The White House has squashed rumours that Joe Biden has Parkinson’s, after reports emerged that an expert of the disease had visited the US President’s doctor this year.
According to White House visitor logs analysed by The New York Times, Dr Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s expert at Walter Reed medical centre, met the President’s long-standing doctor, Dr Kevin O’Connor, in January.
The visit followed seven others made by Dr Cannard to the White House since August 2023.
During a briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to confirm Dr Cannard’s visit and said that Biden was not being treated for Parkinson’s. She said he had been given a clean bill of health in February.
“Has the president been treated for Parkinson’s?” she said. “No. Is he being treated for Parkinson’s? No.”
Dr Cannard is said to make regular visits to the White House to support the White House Medical Unit, and made similar trips during the Obama administration, according to visitor logs, and during the Trump administration, a source told the Associated Press.
The latest revelations come after widespread concern over the President’s health following a stumbling debate performance against Donald Trump, where Biden slurred his words, lost his train of thought and struggled to articulate himself.
Biden, 81, has admitted he “screwed up” but vowed to continue with his re-election bid, despite calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats and donors.
Six Democratic House members have publicly called on Biden to quit his campaign, while other politicians have had private conversations in which they have urged him to step aside, and several high-profile donors have raised concerns about his viability in the race.
Congressman Adam Smith, a high-ranking Democrat, became the latest to publicly call for Biden to withdraw from the race on Monday, saying it had “become clear that he’s not the best person to carry the Democratic message”.
“I think we need a different choice if we’re going to be able to beat Donald Trump,” he told CNN.
Mr Smith was one of four senior House Democrats to urge Biden during a private phone call on Sunday to stand down. Smith said Vice-President Kamala Harris was a “much better, stronger candidate”.
But Biden resisted the calls in a letter to the Democratic party on Monday, where he said “any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us”.
“It’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump,” he wrote.
Meanwhile Donald Trump, in an interview on Fox News, said he thought Biden “might very well stay in” the race.
“Nobody to wants to give that up that way,” Trump added. “He is going to feel badly about himself for a long time. It’s hard to give it up that way, the way where they’re trying to force him out.”
On Friday, Biden ruled out taking an independent cognitive test and releasing its findings publicly. It is not the first time he has been urged to take a test – or to refuse. In August 2020, Biden dismissed a reporter’s question with: “Why the hell would I take a test?”
Other Democrats have come out in support of the President.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week found that one in three Democratic voters believe that Biden should quit the race, with 59 per cent of respondents in the president’s party saying he is too old to work in government.
However, the same poll found that none of his possible replacements fared better in a match-up against Trump, while Biden and Trump tied at 40 per cent.