President Biden was seen by neurologist Dr. Kevin Cannard, who specializes in Parkinson’s disease, at the White House on Jan. 17, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre admitted late Tuesday — hours after telling reporters the opposite at her regular briefing.
The clarification came just a day after Jean-Pierre scolded a journalist who grilled her over providing misleading information about whether Biden, 81, had been medically evaluated after his catastrophic June 27 debate performance, which triggered Democratic calls for him to step aside.
“Because the date was not mentioned in the question, I want to be clear that the Jan. 17 meeting between [presidential physician] Dr. [Kevin] O’Connor and Dr. Cannard was for the President’s physical,” Jean-Pierre told The Associated Press, whose reporter had asked Jean-Pierre about Cannard’s meeting with O’Connor, which was first reported by The Post this past Saturday.
“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,” Jean-Pierre said.
Earlier Tuesday, the AP’s Seung Min Kim asked Jean-Pierre, “Can you say whether that one meeting [between Cannard and O’Connor] was related to care for the president himself?”
Jean-Pierre replied, “I can say that it was not.”
Cannard visited the White House eight times in eight months between July of last year and March of this year for what O’Connor suggested in a Monday night letter was treatment of military members — even though his visits were to the residence clinic in the White House basement, according to public visitor logs, rather than to a separate and larger medical facility in the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building.