Top Obama administration strategist David Axelrod and former GOP strategist Robert Gibbs called out Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on their podcast Tuesday for giving a “bullshit” answer when discussing a Parkinson specialist visiting the White House for President Joe Biden.
Axelrod, co-host and media consultant Mike Murphy and their guest Bill Kristol on “Hacks on Tap” discussed the ongoing chaos in the Democratic Party over Biden remaining as the presidential nominee despite calls for him to step aside. Axelrod began with his concerns with the lack of transparency from the White House about Biden. (RELATED: ‘Hard Things Done In Pursuit Of Democracy’: Blue State Congresswoman Latest To Call For Biden To Step Aside From Race)
“You know one of the concerns about him staying is you want this race to be about Donald Trump and the threat that Donald Trump represents,” Axelrod said. “If every day is a health report on the president and every stumble, stammer, and miss[ed] cue dominates the discussion, you know you can never get to the main issue. Yesterday this issue came up about this Parkinson’s specialist who’s been visiting the White House and the medical unit at the White House on a regular basis and I don’t have the tape.”
“I probably — I’m remiss in that regard but the Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had quite a set to with the White House Press Corp who demanded to know whether that guy was seeing the president, why he was there,” he continued. “Now this guy has been consulting the White House medical office since 2012, so 12 years, he’s visited the White House frequently. There was an answer to this question as to what he was doing there and she said, ‘I can’t discuss it because of security reasons and privacy reasons,’ which is bullshit and the reporters knew it was bullshit. It made them angry and it prolonged the story. So, you know, one thing they need to do is get their shit together here.”
Reports circulated this week the White House’s visitor log shows Parkinson’s disease expert, Dr. Kevin Cannard, visited the location eight times between July 2023 and March 2024, according to The New York Times. When questioned about the issue, Jean-Pierre pushed back on the reports stating Biden was not being treated for Parkinson’s and had been regularly checked three times by a neurologist.
“Yeah, well she’s awful,” Murphy said. “I mean can we just say it she’s been awful from the first day on the job. I’m sorry it’s a tough job, but and then when they do this — that’s kind of the Washington issue, I don’t know if it’s a regular people issue, but it’s going to it’s going to start to infect the debate. There’s a cover-up here.”
Concerns about Biden remaining his party’s nominee escalated significantly following his poor debate performance. Last week, Congress Democrats began to come forward to ask for the president to step aside, with Democratic New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill joining the growing list Tuesday.
