Press turns on White House at fiery press briefing over Biden health

Hours after President Joe Biden hit out at “elites” attempting to oust him from power, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced a barrage of questions from reporters demanding to know whether her boss had the mental capacity to continue the job.

During a frequently awkward and uncomfortable press conference in the Brady Briefing Room, Jean-Pierre repeatedly attempted to duck direct questions about Biden’s mental acuity, often citing security concerns.

Over the weekend, news broke that Dr. Kevin Cannard, a specialist in Parkinson’s disease, visited the White House eight times in eight months.

When Jean-Pierre was pressed for specifics about those visits, things got testy.

One particularly heated exchange saw Ed O’Keefe of CBS News repeatedly ask the press secretary to “state very clearly yes or not” if any of Cannard’s trips to the White House were to treat the president.

Instead of answering the question directly, Jean-Pierre told the assembled reporters that Biden had undergone three neurological exams since entering office as part of his annual physicals — but she declined to elaborate on Cannard’s trips, saying she was bound by personal security concerns.

“It doesn’t matter how hard you push me. It doesn’t matter how angry you get with me from here,” Jean-Pierre added after O’Keefe voiced additional frustration with “how information has been shared with the press corps.”

After a heated back-and-forth, Jean-Pierre eventually declared that Biden has never been treated for Parkinson’s.

“Has the president been treated for Parkinson’s? No. Is he being treated for Parkinson’s? No. Is he taking medication for Parkinson’s? No,” she declared.

The heated Monday exchange reflects the disconnect between what the White House has repeatedly said about Biden’s fitness for office and his shaky debate performance against former President Donald Trump, which sparked serious concerns among voters about Biden’s ability to serve. The White House has been hammered by the press since then about whether there have been misrepresentations about Biden’s health, who at age 81 is the oldest serving president.

Later in the briefing, in response to a question from Reuters‘ Andrea Shalal, Jean-Pierre defended past statements made by herself and other White House officials about the president’s medical exams by accusing reporters of waging “personal attacks” against the press office.

“To say that I’m withholding information or allude to anything else is not unfair. It’s really, really unfair,” she stated. “And I will admit I will be the first one to admit, sometimes I get it wrong. At least I admit that. At least I admit that. And sometimes I don’t have the information. And I will always always admit that. But I do take offense to what was just happening at the beginning of this briefing. It’s not ok.”

NBC News’s Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents Association, followed up on a similar line of questioning to find “clarity” on Cannard’s visits, leading to Jean-Pierre reiterating that “personal attacks are not ok.”

Jean-Pierre also sparred with The Grio’s April Ryan about the president’s messaging strategies ahead of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

“You’re asking me to speak to two things that I can’t speak to from here. That is something that the campaign and the convention can speak,” she stated. “You may not like my answer, but I’m telling you. The president’s going to continue to go out there.”

Earlier in the briefing, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby had been pressed on Biden’s age and mental acuity.

“In my experience, the last 2 1/2 years, I have not seen any reason whatsoever to question or doubt his lucidity, his grasp of context, his probing nature, and the degree to which he is completely in charge of facts and figures,” Kirby said, adding he was “uncomfortable” with the line of questioning.

The hostile press conference came hours after Biden wrote a letter to Democratic colleagues, telling them that he has no intention of bowing out of the 2024 campaign.

“We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election,” he wrote. “Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It is time to come together, move forward as a united party, and defeat Donald Trump.”

He immediately followed up the release of that letter by taking a leaf out of Trump’s book and phoning into a cable news breakfast show, although in this case, it was MSNBC’s Morning Joe, as opposed to Fox News’s Fox & Friends.

Throughout the call, Biden appeared angry and made several key talking points against Trump.

On Democrats looking to oust him, he declared: “Any of these guys that don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention.”

The Biden blitz comes as he attempts to put to rest any doubts about his candidacy following a disastrous debate 10 days ago against Trump.

Several Democrats have called on him to exit the race.

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You can watch Monday’s briefing in full below.