WASHINGTON — How’s the patient’s head?
President Biden’s doctor gave him a nearly clean bill of health Thursday after his annual physical — but took no questions from reporters and didn’t address mounting concern about Biden’s mental acuity.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a five-page report Thursday evening that “President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”
O’Connor’s brief summary included nine areas of analysis — one fewer than after Biden’s most recent past physical in late 2021, when the president got a colonoscopy — and didn’t mention cognition, despite frequent instances of Biden appearing confused in public or sharing inaccurate memories.
The doctor wrote that the president continued to have “spinal arthritis,” contributing to a stiffer gait, and that he had a “small lesion” removed Thursday from his chest for skin-cancer testing.
Biden has seasonal allergies but no dental or eye concerns, O’Connor wrote, and is being treated for atrial fibrillation — an irregular heartbeat condition — hyperlipidemia and gastroesophageal reflux.
The president’s “gait remains stiff, but has not worsened since last year,” O’Connor wrote.
“After careful analysis of the patient’s history, findings on the detailed physical exam and review of radiologic imaging, the team concluded that much of his stiffness is in fact a result of degenerative (‘wear and tear’) osteoarthritic changes (or spondylosis) of his spine,” the doctor added.
The president continues to experience a “mild” loss of feeling in his feet. “Custom orthotics have been prescribed to optimize foot biomechanics,” O’Connor wrote.
Biden reported Thursday morning for his physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the exam was not expected to include a cognitive test, despite calls for one from some congressional Republicans.
The White House has never allowed O’Connor to take reporter questions — drawing condemnation from leaders of the press corps, especially when the doctor was not permitted to answer questions about Biden’s treatment for COVID-19 in July.
Dr. Ronny Jackson, who was the physician to former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, answered press questions for nearly an hour about Trump’s physical in 2018 — though Jackson, now a Republican Texas congressman, shocked listeners by claiming at one point that Trump might live to be “200 years old” if he had a better diet.
“Last time it was a press release that had very little information in it. And the physician to the president, Kevin O’Connor, owes it to the country to step up to the plate right now and stand up before the press and answer all the hard questions,” Jackson told The Post last week. “I had to defend all the information in the physical. That’s not happening anymore.”
“The objective data is not going to be good. They don’t want to get picked apart because it’s not going to be good,” Jackson went on. “They are going to be asked, ‘Did he get a cognitive exam done?’ The answer is going to be no because either they’re not going to do a cognitive exam or they’re going to do one and not let the American people know what the results were.”
Dr. David Scheiner, Obama’s longtime former personal physician, told the Washington Examiner that he also believes the White House will conceal information about Biden’s health.
“You’re not going to learn anything. They sugarcoat these things,” Scheiner told the Examiner.
“It worries me that he is aging. If I look at him, he’s not a young 80,” added Scheiner, noting that Biden, who is preparing to launch a re-election campaign, would be 86 if he completes a full second term.
Biden’s mental acuity came into intense focus when he asked “Where’s Jackie?” and searched for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) in September, despite publicly mourning her death and even calling her family to offer his condolences in August.
Biden has publicly referred to his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the “president” at least six times and this month welcomed former President Bill Clinton back to “Congress” while delivering remarks at the White House.
Biden also has been caught sharing a spate of false or unverifiable personal anecdotes.
In December, Biden claimed that his uncle Frank Biden won the Purple Heart for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II — but there’s no evidence of the award and key details make the president’s story factually impossible.
In October, Biden said firefighters nearly died extinguishing a blaze in his kitchen in 2004, prompting the local fire department to describe the event as relatively “insignificant” for trained professionals.
In May, Biden said at the Naval Academy’s graduation ceremony that he was appointed to the military school in 1965 by the late Sen. J. Caleb Boggs (R-Del.). A search of Boggs’ archives failed to turn up evidence of the appointment.
Biden’s most recent physical was in November 2021 and featured a colonoscopy using anesthesia that required Biden to hand over presidential powers to Harris for 85 minutes.
O’Connor released a six-page report after that exam giving Biden a relatively clean bill of health.
The White House physician wrote that he investigated Biden’s “perceptibly stiffer” gait and his “increasing frequency and severity of ‘throat clearing’ and coughing during speaking engagements,” but found nothing of concern.
“A combination of significant spinal arthritis, post-fracture ‘limp and compensation’ and a mild sensory peripheral neuropathy of the feet are the explanation for the subtle gait changes which I was investigating,” O’Connor wrote.
A foot fracture that Biden said occurred after tugging his then-dog Major’s tail after a shower in late 2020 had “healed nicely,” according to that report.
