Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris is increasingly questioning former President Donald Trump’s ability to meet the demands of four more years in the White House as she seeks to contrast his age with Trump’s.
“I see his team is at least saying he’s suffering from exhaustion,” Harris, who turns 60 on Sunday, told reporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday.
Harris cited a Politico report that several ongoing Trump interviews were unsuccessful because the 78-year-old Republican candidate was “exhausted.” A Trump campaign spokesperson told Politico that it was “unequivocally false.”
“Look, being president of the United States is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world. And so we really have to ask ourselves: If he’s exhausted from the campaign trail, is he fit to do this job? And I think it’s an open question and we need an answer,” Harris said.
Harris said it was a “legitimate question,” adding, “it should be a concern if he can’t handle the rigors of campaigning.”
Trump has yet to release his recent medical records, saying Friday, “you have them all.”
His campaign said he was in “perfect and excellent health” to be president. In November 2023, Trump shared a letter from his doctor of osteopathic medicine stating that he had been examined in September 2023 and that his “overall health is excellent.” The letter gave no details about his vital signs or medications.
“I’ve taken five exams in the last four years,” Trump told CBS News while campaigning in Michigan.
When asked if he had indeed disclosed all of his medical records, Trump asked Harris to take a cognitive test.
“Obviously, I’m in the middle of a very important and very controversial fight that we’re fighting,” he said. “I took my health exams. I also took two cognitive tests and I passed them, which means a perfect score. I want to see her take a cognitive test because she couldn’t, because she was not born intelligent.”
Trump also said he had been “gone for 48 days without rest,” adding, “I’m not even tired, I’m really elated.”
If elected in November, Trump would be the oldest person to ever occupy the Oval Office.
Harris published a letter from her doctor last week, who said she was in “excellent health” and “possessed the physical and mental resilience” required to serve as president. Her doctor, Dr. Joshua Simmons, said Harris’s latest blood tests and other results were “unremarkable” and that she had no personal history of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, disorders neurological or other serious problems. He noted that she had a history of allergies and hives, also known as hives, for which she had been receiving allergen immunotherapy for three years.
In a recent letterMore than 230 doctors, nurses and medical professionals, most of whom support Harris, called on Trump to release his health records, arguing that he “exhibited alarming characteristics of declining acuity.” In the absence of detailed documentation, the letter said, “we must extrapolate from public appearances.”
Caitlin Huey-Burns and
contributed to this report.
