ABC News had also inquired about the records for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Harris and Trump’s running mates, respectively.
This new move by Harris is a stark illustration of how the political baggage of advanced age has flipped.
Before he dropped out of the race for a second term, Biden’s age was an effortless battering ram for Trump and Republicans. The former president would attack his successor, America’s oldest president, as “sleepy Joe” “sick” and “weak.” But now it’s Harris, who is approximately two decades Trump’s junior, and her allies taking advantage of their opponent’s age.
Walz described Trump’s debate performance as “a nearly 80-year-old man shaking his fist at clouds;” former President Bill Clinton joked during his Democratic National Convention speech, “Two days ago I turned 78… and the only personal vanity I want to assert is I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”
Hours before the vice-presidential debate earlier this month, the Harris campaign rolled out a new ad taking aim at Trump, who, if he wins, would be the oldest person elected president, through Vance.
“He’s not just weird or dangerous,” a narrator says of Vance, “he could be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.” The ad ends with clips of the former president appearing to slur his words.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Soorin Kim, Isabella Murray, Hannah Demissie, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
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