Biden’s doctor embarrasses the profession

In 2006, freelance journalist Josh Wolf spent 226 days in a federal prison. His crime? Refusing to turn over unpublished video footage and the names of confidential sources to a grand jury. Wolf believed in something larger than himself: the right of a free press to protect its sources. He didn’t take the Fifth. He took the heat.

Now fast forward to 2025. President Biden’s longtime personal physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, was reportedly subpoenaed by Congress to answer questions about the president’s health and whether he’d ever been pressured to misrepresent it. Instead of testifying, or refusing on grounds of medical ethics, O’Connor invoked the Fifth Amendment. That’s not courage. That’s self-preservation wrapped in white-coat privilege.

Let’s be clear: I believe in doctor–patient confidentiality. I’ve lived by it for decades. And I agree that unless Joe Biden gives his doctor explicit permission, O’Connor has no business spilling cholesterol levels or cognitive-test results to Congress. But invoking the Fifth is a different animal entirely. It doesn’t say, “I can’t answer because of ethics.” It says, “I won’t answer because I might incriminate myself.”

Journalists, when hauled before Congress or the courts, don’t have that option. There’s no federal shield law protecting them. Instead, they stare down contempt charges and jail time on principle. Judith Miller, then at the New York Times, spent 85 days in jail in 2005 for refusing to name a source. Writing for Fox News, Catherine Herridge was recently held in contempt and fined $800 a day for protecting hers. These are not mere symbolic gestures. These are people accepting punishment rather than betraying their professional oath.

So why is a doctor, someone with patient privacy protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, hiding behind the Fifth? Why not do what journalists do – refuse to talk, cite ethics and let Congress do its worst? The answer may lie in a darker possibility: if O’Connor signed off on misleading statements, or worse, lied under oath about Biden’s health, then he isn’t protecting a patient, he’s protecting himself from potential perjury charges. That possibility should concern every American.

Unlike journalists, who operate independently and face courts alone, O’Connor has long been closely associated with the president and his inner circle. He is not a roving truth-seeker. He is a physician who was operating in proximity to the most powerful executive structure in the world. When the health and capacity of a sitting president are in question, public accountability must take precedence.

Presidential health coverups are nothing new. Grover Cleveland’s secret cancer surgery. Woodrow Wilson’s incapacitating stroke. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s hidden paralysis. John F. Kennedy’s adrenal disease and Dr. Max Jacobson’s (Secret Service called him “Dr. Feelgood”) amphetamine-laced injections. All were tucked away from public view while staff and doctors smiled for the cameras. But those deceptions happened in an era when ethics codes were less developed. Today, with 24-hour news cycles and biometric scrutiny, we expect better. We expect transparency, especially when the stakes are nuclear.

And yet, we got a closed-door deposition and a doctor pleading the Fifth.

Let’s contrast again. A journalist protecting a whistleblower faces jail because he believes doing so serves the public. A doctor, sworn to do no harm, chooses to protect himself at the moment when public trust is most needed. He could have stood tall, refused to answer specific questions on ethical grounds, and cited the Hippocratic Oath. He could have dared Congress to hold him in contempt. That would’ve taken guts. That would’ve made his profession proud. Instead, he lawyered up and shut down.

Yes, there are edge cases. If O’Connor were under active criminal investigation or had been ordered to falsify medical records, the Fifth might be legally advised. But as of now, there’s no public evidence of that. What we have is a man who may have known the moral high ground and took the legal back alley instead.

This moment matters not just for the legacy of the Biden administration, but for the precedent O’Connor is setting. If presidential doctors begin pleading the Fifth, we’ve entered a zone where national health becomes a state secret and medical truth becomes optional. At that point, the doctor isn’t a healer. He’s a fixer with a stethoscope.

We ask journalists to risk prison to uphold their code. We cheer them on, donate to their legal funds and praise their integrity. Why should a White House doctor, an even more trusted professional, get a pass for hiding behind the Constitution instead of standing up for his oath?

If journalism is the rough draft of history, medicine is a steady hand that signs it. That hand can’t tremble when the truth is on the line. It should do what’s right, no matter how inconvenient.

When reporters face jail to protect democracy, a doctor pleading the Fifth looks like cowardice in a lab coat.