President Biden’s physician met with Parkinson’s disease specialist in White House
A top Washington D.C. neurologist had a meeting with President Biden’s personal doctor at the White House earlier this year, visitor logs reviewed by The Post show.
Dr. Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s disease expert at Walter Reed Medical Center, met with Dr. Kevin O’Connor, and two others at the White House residence clinic on Jan. 17, according to the records, which emerge as questions continue to swirl about the 81-year-old president’s mental health in the wake of his debate debacle last week with former President Trump.
Dr. John E. Atwood, a cardiologist at Walter Reed, was also in the 5 P.M. meeting, the White House visitor logs show.
The fourth person has not been identified in the logs from that day, when Biden was at the White House and hosted House and Senate leaders to press them for more Ukraine funding, according to his official schedule.
Cannard is an authority on Parkinson’s who has worked at Walter Reed for nearly 20 years.
Since 2012, he has served as the “neurology specialist supporting the White House Medical Unit,” according to his LinkedIn.
His most recent paper was published in August 2023 in the journal Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, and focuses on the “early-stage” of the crippling disease.
Since Biden’s health is O’Connor’s primary responsibility, it is highly probable the meeting was about the commander in chief, according to Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tx), the doctor for both Presidents Obama and Trump.
“It’s highly likely they were talking about Biden,” Jackson told The Post.
“He should only be [regularly] treating the president and the first family.”
O’Connor has been Biden’s official physician since he took office in January 2021 and is in daily contact with the president.
His most important job every day is saying “Good morning, Mr. President,” — just to get the commander-in-chief off on the right track, he told one trade publication in March.
What to know about the fallout from President Biden's debate performance:
- President Biden’s poor performance in the first 2024 presidential debate left some Democrats unsure of his fitness for office and future as the party’s candidate.
- Biden told a crowd at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate that he doesn’t “debate as well as I used to” — but insisted that he can still “do this job.”
- The New York Times editorial board called on the president to serve the country by dropping out of the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a similar editorial a day later.
- In a pre-taped interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden claimed that his “bad episode” at the debate was the result of a cold and not any cognitive issues.
- Biden has rejected calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats, insisting to Stephanopoulos that he is the most qualified to win the election. At a Wisconsin rally, he declared that he is “running and going to win again.”
- Ten congressional Democrats have joined in calling for Biden’s exit from the race. Former Biden supporter George Clooney echoed these calls in an op-ed published in the New York Times just weeks after he helped lead a record-breaking fundraiser for the Democrat.
- Democratic voters have continued to raise concerns about Biden’s nomination since the debate, with speculations and suggestions for replacement nominees running rampant.
O’Connor gave Biden a clean bill of health at his annual physical in February.
The physical included a neurological exam which specifically ruled out Parkinson’s disease, O’Connor said at the time.
On Friday, the White House said Biden had a post-debate, “verbal check-in” with O’Connor.
Jackson — who has never treated Biden — claimed the president’s doctor, along with the First Family, is trying to “cover-up” the diminishing cognitive health of the president, who on July 4 made several odd gaffes and misstatements at holiday festivities at the White House.
“I believe he and Jill Biden have led the cover up. Kevin O’Connor is like a son to Jill Biden — she loves him. It’s crazy. Kevin O’Connor was in that job on day one of the Biden administration because they knew they could trust Kevin to say and do anything that needed to be said or done and cover up whatever needed to be covered up. He is part of the Biden family,” Jackson said.
Jackson has for years warned that Biden’s mental health has been declining.
After the disastrous June 27 debate, Jackson said it was evidence Biden was suffering from a “cognitive disease” — and urged him to resign.
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Dr. Rob Howard, a professor of old age psychiatry at University College London, said that President Biden displayed many symptoms indicative of Parkinson’s disease.
The president’s “fluctuation in attentional function, his facial appearance, and his gait,” were all signs that something is amiss, said Howard, who has never examined Biden and added he was not offering a formal diagnosis.
“I am not saying its Parkinson’s disease, I am just pointing out that there are features to him that are consistent with Parkinson’s disease.”
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who is a physician, said “many” in the medical community have “suspected for several years that the president might be suffering from Parkinson’s disease.”
“Sadly, over 500,000 Americans are afflicted by this progressive neurological condition. If the president of the United States is among them, the American people deserve to know before voting in November,” he told The Post.
Cannard and Atwood declined to comment.
“A wide variety of specialists from the Walter Reed system visit the White House complex to treat thousands of military personnel who work on the grounds,” according to a White House spokesman who refused to answer questions about who O’Connor, Cannard and Atwood were meeting with.
