Dick Cheney’s cardiologist says Trump’s mysterious hospital visit is “worrisome”
Donald Trump’s sudden decision to make a previously unplanned visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Saturday has been the source of much speculation despite the White House’s attempts to paint the trip as simply a part of the president’s routine annual physical exam.
Both the timing of the trip — far from the February dates that Trump has typically had his annual physical conducted — and the fact that it was not coordinated in advance has left the public wondering whether a secretive medical emergency brought on by the stresses of the impeachment inquiry coupled with president’s poor diet and lack of exercise was being covered up by the White House.
Others speculated that the visit could be a preparation for an eventual medical excuse to be used when Trump needs a face-saving reason for his resignation if enough evidence amasses in the Democrats’ impeachment investigations that even Republican Senators would be too embarrassed to vote against conviction once the impeachment trial begins.
While his reelection campaign has tried to make light of the brouhaha surrounding the medical sleuthing around the issue of Donald Trump’s health, at least one medical professional with close ties to Republican politics is taking the incident quite seriously.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, the cardiologist for former Vice President Dick Cheney, told CNN that he had spoken to his contacts in the White House and still has a bevy of questions about the unusual hospital visit.
“This had been something they had been thinking about for a while, the president had some downtime, so he went over to Walter Reed to get some of this done,” Dr. Reiner said he was told his White House sources. “There was no sophisticated testing done. It’s a little bit unusual. Almost everything that is usually done in a presidential physical like this, can be done in the White House at the White House medical unit. So, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense why the president would travel to Walter Reed on a Saturday afternoon for this kind of testing.”
“I’ve been involved in planning a lot of these for the former vice president, and these kinds of days are planned out over weeks,” the renowned caerdiologist continued. “And often multiple consultants are brought in, the day is highly choreographed and planned down to the minute. So, a spontaneous medical exam is uncommon, raising the question of whether there was something specifically at issue that required an evaluation on Saturday.”
Dr. Reiner’s questions about what really happened with the president’s health this weekend reflect the uncertainty about accepting anything said by White House spokespeople in an administration know more for providing “alternative facts” than hewing anywhere close to the truth. This diagnosis could easily be an example of the rampant “boy who cried wolf” syndrome that is at epidemic levels in the White House.
The cardiologist again noted that the in-house medical facilities at the White House were more than sufficient for the routine testing that Trump supposedly underwent at Walter Reed.
“You go to a hospital, like Walter Reed, for testing that is not available in the White House,” Dr. Reid said. “That would include things like CAT scans, a test like a stress test. Those things are detailed procedures that would need to be done in a place like Walter Reed. and a routine exam for us, just sort of check the president’s height and weight can be done on the ground floor of the White House.”
Dr. Reiner did disclose a few previously unrevealed details of Trump’s exam procedures and results.
“The source at the White House told me they had drawn quite a bit of blood,” said Dr. Reiner. “Last year when the president had his physical exam in February, the president’s cholesterol was significantly high, and the president’s physicians appropriately increased his statin medication. And the lipid panel shows there’s a significant improvement in the numbers. They also expressed to me that the president was vitamin D deficient and they’re planning on starting him on vitamin D therapy.”
If only Vitamin D was the sole obvious deficiency that this president possessed.
Overall, the experienced Executive Branch physician found something fishy about the entire official narrative being pushed by White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham who berated the media on Saturday for questioning her version of the story behind the extremely non-routine visit.
EXACTLY! Thank you for helping me get the correct information out. Further speculation beyond the extensive & honest info I put out is wholly irresponsible & dangerous for the country. https://t.co/gl6XOxgbmL
— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 17, 2019
Dr. Reid, for his part, considers himself skeptical of the idea that the hospital visit was not worthy of public concern about the president’s health.
“Think about this, the president of the United States has access to multiple physicians on-site, on Saturday afternoon goes unannounced to a medical center. It’s worrisome. It’s worrisome,” the cardiologist fretted.
“It’s concerning that there really hasn’t been any transparency in what occurred on Saturday,” Dr. Reid concluded.
You can watch the CNN interview with the doctor who saved Dick Cheney’s life in the video below.
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