A neurologist specializing in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease visited the White House eight times in just eight months, visitor logs reveal, including one meeting with President Joe Biden’s personal physician. However, despite the implications of these meetings, the White House is refusing to comment on the nature of the visits, further fueling speculation that the 81-year-old president’s health is declining behind the scenes.
According to the logs, the doctor, identified as Dr. Kevin Cannard of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, made seven early-morning visits to the White House between July 2023 and March 2024 to meet with Megan Nasworthy, who coordinates Biden’s primary care visits. An eighth meeting took place on January 17 between Cannard and Drs. Kevin O’Connor and Dr. John E. Atwood, the White House physician and a Walter Reed cardiologist respectively. This meeting was about six weeks before Biden’s last annual physical.
Cannard, a movement disorder specialist who recently published a paper on treating early-stage Parkinson’s, had only visited the White House once before this window of time in November 2022. The doctor’s visits during this time were made public under the White House’s voluntary program of disclosing visitor logs, meaning that any visits after March 2024 will not be released until later this year.
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President Biden’s health has become a topic of national conversation following his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump late last month. Throughout the televised debate, Biden appeared to lose focus, frequently slurring his words and staring off into space in uncomfortable pauses. In the aftermath of the debate, multiple mainstream leftist pundits and at least five Democratic lawmakers have called on him to resign and drop out of the race, echoing longtime Republican concerns over his age and mental acuity.
Biden has responded by emphatically stating that he has no plans to exit the race and is fully in possession of his faculties, citing the results of his February physical with O’Connor.
That examination notably did not include a cognitive assessment, but Biden insists that the day-to-day rigors of his office prove the same point.
Related: Biden Tells Dems He Refuses to Resign, Time for Drama to “End”
Following news of Cannard’s frequent visits, the White House refused to confirm whether the doctor was advising on Biden’s medical care, saying only that “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.”
“As each report has stated, that examination has found no sign of Parkinson’s, and he is not being treated for it,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said of the president’s physicals. “There have been no neurologist visits besides the one for his physical per year, three in total.”
The rest of the Biden administration remained tight-lipped about the subject as well.
In a tense exchange with CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Ed O’Keefe on Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sharply declined to answer, refusing to confirm or deny any statements about the president’s medical care because of “security reasons.”
“It doesn’t matter how hard you push me,” Jean-Pierre said. “It doesn’t matter how angry you get with me from here, I’m just not going to do that. It’s inappropriate, it is not acceptable, so I’m not going to do it.”
The White House press briefing today got extremely heated between CBS News correspondent Ed O'Keefe and Karine Jean-Pierre after KJP wouldn't discuss why a Parkinson's specialist repeatedly visited the White House.
"It doesn't matter how angry you get with me…" pic.twitter.com/VovyOvWklu
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 8, 2024
However, she later pointed to the results of Biden’s last three physicals, which did not show any findings consistent with a Parkinson’s diagnosis.
“So, to give you some answers here, 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. So those are the things that I can give you full-blown answers on.”
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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