WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is bringing his longtime physician, Kevin O’Connor, as the president’s new physician to the White House, filling a traditionally discreet role that has become a source of controversy in the Trump administration.
O’Connor, who served as Biden’s doctor for more than a decade, will replace Dr. Sean Conley, said a White House official. Conley was criticized for giving conflicting information to the public about former President Donald Trump’s condition after Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19 and hospitalized last October.
O’Connor started serving as a Biden doctor in 2009, when he was appointed a doctor to the then vice president and spent more than two decades in the army. As soon as Biden left the White House, O’Connor remained as his doctor and retired from the army. His hiring was first reported by ABC News.
Conley had replaced Dr. Ronny Jackson as a Trump doctor at the White House in 2018. Jackson stated earlier that year that Trump was in “excellent” health, despite his statement that the president needed to lose weight because he was almost obese.
Trump appointed Jackson to be his veterans affairs secretary, but Jackson withdrew his nomination after accusations of drinking at work and prescribing excessive medications for patients. Jackson now serves as a congressman in the Texas House.
