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However, the letter did not provide specifics on the reason for Cannard’s January meeting with O’Connor.
During a White House news briefing on Tuesday, Seung Min Kim of the Associated Press questioned Jean-Pierre about the details of Cannard’s meeting with O’Connor. Kim pointed out that the letter “didn’t seem to explicitly describe the nature of Dr. Cannard’s meeting with Dr. O’Connor.”
“So can you say whether that one meeting was related to care for the president himself?” she asked.
Jean-Pierre initially responded, “I can say that it was not.” However, she later issued a revised statement to clarify the situation.
“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 in a statement to the AP. “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.”
On Monday, Jean-Pierre also read from Biden’s February health summary, stating, “An extremely detailed neurological exam was again reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or ascending lateral sclerosis.”
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Tensions heightened during the briefing as CBS News reporter Ed O’Keefe pressed Jean-Pierre about Dr. Cannard’s eight visits to the White House from August through March. The exchange underscored the scrutiny over the frequency and purpose of these visits. Jean-Pierre responded that privacy concerns prevented her from confirming whether Cannard had visited or whom he had seen, noting that some patients could include military personnel, raising security issues.
When asked specifically about Biden, Jean-Pierre reiterated the same response, prompting O’Keefe to remark, “That’s a very basic direct question.” He added, “That much you should be able to answer by this point.”
“We cannot share names of specialists, broadly,” Jean-Pierre replied. But O’Keefe pointed out that Cannard’s name is in the visitor logs for anyone to see and continued to push for answers.
“Hold on a second. There’s no reason to go back and forth with me in this aggressive way,” Jean-Pierre responded.
“Well, we’re a little miffed around here about how information has been shared with the press corps about [Biden],” O’Keefe shot back.
In his letter released Monday, Dr. O’Connor, a retired U.S. Army doctor, stated that Cannard was chosen for Biden’s annual physicals “not because he is a movement disorder specialist, but because he is a highly trained and highly regarded neurologist here at Walter Reed and across the Military Health System, with a very wide expertise which makes him flexible to see a variety of patients and problems.”
The letter also emphasized that Biden did not see a neurologist outside of his annual exams. O’Connor mentioned that he had obtained authorization from both Biden and Cannard to disclose the neurologist’s identity and the purpose of his visits.
“To protect patient privacy for the thousands of patients of the White House Medical Unit and the physicians who treat them, normally we do not disclose the names of specialists we work with,” the letter stated.
