XPost: alt.dementia, alt.politics.usa.congress, alt.politics.usa.republican XPost: sac.politics, alt.society.liberalism

The week’s least surprising news triggered one of the most surprising op-
eds, from none other than The Washington Post’s entire Editorial Board.
The headline: “Americans deserve an unflinching investigation into Biden’s health.” Now they want one.

It was a “somebody didn’t say something” story. The ‘somebody’ was Biden’s longtime personal physician (aka fixer), Kevin O’Connor. What Dr. O’Connor didn’t say during his Congressional testimony this week was anything
useful about the former President’s soggy brain or the overworked Oval
Office Autopen, when instead he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment
right not to answer questions lest those answers prove inconveniently incriminating.

Dr. O’Connor’s lawyers first sought to delay his testimony to negotiate
some rules about navigating the doctor-patient privilege. However, courts
have ruled that doctors may testify about HIPAA-protected information if legally compelled, such as by subpoena. And the doctor-patient privilege
is one of the weakest, with no common law history. And courts have often
waived it for criminal proceedings.

Representative James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight
Committee (which conducted the hearing), refused to delay, and O’Connor’s
ugly non-testimony promptly appeared on streaming media.

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Invoking the Fifth doesn’t prove wrongdoing. But it doesn’t look good,
either, especially related to a scandal of this proportion. Fortunately, a simple remedy exists. The DOJ can immunize the doctor (legally, not with a needle), after which the risk of incrimination will be cured, and he’ll be unable to receive a prescription to refuse to testify.

If so, that’s where things could get especially interesting. A witness who pleads the Fifth, then gets immunity and is compelled to testify, must
deliver something meaningful. If his final testimony turns out to be bland
or evasive, it casts doubt on his original Fifth Amendment claim— making
it look frivolous or even deceptive.

That, in turn, opens the door to other legal and political consequences.
In short, once immunized, O’Connor would be under real pressure to cough
up something spicy.

Even the Post’s late, lame, and limp —albeit politically surprising—
demand for transparency carried a whiff of quiet resignation. The editors didn’t call for clearing Biden’s name. They didn’t urge reassurance or restoration of public confidence. They called for an “unflinching investigation”— a phrase that implicitly presumes there’s something to
flinch at.

WaPo’s op-ed mounted no defense of Biden; it was more like institutional triage. A controlled burn. Progressives have apparently given up on trying
to rescue Biden— now, they’re just trying to move on, with some semblance
of credibility intact.

But Democrats are boxed in. If the truth comes out, and it turns out the Autopen ran the White House on batteries, it’s catastrophic.

And the alternative isn’t much better. The longer they resist, after
pushing the Cabbage out themselves, the more hay Republicans can make out
of an evergreen scandal: the President who wasn’t really the President,
and the party that knew it.

Either way, it’s going to leave a mark. Ouch.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/dumb-cars-friday-july-11-2025-c-and

https://floppingaces.net/most-wanted/doctors-note-the-autopen-was- president-and-everyone-knew-it/

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