Comer Demands Answers on Biden’s Health, Relationship between White House Physician and Biden Family

Representative James Comer (R., Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, demanded answers from White House physician Kevin O’Connor in a Sunday letter addressing both President Joe Biden’s health and O’Connor’s past business relationship with James Biden, the president’s younger brother.

“Americans question President Biden’s ability to lead the country, and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating circumstances surrounding your assessment in February of this year that ‘President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency,'” Comer wrote. “Recently, it was reported that you have ‘never recommended that [President] Biden take a cognitive test.”

Comer noted in the letter that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, during her first briefing after Biden’s June 27 debate against former president Donald Trump, did not answer reporters’ questions about whether the president had undergone a neurological examination. Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that Biden had not received any medical exams since his annual physical in February.

However, that same day, Biden told a group of Democratic governors that he had seen a doctor after the debate and had been told that he is in good health.

Given the inconsistency between Biden’s and Jean-Pierre’s statements, Comer wrote, “the Committee seeks to understand the extent of your role at the White House at this time.”

The increased scrutiny over O’Connor’s duties comes after the revelation that the physician had met with a Parkinson’s-disease expert in the White House in January.

A Biden spokesman told the New York Post after the story broke that “a wide variety of specialists from the Walter Reed system visit the White House complex to treat thousands of military personnel who work on the grounds.”

The Oversight Committee, its chairman wrote, is also concerned that O’Connor’s medical assessments might have been influenced in some way by the doctor’s private dealings with James Biden.

Comer stated in the letter that James Biden used funds from Americore — a company that operates hospitals in rural areas and is now involved in bankruptcy proceedings — to pay his brother $200,000 while Americore was suffering from financial troubles.

Americore’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee, Carol Fox, previously told the committee that James Biden had received two loans for amounts of $400,000 and $200,000 from Americore premised on his ability to secure Middle Eastern investments because of his last name.

The same day James Biden received the $200,000 wire transfer from Americore, Comer added, he wrote his brother the $200,000 check, which he marked as being for a “loan repayment.”

James Biden told the House Oversight Committee in a February interview that O’Connor had provided assistance for his Americore work. O’Connor, as reported that same month, joined a meeting alongside James and Hunter Biden with the president of a hospital the organization was in the process of acquiring.

“Given your connections with the Biden family,” Comer wrote, “the Committee also seeks to understand if you are in a position to provide accurate and independent reviews of the President’s fitness to serve.”