President Joe Biden speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 18, 2024, the day after the White House says the president met with a neurologist as a part of his annual medical exam.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images/File
CNN  — 

President Joe Biden saw a neurologist at the White House in January as part of his annual physical, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a new statement Tuesday evening, correcting her comment from earlier in the day that the specialist’s visit earlier this year had not been related to the president.

“Because the date was not mentioned in the question, I want to be clear that the January 17th meeting between Dr. O’Connor and Dr. Cannard was for the President’s physical,” Jean-Pierre said. “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.”

 

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Jean-Pierre had been asked in Tuesday’s White House press briefing whether neurologist Dr. Kevin Cannard’s meeting with the president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, on January 17 was “related to care for the president himself.” (CNN previously confirmed via White House visitors’ logs that the two men had met in January at the White House.)

Jean-Pierre answered: “I can say that it was not.”

The reference in Jean-Pierre’s new statement blaming the fact that a specific date had not been mentioned in the reporter’s question does not pass muster. Cannard was listed on the White House visitors logs multiple times over the past year, but only once – in January – shown to have met with O’Connor. The reason for that particular visit had been a focus of multiple questions in Monday’s White House press briefing.

Jean-Pierre’s correction reveals that Cannard had not only met with O’Connor in relation to the president in January, but that he had examined the president during that visit as a part of his annual medical exam.

This is not the first time that Jean-Pierre’s answers to questions related to the president’s health since his disastrous debate performance last month have required clarification.

Biden was examined by his physician in the days following last month’s CNN presidential debate, the White House told CNN last week — despite having previously said that the president has had no medical exams since his February physical and had not been “checked out by the doctor” for his cold around the debate.