Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy left White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stammering with one simple question about the disappearance of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Austin did not immediately disclose his Jan. 1 hospitalization with his staff for several days. He underwent an elective medical procedure to treat a urinary tract infection on Dec. 22, and then entered the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Jan. 1 after suffering from “severe pain.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., who is not in the chain of command, learned of his hospitalization on Jan. 2, and the Department of Defense (DOD) did not notify key White House leaders until Jan. 4.
“John, what kind of Commander-in-Chief is President Biden that at a time when American forces are under fire in the Middle East, he can go days without knowing that his defense secretary is in a hospital bed?” Doocy asked.
“Peter, there’s a lot to your question, so I want you to bear with me for just a second,” Kirby answered. “First of all, at no time was the ability of the United States military to defend our national security interest compromised. At no time was the Commander-in-Chief not always in command and control of our military forces around the world. And over the course of those days, we did take military action.”
Kirby said Biden is “on top” of the issues taking place in the Middle East, specifically pointing to the approval of a U.S. airstrike that killed a senior military commander in Iraq who is blamed for the recent attacks on U.S. forces in the region and the striking down of drones in the Red Sea to protect U.S. national security interests. (RELATED: Doocy Presses John Kirby To Say Whether Antisemitic Protesters Are ‘Domestic Terrorists’)
“Now look, where your question kinda gets to here, and I’ve seen some of the sniping out there, like how effective can the process be if the secretary can be gone and we don’t know about it,” Kirby continued. “I think what you need to understand, and what I hope people will understand, is that the national security decision-making process does not require, in fact, should not require cabinet-level officials being the sole people in the room making decisions on any given day. You staff these things from the middle-up and then the cabinet officials, whether it’s Secretary [Antony] Blinken or Secretary Austin, come together as appropriate to make the key decisions, which happened.”
Kirby read through a lengthy timeline of the administration’s handling of the Middle East conflict under President Joe Biden’s authority. The spokesman said Austin did not attend a Jan. 3 meeting on Haiti but had been substituted instead, which he said is not uncommon.
“Okay, thank you for all the detail on that, but more broadly, why should we believe anything that this administration tells us about anything ever again?” Doocy asked.
“I think we all recognize, and I think the Pentagon has been very, very honest with themselves about … uh … the um … the challenge to credibility to what, by what’s transpired here and by what … and by … uh … uh … how … how … how hard it was for them to be fully transparent with the American people,” Kirby said, visibly stammering. “I think we all recognize that and, wait, wait, give me a second now, I know you got another one coming here, but we all recognize that this didn’t unfold the way it should have. And on so many levels, not just the notification process up the chain of command but the transparency issue. We all recognize that and I think we all want to make sure we learn from that.”
Doocy continued pressing Kirby about intentionally staying silent about Austin’s health, asking how the public can trust that the administration will be transparent about Biden’s health. Kirby said Doocy cannot “logically argue” that the administration will keep details about Biden’s health undisclosed.
“He’s 81 years old,” Doocy said in response.
“Wait a second, just give me a second here, bub,” Kirby said. “If, if the administration made some sort of massive Machiavellian effort across the board to keep this from getting public, then I think your question has merit and certainly is a fair one. I don’t think it’s a fair one because that’s not what happened here, Peter. What happened here is the Secretary of Defense, for whatever reason, I can’t answer the question why, that information wasn’t shared, wasn’t shared widely in the department —”
“Isn’t that worse?” Doocy interrupted. “You guys didn’t know. Isn’t that worse?”
“It’s not good, it’s certainly not good,” Kirby said. “Which is why, again, we want to learn from this. We want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The House Armed Services Committee released a bipartisan press statement stating its concerns with how Austin’s condition had been handled. Austin released a statement apologizing for the lack of transparency regarding his health.
“I also understand the media concerns about transparency and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,” Austin said in the statement. “I commit to doing better. But this is important to say: This was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.”