Former President Joe Biden walks with his White House physician, Kevin O’Connor, outside the White House on Aug. 28, 2023. O’Connor declined to testify Wednesday as part of an investigation by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee into Biden’s mental fitness.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Former President Joe Biden’s longtime physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, has said he will not testify as part of a Republican-led congressional investigation into Biden’s health while in office.
O’Connor declined to answer questions during a deposition scheduled for Wednesday in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government, asserting physician-patient privilege as well as his right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment. In a statement, his attorneys said the decision “was made necessary by the unique circumstances of this deposition.”
O’Connor, who served as Biden’s physician for all four years of his presidency, was subpoenaed to testify as part of an investigation into what Republicans describe as “the cover-up of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.”
Though repeatedly rejected by the Biden administration, concern and speculation surrounding the former president’s physical and mental fitness plagued the latter years of his term. Since leaving office, new reporting has alleged that Biden’s staff may have taken steps to hide his decline, which has fueled additional questions from GOP lawmakers. It also comes just months after Biden announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
A statement provided to the committee on behalf of O’Connor said that cooperating with the probe would have violated his professional obligation to maintain patient information and risked the revocation of his medical license.
“Dr. O’Connor will not violate his oath of confidentiality to any of his patients, including President Biden,” it said.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who chairs the committee, criticized O’Connor for his decision to “hide behind the Fifth Amendment.”
“The American people demand transparency, but Dr. O’Connor would rather conceal the truth,” Comer said in a statement. “We will continue to interview more Biden White House aides to get the answers Americans deserve.”
Comer has called for a slew of former Biden officials to testify, including former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and former senior advisers Anita Dunn and Michael Donilon. He’s also requested interviews from Ronald Klain and Jeff Zients, both of whom served as chief of staff to Biden at different points during his term.
Despite criticism from Republican lawmakers, O’Connor’s attorneys noted in their statement Wednesday that President Trump has also previously exercised his Fifth Amendment right, highlighting a 2022 deposition in a New York State Attorney General investigation, where Trump said that, “anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool.”
Biden addressed and rejected allegations that his cognitive health declined in the final year of his presidency during an appearance on ABC’s The View in May.
“They are wrong,” Biden said. “There’s nothing to sustain that.”
