In four White House press briefings since President Biden’s calamitous debate performance, not a single reporter has asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre why she and her deputies have repeatedly lied about Biden’s declining mental state.
After years of dodging the truth, the dam appears to be breaking for Jean-Pierre as eagle-eyed reporters are finally pushing back on her falsehoods.
Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday that a January meeting between Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, and neurological specialist Dr. Kevin Cannard was unrelated to Biden’s care.
This, as The Associated Press’ (AP) Seung Min Kim alluded to on Twitter, was untrue. Jean-Pierre later admitted that Biden received a neurological exam at the January meeting, according to The AP.
On Tuesday, @PressSec said a WH meeting between Biden’s doctor and a neurologist was not related to Biden’s care.
That was not true. Hours later, she said that meeting was actually when Biden got his neurological exam. https://t.co/obAgDOnXML
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) July 10, 2024
Jean-Pierre’s fib occurred the day after The New York Times released a report noting Dr. Cannard had visited the White House eight times between July 2023 and March 2024. Dr. Cannard is an expert on movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, according to The Times.
Following The Times report, the White House released a letter from Dr. O’Connor to Jean-Pierre explaining that Biden had not seen a neurological expert outside of his yearly physicals. The White House and Dr. O’Connor previously reported Biden’s last physical results Feb. 28, over a month after Dr. Cannard conducted his neurological exam January 17, according The AP.
HOLY CRAP
The White House blatantly lied about Biden’s mental exam
1. KJP and the WH doctor claimed Biden didn’t see a neurologist outside of his annual physical (February)
2. Now the WH admits Biden saw the neurologist separately, in JANUARY pic.twitter.com/CjfGpuLTbf
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) July 10, 2024
While Kim went as far as identifying Jean-Pierre’s statement as “not true” on Twitter, she and other White House reporters have shied from outright labeling Jean-Pierre’s mistruths as lies and have failed to ask her why she’s been stating falsities during White House briefings.
It’s possible that reporters outside of the largely corporate backed outlets like The AP, CNN, The New York Times and others, would be more open to asking Jean-Pierre why she’s been lying to the American public about Biden’s cognitive decline. This would be impossible to know for certain, however, because Jean-Pierre is notorious for freezing out independent media.
Newsmax’s White House reporter James Rosen has previously griped about being “blackballed” by the White House communications team for asking a question about Biden’s cognitive fitness.
When I asked @POTUS on January 19, 2022, “with utmost respect for your life accomplishments and the high office you hold,” why the electorate harbored such profound concerns about his cognitive fitness, it was considered rude, and I was blackballed in briefings for eight months. pic.twitter.com/oewwYTPpgO
— James Rosen (@JamesRosenTV) June 28, 2024
Rosen’s freeze-out has been so pronounced, he’s taken to shouting his questions out during briefings, something Jean-Pierre and another reporter jointly scolded him for.
Jean-Pierre’s Cannard canard was hardly the first time the press caught her red-handed stating mistruths about Biden’s health since the debate.
Following Biden’s debate debacle, Jean-Pierre denied that Biden had received any “medical exams” following his February physical.
“We were able to talk to his doctor about that and that is a ‘no,’” Jean-Pierre said during a July press briefing.
But Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates appeared to directly contradict her remarks, telling reporters Thursday that Biden’s doctor examined him after the debate to check on a cold, CNN’s MJ Lee reported.
White House spox Andrew Bates confirms Biden was examined by his doctor in the days following last week’s debate “to check on his cold and was recovering well.”
I asked WH press secretary yesterday if Biden had gotten any medical exam after his February physical and she said no: https://t.co/qhNHlElUTf pic.twitter.com/GOUUiXhIoR
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) July 4, 2024
In February, after special counsel Robert Hur described Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” the White House pushed back aggressively. Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Adviser to the White House Counsel’s office, Ian Sams, called Hur’s comments “gratuitous,” an echo of remarks made by former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder. (RELATED: Even As Riled Up As They Are, No One In The White House Press Is Willing To Call KJP A Liar)
The administration appeared to malign Hur, casting his assessment of Biden’s memory as an overzealous attempt to save face in light of the fact that Hur’s months long investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents did not result in any indictments.
“When you are the first special counsel in history not to indict anybody, there is pressure to criticize and to make, you know, statements that maybe and otherwise you wouldn’t make,” Sams said in a February press briefing.
Jean-Pierre herself deployed the term “cheap fakes” in June to characterize videos of the President being guided by world leaders, including former President Barack Obama, as deceptively edited by his political opponents to make him look bad.
Now, following scores of Biden ally admissions that the President looks like he’s cognitively declining, including a recent admission by Hollywood Democrat George Clooney that Biden was “the same man we all witnessed at the debate” during his major Los Angeles fundraiser, Jean-Pierre’s cheap fakes claim appears to be wholly debunked.
George Clooney: “the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.” pic.twitter.com/3QFpAv23N9
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) July 10, 2024
And while reporters like Rosen have offered pushback on her claims, that pushback has stopped short of accusing her of outright lying.
The White House spin doctors also took extreme exception to an early June Wall Street Journal article that quoted a number of Republican lawmakers who noted Biden’s decline.
The article, titled “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping,” rankled the communications team so much that they reportedly contacted House Democrats whom the Journal interviewed for the story to call the outlet back and clarify their statements, Real Clear Investigations reported.
BREAKING: The White House was so worried about a new Wall Street Journal expose on Biden’s cognitive decline during meetings that it pressured NY Rep Gregory Meeks and other Democrats interviewed for the article to call back the WSJ reporters to offer positive remarks about Biden
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) June 5, 2024
White House communications director Ben LaBolt tweeted his indignation for the piece, writing, “Complete and utter editorial fail by the WSJ. Makes you wonder who they’re taking orders from.”
Yep. Complete and utter editorial fail by the @wsj. Makes you wonder who they’re taking orders from … https://t.co/akqlpuhGrG
— Ben LaBolt (@WHCommsDir) June 5, 2024
The Biden team outlined how, of the 45 people the Journal interviewed for the piece, the story largely quoted Republicans.
Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who says the Journal interviewed her for the story but did not quote, bashed the story as being a Republican attack on Biden in an early June tweet.
Surprise, surprise—everyone attacking @POTUS is a Republican with an agenda.
I made clear to the @WSJ regarding the January meeting on Ukraine that the President was absolutely engaged & ran that meeting in a way that brought everyone together.
I’m not quoted—I wonder why. https://t.co/vokfHWjk6p
— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) June 5, 2024
“Surprise, surprise—everyone attacking POTUS is a Republican with an agenda,” Murray wrote.
She also expressed to the Journal in April she hadn’t seen a change in Biden’s fitness while working with him. “He engages in a very personal way, asking questions,” Murray said. “He is listening and absorbing.”
But following Biden’s debate, Murray, like many of his former allies, seemed to change her tune.
“I believe President Biden must do more to demonstrate he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump,” she wrote in a statement Monday.
Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray says there needs to be more energy in presidential campaign.
“At this critical time for our country, President Biden must seriously consider the best way to preserve his incredible legacy and secure it for the future.” pic.twitter.com/ZIaUGUrZ6c
— Jennifer Shutt (@JenniferShutt) July 9, 2024
” … we need to see a much more forceful and energetic candidate on the campaign trail in the very near future in order for him to convince voters he is up to the job,” she wrote.
In four press briefings since the debate, not a single reporter has asked KJP about her clear history of pushing lies and misinformation about Biden’s mental health.
There is so much drama in America today that it’s hard to keep track of it all, but one side note worth…
— Neil Patel (@NeilPatelTDC) July 10, 2024