Lawrence O'Donnell Torches Media Over 'Out Of Control' White House Briefing

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell fiercely criticized the White House press corps on Monday after reporters peppered press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre with questions about a neurologist’s visits to the White House.

“We just got this letter, and if you saw any of the White House press briefing today, it was the White House press corps, many of them at their absolute worst,” O’Donnell said on “The Last Word.”

He said that, after reading the White House’s explanation, much of the press corps’ “out-of-control behavior” was “as bad a circus as it looked like.”

The New York Times reported Monday that an expert on Parkinson’s disease from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center had attended the White House eight times in as many months leading up to this spring, according to visitor logs.

Jean-Pierre subsequently fielded questions about Biden’s health in a testy briefing. She told reporters Biden was not being treated for the neurodegenerative disease.

However, she declined to state the purpose of Dr. Kevin Cannard’s visits or even confirm if he had visited, prompting irritation from some present.

The White House later released a letter from Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, explaining that Cannard had been serving as a neurology consultant to the White House Medical Unit for over a decade and has for years held neurology clinics at the White House Medical Clinic to support “the thousands of active-duty members assigned in support of White House operations.”

O’Connor said this information would not typically be disclosed, in order to protect patient privacy, but an exception had been made in this instance with Cannard’s permission, “in the interests of accuracy.”

Biden was examined by Cannard in each of his annual