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

Follow live: Updates from AP’s coverage of the presidential election. WASHINGTON — As the physician to President Joe Biden, Dr. Kevin O’Connor is well-known around the White House. 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. Andrew Bates, a White House deputy press secretary, said O’Connor, who is a doctor of osteopathic medicine, is someone whose “unique expertise is sought across the medical community, in which he is respected for his candor, attention to detail and work ethic.” Though he operates largely in the background, some House Republicans want to use the political back and forth over Biden’s debate performance to shine a brighter light on the doctor. White House spokesperson Ian Sams wrote Tuesday on social media that Comer’s request is “absolutely ridiculous and insulting.” Before joining the White House Medical Unit in the Bush administration, O’Connor was the command surgeon for the Army’s “Delta Force,” the secretive special operations unit that later killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.