Harris' doctor releases detailed report, says VP in 'excellent health'
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Vice President Kamala Harris is in "excellent" health and "possesses the physical and mental resiliency required" to be the next president, her doctor said in a letter released by the White House Saturday.
Dr. Joshua Simmons, a U.S. Army colonel and physician to the vice president, wrote that Harris, 59, maintains a healthy, active lifestyle and that her most recent physical last April was "unremarkable."
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She "possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief," he wrote in a two-page letter.
The letter did say her Vitamin D levels are considered "insufficient." About 50% of people worldwide have Vitamin D insufficiency, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
The details in the letter – including her daily exercise routine, cardiac exam results, over-the-counter medications for allergies, blood pressure, and family history of colon cancer – are in contrast to her opponent Donald Trump, who has released only limited information about his health over the years.
Trump’s health, mental acuity questioned
Trump, 78, eagerly questioned President Joe Biden's health when the 81-year-old president was seeking reelection. Since Biden was replaced on the ticket with Harris, who is 59, Trump's own health has drawn more attention.
Last November, Trump marked Biden's birthday by releasing a letter from his physician that reported the former president was in "excellent" physical and mental health, but the letter didn’t include details to support those claims.
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Trump told CBS News in August that he would "gladly" release his medical records, but he still hasn’t done so – and his campaign has ignored repeated requests from The New York Times for copies of those records. His campaign only referred to a one-page letter from former White House physician Ronny Jackson, now a member of Congress, that was released in July after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear during an assassination attempt. Jackson said at the time that Trump was "doing well," but provided no specifics on the former president’s health.
According to The Times, the most details ever released about Trump’s health were in January 2018, when Jackson briefed the press after Trump’s first physical as president. At the time, his blood pressure and heart were normal, "but his cholesterol was worryingly high," despite taking statins to lower it, "and his body mass index put him just 0.1 points below the threshold for medical obesity," The Times reported.
A separate New York Times report on Oct. 6 analyzed Trump’s past and present speeches for signs of cognitive decline. The analysis found he often rambles and repeats himself, and he uses 13% more all-or-nothing words like "always" and "never" than he did in 2016, "which some experts consider a sign of advancing age."
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He also uses profanity 69% more often than he did eight years ago, a pattern that experts call "disinhibition."
Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, told The Times Trump is "the strongest and most capable candidate."
"President Trump has more energy and more stamina than anyone in politics, and is the smartest leader this country has ever seen," he said in a statement.