The White House briefing room descended into chaos and confusion on Monday night as press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre batted away questions about the President’s health and whether he had been visited by a Parkinson’s specialist.
During a fiery exchange, less common for the current administration than the previous one, Ms Jean-Pierre tussled with reporters over the visitors’ log that showed neurologist Dr Kevin Cannard made eight visits to the White House within eight months.
Dr Cannard also met Joe Biden‘s personal doctor, Dr Kevin O’Connor, at least once.
In remarkable scenes, Ms Jean-Pierre refused to comment on the purpose of the neurologist’s visit to the White House, citing “security reasons”.
She claimed Dr Cannard deserved a “measure of privacy”, despite his name appearing on the visitors’ log, and the White House hours later releasing his name in an official memorandum.
At one point, Ms Jean-Pierre started to answer her own questions. “Has the President been treated for Parkinson’s?” the 49-year-old asked herself. “No,” she replied.
“Is he being treated for Parkinson’s? No, he’s not. Is he taking medication for Parkinson’s? No.”
One reporter then shouted: “You’re not answering a very basic, direct question.”
It comes after a disastrous televised debate performance for Mr Biden that increased calls within the Democratic Party for the 81-year-old to call to an end his re-election bid.
Ms Jean-Pierre is now at the centre of the fight to defend the President against a barrage of attacks and questions over his mental fitness to run for another term.
Proceedings became increasingly fraught when reporters questioned whether the press secretary, who has held the role for two years, had misled them about a separate medical examination the President had received before his debate with his predecessor and Republican presidential rival Donald Trump.
Others accused Ms Jean-Pierre and the administration of withholding important information about the octogenarian President’s health.
“I am telling you he has seen a neurologist three times,” Ms Jean-Pierre insisted from behind the briefing lectern in a rebuff to reporters.
“That is what I’m sharing with you. So every time he has a physical, he has had to see a neurologist. So that is answering that question,” she continued, only to be met with a chorus of reporters pushing back at her response.
One reporter then asked directly if Dr Cannard had visited the President over a particular condition.
“I also said to you for security reasons, we cannot share names. We cannot share names,” Ms Jean-Pierre said. “We cannot share names of specialists broadly, from a dermatologist to a neurologist.”
The same reporter took issue with how the White House was sharing information with journalists, which was met with fierce rebuttal from Ms Jean-Pierre.
“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,” she said, hitting back.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s even in the log. I’m not going to do that from here. What I can share with you is the President has seen a neurologist for his physical three times.”
Ms Jean-Pierre, whose relationship with the press has at times been difficult, later told the reporters she took issue with the way they had quizzed her, saying it was “really, really unfair” and that “personal attacks” were “not okay”.
“I do take offence to what was just happening at the beginning of this briefing. It’s not okay,” she repeated.
“I appreciate the back-and-forth that we all have. I try to respect you, and I hope you try to respect me. And we literally do everything that we can to make sure that we get the answers to you.”
After the verbal warfare in the briefing room, Dr O’Connor released a statement protesting that Mr Biden had “not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical”. He instead implied that the Parkinson’s specialist had visited the White House to see other members of staff.
Ms Jean-Pierre took over from Mr Biden’s first press secretary, Jen Psaki, in May 2022. Trump, in contrast, had four press secretaries during his term in office as well as a brief 10-day stint at the lectern from Anthony Scaramucci.
Ms Jean-Pierre is the first black person and first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as White House press secretary, having previously been Ms Psaki’s deputy and chief of staff to Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2020 presidential campaign.
The briefing is a sign of the immense pressure she now faces, along with the rest of the White House, to quieten questions over Mr Biden’s age and mental acuity. Following a series of gaffes, his campaign had hoped to silence detractors with an energetic debate performance against Trump.
But concern for the President’s health was only heightened following the stumbling debate performance, in which he slurred his words, lost his train of thought and struggled to articulate himself.
Mr Biden admitted he “screwed up” but vowed to continue with his re-election bid, despite growing calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats and donors.
However, his appearances since the debate, in an ABC interview and at campaign events, have failed to reassure his party, with the President often appearing confused, hesitant, and making verbal slip-ups.
Six Democratic House members have publicly called on Mr Biden to quit his campaign so far, while other politicians have had private conversations in which they have urged him to step aside.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week found that one in three Democratic voters believe that Mr Biden should quit the race, with 59 per cent of respondents in the party saying he is too old to work in government.