WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president, her doctor said in a letter released Saturday that summarizes her medical history and status.
Dr. Joshua Simmons, an 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.”
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.
Harris' campaign hopes the release of her medical report will draw a contrast with Republican Donald Trump, who has shared only limited information about his health over the years, and raise questions about his fitness to serve, according to a campaign aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Trump has released very little health information, including after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July in Pennsylvania.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said Saturday that Trump has voluntarily released updates from his personal physician as well as detailed reports from Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who, before he was elected to Congress, was Trump's physician at the White House. Jackson also treated Trump after the assassination attempt.
“All have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief,” Cheung said in a statement. The campaign press office provided links to some of Trump's past medical reports. They included: https://tinyurl.com/yckc495b and https://tinyurl.com/4z27pk2f
If Trump, who is 78, were to be elected next month, he would be the oldest president in U.S. history by the time his term ends in 2029.
Harris addressed the issue on Saturday before she traveled to North Carolina.
“It's clear to me that he and his team do not want the American people to really see what he is doing and if he is fit to be the president,” she told the reporters accompanying her.
Asked if she thought Trump's mental acuity had declined, Harris said, “I invite the public to watch his rallies and be the decision-maker.”
Simmons, who said he has been Harris’ primary care physician for the past 3 1/2 years, said the vice president has a history of seasonal allergies and urticaria, or hives. She has been able to “dramatically” improve her symptoms over the past three years with an immunotherapy medication that helps the body become less sensitive to allergens.
Simmons said Harris’ latest blood work and other test results were “unremarkable.” Her blood pressure is not worryingly high and she is at low risk for heart disease.
According to the summary of an exam conducted six months ago, Harris' vital signs showed a blood pressure of 128 over 74, a heart rate of 78 beats per minute, pulse oximetry of 100% on room air with a respiratory rate of 16 breaths per minute and a temperature of 98.7 degrees. Pulse oximetry measures the amount of oxygen in a person's blood.
Simmons reported that Harris' head, eyes, ears, nose and pharynx are normal.
Also in the report: Harris wears contact lenses for mild nearsightedness; her family history includes maternal colon cancer; she is up to date on preventive care recommendations, including having a colonoscopy and annual mammograms, as well as routine immunizations.
Harris' mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was 70 when she died of colon cancer in February 2009.
The vice president “maintains a healthy, active lifestyle, despite her busy schedule,” including “vigorous daily aerobic exercise and core strength training," Simmons reported. She eats a healthy diet, does not use tobacco products and drinks alcohol “only occasionally and in moderation,” he wrote.
As Harris' office released the medical report, her campaign highlighted recent media reports raising questions about Trump's health and mental acuity and his reluctance to provide detailed information about the state of his health and medical history.
Trump eagerly questioned President Joe Biden's physical and mental fitness when the 81-year-old sought reelection. Since Biden dropped out of the race and was replaced by Harris on the Democratic ticket, Trump's 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. The letter posted on Trump’s social media platform contained no details about his weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any tests to support its claims.
Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, on the Gila River Indian Community reservation in Chandler, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, on the Gila River Indian Community reservation in Chandler, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force Two, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, en route to Washington. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
LONDON (AP) — A car-ramming at a Christmas market in Germany, which police are treating as an attack, is the latest in a grim series of events in which vehicles have been used as deadly weapons.
There have been a spate of such attacks over the past decade, some committed by groups but most by individuals. The motives – where they could be established – have varied widely. Some were inspired by Islamic militant groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS, which encouraged followers to carry out low-cost, low-tech attacks with cars and trucks. Others have been linked to mental illness, far-right extremism and online misogyny.
What law-enforcement authorities term “vehicle as a weapon attacks” have reshaped cities around the world, as planners erect concrete barriers around public spaces and build anti-vehicle obstacles into new developments.
Here are some major vehicle attacks:
MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20. 2024 — At least five people are killed and more than 200 injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right AFD party.
ZHUHAI, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rams his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 people in the country’s deadliest mass slaying in years. Authorities said the perpetrator was upset about his divorce but offered few other details.
LONDON, Ontario, June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family die when an attacker hits them with a pickup truck while they are out for a walk, in what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls “a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.” White nationalist attacker Nathaniel Veltman was sentenced to life in prison.
TORONTO, April 23, 2018 — A 25-year-old Canadian man, Alek Minassian, drives a rented van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge St., the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. Minassian told police he belonged to the online “incel” community of sexually frustrated men.
NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2017 — Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist from Uzbekistan, drives a pickup truck onto a popular New York City bike path, killing eight.
BARCELONA, Aug. 17, 2017 — A man driving a van slams into people on the Spanish city’s crowded Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 and injuring many others. Several members of the same cell carry out a similar vehicle attack in the nearby resort town of Cambrils before they are shot dead by police. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017 — During a “Unite the Right” rally, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. intentionally drives his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens of people.
LONDON: March 22, 2017 — British man Khalid Masood rams an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, before stabbing to death a policeman guarding the Houses of Parliament nearby. He is shot dead. June 3, 2017 — three attackers drive a van at pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight people are killed and the attackers shot dead by police. June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drives a van at worshippers outside a mosque in London’s Finsbury Park area, killing one man and injuring 15 people.
MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan 20, 2017 – Six people are killed and more than 30 injured when a car hits lunchtime crowds at a pedestrian mall in Australia’s second-largest city. Perpetrator James Gargasoulas is found to have been in a state of drug-induced psychosis.
BERLIN, December 19, 2016 — Anis Amri, a rejected asylum-seeker from Tunisia, plows a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in the German capital, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. The attacker is killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
NICE, France, July 14, 2016 — Tunisian-born French resident Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drives a rented truck for more than a mile (almost 2 kilometers) along a packed seaside promenade in the French Riviera resort on the Bastille Day holiday, killing 86 people in the deadliest attack of its kind.
APELDOORN, Netherlands, April 28, 2009 – Former security guard Karst Tates drives a car into parade spectators in an attempt to hit an open-topped bus carrying members of the Dutch royal family. Six people are killed and Tates dies of injuries the next day, leaving his full motive a mystery.
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, March 3, 2006 — University of North Carolina graduate Mohammed Taheri-Azar drives an SUV into a crowd at the university, lightly injuring nine people, in a self-professed bid to avenge Muslim deaths overseas.
FILE - Injured people are treated in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 after a white van jumped the sidewalk in the historic Las Ramblas district, crashing into a summer crowd of residents and tourists. (AP Photo/Oriol Duran, File)
FILE - In this April 23, 2018, file photo, police stand near a damaged van after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians in Toronto. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
FILE - Forensic officers move the van at Finsbury Park in north London, where a vehicle struck pedestrians in north London Monday, June 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo the trailer of a truck stands beside destroyed Christmas market huts in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
FILE - In this July 14, 2016 file photo, authorities investigate a truck after it plowed through Bastille Day revelers in the French resort city of Nice, France, killing 86 people. (Sasha Goldsmith via AP, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, March 22, 2017 file photo, police secure the area on the south side of Westminster Bridge close to the Houses of Parliament in London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
FILE - People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo Christmas decoration sticks in the smashed window of the cabin of a truck which ran into a crowded Christmas market Monday evening killing several people in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
