President Biden revealed Wednesday that he is making an unannounced trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a physical exam.
Biden has undergone yearly physical examinations since the beginning of his term, in line with every other commander in chief since President Richard Nixon.
Walter Reed, the hospital used by all presidents for routine medical care and examinations, is located in Bethesda, Maryland.
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President Biden gives a thumbs up as he walks with first lady Jill Biden to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
Earlier this month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, does not believe a cognitive test is necessary. She said O’Connor believes Biden proves his cognitive ability “every day [in] how he operates and how he thinks.”
“Does the White House think that the idea of the president taking a cognitive test as a part of this physical is a legitimate idea?” a reporter asked.
“I’m just gonna say what Dr. O’Connor said to me about a year ago when [Biden’s physical] was released,” Jean-Pierre responded. “The president proves every day [in] how he operates and how he thinks, by dealing with world leaders, by making difficult decisions on behalf of the American people – whether it’s domestic or it’s national security.”
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The entrance to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden received his last physical on Feb. 16 of last year, when his physician gave him a clean bill of health in a letter that said Biden was “fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”
The Wednesday physical will likely be the final update on Biden’s health before the November presidential elections.
Critics have demanded more transparency from the White House regarding Biden’s physical and mental health following the report from Special Counsel Robert Hur that claimed the president had significant memory issues.
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President Biden speaks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, following the release of Hur’s report. (AP/Evan Vucci)
Hur’s report – which concluded that no criminal charges were warranted regarding Biden’s mishandling of classified documents – surmised that at trial, Biden “would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The special counsel, therefore, asserted that it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – “by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
It also cited how Biden mixed up the date of the death of his son, Beau.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
