Effort to put Tubman on $20 bill restarted under Biden Biden replaces White House doctor with longtime physician

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s press secretary said Monday that the Treasury Department is taking steps to resume efforts to put the 19th century abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

Obama administration Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had selected Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson, the nation’s seventh president, on the $20 bill.

But Tubman’s fate had been in doubt since the 2016 presidential campaign based on critical comments by then-candidate Donald Trump, who branded the move “pure political correctness.”

Trump administration Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not move forward with the decision by the Obama administration. Instead, Mnuchin in 2019 announced a delay in redesigning the $20 bill in order to redesign the $10 and $50 bills first to improve security features to thwart counterfeiters.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden brought back Dr. Kevin O’Connor as his physician, replacing President Donald Trump’s doctor with the one who oversaw his care when he was vice president.

The White House confirmed that Dr. Sean Conley, the Navy commander who served as the head of the White House Medical Unit under Trump and oversaw his treatment when he was hospitalized with COVID-19, will assume a teaching role at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

O’Connor, a retired Army colonel, was Biden’s doctor during his entire tenure as vice president, having remained in the role at Biden’s request. He remained Biden’s physician while assuming a role on the faculty of George Washington University.

The White House said O’Connor was being commissioned by the president but was not rejoining the military.