“If you remember, when (Clinton) ran for the Senate, her whole campaign was based on she was going to bring jobs back to upstate NY and all these places that are dying, just absolutely dying”, Trump said Thursday to host Fred Dicker. Many African Americans object to Trump’s involvement in the “birther” movement and the implication that Obama’s presidency was illegitimate.
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The release comes amid calls for Trump to make disclosures about his own physical fitness.
Until now, the main source of information about Trump’s health has been a widely mocked letter from his longtime physician declaring he would be the healthiest president in history.
While Trump is shown to be overweight, with a body mass index of 29.5, his doctor Harold Bornstein declared the Republican nominee to be “in excellent physical health”.
Clinton mocked Trump’s television rollout of his health records, saying, “I’ll never be the showman that my opponent is – just look at the show he put on for Dr. Oz today”. Trump did not address the issue until the end of the event, turning it into a de facto commercial for the GOP candidate, as the major cable TV networks aired the full event live in anticipation of comments Trump had hyped hours before. Beyond health records, Clinton has released almost four decades of tax returns; Trump has refused to make his filings public. Forty-five percent of Trump voters say they are very enthusiastic about voting, compared to 36 percent of Clinton backers who feel that way.
On Sunday, she had to be helped into a van after abruptly leaving the World Trade Center memorial after aides said she felt “overheated”.
What has hurt Clinton, Shrum said, is not the time taken off from the campaign trail but rather her decision to keep her diagnosis secret until forced to disclose it – which reinforced a perception among voters that she has a penchant for secrecy.
Clinton has been off the campaign trail since then, but is expected to return this week. Clinton’s remarks Thursday were to focus on lifting up children and families, as the campaign tries to break through with a more positive message. Her campaign said later in the day that the former secretary of state had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. The theory was pushed by some bloggers who backed Clinton’s primary campaign eight years ago, but Clinton has said Trump “promoted the racist lie” that sought to “delegitimize America’s first black president”. Her letter made no mention of her weight, a key part of a medical exam; nor did a similar letter released a year ago. “She was advised to see me when she returned from her travels for further testing”, Dr. Bardack wrote. Both candidates’ doctors declared them fit to serve as president.
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And a gender gap is still apparent between the two candidates, with Trump securing a double-digit lead ahead of Clinton among men, while she has a similar margin over him among women. Her total cholesterol was 189; her LDL or “bad” cholesterol was 103, and her HDL or “good” cholesterol was 56 – all within healthy levels and not signaling the need for any medications.
