WASHINGTON — Former White House doctor Kevin O’Connor will be among those grilled by House Republicans for hiding President Biden’s cognitive decline from the American public, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) told The Post.
“Dr. Kevin O’Connor will absolutely, positively be implicated in the cover-up of this. He is a massive, massive part,” said Jackson, a physician by trade who served in the White House Medical Unit under three presidents before being elected to Congress, where he now chairs the House Intelligence Committee’s subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
“I guarantee you Kevin O’Connor has medical information that the American people don’t have,” Jackson went on. “He was probably putting President Biden on lots of medications that we have no clue of — in efforts to try to treat his cognitive decline.”
“I’ve known him for a long time; he’s part of the Biden family. He would do or say anything to cover up and protect that family, regardless of what it meant professionally for him,” he added. “This could not have been covered up without him — and Jill Biden — in particular.”
The Republican lawmaker said a House panel “will look into whether or not we actually had a shadow presidency for a large part of [Biden’s] term,” though it’s unclear whether any committee is preparing for the probe just yet.
The reclusive O’Connor, who told The Post Biden’s mental fitness was “excellent” just four days after his boss was forced out of the 2024 race, was asked last year to come in for questioning before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee, though it’s unclear if he ever responded to the voluntary request.
Jackson said House GOP lawmakers also want to haul in doctors and other experts who may have “tested and evaluated” Biden, who was 82-years-old when running for re-election, for “Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and whatever else.”
One Parkinson’s specialist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Dr. Kevin Cannard, visited the White House eight times between July 2023 and March 2024, per visitor logs, though O’Connor stressed that just three of those visits were held with the president for annual physicals.
Asked whether Americans should be concerned about the visits, O’Connor told The Post last July: “No, he’s good.”
The White House earlier that year said O’Connor believed the commander-in-chief “doesn’t need a cognitive test” — even as Biden had mixed up the names of dead and living foreign dignitaries in public remarks, and was not prosecuted by Robert Hur in part because the special counsel said a jury would view him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Neurologist Dr. Tom Pitts told NBC News after his debate in July 2024, “I could’ve diagnosed him from across the Mall,” adding that Parkinson’s is “one of the easier movement disorders to diagnose” and pointing specifically to the president’s “rigidity,” “shuffling gait” and “slow movement.”
O’Connor, whom Biden affectionately called “Doc,” never entered the executive mansion’s press briefing room to answer questions about the president’s health during his four-year term.
He was succeeded by Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, who served as Trump’s personal physician in the 45th president’s first term after Jackson.
Jackson said that the House probe of the Biden White House will hold responsible those “purposely lying to the American people and covering this up.”
“I was saying that this man was not fit to be president when he was candidate Joe Biden in 2020 — and I said that over and over and over and God knows how many times I was on TV,” Jackson said, “talking about [how] this man is not in control.”
“Not only do they know now — but they knew, you know, two or three years ago,” he also pointed out. “These people are cashing in on, you know, telling the truth now and writing these books and stuff that’s coming out of the woodwork.”
Since Biden has left office, more has emerged about serious concerns by Dems about Biden’s flagging mental acuity, including early preparations if he were to “die in office” and how “out of it” he was before his June 27 debate against Trump, which longtime aide Ron Klain branded a “disaster.”
After the debate, former First Lady Jill Biden went on stage and now-infamously cheered her husband: “Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question! You knew all the facts!”
The conservative Heritage Foundation analyzed the president’s signatures on last-minute pardons we — including for Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of the House Select January 6th Committee — and concluding that several were signed with an autopen.
And Biden White House sources later spilled to The Post that one key aide may have unilaterally made decisions to use the mechanical device for official documents, though other officials disputed the charge.
Other pardons signed for Biden family members may have also shielded O’Connor, who was involved in business discussions with first brother James for a since-bankrupted rural hospital chain that was hit with fraud allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department.
James Biden was granted clemency from any potential prosecution of acts spanning from Jan. 1, 2014, to Jan. 20, 2024, on the president’s final day in office.
“Any of the things that he signed or put into law, are they legitimate?” Jackson asked. “That’s a great question.”
“Was he even aware of what was going on, much less actually, you know, in favor of the stuff he signed?”
The Post reached out to O’Connor, reps for Jill Biden and the House Oversight Committee for comment.
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