Karine Jean-Pierre retracts prior statement, now says Joe Biden was evaluated by a neurologist specializing in Parkinson's

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre admitted, after initially saying otherwise, that President Biden was evaluated by neurologist Kevin Cannard, a doctor specializing in Parkinson's disease, on Jan. 17.

The correction comes to light just one day after Jean-Pierre had a heated discussion with a journalist who pointed out that the press was "angry" with her for offering false information about whether the president had been medically evaluated. In the secretary's words:

"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. ... 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."

At VOZ, we reviewed all the times Jean-Pierre was confronted last week about information related to Dr. Cannard. She always refused to answer clearly and dodged questions about the president's visits with the Parkinson's expert.

Jean-Pierre said during the routine press conference that the president has seen a neurologist three times as part of an annual review.

Cannard's public visits

CBS White House correspondent Ed O'Keefe was incisive at the time, and the upset secretary demanded respect from him, but would not finish talking about Dr. Cannard's visits.

"So every time he has a physical, he has had to see a neurologist. So that is answering that question. ... I told you, Ed, for security reasons, we cannot share names. ... It doesn't matter how hard you push me. It doesn't matter how angry you get with me. I'm not going to confirm a name. It doesn't matter if it's even in the log," Jean-Pierre said of Dr. Cannard.

However, the information on Cannard's visits is already public. On his web pages, the doctor clarifies that he is a White House physician.

Eight times in eight months

The New York Times reported for the first time that an expert in Parkinson's disease from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has visited the White House eight times since last summer. When confronted about it, President Joe Biden's press secretary dodged the question.

"The expert, Dr. Kevin Cannard, is a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders and recently published a paper on Parkinson’s. The logs, released by the White House, document visits from July 2023 through March of this year. More recent visits, if there have been any, would not be released until later under the White House’s voluntary disclosure policy," The New York Times reported.

At the time, it was unclear whether the visits Dr. Cannard made were for consultations with President Biden. According to records, the doctor also visited the White House between 2012 and 2016, during the second term of Barack Obama, when Biden was vice president.

In a statement to the press, a White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, without referring specifically to Dr. Cannard, said that "a wide variety of specialists from the Walter Reed system visit the White House complex to treat the thousands of military personnel who work on the grounds."

Bates also said that a neurologist checks President Biden annually and has seen no signs of Parkinson's. However, the spokesman declined to name the neurologists and also did not specify the dates on which Biden allegedly would have been checked. "There have been no neurological visits besides the one for his physical."

Dr. Kevin O'Connor admits reality

Joe Biden's own doctor, Kevin O'Connor, published a letter explaining that a Parkinson's expert had visited the White House.

In his letter, Dr. O'Connor clarified that Dr. Cannard, the Parkinson's expert, is in fact the neurologist who has examined President Biden, and "his findings have been made public each time I have released the results of the president's annual physical."

"President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical," Dr. O'Connor maintained in the statement.