The pressure was mounting this week, after explosive revelations about the president’s possibly compromised health. Finally, the president’s physician released a letter on Monday night with his first public comments about why he brought a Parkinson’s disease specialist into the White House repeatedly.
On Monday, President Joe Biden’s press secretary had dodged questions over and over again about the neurological specialist and told reporters that asking about Biden’s health was disrespectful. Karine Jean-Pierre read the same sentence repeatedly to reporters rather than answer the questions about why a Parkinson’s specialist from Walter Reed Hospital was such a regular White House visitor over such a short duration.
In his letter, the president’s physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor explained why Dr. Kevin Cannard visited the White House eight times.
The letter from O’Connor spends most of the two pages going over Cannard’s credentials, but adds: “Dr. Cannard was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals. 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.” O’Connor implied Cannard was treating other patients in the White House.
A Parkinson’s disease expert on NBC said that Biden has all the hallmarks of Parkinson’s and he could diagnose him from across the mall. Those symptoms include slow movement seen with Bradykinesia, a slowness of movement and speed (or progressive hesitations/halts) as movements are continued.
“It is one of the cardinal symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). You must have bradykinesia plus at least either tremor or rigidity for a Parkinson’s diagnosis to be considered,” says the Parkinson’s Foundation.
President Biden on Tuesday firmly rebuked the calls from Democrats and major donors to step aside from the campaign, saying, “I am not going anywhere.”
House Democrats huddled in Washington Tuesday to discuss the president’s future, as a seventh Democrat has called for Biden dropping out, but Rep. Mary Peltola, who said on the record that her opinion “is irrelevant,” is laying low and saying she needs to go fishing in Alaska this week. Peltola is avoiding difficult conversations and decisions in Washington.
