Biden's low-profile doctor has been thrust into the spotlight after the president's debate disaster

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the physician to President Joe Biden, Dr. Kevin O’Connor is well-known around the White House. The stocky former Army surgeon is always close by his number one patient, ready to provide care or a consult as needed though few outside the building would know who he is.

But Biden’s politically crippling debate performance changed all that. Ensuing and uncomfortable questions about the 81-year-old Democratic president’s mental and physical capacity to serve a second four-year term have thrust O’Connor into the spotlight.

In February, just four months before the disastrous debate, O’Connor had overseen Biden’s most recent physical exam and wrote in a public memo that the president “continues to be fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.” The White House said Tuesday that the doctor’s assessment still stands.

But some Republican lawmakers now want the man Biden simply calls “doc” to come to Capitol Hill to answer their questions about the president’s health and medical care. There are also questions about why he hasn’t pushed his patient — the president — to undergo cognitive testing.