Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump publicized letters from their private physicians affirming that each is healthy and fit to serve as President of the United States.
Following Mrs. Clinton’s “medical episode” this Sunday, during which the former Secretary of State fainted or nearly fainted and was evacuated from a 9/11 memorial service in Manhattan, much has been made not only of the candidate’s health, but her efforts to conceal her illness, which aides revealed to be pneumonia, after initially suggesting she was simply “overheated”.
Both Trump and Clinton touted letters this week, emphasizing their good health and fitness for the office, though neither released the kinds of extensive health records other candidates in the past have offered for public scrutiny.
Senator and 2008 Republican nominee John McCain released some 1,200 pages of records, in part to reassure voters concerned by the prospect of electing the oldest president in American history. At 72 years of age at the time of the 2008 election, McCain would have been more than two years older than Ronald Reagan, the current record-holder, was when he first won the White House in 1980.
Trump, who at 70 years old would edge out Reagan as the oldest person elected to the office, took to “The Doctor Oz Show” Wednesday, where Dr. Mehmet Oz stated that based upon the real estate moguls most recent medical report – he was “healthy enough” to serve as president.
On Thursday the Trump campaign released a one-page letter from Trump’s personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, who offered a brief outline of Mr. Trump’s medical history and present condition.
“Mr. Trump was hospitalized only once,” Bornstein wrote, “as a child of 11 years old for an appendectomy. He is 6’3” tall and weighs 236 pounds.”
The letter also includes the results from Trump’s latest blood test and colonoscopy. Dr. Bornstein noted that Trump takes a “low dose of aspiring” and a lipid lowering statin. “He does not use tobacco products or alcohol.”
“In summary, Mr. Trump is in excellent physical health.”
Clinton, who will be turning 69 before this November’s election, offered reporters a brief letter by her physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack.
Dr. Bardack wrote that Mrs. Clinton “continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States.”
References to existing medical conditions were noticeably absent from Clinton’s letter, with Dr. Bardack simply writing that the Democratic presidential nominee “has not developed new medical conditions this year,” with the exception of sinus infections and pneumonia.
A similar letter penned by Bardack in 2015 said Clinton was in “excellent mental condition.”