WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton has rejected a challenge by Donald Trump for the two candidates to release their medical records, amid an escalating row over the health of the elderly nominees.
Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton, aged 70 and 68 respectively, would both be among the oldest politicians to assume the presidency. "I think that both candidates, Crooked Hillary and myself, should release detailed medical records. I have no problem in doing so! Hillary?" Mr Trump wrote on social media.
Mr Trump has made unsubstantiated remarks about Mrs Clinton's medical condition in campaign speeches, frequently asserting that the former first lady does not have the "stamina" to be America's commander in chief.
Mrs Clinton was hospitalised in 2012 when doctors discovered a blood clot after suffering from concussion.
But Trump surrogates - people chosen by the campaign to speak on his behalf - have told voters that Mrs Clinton suffered a stroke and has seizures.
The Clinton campaign has dismissed the attacks as "deranged conspiracy theories".
A spokesperson for the Clinton campaign said yesterday (Monday) that they would not rise to Mr Trump's challenge, noting that Mrs Clinton had already released more detail on her health than the Republican nominee.
Last month Mrs Clinton published a two-page letter from her doctor, who pronounced the Democratic candidate to be in "excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States".
Mr Trump's attack came after the Clinton campaign suggested that he had falsified his own certification of health.
"We have some questions about this letter from Donald Trump's doctor," the campaign wrote, with a 13-point takedown in which they implied the document had been written by, or presided over, by Mr Trump.
The letter, which Mr Trump published last year, is a four paragraph assessment that proclaims the 70-year-old's health "astonishingly excellent" and asserts that he would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency".
Harold Bornstein, Mr Trump's doctor, last week admitted that he had written the letter in "five minutes" and that he had specifically chosen language that he knew Mr Trump would like.
Despite the row, both presidential candidates have provided the American public with less medical information than is customary in a presidential campaign.
The row came as Mrs Clinton faced fresh questions over whether her office gave preferential treatment to donors of her family's charity while she was secretary of state.
A "firewall" was supposed to have been in place to ensure that the Clinton Foundation, which distributes hundreds of millions in funds domestically and overseas, remained completely separate from Mrs Clinton's role as America's top diplomat.
But a set of state department emails, obtained by Citizens United, a conservative group, and published by ABC News, provided fresh evidence of direct contact between the two institutions.
The emails, which were revealed as part of a public records lawsuit, show Huma Abedin, Mrs Clinton's closest adviser, coordinating with Doug Band, who was then a top executive at the Clinton Foundation, to secure favours for donors. In one email chain in December 2010, Mr Band suggested that Mrs Abedin include three donors, who had all given several million dollars to the foundation, in a state department lunch with Hu Jintao, the then Chinese president.
Nearly two weeks later, Mr Band followed up on email, specifically requesting Judith Rodin, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and one of the three named donors be seated at the table of Joe Biden, the vice president.
"I'll ask," Mrs Abedin replied.
The correspondence follows another set of emails published last week showing the foundation lobbying Mrs Abedin on behalf of donors including rock star Bono and a Bahraini prince.
The Clinton campaign has rejected the suggestion of foul play, calling the allegations political attacks.