On Thursday, the Pentagon press corps were able to question Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for the first time since his secret December hospitalizations and prostate cancer diagnosis he hid from the American public and President Biden until early January. There were plenty of tough questions, but most notable was NBC’s Peter Alexander (pinch-hitting for Pentagon correspondent Courtney Kube, who was reporting from Qatar).
Better yet (and unlike with tense White House press briefing exchanges), Alexander’s hardballs to Austin on both his lack of transparency and whether the Biden administration bears responsibility for allowing Iranian proxies to kill U.S. soldiers last weekend made it onto both Thursday’s NBC Nightly News and Friday’s Today.
Alexander first asked about the cancer bout, which arguably became a scandal in and of itself. The NBC White House correspondent was extremely blunt on the double standard between Austin keeping his job without repercussions and if someone else in the military had done this:
[Y]ou were hospitalized for days before you informed the White House or the commander in chief of your condition and your absence. Anyone else within the military chain of command would have faced reprimand or even dismissal. Why shouldn’t that same standard apply to you, sir?
Austin shrugged it off, reiterating from earlier in the briefing that “we didn’t get this right” and “I take full responsibility for — for the department’s actions.” As for why he didn’t tell the President or his team, he insists “that information was available, I’m not sure, at this point, what exactly happened, but I think details will play out as a review is — is conducted.”
On Iran, Alexander pointed out there had “been more than 160 strikes on American targets across the region, as you noted, since October,” so what’s the U.S. doing “wait[ing] until American service members were killed to escalate its response.”
Austin again downplayed matters by insisting “we’ve responded a number of times and taken out” targets and that the past attacks by Iranian proxies were “ineffective” with the U.S. able to bat them down.
To NBC’s credit, they gave Alexander the dignity of running his cancer hardball on both flagship newscasts. So often, the press will grill this administration at a briefing, then either downplay or flip the script and suck up to them when it comes time for when viewers actually tune in.
As mentioned, the briefing had other tough questioners. The Wall Street Journal’s Gordon Lubold acknowledged to Austin that even though “you didn’t direct your staff to hide this truth or lie,” he wondered if this instead was a case of “creat[ing] a culture of secrecy that then the staff kind of interpreted your desires or your intentions when it came to you getting sick.”
Austin rejected that because while some “may perceive that they’re doing things in my best interests,” he wouldn’t “speculate” other than to assert “I have a great staff, and they always want to, intend to do the right things”.
A few minutes after both Alexander and a softball from The New York Times’s Helene Cooper about whether his silence “reinforces this culture of secrecy among black men about prostate cancer,” PBS’s Nick Schifrin made himself useful on behalf of taxpayers with a brutal question to Austin about “how could you possibly think that it was okay” to keep this under wraps (click “expand”):
SCHIFRIN: Mr. Secretary, I’ve seen what you’re going through up close, among loved ones. So, again, we wish you a full recovery and I know it is possible, so thank you. You described this as a gut punch, your instinct to privacy. But if I could ask you bluntly, you had nearly a month between the time you learned of your cancer and the time that this came out to inform the President, how could you possibly think that it was okay not to tell him, if I could be blunt?
(....)
AUSTIN: So, my diagnosis was made, the doctor highlighted you have a finite window of time to actually get this done. If you go beyond that — that window, then you’ll have a problem. Christmas holiday’s coming up. For me, to be as little impact on — on what we’re doing in the department, Christmas was a time for me to take a look at getting that done. It was a tough decision for me and I did not decide until, you know, very close to when the procedure was done to actually do the procedure. In terms of informing the President, again, I admit that that was a mistake to not talk to him about that early on. The President of the United States, you got a lot of things on your plate. And so putting my personal issue on — adding to his — all the things he’s got on his plate, I just didn’t feel that was — that was a thing that I — I — I should do at the time, but, again, I recognize that that was a mistake, and I should have done that differently.
To see the relevant transcript from February 1, click “expand.”
Pentagon press briefing [via MSNBC]
February 1, 2024
10:44 a.m. EasternGORDON LUBOLD: Mr. Secretary, you say you didn’t direct your staff to hide this truth or lie, but did you create a culture of secrecy that then the staff kind of interpreted your desires or your intentions when it came to you getting sick?
DEFENSE SECRETARY LLOYD AUSTIN: Yeah, I — I — I don’t think I’ve created a culture of secrecy. I think there will be security officers — there will be other staff members who may perceive that they’re doing things in my best interests. And, you know, I can’t — I can’t predict or — or determine or ascertain what those things may be. I just know what I said and did not say. And, of course, you know, I have a great staff, and they always want to, intend to do the right things, but in terms of what one may or may not have perceived at any one point in time, I won’t speculate on that.
(....)
10:46 a.m. Eastern
LUIS MARTINEZ: And a question on your recovery, sir. At any point did you feel that your situation had caused you to consider possibly resigning given all of the political attention that had developed as a result of it?
AUSTIN: In terms of resignation, the answer is no.
(....)
10:49 a.m. Eastern
HELENE COOPER: You mentioned during your opening statement this is an opportunity to talk about prostate cancer, especially in the black community. I wonder, though, do you have any regret that your silence on this reinforces this culture of secrecy among black men about prostate cancer?
AUSTIN: Yeah — and you mentioned that — and it’s probably not an issue of secrecy as much as it is an issue of privacy. And this is — this is a very, cancer, period, is — is very private, and there may be cancer survivors amongst us in this room right here and I know there is at least a couple. There are at least a couple, but — but you know how private that — that is, and — and you know what the initial diagnosis feels like, and so, among the black community, though, it’s — it’s even more a thing that people wanna — wanna to keep private. And, again, it is more about privacy than secrecy. In my case, I should have informed my boss. I did not. That was a mistake. And — and again, I apologize to him for not doing so.
(....)
10:52 a.m. Eastern
PETER ALEXANDER: Mr. Secretary, first of all, we wish you good health and thank you for taking your questions. And we hope you have a quick recovery. I have two questions. First on your hospitalization, you were hospitalized for days before you informed the White House or the commander in chief of your condition and your absence. Anyone else within the military chain of command would have faced reprimand or even dismissal. Why shouldn’t that same standard apply to you, sir?
AUSTIN: Well, let me just say that — thanks for the question — that — that we didn’t get this right. And, as I said, I take full responsibility for — for the department’s actions. In terms of why on the second notification was — was not made to the White House, that information was available, I’m not sure, at this point, what exactly happened, but I think details will play out as a review is — is conducted.
ALEXANDER: And if I can follow-up about the situation overseas right now, and the deliberation in regards to strikes. There have been more than 160 strikes on American targets across the region, as you noted, since October. Why has the U.S. waited until American service members were killed to escalate its response?
AUSTIN: Well, as you know, we’ve responded a number of times and taken out — first of all, their attacks, many of them, most of them are going to be ineffective. And most of them we're going to defend ourselves against. And whenever we conduct a strike, we're going to hit at what we're aiming at, we're going to take away capability, we're going to do what we're desiring to do. And so, this — this particular attack was egregious in that it, you know — the attack was on a sleeping area of one of our base. And, again, we have — we’ve — Kataib Hezbollah and — and other elements continue to, you know, attack our troops and, again, I think at this point we should — it’s time to take away even more capability than we have taken in the past. And in terms of the — you use the term escalation. We’ve not described what our response is going to be, but we look to hold the people that are responsible for this accountable and we also look to make sure that we continue to wait — take away capability for them as we go forward.
(....)
11:03 a.m. Eastern
NICK SCHIFRIN: Mr. Secretary, I’ve seen what you’re going through up close, among loved ones. So, again, we wish you a full recovery and I know it is possible, so thank you. You described this as a gut punch, your instinct to privacy. But if I could ask you bluntly, you had nearly a month between the time you learned of your cancer and the time that this came out to inform the President, how could you possibly think that it was okay not to tell him, if I could be blunt?
(....)
11:03 a.m. Eastern
AUSTIN: So, my diagnosis was made, the doctor highlighted you have a finite window of time to actually get this done. If you go beyond that — that window, then you’ll have a problem. Christmas holiday’s coming up. For me, to be as little impact on — on what we’re doing in the department, Christmas was a time for me to take a look at getting that done. It was a tough decision for me and I did not decide until, you know, very close to when the procedure was done to actually do the procedure. In terms of informing the President, again, I admit that that was a mistake to not talk to him about that early on. The President of the United States, you got a lot of things on your plate. And so putting my personal issue on — adding to his — all the things he’s got on his plate, I just didn’t feel that was — that was a thing that I — I — I should do at the time, but, again, I recognize that that was a mistake, and I should have done that differently.
