First appearance on FOX House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called on the White House physician to appear before Congress to answer questions about President Biden’s “deteriorating mental health,” and also revealed the doctor’s involvement in the Biden family’s business dealings.
Fox News Digital obtained the letter sent Sunday to Dr. Kevin O’Connor from Kentucky Republican Rep. Comer, in which he questions whether O’Connor is “positioned to provide an accurate, independent assessment of the President’s fitness to serve” given his “connections” to the Biden family.
Comer wants to know whether O’Connor’s medical examination of the president was improperly influenced by her work with the Biden family at Americore.
Comer has asked the White House for records proving the $200,000 payment from his brother to Biden was a loan.
“Following concerns about President Biden’s performance in the June 27 debate between former President Donald Trump and former president Donald Trump, journalists rushed to report on what the American public has seen clearly for years: the president appears to be in poor health,” Comer wrote.
President Biden spoke at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Comer said the committee was investigating the circumstances surrounding O’Connor’s assessment of the president in February because Americans have doubts about Biden’s “ability to lead the country.”
Comer noted that O’Connor had determined in February that the president was “a healthy, active, robust man aged 81 who remains physically capable of successfully discharging the duties of the office of the President.”
But Comer pointed to reports that O’Connor did not encourage Biden to take a cognitive test.
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“The Oversight Committee is concerned that your medical examination was influenced by your private business activities with the Biden family,” Comer wrote.
Comer said the committee has obtained evidence showing he, along with the president’s brother, James Biden, were involved with Americor Health LLC.
President Biden speaks with White House physician Kevin O’Connor upon his return to the White House on August 28, 2023. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Americore, which operates rural hospitals, is under investigation by the committee as part of the presidential impeachment investigation, specifically in connection with work it did for James Biden that netted him more than $600,000.
According to the committee, James Biden received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments while he was a principal at Americore. The committee found that James Biden received a $200,000 wire transfer from the company in 2018 and then used that wire transfer to write a $200,000 check to his brother, President Biden, which Biden called a “loan repayment.”
James Biden received loan but failed to provide services to Americore despite promising to use his last name, trustee claims
Other Americore employees said James Biden never provided any services to the company but instead promised that the name “Biden” could bring funds to a struggling hospital operator in the Middle East.
That employee, Carol Fox, Americore’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee, testified that the loans were offered to Biden without any documentation in exchange for promises of funding from the Middle East that never materialized. She filed suit against James Biden, alleging that he “represented that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could garner significant investment from the Middle East based on his political connections.”
But in James Biden’s interview with the committee earlier this year, he told investigators that O’Connor “gave him advice in connection with work she purportedly was doing for AmeriCore.”
James Biden arrives at the federal courthouse during Hunter Biden’s trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
“For example, I met with my brother. He wasn’t in the presidency at the time. He was a civilian. I met with him as vice president through his physician, Col. Kevin O’Connor,” James Biden testified. “And Col. Kevin O’Connor remains a very strong voice for solutions to post-traumatic stress disorder.”
James Biden said O’Connor “introduced me to a team that works on PTSD and alcoholism” amid “delays” at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Comer questions $200,000 “direct payment” from James Biden to Joe Biden in 2018
Comer’s letter also said O’Connor, along with Hunter Biden, “attended meetings between Jim Biden and the president of a hospital that Americore is acquiring.”
Hunter Biden was convicted of all charges by a Delaware jury. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The White House has maintained that Biden has not seen a doctor since February, but the president himself told Democratic governors on a call last week that “he’s been seeing a doctor and everything is fine.”
President Biden speaks during a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School on Friday, July 5, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Molly Gash)
“Statements from the White House Press Secretary and President Biden appear to be contradictory, and the Committee would like to understand the extent of your role in the White House at this time,” Comer wrote. “Given your ties to the Biden family, the Committee would also like to understand whether you are in a position to provide an accurate and independent assessment of the President’s fitness to serve.”
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Comer has asked O’Connor to submit to a recorded interview with House Oversight Committee lawyers by July 14. He is also requesting all documents and communications O’Connor has regarding Americore and James Biden.
The move to ask O’Connor to cooperate with Congress comes amid calls from senior Democratic Party officials, former staff and allies for Biden to end his reelection campaign.
But the White House insists President Biden is “absolutely not” considering a withdrawal. 2024 presidential election.
“I’m running. I’m the leader of the Democratic Party. Nobody’s trying to get rid of me,” Biden said last week.
