Who is Kevin O’Connor? Biden’s low-profile physician thrust into spotlight

WASHINGTON (AP) — Because the president needs a doctor Joe Biden, Dr. Kevin O’Connor heads the entire White Area. The burly former military surgeon is always the same on the case with his primary patient, able to offer assistance or seek advice as needed, even if little outside Vikas knows who he is.

Although Biden is politically crippled debate efficiency Revised all that. The resulting and uncomfortable questions about the 81-year-old Democratic president’s mental and physical ability to serve a second four-year term have thrust O’Connor into the spotlight.

In February, just four months before the fatal debate, O’Connor oversaw Biden’s latest physical examination and wrote in a public memorandum that the President “remains fit for duty and fully executes all his responsibilities without any waiver or adjustment.” White Area said Tuesday that the doctor’s assessment is still pending.

However, some Republican lawmakers now want the man Biden calls only “doctor” to return to Capitol Hill and answer their questions regarding the president’s fitness and treatment at the hospital. There are also questions about why he did not induce his influencer – the President – ​​to undergo cognitive testing.

And on Monday, then-White Area press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to discuss, citing confidentiality, that a neurologist researching Parkinson’s disorder visited the campus 8 times between July 2023 and this March. Why did it, it was o’. Connor stepped in to clarify the upcoming issues.

he left a Letter Explaining late Monday night that the doctor, Kevin Kennard, is a neurologist who evaluated each of Biden’s three physical exams since he takes office in 2021. O’Connor said Kennard also treats others in the White Area, explaining his occasional presence there.

O’Connor and Biden have had an on-again, off-again love affair for more than a decade.

After serving in the Army for more than 20 years, O’Connor met then-President George W. White joined the Area Clinical Unit at Bush’s invitation. He was hoping to complete his three-year journey by serving six months with the incumbent vice president — Biden — during the then Obama administration beginning in 2009.

“It didn’t work out and so, I spent eight whole years with them,” O’Connor joked in an interview last year with the Fresh York Institute of Era School of Osteopathic Medicine about his role as president. ” Famous doctor.

He retired after Obama and Biden left office, although he remained with Biden as his personal physician. Biden reintroduced O’Connor to white territory if he becomes president in 2021.

“I retired and I had a plan, and here I am again,” said O’Connor, who grew up in Fresh Jersey.

When the then Vice President’s eldest son Beau died of brain cancer, Dr. Biden was a central figure and sounding board for people. According to Biden’s memoir of that period of his month, “Promise Me Dad”, O’Connor supported Beau Biden on his top-notch treatment and presented him with a sober assessment of his diagnosis. O’Connor was also in the running room to comfort Beau Biden as he underwent a craniotomy, Biden wrote. beau biden died In May 2015.

Friendly and strong-built, O’Connor, 58, married and the father of three daughters, is a cheery presence in Biden’s inner circle, regularly mixing clinical recommendations with jokes. He often travels with Biden, which is common for all presidents, and can regularly be seen wearing a thick medical bag and riding in a spare limousine within the presidential motorcade.

White Area Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said O’Connor, a health care provider of osteopathic medicine, is someone whose “unique expertise is sought after in the medical community, including his candor, attention to detail. He is respected.” And work ethic.”

Despite the fact that he largely works in the background, some area Republicans want to emphasize the political back and forth over Biden’s debate efficiency in order to get a brighter shine as a doctor.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the Area Oversight Committee, sent a Letter Urged O’Connor to sit down for a written interview with the committee to talk about his clinical assessment of the President.

“Americans have questioned President Biden’s ability to lead the country and the Oversight and Accountability Committee is investigating the circumstances surrounding your assessment in February of this year that ‘President Biden is a healthy, active, strong 81-year-old man. , who stay fit.” To successfully execute the duties of the presidency…’,” Comer wrote.

Comer also asked O’Connor to turn over documents related to her alleged ties to Biden People’s companies. Comer alleges that O’Connor worked discreetly in the past with the president’s brother, James Biden, at an organization that runs rural hospitals and says the connection influenced his clinical judgment about Biden’s cognitive status. Has been tarnished.

White Area spokesman Ian Sams wrote on social media Tuesday that Comer’s request was “absolutely ridiculous and outrageous.”

Before joining the White Area Clinical Unit under the Bush leadership, O’Connor was the command surgeon for the Army’s “Delta Force,” the secret special operations unit that later killed Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. His tour of duty included stints with the 82nd Airborne and 75th Ranger Regiment, and he was one of the first soldiers to visit during U.S. military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Biden wrote in his memoir that O’Connor served in “intense combat” in counterterrorism operations following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

In a statement to the American School of Osteopathic Community Physicians, O’Connor credited his training in osteopathic manipulation for helping him obtain the Delta Power procedure, then taking over a few operators, and relocating to White Area, Then an employee recruited him to honor Bush.

He teaches phase year in the clinical faculty of George Washington College.

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AP White Area correspondent Zeke Miller and Associated Press editor Farnoush Amiri in Washington and AP researcher Rhonda Schaffner in New York contributed to this document.