(WASHINGTON) — Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former President Joe Biden’s physician, is appearing before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday for a closed-door, transcribed interview.
O’Connor was subpoenaed by Committee Chairman James Comer as part of a Republican-led investigation into Biden’s mental fitness and use of a presidential autopen while in office.
O’Connor didn’t take any questions from reporters as he arrived at the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday morning.
Comer stopped to talk to reporters ahead of the meeting, saying they have “a lot of questions” for the doctor.
“Dr. O’Connor’s reports were glowing with how healthy the president was. I think the president — the state of the president’s health is the transparency that we all expect. The president of the United States is the most powerful person in the world. The American people have a right to know the health condition of the president, both fiscal and mental,” Comer said.
The House Oversight Committee has requested interviews with several of Biden’s former White House aides in light of a reports questioning his mental fitness in his final year in office and alleged efforts by those around him to cover it up.
Neera Tanden, who served as the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Biden, sat for testimony in late June. When asked after by reporters if there was an effort to disguise Biden’s condition, Tanden replied: “Absolutely not.”
O’Connor is expected to be questioned on his medical assessments of Biden.
“The Committee continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding your assessment in February 2024 that former President Biden was ‘a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency,'” Comer wrote in his letter to O’Connor in May.
The White House waived executive privilege for O’Connor ahead of his appearance. The House Oversight Committee previously requested O’Connor and aides sit for interviews while Biden was president, but Biden blocked the request.
Months after leaving the White House, Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Biden rejected reports of cognitive decline during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” in early May, before his office announced his cancer diagnosis.
“They are wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that,” Biden said at the time.
Former first lady Jill Biden, in the same interview, pushed back forcefully to accusations she shielded Biden from allies and the public.
“I did not create a cocoon around him. I mean, you saw him in the Oval Office. You saw him making speeches. He wasn’t hiding somewhere,” she said.
Since then, former president Biden has spoken at some events, including at the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference in San Diego last week, where he reflected on his leadership and career.
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