Harris tries to play age and health card against Trump

Photo: Ross D. Franklin Associated Press Democratic candidate and vice-presidential incumbent Kamala Harris hopes the health report will fuel a debate about the abilities of her Republican rival Donald Trump, 78.

Agence France-Presse in Washington

Published at 9:41 a.m. Updated at 12:36 p.m.

• United States

The White House released a medical report Saturday concluding that at 59, Kamala Harris has “the physical and mental stamina necessary to fulfill the duties of the presidency” of the United States, in a bid to shine a spotlight on the nearly 20-year age gap with her rival Donald Trump.

The extremely detailed report was released “with the consent” of the Democratic presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election, who hopes to fuel a debate about the former president’s abilities.

According to her doctor, the vice president’s last medical exam in April showed nothing “out of the ordinary” and she is in “excellent health.”

Donald Trump’s campaign team responded by saying that the Republican candidate’s form was in no way inferior to that of the Democrat and that, on the contrary, the Democrat had been “unable to keep up with the demands of an electoral campaign.”

Questions about Joe Biden’s age, robustness and mental acuity dominated his campaign, until the 81-year-old Democratic president threw in the towel in July after a disastrous debate against his Republican predecessor in the White House (2017-2021).

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The issue has since been rarely discussed in the media and has had no significant influence on the polls, which remain as close as ever, despite the large age difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and the latter’s increasingly pronounced tendency to digress and speechify. disjointed.

“Confused”

The vice president would therefore like to bring the subject back into fashion, to her advantage.

Her campaign team has carefully read recent articles from the New York Times.

One emphasizes that the billionaire, already heavily criticized by his opponents for not having been transparent about his health when he was president, has not published a recent medical report.

The other article from the American daily analyzes his recent speeches, concluding that they are always more “long”, “confused”, “vulgar” and “obsessed with the past”.

Over the past year, Donald Trump has confused the names of several cities and leaders, warned that the world is heading toward a second, not third, World War, and launched into numerous obscure tirades.

In response to the release of Kamala Harris’s health report, Steven Cheung, the communications director for Donald Trump’s campaign, accused the Democrat of having a “much lighter” campaign schedule than the Republican, claiming that she does not have “President Trump’s stamina.”

The spokesperson notes that the Republican candidate has already voluntarily released several doctors’ reports that “all conclude that Donald Trump is in perfect and excellent health” to be president, and points to three letters on the subject.

Physical presence

Two of these letters were written in July by Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson, Donald Trump's former White House physician, who claims to have examined him in the wake of the assassination attempt on the former president in Pennsylvania.

The last one, dated November 2023, comes from Donald Trump's personal physician, indicating that his physical exams were normal and his cognitive exams “exceptional.”

The former president, with his undeniable physical presence, has a very busy schedule of travel and meetings. But he doesn't show the fatigue that often marked Joe Biden's gait, features and speech.

And according to the polls, his age is not an important issue for a large part of the voters.

A Gallup poll released on October 10 found that 41% of voters thought the Republican was too old to be president. That percentage hasn’t changed much since Kamala Harris entered the race.

In June, Gallup found that 37% said the same thing, while two-thirds of Americans thought Joe Biden was too old to remain in the White House.