Donald Trump will not release his health record. He knows that, Kamala Harris knows it, and we know it. But Trump won’t pay any price for it because his supporters know it and the last thing they’re concerned about are his health records. In that sense alone one can say that Trump is smart to avoid all those nagging questions about a 78 year-old’s health. It does leave the rest of us blind.
But we know that Kamala Harris is in good health because she released her records today just like nearly every major candidate going back two generations. The chart is as boring as you might expect as detailed by Rawstory:
Harris’ physician Dr. Joshua Simmons pronounced Harris in good health in a report detailing basic vitals such as her blood levels, blood pressure (128/74 mmHg), heart rate (78 beats per minute) and temperature (98.7 °F).
“I have been her primary care physician for the last three and a half years since the start of the current administration,” Simmons wrote. “Vice President remains in excellent health.”
10-4. We got it, excellent health – as one night expect from a vibrant 50-something, perhaps first woman president. So that happened.
But what won’t happen is Trump releasing his records. He just won’t. And there is nothing compelling him (Though there was talk about a law mandating it at one point). Even if there was a law making it mandatory Donald Trump doesn’t like laws generally and would hate this one in particular. That’s his thing. There is no way to get him to do it, leaving people to comment on the dichotomy. The inimitable Molly Jong-Fast wrote:
Oh wait
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) October 12, 2024
Emphasis on wait. It is important. Trump seems to be in as good a health as one can expect by just looking at a 78 year old who eats McDonald’s and KFC, all while being overweight. He also literally dodged a bullet. But he was far more ill – far sicker – than announced when he had COVID. Indeed, he came very close to being put on a ventilator. Perhaps it has lingering impact? Put it all together, the COVID scare, the bullet grazing his ear, the inability to retain any sort of linear thought while speaking, and just being 78 – all of it leads to reason for concern regarding his health. At least he has been president. JD Vance has been in the U.S. Senate for all of two years. How will Trump be at 82?
So the comments continued to come in, some mocking the man. Everyone knows that Trump can be easily distracted – so they did their best.
Trump refuses to debate.
Trump refuses to release his taxes.
Trump refuses to release his health records.
Trump refuses to do interviews that fact-check.The 78-year-old is definitely hiding something.
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) October 12, 2024
It isn’t so much that Trump has something to hide (though he surely does in all those categories) it is more that Trump is never going to put out personal information unless it is something showing him in the best possible light. Anything that anyone could quibble with gets tucked back under whatever. This is “presidenting” by Roy Cohn. Give them nothing, admit nothing, never say you’re sorry, never retreat, always tout himself, always exaggerate success. Always.
And here he is. As MSNBC’s Michael Steele noted in his usual flamboyant way. Again from Rawstory:
“The man is old as dirt. We have no idea what’s going in that little brain of his. Maybe he had brain worms like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. We don’t know.”
Well, that’s not very nice of him. Brain worms? Come on. How about coronary artery disease? Has he had a GI scope? Probably all it – he is a former president, rich guy – he’s going to get that stuff done. It is the “what else” might he have had done that people might want to know but never will.
It isn’t going to matter. Unless Trump had some degenerative disease like cancer or some sort of neurological disorder, he’s going to go forward. He will not be “punished” in any way for not releasing his records. So just like the taxes, just like the debates, just like the 60 Minute interviews, he just won’t do them and it just won’t matter.
Roy Cohn would be proud. He couldn’t have hidden stuff any better.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and @JasonMiciak
“Unless Trump had some degenerative disease like cancer or some sort of neurological disorder, he’s going to go forward.”
should read…
Even if Trump had some degenerative disease like cancer or some sort of neurological disorder, he’s still going to go forward.
He’s a sick sick man no matter what his heath stats are.
Ok now you all know I am no fan of ex-prez trump. That said I’m not sure a medical report SHOULD be required of any candidate for president. Would Franklin Roosevelt have passed? He was disabled but people would think “ooh, polio, too sick to be prez” (remember, americans are very stupid-they were then and they are now). What about cancer? What type of cancer should be allowed and which not? hmmmmm? More to the point, if a candidate had a very curable cancer it would not be played that way by the other side-“the president would be dead and then we’d have _____ and do you want that?” How about anemia? Is that acceptable? You know, unless the candidate is actually incapable of doing the job because their health prohibits it, their health probably oughtn’t enter into the calculus. And I think a problem that would get in the way of a president doing their job would be fairly visible: it certainly is with trump (his mental health certainly).
This is that line much like the “how old is too old to be president”. I did not like it when it was piled on one of our better presidents as Biden certainly is. Old does not equal incapable, incompetent, or even kooky. We’re starting to add crap to the requirements to be president that aren’t in the Constitution and if we want those requirements changed then we have to put forth an amendment. Yes, that means people like trump slip through. So get an amendment going and we’ll see how that goes.
I’m happy V.P. Harris is as healthy as healthy can be and I know trump is crazier than a shit-house rat. I know V.P. Harris will be the better President and I really don’t need some law screening out possible candidates-isn’t that what we have primaries for?
The primaries only work at “screening out” people when they’re open to every voter. But that is NOT what the primaries are intended to do. Their ONLY purpose is to select the presidential candidate of a specific party. And, generally, only the most ardent members of each party is going to get out and vote for a candidate. (There are, of course, situations where a party faces whiny people outside the party who *demand* to have a say in the party’s selection process but they don’t actually want to go through the process of *belonging* to said party.
But, here’s the thing: The concern over a candidate’s health (especially a presidential candidate’s health) is BECAUSE of FDR and JFK. After the public eventually became aware of both men’s health issues (and it was much more due to the public release of records that Kennedy had been heavily dependent on painkillers since WW2 than FDR’s situation which had become fairly more well-known as his presidency progressed), there were increasing calls that candidates for public office release their medical records. (Worth noting, too, that Woodrow Wilson’s stroke hadn’t really been publicly known until years after he left office and, during his last year in office, he was far less active or public than he had been even though he made plans to run for a third term–top party officials who did know about Wilson’s health pretty much kept that from happening.) And, let’s not forget that, it wasn’t that long after Reagan left office that he *suddenly* was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s (a condition which, even in the 1990s, was known to take years to develop with definite symptoms appearing but Reagan’s last couple of years in office featured a lot more structured and “rehearsed” appearances which suggested Reagan had to have been dealing with Alzheimer’s throughout his second term).
And, don’t kid yourself. If Biden–or even Harris–had done anything to “conceal” their medical records from the public, the GOP/MAGA hypocrites would’ve been screaming from EVERY friendly media outlet about the “coverup” and how they “owed” the public the “truth” about their medical records. “What is Biden or Harris hiding?” would’ve been the lead story for weeks on Fox “News” and all the other far-right propaganda outlets with all sorts of medical “experts” weighing in on a myriad of “likely” illnesses. Again, these same outlets wouldn’t even deign to challenge Trump’s lack of transparency with his medical records (as we’ve all seen with his refusal to allow the truth about that “bullet” that “took off his ear”–which magically seemed to be fine within weeks of the shooting).
No, you’re correct Joseph-they only really look at two parties. In fact, had that system worked properly we might not have trump to contend with right now.
Nothing is perfect. None of our systems, especially political, work as they ideally should work. I just don’t think a law requiring candidates to reveal their medical records, findings from their physicals, etc. would work any better. In fact, they would either be worthless because, as we’ve seen, a physician can be paid to lie or they would be honest and somehow be weaponized just as everything else is in today’s politics. The lack of such records can be weaponized only because one of our major political parties looks at worthless minutia to use against another candidate rather than stand on policy…of course they have none of the latter so….
And I ask you: did FDR and JFK do bad jobs as president? Reagan was going to do the bidding of those who put him in office whether he had Alzheimer’s or not. An old, has-been actor got his final role. The script was written and he stuck to it.
We’re never going to hear/read the truth about trump’s health-mental or physical-ever. Legislation will be declared unconstitutional because the amendment dealing with presidential requirements is at best the barest of bare minimums and a new amendment fleshing these requirements out is unlikely.
I don’t know what else can be done especially since americans are, at best, not the sharpest knives in the drawer. We have proof of this looking at the support trump has when he is clearly mentally unfit and yet still garners a large enough percentage of voter support to threaten the Harris/Walz win. As I recall, our founding fathers feared something of this sort but then they must have feared a whole lot of stuff given how small a percentage of the population was even allowed to vote when they were finished with our oh so sacred document.
Joseph, I have zip answers to this one-not great ones anyway. I’m just not sure requiring medical records is one of them. I don’t see it doing any appreciable good because it is so easily gamed and/or weaponized.
Speaking of Roy Cohn, Hubby and I went to see “The Apprentice” movie yesterday. Early showing; few people there; but, all of us laughed at the appropriate times so I imagine there were no MAGAts in the house. I recommend the movie because you should see Jeremy Strong’s performance as Cohn…Wow! 👏 The rest of the movie is what you expect. A stoopid man with an out-sized ego and a need to be seen and accepted is destined to be a failure until…an evil presence sees a soul he can easily purchase! Thanks a lot, Roy!! 🤬🤬 I warn you, though, the movie is very hard to watch…psychologically and physically, it will make you ill from watching the rise of this THING THAT WOULDN’T DIE! 🤢🤮 [Dear Secret Service: that is not a threat…it’s a SciFi reference!! 😱
I’m not even interested in his health records. Unless he is tested nowe by someone really reputable (Mayo, Johns Hopkine, and National Jewish come to mind) for both physocal and mntal issues, I won’t believe a word of it.