It’s been a few months since Donald Trump promised to make his medical records public. It’s a vow the former president hasn’t kept — which is problematic for several reasons.
For example, the New York Times recently reported that if re-elected, the Republican would become “the oldest person to ever serve as president,” and that he could “enter the Oval Office with a range of potentially troubling issues, medical experts for example : cardiac risk factors, possible after-effects of the July assassination attempt and the cognitive decline that naturally accompanies aging.”
Given that the Republican candidate has spent much of the past decade hiding information about his health, the fact that he said he would release his medical records, only to change course without explanation, is fueling concerns.
But what about his Democratic rival? It turns out that Vice President Kamala Harris is demonstrating a commitment to transparency that her opponent has rejected. NBC News reported:
Vice President Kamala Harris released a summary of her medical records Saturday from her White House doctor, who deemed her “a healthy 59-year-old woman with a medical history notable for seasonal allergies and hives.”
The doctor, Joshua Simmons, wrote that the vice president eats a healthy diet and does regular aerobics and core strength training. “She possesses the physical and mental resilience necessary to successfully discharge the duties of the presidency, including those of Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” the vice president’s physician concluded.
The NBC News report further noted that Harris’ last medical exam in April was “unremarkable” according to her doctor and that all of her routine exams and blood work were “normal.”
Such revelations should be a routine part of the process, and they were common before Trump decided to reject American political norms.
It is against this backdrop that Harris takes the opportunity to start a larger conversation, rooted in an unspoken question: What is Trump hiding?
In one newly released interview with Roland MartinFor example, the Democratic nominee said, referring to her 2024 rival: “His staff won’t let him do a ’60 Minutes’ interview. Every president of the past half century has done one – everyone running for president. Everyone has done it except Donald Trump. He won’t argue with me anymore. I have made my medical records public, but he will not make his medical records public.
“And you have to ask yourself: why does his staff do that? And it may be because they think he’s just not ready, and unfit, and unstable, and that he shouldn’t have that level of transparency with the American people. There is a real choice in this election.”
She has pushed this line considerably in recent days, including a campaign event last weekend in which Harris asked whether members of Team Trump are rejecting transparency because they worry he will be seen as “too weak and unstable to lead.”
Vice President Harris: Donald Trump is not transparent. He refuses to release his medical records. I did it. He is unwilling to do a 60-minute interview, as every other major party candidate has done for more than half a century. He is not willing to meet for a second… pic.twitter.com/m3Te2lClcg
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 13, 2024
I’m not going to speculate on Trump’s motivations, but there can be no doubt that the former president is at a disadvantage when it comes to transparency. He refuses to release his medical records; he refuses to release his tax returns; he has refused to provide recent accountings for his foreign clients; he refused to make public the White House visitor logs while in office; and he is even pursuing a post-election transition process that would allow him to keep his donors secret.
In September 2020, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin argued: “President Trump is the most transparent president in history.” It was ridiculous at the time. It’s even worse now.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
