PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Democrat White House staffers planned for the possibility that former President Joe Biden would need to serve most of his second term confined to a wheelchair. The octogenarian Democrat’s physical decline was so alarming that his doctor warned aides that if he had another fall, Biden would be confined to a wheelchair during a difficult recovery.
👥 Who’s Involved: Former President Joe Biden, Doctor Kevin O’Connor, Doctor Kevin Cannard, Democrat White House aides, and Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper.
📍 Where & When: The medical assessments were made throughout Biden’s presidency from 2021 until 2025, while the revelation of the coverup and Dr. O’Connor’s concerns were made on May 13, 2025.
💬 Key Quote: “Given Biden’s age, [his physician Kevin O’Connor] also privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery,” an excerpt reads from a forthcoming book on the coverup of Biden’s declining health.
⚠️ Impact: The revelation that former President Biden’s doctor and White House aides hid his reduced physical health from the public may trigger an extensive congressional investigation into the actions of the prior government. Additionally, the revelations raise serious challenges as to whether any details of the president’s physical examination by health professionals should be kept confidential from the American public.
IN FULL:
Former President Joe Biden‘s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, warned White House aides that if he had suffered another fall in 2023 or 2024, the octogenarian Democrat would need to be confined to a wheelchair and face an arduous recovery. The revelations on Biden’s physical state are made in a new book authored by Axios’s Alex Thompson and CNN’s Jake Tapper—well after Biden had already left office.
“Given Biden’s age, [his physician Kevin O’Connor] also privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery,” an excerpt from the book reads. In a typical media environment, the revelation would mean a grave political scandal, as O’Connor, as late as 2024, had publicly reported that Biden’s physical examination was nominal and gave the Democrat president a clean bill of health. The National Pulse reported on concerns over the accuracy and veracity of O’Connor’s examination of Biden repeatedly in 2024, and on whether the Democrat White House was covering up the president’s cognitive and physical decline.
Concerns over Biden’s physical fragility led to White House staff preparing contingency plans for Biden to run his eventually abandoned 2024 re-election campaign while confined to a wheelchair. Aides also reportedly prepared for Biden to serve his second term while using a wheelchair, had he successfully run and won re-election.
At the end of the Biden presidency, his staff went to great lengths to ensure the octogenarian Democrat did not suffer another catastrophic fall. Public events were carefully choreographed to include instructions taped to the ground directing Biden where to walk, the use of handrails on all stairs and stages at public events, and Biden began wearing special shoes that provided him with a greater degree of balance and stability when walking.
However, Thompson and Tapper’s book notes that White House aides ignored O’Connor and other medical professionals’ advice that Biden should receive more rest and cut back on his public commitments. While the other medical professionals are not yet known and may not be named in the book, at least one was likely Dr. Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s and deep brain disorder specialist who visited the White House and Dr. O’Connor numerous times in 2023 and 2024.
The insistence by his aides that Biden maintain a modest workload left O’Connor to quip that the White House staff was trying to kill Biden while he, his doctor, was tasked with keeping him alive.
