It's hardly a secret that Karine Jean-Pierre is a liar. We've been calling her lies out since her first day on the job. It's what she does. But now, she's admitting she lied about something huge, and that's a big deal.
"President Biden was seen by neurologist Kevin Cannard, who specializes in Parkinson’s disease, at the White House on Jan. 17, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre admitted late Tuesday — hours after telling reporters the opposite at her regular briefing," reports the New York Post. "The clarification came just a day after Jean-Pierre scolded a journalist for noting the press was 'miffed' at her for giving misleading information last week on whether Biden, 81, was medically evaluated after his catastrophic June 27 debate performance."
“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,” Jean-Pierre told the Associated Press, whose reporter had asked Jean-Pierre about Cannard’s meeting with O’Connor, which was first reported by The Post this past Saturday.
“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,” Jean-Pierre said amid Democratic calls for Biden to end his campaign for a second term due to his perceived cognitive decline.
Earlier Tuesday, the AP’s Seung Min Kim asked Jean-Pierre, “Can you say whether that one meeting [between Cannard and O’Connor] was related to care for the president himself?”
Jean-Pierre replied, “I can say that it was not.”
Cannard visited the White House eight times in as many months between July last year and March this year for what O’Connor suggested in a Monday night letter was treating military members, even though his visits were to the residence clinic in the White House basement, according to public visitor logs, rather than to a separate and larger medical facility in the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Chaos erupted during Monday's press briefing when Jean-Pierre confirmed that Joe Biden had seen a neurologist three times during his presidency but insisted that the visits were part of his annual physicals.
"He has seen a neurologist three times… that is connected to the physical that we've been able to share with you," Jean-Pierre admitted.
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This admission came on the heels of a report on Sunday that White House visitor logs showed that Biden's primary physician repeatedly consulted with Cannard earlier in the year. Subsequent reports put his total visits at eight or more.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who previously served as White House physician for presidents Trump and Obama, said that the visits likely focused on Biden's health because it's White House physician Kevin O'Connor's main responsibility. Jean-Pierre refused to reveal anything beyond her vague admission of the three visits during Biden's physical, and she implied that the doctor may have been visiting others in the White House, not necessarily Joe Biden.
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