Reporters at the White House for a second day running demanded to know why Joe Biden's physician is refusing to appear before them and answer questions about his health, breaking a precedent set by every other president before him.
Biden is holed up isolating, purportedly with COVID, in the White House, yet reporters are becoming frustrated with the administration's lack of effort to update them.
COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha took the brunt of the backlash Monday with reports from Fox News, The New York Times, CBS News and Newsmax all demanding to know why the White House physician Colonel Kevin O'Connor is nowhere to be seen.
CBS News Radio White House correspondent Steven Portnoy asked "why the President's personal physician is not here? Are you familiar with a reason? Has the President decided not to send his physician here to answer our questions the way that his predecessors have decided to send their physicians here?"
Jha attempted to brush off the topic, claiming that reporters have "heard every day from the President's physician through his detailed accounting of his assessment, his plan."
Portnoy pressed on, however, stating "Forgive me. There is a history here in this room of President's physicians standing here to take questions, and in part, it's because some of your colleagues in the medical profession do have questions and they've asked us to ask those questions about why the President's doctor ordered him to stop taking Crestor & Eliquis."
Portnoy continued, "You have done your best to communicate the answer that the President's physician has given. But are you familiar with the reason why the President decided not to send his doctor out to answer questions?"
Again, there was no answer:
"Are you familiar with a reason the president decided not to send his physician here to answer our questions the way his predecessors have?"
Biden COVID Coordinator Ashish Jha: "Yeah, so, um, look..." pic.twitter.com/BtNiRz1C1d
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 25, 2022
Fox News' Peter Doocy continued the line of questioning, asking "is this a situation where Dr. O'Connor does not want to come and talk about the President's health or where the President doesn't want Dr. O'Connor talking about his health?"
Again Jha did not have an answer, instead claiming that neither O'Conner nor Biden have said they don't want the doctor to appear.
Dr. Ashish Jha insists that neither Joe Biden nor his doctor is preventing Biden’s doctor from briefing the press.
So who is making that decision and why? pic.twitter.com/m4YUnea48W
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 25, 2022
What are they hiding?
via zerohedge