US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday accused Donald Trump of a lack of transparency about his health after publishing his own medical report, thus highlighting their almost 20 years of age difference.
• Also read: Donald Trump still demonizes migrants, Kamala Harris targets moderate voters
• Also read: Harris on the cover of “Vogue”, which sees her as “the candidate for our times”
• Also read: Donald Trump “is adept at saying any nonsense to get people talking about him,” says Joëlle Boutin
“It is clear to me that he and his team do not want the American people to really see what he is doing and know whether or not he is actually fit to serve as President of the United States,” the statement said. Democratic candidate in the November 5 election.
“He is unfit to exercise this mandate,” she told journalists before her departure for the disputed state of North Carolina (southeast), recently devastated by Hurricane Helene.
A diagnosis that contrasts with the detailed medical report published Saturday by the White House, concluding that Kamala Harris, 59, has “the physical and mental strength necessary to fulfill the duties of the presidency” of the United States and is “in excellent health”.
The Democratic candidate thus hopes to fuel a debate on the faculties of her 78-year-old Republican rival.
Donald Trump’s campaign team reacted by assuring in a press release that the former president’s form had nothing to envy of that of Kamala Harris, quite the contrary.
For Steven Cheung, communications director for Donald Trump’s campaign, she has a “much lighter” schedule than that of her opponent, because, he says, she does not have “the stamina of President Trump.”
The Republican candidate has already voluntarily published several doctors’ reports which “all conclude that Donald Trump is in perfect and excellent health,” his spokesperson added.
Steven Cheung refers in particular to a letter from Donald Trump’s personal doctor in which normal physical examination results and “exceptional” cognitive test results are mentioned. But these exams already date back to September 2023.
“What is he hiding?”
And the Harris camp redoubled its attacks.
“On August 20, Donald Trump declared that he would ‘gladly’ publish his medical reports. He didn’t do it,” a spokesperson for the Democrat’s campaign, Ian Sams, declared on X.
“What is he hiding?” he asked, highlighting the former president’s refusal to debate again with Kamala Harris after their televised battle in September.
Questions about Joe Biden’s age, robustness and mental acuity plagued his campaign, until the 81-year-old Democratic president threw in the towel in July after a disastrous debate against his Republican predecessor (2017 -2021).
The issue has since rarely been discussed in the media and has had no significant influence on the polls, which are still close.
And this, despite the large age difference between the two candidates and Donald Trump’s ever more pronounced tendency towards digressions and disjointed speeches, as noted by the New York Times in a recent article.
The vice-president would therefore like to bring the subject up to date, to the advantage of the Democrats this time.
Donald Trump, with his undeniable physical presence, still maintains a very sustained pace of travel and meetings, and does not show fatigue comparable to that which often marks the approach, features and speech of Joe Biden.
The former president is in Coachella, California, on Saturday evening for a meeting before another the next day in Arizona, a key state in the Southwest.
According to polls, the age of candidates is not an important subject for a large part of voters.
A Gallup opinion poll published on October 10 indicates that 41% of voters consider Donald Trump too old to be president, barely 4 points more than in June, before Kamala Harris entered the running.
