It’s been more than five weeks since Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt, though the former president and his political operation have been less than transparent about the medical care he received and the nature of his injuries.
It was against this backdrop that CBS News asked the Republican nominee a good question this week.
He spoke with CBS News political correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns in Pennsylvania Monday, as Democrats kick off the Democratic convention in Chicago. “You will release your medical records to the public?” Huey-Burns asked the former president. “Oh sure, I would do that very gladly, sure,” Trump responded.
At that point, the GOP candidate proceeded to talk about his “perfect score” on a cognitive test — a subject he’s long struggled to understand — and his belief that every candidate should take one.
Trump did not say, however, why he hasn’t yet released his latest medical records to the public, or how long it will take for him to “very gladly” follow up on his promise.
Time will tell whether the Republican keeps his word, and given recent history, there’s reason for great skepticism. Indeed, as regular readers know, he’s long adopted a rather untraditional approach to sharing information about his medical exams.
It started before he took office. In late 2015, during the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Team Trump released an unintentionally hilarious, four-paragraph letter from the late Dr. Harold Bornstein, asserting that Trump’s “physical strength and stamina are extraordinary” and that his lab tests results were “astonishingly excellent.” The doctor added at the time, “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
We learned several months later that Bornstein wrote the letter in five minutes while a limo, dispatched by Trump, waited for the document.
In the years that followed, disclosures did not improve.
Last fall, Trump released the first updated report on his health in more than three years, but it came by way of a statement issued by one of his golf club customers, and it omitted basic details such as his blood pressure and medications.
More recently, the former president and his team also ignored calls for medical details after he was shot in the ear.
As of this week, however, the GOP candidate made it sound like he’d be only too pleased to share his medical records with the public. If this actually happens, it’ll be a pleasant change of pace — which is why I’m not holding my breath.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
