Former President Joe Biden’s physician was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a highly anticipated closed-door interview that ended before it ever really began.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor refused to answer any questions related to Biden’s health and stunned the House Oversight Committee when he pleaded the fifth. That led to the abrupt end of what was expected to be an hours-long deposition.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Mark Halperin, host of MK Media’s Next Up with Mark Halperin, to discuss the O’Connor’s behavior and why he is likely not going to be able to stay quiet for long.
The House Investigation
Last month, the House Oversight Committee began its investigation into Biden’s declining health while in office and his administration’s use of the autopen with a closed door, transcribed meeting with former White House Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden.
Dr. O’Connor, who served as White House physician during Biden’s tenure and has had a relationship with the Biden family since 2009, was also subpoenaed as part of the probe and was the next aide summoned to the Rayburn House Office Building for an interview.
The retired U.S. Army colonel has faced accusations that he helped cover-up the state of the former president’s health – including his cognitive decline and perhaps even his advanced-stage prostate cancer diagnosis – while he was in office.
O’Connor always offered a rosy assessment of Biden’s health in his annual reports, but he was forced to fend off critics last July after The New York Post and Alex Berenson discovered a Parkinson’s expert from Walter Reed Medical Center, Dr. Kevin Cannard, visited the White House some nine times in the year prior.
All of this was no doubt set to be discussed with O’Connor, but instead the meeting lasted all of 30 minutes after the physician cited doctor-patient privilege and the Fifth Amendment as his reasons for not answering questions.
“Dr. O’Connor pleaded the Fifth Amendment,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) revealed after the swift departure. In a follow-up statement, he said it is “clear there was a conspiracy to cover up” the forty-sixth president’s declining mental acuity and “Congress must assess legislative solutions to prevent such a cover-up from happening again.”
The Questions
According to Comer, O’Connor was asked two key questions and took the Fifth on each. They included:
- “Were you ever told to lie about the president’s health?”
- “Did you ever believe President Biden was unfit to execute his duties?”
The only question O’Connor reportedly did answer was the one confirming his name, and he did not take questions from reporters on his way out of the building. A member of his legal team said he had “no choice” but to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights due to the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into Biden’s use of the autopen and O’Connor’s responsibility to protect patient privacy as a doctor.
But Comer has pushed back on the privilege claims, saying his committee’s subpoena meets the American Medical Association’s requirement that physicians must share a patient’s medical information if “legally compelled to disclose the information” or “ordered to do so by legally constituted authority.”
Additionally, he has contented the privacy protections only limit a physician’s ability to disclose confidential patient information in D.C. courts and Congress is not a court. Megyn called the argument “compelling” and said O’Connor is likely going to be forced to cough up some answers soon enough.
“The odds of the DOJ and, certainly, Comer giving Dr. O’Connor immunity to remove his ability to raise the Fifth Amendment are very high,” she noted. “[President Donald] Trump doesn’t want to put Dr. O’Connor behind bars; he wants answers… This guy is going to be forced to talk at some point, and then we are going to learn what he’s so concerned about.”
Malpractice or Cover Up?
Halperin said the physician has an “obligation to the American people” to disclose what was going on with the former president’s health. “There is no mystery here… He either performed [medical] tests and lied about whether they were performed and didn’t disclose the results, or he didn’t perform them,” he said. “I don’t know what crime he might be guilty of, but I do know that he is abusing the public’s trust.”
He believes O’Connor is one of many in Biden’s inner circle that is now in a catch-22. “If the president was not being seen by a Parkinson’s expert, O’Connor should be stripped of his medical license. Of course, he should have been seen by a Parkinson’s expert, and of course, he should have been having regular brain scans to see what was going on,” Halperin added. “So, this is where they are kind of checkmated because they either didn’t do these things and it is malpractice [or they did and covered it up].”
Either way, Halperin said the public needs to know. “They act as if this is some private citizen who is entitled to his medical privacy, the way private citizens are,” he concluded. “He is the president. He was running for reelection… It is not some private, personal matter.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Halperin by tuning in to episode 1,104 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.