White House officials defended President Biden’s health and denied he was ever treated for Parkinson’s disease, despite a meeting between an expert on the disease and the president’s physician earlier this year.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre fielded a barrage of questions when it came to the president’s health, particularly when it came to recent reports that a top neurologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center met with Biden’s physician at the White House in January.

Reports of the Jan. 17 meeting surfaced as the 81-year-old president faces increased scrutiny over his age and mental acuity in the wake of a poor debate performance on June 27 in Atlanta.

When asked about the physician’s meeting, Jean-Pierre said the White House has publicly shared that over the past three years, Biden has undergone a comprehensive exam, which included a meeting with a neurologist.

Jean-Pierre said the most recent report from February stated that an ‘extremely’ detailed neurological exam was given, assuring there were no findings which would be consistent with any central neurological disorder, like stroke, multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s.

‘Has the president been treated for Parkinson’s? No,’ she told reporters after being pressed further on the matter. ‘Is he being treated for Parkinsons? No, he’s not. Is he taking medication for Parkinson’s? No. So, those are the things that I can give you full-blown answers on.’

Dr. Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s disease expert, met with Dr. Kevin O’Connor and two others at the White House residence clinic on Jan. 17, records first reported by the New York Post show. 

Dr. John E. Atwood, a cardiologist at Walter Reed, also attended the 5 p.m. meeting, according to White House visitor logs. The fourth person in attendance has not been identified. 

The New York Times reported that Cannard visited the White House eight times in eight months over the last year. In its reporting, The Times said Cannard is a neurologist who published a paper on Parkinson’s recently.

White House logs show Cannard visited from July 2023 through March 2024, and anything more recent would not be released until later because of the White House’s voluntary disclosure policy.

The Times also reported that records dating back to when Biden was vice president under the Obama administration, that Cannard visited 10 times and took a family tour in 2012, four times in 2013, one time in 2014, four times in 2015 and eight times in 2016.

Early during the press briefing on Monday, Biden’s national security spokesperson John Kirby was asked if he had seen the president appear similar to the way he did during the debate.

Kirby told the reporter the last thing he was going to do was talk about every meeting he has ever had with the president, adding that he is the president’s spokesperson.

‘What I can tell you is, what I saw in that debate is not reflective of the man and the leader and the commander in chief that I have spent many, many hours with over the last two and a half years in terms of the specificity of the way he probes the questions he asks,’ Kirby said. ‘Just this morning, he was asking me questions about the situation on the European continent that I couldn’t answer, and I told him I had to get back to him.’

As the meeting progressed, reporters continued to show frustration with White House officials for not being straight forward, even accusing the president’s communications team of answering questions then coming back and clearing up what they said previously.

Still, after taking an onslaught of questions from reporters trying to get every single detail about the president’s health and whether he was still fit to serve as president, with some members of the press questioning her credibility, Jean Pierre expressed frustration.

Jean-Pierre told members of the press she takes offense to the demeanor of the reporters, as every day she and her team meet with them during a press briefing, and they do their best to provide the information they have at that time.

‘That’s what we do, and we understand that freedom of the press. We respect the freedom of the press,’ Jean-Pierre said. ‘To say that I’m holding information or allude to anything else is unfair, it is really, really unfair. I think people who are watching and have been watching this briefing for the past week, could say that we are doing our best in this briefing to provide the information that we have.

‘I will be the first one to admit, sometimes I get it wrong. At least I admit that,’ she said. ‘And sometimes I don’t have the information. And I will always, always admit that. But I do take offense to what was just happening at the beginning of this briefing. It’s not OK.’

Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo and Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.

Conservatives on social media blasted Vice President Harris over a video compilation of her defending President Biden’s mental sharpness during several interviews and events.

‘WATCH: Over 6 minutes of Kamala Harris covering up Joe Biden’s cognitive decline,’ conservative communicator Steve Guest posted on X along with a video that has received almost a million views.

‘For years, she said Biden is ‘very bold and vibrant’ and is ‘tireless in terms of working,” Guest continued. ‘Kamala claimed Biden ‘is gonna be fine,’ and said he ‘is in good shape, in good health. Kamala LIED.’

‘No one has lied more to the American people about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline than Kamala Harris!’ Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X in response to the video.

‘One of MANY reasons a Kamala switch wouldn’t be as simple as some Democrats think – she’s one of the main characters behind this cover-up,’ Republican communicator Matt Whitlock posted on X.

‘Joe lied. Kamala lied. Jill lied. KJP lied. Democrats lied. CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC lied. WaPo, NYT, LA Times, lied. Online pundits lied,’ popular conservative account Fusilli Spock posted on X. ‘And, they’ll continue to lie, shamelessly, in the pursuit of power.’

‘Our president is in good shape, in good health, and is ready to lead in our second term,’ Harris says in one of the clips from an interview in February 2024. In another clip from March 2024 she says, ‘I’m ready, if necessary, but it’s not gonna be necessary.’

The video comes as a growing list of pundits and Democrats in Congress have called for Biden to drop out of the presidential race following his widely panned debate performance in late June that failed to quell questions about his age and mental fitness. 

Many have suggested that Harris would be the ideal candidate to replace Biden if he does step down.

Biden has insisted he is staying in the race and sent a letter to Democrats in Congress on Monday saying he is ‘firmly committed to staying in this race’ and argued that any further questioning of his candidacy ‘only helps Trump and hurts us.’

He also did a phone interview on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ Monday, where he declared, ‘The bottom line here is that we’re not going anywhere. I am not going anywhere.’

‘I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t absolutely believe that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2024,’ he added.

‘Joe has made it clear he is all in,’ first lady Jill Biden told a crowd in North Carolina on Monday. 

‘That’s the decision he’s made. And just as he has always supported my career, I am all in too.’

The White House and VP Harris’s office did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau is arguing Monday that ‘voters have been voicing’ concerns about President Biden for months as the 81-year-old is resisting calls to end his re-election bid. 

Favreau, in a post on X, rejected Biden’s claim that calls for his withdrawal are only coming from ‘elite’ sources. He cited a pre-debate poll from the New York Times/Siena College that found 64% of all voters wanted Biden replaced on the Democratic ticket, including 48% of people who planned to vote for Biden, and that 69% of the electorate finds Biden too old to be an effective president. 

‘This is not an elite thing. This is not a media thing. This is not a one-bad-debate-freakout thing,’ Favreau wrote. ‘The voters have been voicing these concerns for months now. Denying them or dismissing them is not the way to overcome them.’ 

Favreau, who is one of the hosts of Pod Save America, also flagged that 55% of Black voters and 66% of Hispanic voters want Biden replaced as the nominee. 

The post came after Biden made a surprise appearance Monday morning on MSNBC in which he challenged fellow Democrats to run against him for the nomination and dismissed widespread calls for him to drop out of the presidential race. 

‘I’m getting frustrated by the elites – not you guys – the elites in the party, oh, they know so much more. Any of these guys that don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention,’ Biden said.  

Then in a letter fired off to congressional Democrats today, Biden urged his party to stop questioning whether he should end his re-election bid and ‘move forward as a unified party’ in order to defeat former President Trump in their 2024 election rematch. 

Biden reiterated in the letter that he’s ‘firmly committed to staying in this race’ and argued that any further questioning of his candidacy ‘only helps Trump and hurts us.’ 

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Patrick Ward contributed to this report. 

The Trump campaign doesn’t want to ‘get in the way’ of Democrats ‘shooting at each other’ over President Biden’s re-election chances, with a source telling Fox News Digital that the former president prefers to focus on campaigning and the upcoming Republican National Convention instead of on his rival’s implosion.

Other than challenging Biden to a second debate – one that he proposes occur without any moderators – former President Trump has been measured in his attacks on Biden. When asked about the strategy, a Trump campaign source said Trump is, instead, focused on his campaign and winning. 

‘Democrats are in disarray,’ the Trump campaign source told Fox News Digital. ‘Why get in the way of them shooting at each other?’ 

The Trump campaign has its sights set on the GOP nominating convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which begins July 15 and runs through July 18, the source told Fox News Digital. Trump is expected to be formally nominated during the convention as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. 

‘We have the convention coming up, we have two rallies coming up, and we have the VP announcement coming up,’ the source said. ‘We are focused on what we have to do and the big news coming from us.’ 

The Trump campaign source added: ‘We’ll let the Democrats shoot at each other all day long.’

Biden has been reeling amid mounting pressure to step aside and suspend his 2024 campaign, including calls to quit the race from many within the Democratic Party. The concerns began to manifest after Biden’s disastrous performance at the first presidential debate against Trump last month. 

Top Biden campaign aides and White House officials have been engaged in damage control ever since, with the president himself sending a letter to Democrats in Congress on Monday morning. In the letter, Biden stressed his commitment to staying in the race and beating Trump in November. 

Trump is expected to sit down for his first interview since the debate on Monday with Sean Hannity on ‘Hannity’ at 9 p.m. ET on Fox News.

Trump is set to hold a rally at his golf club in Doral, Florida, near Miami on Tuesday night. On Saturday, Trump is expected to travel to Pennsylvania for another rally at the Butler Farm Show. 

Meanwhile, Biden, in his Monday letter to Democratic members of Congress, urged them to stop questioning whether he should end his re-election bid and ‘move forward as a unified party.’ 

Biden wrote that he is ‘firmly committed to staying in this race’ and argued that any further questioning of his candidacy ‘only helps Trump and hurts us.’

The 81-year-old Biden is the oldest president in the nation’s history. His halting delivery and stumbling answers at the debate in Atlanta sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and a rising tide of public and private calls from within his own party for him to step aside. 

Trump’s approval rating has surpassed 50%, and the presumptive Republican nominee leads Biden on voters’ top two issues, the economy and immigration, according to a new poll. 

The poll by USA Today/Suffolk University was conducted on a sample of 1,000 registered voters between June 28 and 30, after Biden’s debate debacle sent shock waves through the Democratic Party. 

It shows 51% of respondents said they approve of Trump’s job performance as president from 2017 to 2021, compared to 41% who said they approve of Biden’s current job performance.

Regarding two of the top issues of the 2024 campaign, the economy and immigration, more registered voters said they believed Trump would do a better job than Biden. 

The poll found 53% of registered voters trust Trump to handle immigration compared to 40% who said the same for Biden. 

Respondents also viewed Trump as more capable than Biden of handling national security, 52% to 42%, and on dealing with China, 51% to 41%. 

A House Democrat backing President Biden is blasting members of his own party for speaking out against Biden’s 2024 candidacy in public, arguing it is putting the president in a worse position amid the fallout from the 81-year-old’s disastrous debate performance last month.

Congress is back in session on Monday for the first time since the immediate fallout of Biden’s debate performance, and it is expected to bring a heap of scrutiny on Democratic lawmakers.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., who has signaled he is backing Biden, called his fellow Democrats out for the public disarray.

‘Regardless of where one stands on the question of President Biden’s political future, the intra-party mixed messaging strikes me as deeply self-destructive,’ Torres said Monday. ‘Those publicly calling on President Biden to withdraw should ask themselves a simple question: ‘what if the President becomes the Democratic nominee?’ The drip, drip, drip of public statements of no confidence only serve to weaken a president who has been weakened not only by the debate but also by the debate about the debate.’

‘Weakening a weakened nominee seems like a losing strategy for a presidential election. The piling-on is not so much solving a problem as much as it is creating and compounding one. The process by which we decide how to move forward matters as much as the decision itself.’

The debate has led to more intra-party fractures within the House Democratic caucus as members are split on calls for Biden to drop out of the race. 

Over the past week, five House Democrats have publicly urged Biden to step aside ahead of his November rematch with former President Trump. 

A senior House Democratic aide told Fox News Digital on Friday that they anticipate more people to join the list this week.

However, Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a Biden ally, took a shot at her colleagues on Sunday for criticizing the president.

‘Any ‘leader’ calling for President Biden to drop out needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country,’ she said in a statement. ‘What Democrats need to be doing is stop listening to these political pundits and focus on what’s at stake this election: our democracy. End of story.’

It is part of the political minefield the Biden campaign has been navigating since last month’s CNN Presidential Debate. The 81-year-old president’s hoarse voice and sometimes aimless answers exacerbated concerns that he is not a viable candidate to face Trump in November and spurred questions over whether he is fit to lead in a second term.

This week will be the longest time House Democrats have had to face each other and the Capitol Hill media since that debate. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has said very little about Biden’s debate performance, only telling reporters on Friday that he was dedicated to making sure Democrats win in November. 

‘Until he articulates a way forward in terms of his vision for America at this moment, I’m going to reserve comment about anything relative to where we are at this moment, other than to say I stand behind the ticket,’ Jeffries told reporters on Friday.

House Democrats held a caucus-wide call on Sunday afternoon to discuss the path forward in the election. Four senior Democratic lawmakers – Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Mark Takano, D-Calif., Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Joe Morelle, D-N.Y. – reportedly said Biden should step aside.

There was more confusion on the left after the call, however, when Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., responded to reports that he too criticized Biden with a statement declaring: ‘I support President Biden. I support the Biden-Harris ticket, and look forward to helping defeat Donald Trump in November. I was proud to host an event this week in Northern Virginia with the President, and will continue doing all I can to support the Biden-Harris campaign in Virginia and across the country.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the four lawmakers mentioned on the call for comment.

President Biden’s staffers reportedly prepare him with meticulous details on how to enter and exit fundraiser event spaces. 

According to a copy of the instructions obtained by Axios, Biden’s aides created a document that read in bold letters, ‘Walk to podium.’ With the White House insignia, it included photos showing a clear pathway to the podium. 

Axios cited some Democrats who attended or helped set up events for Biden in recent months as wondering whether the meticulous attention to detail is more of a reflection of the 81-year-old president’s limitations. 

‘I staffed a simple fundraiser at a private residence, but they treated it like it was a NATO summit with his movements,’ one person, who reportedly staffed a Biden event in the past 18 months, told Axios. 

Axios obtained a copy of a five-page document template that the White House reportedly sends to staffers to prepare the president. 

The document reportedly also usually included a large picture of the event space on each page. The messages ‘View from podium,’ and ‘View from audience’ are written. 

Biden’s disastrous debate performance against former President Trump in Atlanta has prompted serious concerns from within the Democratic Party about the president’s viability to run for a second term. The White House insists that these detailed instructions for the 81-year-old president are nothing out of the ordinary.

‘High levels of detail and precision are critical to presidential advance work – regardless of who is president – and these are basic approaches that are used by any modern advance team, including the Vice President’s office and agencies,’ White House senior deputy press secretary and deputy assistant to the president Andrew Bates said in a statement to Fox News Digital, reacting to the report. ‘And then-Vice President Biden’s team did the same, as did other principals, during the second term of the Obama-Biden Administration.’

‘These documents are standard logistical briefing materials and photos for any principal including the Vice President,’ Vice President Harris’ communications director Kirsten Allen added. 

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced four principles that it says must be part of any hostage release deal with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. 

The declaration comes as the ‘Prime Minister’s steadfast position against the attempt to halt IDF action in Rafah is what has led Hamas to enter negotiations,’ the office says. The city in the southern Gaza Strip has been described as Hamas’ last stronghold following months of fighting in the war-torn territory. 

The principles are: 

‘Any deal will allow Israel to resume fighting until all objectives of the war have been achieved.’ 

Israel has repeatedly said its military campaign against Hamas will not end until the Palestinian terrorist group is eliminated. 

Netanyahu, who made this vow in late June, also said months ago that ‘Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population.’ 

‘Our goal is to rid Gaza of Hamas terrorists and free our hostages. Once this is achieved, Gaza can be demilitarized and deradicalized, thereby creating a possibility for a better future for Israel and Palestinians alike,’ Netanyahu said in a video posted on X in January. 

‘There will be no smuggling of weapons to Hamas from Egypt to the Gaza border.’ 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released video footage in June showing tunnels allegedly used by Hamas to smuggle weapons into Gaza from Egypt, according to The Times of Israel. 

At least 20 tunnels crossing from Egypt into Gaza have been detected, the outlet reported.

Throughout the nine-month war, Israeli troops have discovered a labyrinth of tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip that are integral to Hamas’ movements and military operations. 

‘There will be no return of thousands of armed terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip.’ 

The prime minister’s office is vowing that armed terrorists should not be allowed to return to the northern Gaza Strip in its vision for a post-war Gaza. 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said on Friday that ‘up to 1.9 million people in Gaza are internally displaced, including people who have been displaced nine or 10 times.  

‘Previous estimations were 1.7 million but this was before the operation in Rafah, and since May there have been additional displacements from Rafah and other parts across the Gaza Strip,’ the agency added. 

‘Israel will maximize the number of living hostages who will be released from Hamas captivity.’ 

Approximately 116 hostages are still believed to be held by Hamas since the beginning of the war last Oct. 7. 

Over the past nine months, 109 hostages have been released, seven have been rescued by the IDF, and the bodies of 19 have been recovered by the military from Gaza, including three who were mistakenly killed by troops.

Fox News’ Yonat Friling and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report. 

A far-left political coalition that unexpectedly assembled ahead of France’s snap elections is projected to win the plurality of parliamentary seats up for grabs and the country’s prime minister has announced his intention to resign – leading the country into unforeseen territory and possible turmoil.

As the election results came in, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced he will be turning in his resignation on Monday. 

President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance was projected to take the second most seats, while the far right was projected to come in third.

Macron called the snap election just four weeks ago, after the right-wing National Rally (RN) scored enormous success in the European Parliamentary elections in June. Polling before the first round of voting indicated RN would continue to dominate. However, more recent polling ahead of the runoff indicates those returns have diminished and RN will fall short of a clear majority. 

The first round occurred on June 30 and resulted in just 76 of the 577 constituencies in the French National Assembly determining their representative. Candidates who did not receive an outright majority in the first round of voting went on to a second-round runoff, which happened on Sunday.

Going into the election, France was set to elect the RN as the largest party in government, though it was possible no party might emerge with a clear majority in the tightly contested election.

When the results started to come in, projections changed toward the left, signifying a lack of majority for any single alliance, which threatened to plunge France into economic and political turmoil.

The final results of the election are not expected until late Sunday or early Monday.

Macron made a huge gamble when he called for the snap election, and the projections show the gamble may not have paid off for the unpopular president and his alliance, which lost control of parliament.

While the far-right RN greatly increased the number of seats it now holds in parliament, the results fell short of the party’s expectations.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon urged Macron to invite the leftist New Popular Front coalition to form a government, given projections that put it in the lead.

Macron’s office said the president would ‘wait for the new National Assembly to organize itself’ before making any decisions.

A hung parliament with no single bloc coming close to getting the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority in the National Assembly, the more powerful of France’s two legislative chambers, would be unknown territory for modern France.

France doesn’t have a tradition of lawmakers from rival political camps coming together to form a working majority.

The projections, if confirmed by official counts, will spell intense uncertainty for a pillar of the European Union and its second-largest economy, with no clarity about who might partner with Macron as prime minister in governing France.

Fox News Digital’s Peter Aitken and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The White House announced on Sunday that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff recently tested positive for COVID-19. 

In a statement, the office of the Second Gentleman noted that Emhoff tested positive on Saturday ‘after experiencing mild symptoms.’

‘He is fully vaccinated and three times boosted,’ the statement read. ‘He is currently asymptomatic, continuing to work remotely, and remaining away from others at home.’

The press release also noted that Vice President Kamala Harris recently tested negative for the virus.

‘Out of an abundance of caution, yesterday, the Vice President was tested for COVID-19,’ the release added. ‘She tested negative and remains asymptomatic.’

Emhoff and Harris were photographed standing near President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on Thursday during the White House’s Fourth of July celebration. 

Fox News Digital asked the White House if Biden was tested for the illness, but did not receive an immediate response.

The second gentleman’s diagnosis comes nearly three-and-a-half years after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Earlier in June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that coronavirus infections are ‘growing or likely growing’ in 44 states and territories.

Dr. Marc Siegel, physician, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, recently spoke to Fox News Digital about the uptick in recent cases.

‘There has been an upsurge in certain areas, including California — fueled by the so-called FLiRT variants, KP.3, KP.2 and KP.1,’ he explained. ‘It could spread to more states.’

Siegel explained that the new COVID1-10 variants are still ‘immunoevasive,’ meaning that they impact people with prior immunity.

‘[Like] all respiratory viruses, it spreads further in low humidity,’ he said. ‘Having said that, it has not shown itself to be seasonal, meaning that it can spread in warm weather easily as well.’

Fox News Digital’s Melissa Rudy contributed to this report.