White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre admitted on Tuesday that she made a mistake when she said that neuroscientist Dr. Kevin Cannard, a specialist in Parkinson’s disease, hadn’t examined President Joe Biden in January.

Following Biden’s poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month, there has been speculation within the medical community that he suffers from Parkinson’s disease. The New York Post reported over the weekend that, based on the White House’s visitor logs, Cannard visited the White House on January 17 and spoke with Biden’s presidential physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor.

Cannard had examined Biden during each of his annual physicals, according to a letter released by O’Connor. In late February, the results of the most recent physical were released. There was no explanation for the meeting between Cannard and O’Connor in January.

A reporter from the Associated Press, Seung Min Kim, questioned a letter involving Cannard’s meeting with O’Connor at the White House briefing on Tuesday. Kim observed that it lacked a clear description of 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.

“I can say that it was not,” Jean-Pierre responded. But later, KJP reached back out to Kim and offered a revised statement.

“Because the date was not mentioned in the question, I want to be clear that the Jan. 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.”

KJP then read from Biden’s February health summary saying, “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.”

As CBS News reporter Ed O’Keefe questioned Jean-Pierre about Dr. Cannard’s eight White House visits from August to March, tensions soared. The exchange emphasized the scrutiny over the frequency and purpose of these visits. The questioner asked her if she could confirm if Cannard had visited or who he had seen, suggesting some patients could include military personnel, raising security concerns.

Jean-Pierre offered the same response, prompting O’Keefe to say, “That’s a very basic direct question.” He added: “That much you should be able to answer by this point.”

Jean-Pierre replied, “We cannot share names of specialists broadly.” “We cannot share names of specialists, broadly.” But O’Keefe noted that Cannard’s name is in the visitor logs for anyone to see, and that he continued to push the press secretary for answers.

“Hold on a second. There’s no reason to go back and forth with me in this aggressive way,” Jean-Pierre replied.

“Well, we’re a little miffed around here about how information has been shared with the press corps about [Biden],” O’Keefe shot back.


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