WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Sunday he’ll release a summary of his health records, after months of declining to say whether he’ll provide details of his health status.
Sanders made the statement in an interview with ABC News on Sunday, after “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos asked whether he’d release the same kind of health information that Hillary Clinton put out months ago.
“Absolutely,” Sanders said. “I think she released a two-page statement on her health records. We will certainly do the same.”
Sanders did not say when he would release the information, and his campaign did not immediately respond to a request for more details.
Still, it’s the first time that the 74-year-old Sanders has promised to release any kind of medical information, after months of inquiries from STAT and other news organizations.
His promise came after the Clinton campaign publicly warned David Brock, head of the super PAC Correct the Record, which coordinates with Clinton, not to call on Sanders to release his health records. And Clinton herself tried to avoid a confrontation over the issue when Stephanopoulos asked about it on the same show — although she did point out that she had released her own health information.
“Oh, look, you know, I put out my medical records. I think you’ve been around long enough to know, George, this is all part of the expectation,” Clinton said to Stephanopolous, a former adviser to her husband, Bill Clinton. “But I think it’s fair to say that I share a lot of the same goals with Senator Sanders about what we need to do on behalf of our country. But we have differences. And that’s what I’m focusing on now.”
The 69-year-old Clinton released a doctor’s summary of her health status in July.
After POLITICO reported Saturday that Brock was expected to call on Sanders to release his health records, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta tweeted: “Chill out. We’re fighting on who would make a better President, not on who has a better Physical Fitness Test.”
Brock then denied he had ever planned to put pressure on Sanders, saying in a statement on Twitter that “we are not planning an attack on this and have not even discussed it internally.”
