White House denies Biden has Parkinson's after doctor visits
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks after the US Supreme Court ruled on former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's bid for immunity from federal prosecution for 2020 election subversion, at the White House in Washington. Photo: Reuters
The White House denied Monday that US President Joe Biden is being treated for Parkinson's disease after visitor logs showed that a leading neurologist who specializes in the malady visited the executive mansion eight times in as many months.
The records, available to the public on the White House website, indicate that Dr. Kevin Cannard visited eight times from August 2023 through March of this year, the last month for which the records are available due to a timed delay in postings under Biden's voluntary disclosure policy. It is unclear if Cannard visited during the past four months.
Cannard's LinkedIn profile says he is a neurologist "supporting the White House Medical Unit." Another public profile on the Doximity medical professional networking site says Cannard has worked on a therapy for early-stage Parkinson’s disease. He has worked at Walter Reed Medical Center, which provides presidents with medical care, since he left the US Army as a colonel in 2008.
Cannard's White House meetings include one with Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, in the Residence Clinic in January, according to Anadolu's review of the logs. Three other people were also party to that meeting. It is the only of Cannard's eight visits that lists other people in attendance.
The January meeting was followed by another in March between Cannard and Megan Nasworthy, a White House liaison with Walter Reed. All of Cannard's other meetings were with Nasworthy.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre denied that Biden is being treated for Parkison's, but she refused to answer questions about the visits, going so far as to declining to even confirm whether Cannard had visited the White House complex. Jean-Pierre cited what she called visitors' rights to privacy.
"I cannot, from here, confirm any of that, because we have to keep their privacy. I think they would appreciate that too. We have to keep their privacy," she said.
"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. I am not going to do that from here. That is not something I am going to do," she added.
The claims over privacy appear to fly in the face of the fact that the visitor logs list individuals by name, including Cannard.