Trump pushes false election claims, ‘weaves’ from topics during Joe Rogan interview

(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris released a report with details about her health and medical history on Saturday, as the Harris team tries to place former President Donald Trump’s health and advanced age under new scrutiny.

Harris “remains in excellent health,” her physician, Dr. Joshua Simmons, said in a letter on Saturday. “She possesses the physical and mental resilience required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”

The doctor pointed to seasonal allergies and hives (urticaria) as a “notable” part of her health history. He also listed a number of over-the-counter medications used to improve her symptoms, which he said have never been “severe.”

Simmons details Harris’ most recent physical exam, which was in April 2024. He said the results were “unremarkable.” The doctor also said he found her routine bloodwork was “unremarkable,” though he noted that her Vitamin D levels were “in the insufficient range.”

Simmons also noted that the vice president has a family history of colon cancer. He detailed no other personal history of a number of conditions.

Harris slammed Trump, who has yet to release his own medical records, during an interview with reporters on the tarmac in North Carolina.

“So, today I release my medical records as has, I believe every candidate for president of the United States, except Donald Trump in this election cycle. And it’s just a further example of his lack of transparency that on top of his unwillingness to debate again, his unwillingness to do an interview with ’60 Minutes,’ which again, is part of the norm of what anyone running for president of the United States does,” she said.

When asked if, despite never seeing his medical records, Trump seems unfit to be president, Harris resonded that she would not give “a medical analysis of his fitness,” but added the former president “does not have the ability to do the job.”

The most comprehensive details that are known of Trump’s health care are from a nearly 7-year-old report from his physician at the time following a physical exam. In that report, it was learned Trump had high cholesterol, was overweight and had rosacea, a benign skin disease.

Trump refused to release his medical records during his first campaign in 2016, and despite promising multiple times to release his medical records in this race, he’s not done so yet.

In response to ABC News’ requests concerning Trump’s medical records, his campaign is pointing to previous letters released by former White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Trump’s personal physician, Dr. Bruce Aronwald.

Jackson’s letters, released in July after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, describe in detail the former president’s ear injury but doesn’t detail Trump’s health conditions. In one of the two letters, Jackson wrote that he reviewed Trump’s medical records from Butler Memorial Hospital and said he was rapidly recovering from the injury.

Aronwald’s letter, released in November last year, said he conducted “several comprehensive examinations” and reported that his “overall health is excellent,” without providing any details.

“President Trump has voluntarily released updates from his personal physician, as well as detailed reports from Dr. Ronny Jackson who treated him after the first assassination attempt,” Trump campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said. “All have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief.”

Cheung added that Trump “has maintained an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history, whereas Kamala Harris has been unable to keep up with the demands of campaigning and reveals on a daily basis she is wholly unqualified to be President of the United States.”

Not much was known about Harris’ health prior to this new report, either.

For example, in contrast to President Joe Biden, whose physician has issued memos following his routine physicals, no such reports have been made available for the vice president. Only her annual check-up in 2021 was announced by the White House, but results from that visit were not released.

The White House had also previously announced that Harris tested positive for COVID-19 in April 2022, for which she was treated with the drug Paxlovid.

Ahead of the release of Harris’ medical report, ABC News had also inquired about the records for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Harris and Trump’s running mates, respectively.

This new move by Harris is a stark illustration of how the political baggage of advanced age has flipped.

Before he dropped out of the race for a second term, Biden’s age was an effortless battering ram for Trump and Republicans. The former president would attack his successor, America’s oldest president, as “sleepy Joe” “sick” and “weak.” But now it’s Harris, who is approximately two decades Trump’s junior, and her allies taking advantage of their opponent’s age.

Walz described Trump’s debate performance as “a nearly 80-year-old man shaking his fist at clouds;” former President Bill Clinton joked during his Democratic National Convention speech, “Two days ago I turned 78… and the only personal vanity I want to assert is I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”

Hours before the vice-presidential debate earlier this month, the Harris campaign rolled out a new ad taking aim at Trump, who, if he wins, would be the oldest person elected president, through Vance.

“He’s not just weird or dangerous,” a narrator says of Vance, “he could be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.” The ad ends with clips of the former president appearing to slur his words.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Soorin Kim, Isabella Murray, Hannah Demissie, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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(PHILADELPHIA) — During the presidential debate Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump doubled down on the false claim that migrants from Haiti are stealing and eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said.

These baseless rumors have spread widely online in recent days — amplified by right-wing politicians, including vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance — after a series of social media posts have gone viral claiming Haitian migrants were abducting people’s pets in order to eat them.

A spokesperson for the city of Springfield told ABC News these claims are false, and that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”

“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic,” the spokesperson added.

According to the Springfield News-Sun, the Springfield Police Department has not received any reports of pets being stolen and eaten. The city even created a webpage debunking some of the claims.

Migrants have been drawn to the region because of low cost of living and work opportunities, the city says on its site. The city estimates there are around 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living in the county, and that the rapid rise in population has strained housing, health care, and school resources. But the city also says that the migrants are in the country legally and that many are recipients of Temporary Protected Status from the federal government.

The false claim that immigrants are targeting people’s pets stemmed from a social media posting originally from a Springfield Facebook group that went viral, where the poster wrote that their neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat. The poster went on to make an unsubstantiated claim of Haitians allegedly taking the cat for food.

The post was picked up by people on social media, including rightwing activist Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA and Elon Musk.

One of the most prominent images circulating online, which depicts a man holding a dead goose, was taken two months ago not in Springfield, but in Columbus, Ohio. The resident who took the photo told ABC News he was surprised to see his image used to “push false narratives.”

Prominent Republicans have boosted this falsehood on social media. An AI-generated image, which showed Trump holding cats and ducks, was shared by the House Judiciary GOP account on X.

Vance, in particular, has magnified the debunked claim.

In a post on X, Vance published a video of himself at a July Senate Banking Committee hearing, reading a letter from Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck about the city’s challenges in keeping up with housing for the growing Haitian immigrant population.

In the post, Vance pushed the false claim that Haitian immigrants are kidnapping and eating people’s pets in Springfield.

“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” Vance wrote on X. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he asked, a term that Republicans have attempted to tag Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris with, although she has denied holding that role.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will not take part in any more debates ahead of the 2024 election.

In a post on his social media platform, Trump argued that Vice President Kamala Harris could’ve accepted an offer to debate on Fox News on Sept. 4, or could’ve negotiated a second debate before the ABC News debate.

“She was a no-show at the Fox Debate, and refused to do NBC & CBS. KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” Trump posted on his social media platform. ” Trump wrote.

Harris had challenged Trump to another showdown immediately after Tuesday’s matchup in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Harris took the stage at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, just after Trump’s announcement. Although she did not cite Trump’s social media post, Harris said he and she “owe it to the voters to have another debate.”

“Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate, and I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate,” Harris said. “Because this election and what is at stake could not be more important. On Tuesday night, I talked about issues that I know matter to families across America, like bringing down the cost of living, investing in America’s small businesses, protecting reproductive freedom and keeping our nation safe and secure.”

“But that’s not what we heard from Donald Trump,” she continued. “Instead, it was the same old show, that same tired playbook that we have heard for years, with no plans for how he would address the needs of the American people because, you know, it’s all about him, it’s not about you. Well, folks, I said it then, I say it now, it’s time to turn the page.”

ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.

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