President Joe Biden popped by the Walter Reed Medical Center Thursday morning to complete his long-awaited routine physical exam.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor is currently serving as the physician to the president tasked with assessing the 80-year-old Biden’s health. O’Connor previously found Biden “fit for duty” during the most recent physical released to the public and all eyes will be on the written summary of Thursday’s physical expected to be released later in the day.
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Shortly after assuming the presidency, Biden appointed O’Connor as White House physician to replace Dr. Sean Conley, who served as former President Donald Trump‘s physician to the president from 2018 to 2021.
Conley was mired by controversy after he confessed to offering a rosy account of Trump’s condition after contracting COVID-19 in the Fall of 2020. Conley’s predecessor was Dr. Ronny Jackson, who was engulfed in similar controversy for his assessment of Trump and later won a Texas congressional seat.
O’Connor is a retired Army colonel, who has a history with Biden, having overseen his physical in 2019, prior to his rise to the presidency. He has a degree in osteopathic medicine. As the White House physician, O’Connor helms a team of doctors in the White House Medical Unit, headquartered in the White House, per CNN.
Last year after Biden contracted the COVID-19 respiratory illness, O’Connor provided updates to the public as the president’s symptoms began to subside.
Walter Reed Medical Center, which is located in Maryland on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. has a presidential suit, which is where recent presidents have received most of their physicals and urgent medical treatments.
O’Connor is also in charge of tending to the medical needs of the first family and White House staff. Whenever Biden travels, a White House physician usually tags along with him, carrying medical equipment in case of an emergency.
Questions about Biden’s health have loomed over him amid buzz about him mounting a 2024 reelection campaign and his status as an octogenarian. Biden is already the oldest president in United States history. At the start of a hypothetical second term in office, he would be 82 and 86 by the end of it.
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Polls and focus groups have pegged unease among general voters about Biden’s age and ability to perform his duties already. Concerns about his age have circulated in some Democratic circles since the dawn of his presidency.
Biden’s exam Thursday marks his second publicly announced physical exam since taking on the presidency. It was disclosed to the public on Nov. 19, 2021. In the six-page report, O’Connor ticked off several ailments afflicting the president, including high cholesterol, irregular heartbeat, acid reflux, seasonal allergies, and spinal arthritis.
He also raised concerns about Biden’s “increasing frequency and severity of ‘throat clearing’ and coughing,” as well as his “perceptibly stiffer and less fluid” manner of walking. During that exam, O’Connor did not publicly reveal whether Biden underwent any cognitive tests.
Some of Biden’s rivals have insisted older politicians should undergo cognitive exams. This includes recently announced presidential contender Nikki Haley who called “mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”
Back in 2021, Biden underwent a routine colonoscopy, in which he received anesthesia. As a result, the presidential powers were briefly transferred to Vice President Kamala Harris, marking the first time a woman wielded such authority.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in January that “We will have one … by the time the end of this month is out,” but the Biden administration blew by that deadline. Officials attributed the delay to the president’s hectic schedule.
Prior to that, Biden told reporters he would complete his physical before the end of 2022 and indicated portions of it have already been completed.
“I’ve gotten my — I will get — part of my physical is already done, and I’ll be getting it before the end of the year,” Biden said on Thanksgiving.
Presidents are not legally required to publicly divulge their physicals, but they typically do so in the name of transparency.
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Biden has been defiant in the face of grumblings about his age and well-being.
“Watch me. It’s all I can say,” he told PBS earlier this month in response to questions about his age. “I heard that people are saying, ‘Well, just watch Biden, my God, age is not an issue anymore.’ Look, I’m a great respecter of fate. I would be completely, thoroughly honest with the American people if I thought there was any health problem.”
