The White House has confirmed that President Biden was assessed by a leading neurologist earlier this year, after days of confusion and heated exchanges with the media.
It emerged over the weekend that Kevin Cannard, a neurologist at Walter Reed military hospital who is a specialist in Parkinson’s disease, visited the White House eight times between August 2023 and March 2024.
On January 17, he met Biden’s personal doctor, Kevin O’Connor, and two other unidentified individuals, leading to speculation that he was visiting to discuss health concerns regarding the 81-year-old president, or to assess the president himself.
After refusing to give any details about the meeting during a heated media briefing on Monday, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was asked directly at Tuesday’s briefing if the January 17 meeting was related to the care of the president. She replied: “I can say that it was not.”
However, on Tuesday evening, she said in a statement to the Associated Press that the meeting was in fact with the president and it was the neurological element of his annual medical, the bulk of which took place at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in late February.
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“Because the date was not mentioned in the question, I want to be clear that the January 17 meeting between Dr O’Connor and Dr Cannard was for the president’s physical,” Jean-Pierre said. “It was one of the three times the president has seen Dr Cannard, each time for his physical. The findings from each exam have been released to the public.”
It is not the first time that the White House has had to backtrack on a comment on Biden’s health, adding fuel to speculation about his cognitive competencies after a presidential debate performance in which he appeared to slur words and lose this train of thought.
There had also been confusion over whether the president had seen a doctor for a cold that he had during the debate, with Jean-Pierre first denying it, and then days later clarifying that he had indeed had a “check-in” with the doctor. The lack of clarity about the president’s health has prompted frustration in the White House press corps.
In a string of testy exchanges on Monday, reporters criticised Jean-Pierre for skirting questions. “We’re miffed around here about how information has been shared with the press corps,” said Ed O’Keefe, a CBS News correspondent. The NBC News correspondent Kelly O’Donnell, who is president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, added: “Part of the reason we are pressing here is that we are not clear on what has happened, and therefore the American people to whom we report don’t have a sense of it.”
Jean-Pierre said she took offence to suggestions that she was being intentionally misleading about the president’s health. “I appreciate the back-and-forth that we all have,” she said. “I try to respect you, and I hope you try to respect me. And we literally do everything that we can … to make sure that we get the answers to you.”
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A review of the White House visitor logs shows Cannard’s eight visits, most of which were to Megan Nasworthy, a medical liaison for Walter Reed. However, the visit on January 17 had raised questions.
Since January 2012, according to his LinkedIn, Cannard has been the neurology specialist supporting the White House Medical Unit. He graduated from the Medical College of Virginia in 1987, before undertaking a movement disorders fellowship at the Emory University School of Medicine in the 1990s.
He has been practising at Walter Reed since 2006, and has authored a number of papers and contributed to books on Parkinson’s disease. He is also a member of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
Jean-Pierre on Monday directly addressed speculation in the US media that the president may have symptoms similar to those of Parkinson’s disease: “Has the president been treated for Parkinson’s? No,” Jean-Pierre said. “Is he being treated for Parkinson’s? No, he’s not. Is he taking medication for Parkinson’s? No.”
The White House has not said what Cannard’s other seven visits to the White House were for, but have said that doctors visiting the complex treat a variety of individuals who work there. In a letter the White House released from O’Connor on Monday, the doctor said Cannard was chosen “not because he is a movement disorder specialist” but because “a very wide expertise … makes him flexible to see a variety of patients and problems”.
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Biden and his team have repeatedly denied any underlying degenerative condition, and blamed his poor debate performance against Donald Trump two weeks ago on a cold, jet lag and exhaustion. In an interview with ABC News on Friday, Biden dismissed suggestions that he needed a new cognitive or neurological test, saying the pressure of the job was enough to prove his mental health.
“I get a full neurological test every day,” he said, adding that “no one said I had to” have a formal test.
Biden’s healthcare is overseen by O’Connor, a doctor of osteopathic medicine who is close to the Biden family. O’Connor has never recommended a cognitive test for the president, The Washington Post reported.
Nearly one million Americans and 10 million people worldwide live with Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement. While it does not necessarily lead to dementia, in many cases it can cause memory loss and other cognitive lapses. It can also cause stiffness in gait and difficulties walking.
