MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday criticized CBS News Senior White House reporter Ed O’Keefe for his manner of questioning Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre over a New York Times article about visits an expert in Parkinson’s disease made to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in recent months.
On The Last Word, O’Donnell showed clips of the tense exchange, which at one point saw O’Keefe appear disgruntled about Jean-Pierre’s responses to what he said was a “very basic, direct question” about whether the doctor’s visits were for President Joe Biden. Jean-Pierre told the press corp then that, contrary to the implications in the story, which described eight visits in as many months, Biden had been visited by the neurologist three times over three years as part of his annual physicals.
O’Donnell described the press corp as exhibiting “hysteria” in their response to the story, which the Biden administration responded to late Monday via a letter from White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who said that the neurologist, Dr. Kevin Cannard, regularly holds clinics for others there, “in support of the thousands of active-duty members assigned in support of White House operations.”
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O’Keefe “sunk to a new low,” argued O’Donnell, who also took issue with the New York Times story, which he said was “very badly reported” and “written in a style to create a dark, ominous, Parkinson’s cloud over the White House.”
O’Donnell also faulted him for not later extending an apology to Jean-PIerre.
“Today, when Karine Jean-Pierre returned to the podium, take a wild guess how many angry follow-up questions Ed had about the neurologist. Zero. Zero questions, and zero apologies for the rage of yesterday,” the MSNBC anchor said disapprovingly. “The rage of yesterday was gone, and the neurologist scandal was gone with it.”
