With Medical Report Harris Seeks to Play Health Card against Trump

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris steps off Air Force Two as she arrives in Phoenix, Arizona - AFP
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris steps off Air Force Two as she arrives in Phoenix, Arizona - AFP
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With Medical Report Harris Seeks to Play Health Card against Trump

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris steps off Air Force Two as she arrives in Phoenix, Arizona - AFP
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris steps off Air Force Two as she arrives in Phoenix, Arizona - AFP

Democratic White House candidate Kamala Harris is in "excellent health" and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House Saturday, as she aims to put pressure on rival Donald Trump to publish his own health records.

"Vice President Harris remains in excellent health," her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she "possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency."

According to Simmons, Harris's most recent physical exam, conducted in April, was "unremarkable."

Simmons noted that Harris suffers from seasonal allergies and hives, which are managed by non-prescription as well as prescription medications. Harris, 59, is also slightly nearsighted and wears contact lenses, the report said

The US vice president's team seeks to put the spotlight on the physical health and mental acuity of 78-year-old former president Trump, who has so far refused to release any detailed medical information, according to AFP.

Republican Trump became the oldest presidential nominee in US history after 81-year-old President Joe Biden withdrew from the White House race in July.

Biden passed the torch to Harris after a disastrous debate against Trump raised concerns in the Democratic Party about his own mental sharpness.

But Trump's apparent vitality means that his age has not so far weighed against his chances in the polls, in a knife-edge battle with Harris in the November 5 presidential election.

Harris's campaign drew attention to a recent series of articles in the New York Times that raised concerns about the fact that Trump had failed to disclose basic information about his health.

The newspaper also published an analysis of Trump's language showing that his speeches are increasingly long, "confused" and include vulgarities, a trend seen by experts as a possible sign of cognitive change.

Trump insists he is fully fit, but he has not released any full medical report for his campaign.

In late 2023, Trump released a note from his former White House doctor declaring him to be in "excellent" health, but it was short on details and did not say what tests Trump had undergone when he had a physical in September 2023.

The same doctor, Ronny Jackson, issued a statement in July after Trump's ear was wounded by an assassin's bullet at a rally in Pennsylvania, saying the former president was doing well.

Trump meanwhile boasted about a cognitive test he had undergone with Jackson while president in 2018 -- but then immediately flubbed his doctor's name, calling him "Ronny Johnson."

If Trump wins the election in November, he would be 82 at the end of his second term in the Oval Office.



Germans Mourn the 5 Killed and 200 Injured in the Apparent Attack on a Christmas Market

21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)
21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)
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Germans Mourn the 5 Killed and 200 Injured in the Apparent Attack on a Christmas Market

21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)
21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)

Germans on Saturday mourned the victims of an apparent attack in which authorities say a doctor drove into a busy outdoor Christmas market, killing five people, injuring 200 others and shaking the public’s sense of security at what would otherwise be a time of joy and wonder.

The alleged attack Friday evening in Magdeburg, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, killed a 9-year-old and four adults and injured 41 people badly enough that authorities warned the death toll could rise.

Magdeburg marked the tragedy Saturday with the tolling church bells at 7:04 p.m., the exact time of the attack in the city of roughly 240,000 people.

The driver, a 50-year-old doctor who immigrated from Saudi Arabia in 2006, surrendered to police at the scene. He’s being investigated for five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder, prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said at a news conference.

Among other things, investigators are looking into whether the attack could have been motivated by the suspect’s dissatisfaction with the way Germany treats Saudi refugees, Nopens said.

“There is no more peaceful and cheerful place than a Christmas market,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. “What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality.”

Although Nopens mentioned the treatment of Saudi immigrants angle, authorities said Saturday that they still didn't know why the suspect drove his black BMW into the crowded market.

Police haven't publicly named the suspect, but several German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect appears to have been an active user of the social media platform X, accusing German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he referred to as the “Islamification of Europe.”

The violence shocked Germany and Magdeburg, which is the capital of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring the centuries-old German tradition of Christmas markets. It led several other communities to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its many markets open but increased its police presence at them.

Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Friday’s attack came eight years after an extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening. Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.

Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs that she thought were fireworks. She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.

Shaking as she described what she had witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.

The number of injured people was overwhelming.

“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn’t have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold,” she said.

The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red and white tape and police vans, as armed officers guarded at every entrance. Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.