Category: US

Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris has increasingly questioned former President Donald Trump’s ability to handle the demands of another four years in the White House as she seeks to contrast her age with Trump’s. 

“I’m seeing that his team at least is saying he’s suffering from exhaustion,” Harris, who turns 60 on Sunday, told reporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Friday. 

Harris was citing a Politico report that said several Trump interviews that were in the works had failed to come to fruition because the 78-year-old Republican nominee was “exhausted.” A Trump campaign spokesperson told Politico that was “unequivocally false.”

“Look, being president of the United States is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world. And so we really do need to ask, if he’s exhausted being on the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job? And I think that’s an open-ended question and we need an answer,” Harris said. 

Harris said it’s a “legitimate question,” adding, “it should be a concern if he can’t handle the rigors of the campaign trail.” 

Trump has yet to release his recent medical records, claiming Friday, “you’ve got them all.” 

His campaign has said he’s in “perfect and excellent health” to be president.  In November 2023, Trump shared a letter from his doctor of osteopathic medicine that said he had been examined in September 2023 and that his “overall health is excellent.” The letter did not give specifics on his vitals or medications. 

“I’ve done five exams over the last four years,” Trump told CBS News as he campaigned in Michigan. 

When pressed on whether he had actually released all of his medical records, Trump called on Harris to take a cognitive test. 

“Obviously, I’m in the middle of a very big and very contentious fight we’re leading,” he said. “I’ve given my health exams. I’ve also done cognitive tests twice, and I’ve aced them, meaning a perfect score. I want to see her do a cognitive test because she couldn’t, because she wasn’t born smart.” 

Trump also said he’s “gone 48 days now without a rest,” adding, “I’m not even tired, I’m really exhilarated.” 

If elected in November, Trump would be the oldest person to ever assume the Oval Office. 

Harris released a letter from her doctor last week that said she is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president. Her physician, Dr. Joshua Simmons, said Harris’ latest blood work and other test results were “unremarkable,” and that she has no personal history of high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiac disease, neurological disorders or other serious conditions. He noted that she has a history of allergies and urticaria, also known as hives, for which she has been on allergen immunotherapy for the past three years.

In a recent letter, more than 230 doctors, nurses and health care professionals, most of whom are backing Harris, called on Trump to release his health records, arguing he was “displaying alarming characteristics of declining acuity.” Absent detailed records, the letter said, “we are left to extrapolate from public appearances.”

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Washington — In a report released Friday morning, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee allege that newly obtained records show then-President Donald Trump overcharged the U.S. Secret Service for rooms at his former hotel in Washington, D.C., during his presidency.  

The committee Democrats accuse Trump of deliberately charging the Secret Service “exorbitant rates,” far above what other similar rooms cost, when agents stayed at the hotel as the protective detail for Trump family members.

In a 58-page investigative report, the committee Democrats argue, “The Secret Service charges associated with Eric Trump’s stays at just the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., demonstrate clearly that former President Trump’s D.C. hotel treated stays by Trump family members as the ultimate government ATM withdrawal opportunity.”    

Hotel billing records from the Trump D.C. hotel, which closed in May 2022 and reopened under new ownership as the Waldorf-Astoria, were obtained by the committee after legal challenges against Mazars USA, which was Trump’s accounting firm.

The committee Democrats said the records include billing information from only 12 months of room rentals at the Trump Hotel, from September 2017 through August 2018. The report said the records show Secret Service paid more expensive prices — with taxpayer funding — than customers who reserved similar rooms on the same nights.   

Citing room rentals from Nov. 28, 2017, the report alleged, “The room records produced to the Committee by Mazars show that, on that night, among the rooms the Secret Service rented, several were charged at the $600 rate. Notably, that very night, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., rented out more than 80 rooms at rates less than $600 per room, including a dozen rooms rented to the Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal Co., Ltd. — which is headquartered in China — for $338.85 each.”

The report also said the Trump Hotel rooms reserved for Secret Service on Feb. 22, 2018, were more than four times more expensive than a government per diem rate. The report said the prices represented “an astounding markup of more than 450% of the per diem rate.” 

“The room records provided by Mazars show that, among the rooms the Secret Service rented, two rooms were charged at $895 each,” the report said. “The room records also show that former President Trump’s D.C. hotel rented out more than 100 rooms that evening at rates of less than $895—including at least one room rented out for just $150.”

Congressional Democrats have argued Trump unlawfully and improperly sought personal wealth and income by charging taxpayers for federal government services and hotel rooms at his privately owned properties. The report alleges, “By accepting the payments that he imposed on the Secret Service, former President Trump violated the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause — which provides that a president may not receive any payments from the federal government other than a salary.”

The top prosecutor in Arizona’s Maricopa County announced Thursday that charges against Tyron McAlpin — a Black man who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, and who was seen on video being violently arrested — are being dropped.

The announcement comes after police body camera video of McAlpin’s arrest, which showed two Phoenix police officers repeatedly punching and tasing McAlpin, became public and sparked outcry.

“I have now completed my review and have made the decision to dismiss all remaining charges against Mr. McAlpin,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said Thursday.

McAlpin had been facing three felony charges for allegedly assaulting the two arresting officers and resisting arrest.

Phoenix police officers had been called because a White man was loitering at a convenience store on Aug. 19. That man claimed he had been assaulted and that his phone had been stolen, and he pointed to McAlpin as the culprit. McAlpin was not charged for the incident involving that man and his lawyer says he was wrongfully accused.

In the arrest video, officer Benjamin Harris was seen jumping out of his vehicle and punching McAlpin as officer Kyle Sue rushed over. McAlpin was punched at least 10 times and was also tased repeatedly. Sue can be heard on the video claiming McAlpin bit him and, in the police report from the incident, Harris claimed McAlpin swung at him. 

“Tyron is just trying to avoid getting hurt by an aggressive, out-of-control police officer,” McAlpin’s attorney, Jesse Showalter, previously told CBS News. “He can’t hear any of the commands he’s being given and the assault never lets up and the officers never do anything to de-escalate the situation.”  

The arrest video prompted strong reactions from the NAACP and ACLU, prompting Mitchell to announce she would “personally review the entire file, as well as the totality of the video.”

She also noted Thursday that she had “convened a large gathering of senior attorneys and members of the community to hear their opinions as they pertain to this case” earlier in the week.

The arrest of McAlpin came two months after a scathing report from the Department of Justice found Phoenix police have engaged in a pattern of discrimination and excessive force. 

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