Out our mission. so if the white house wasn t told of the december 22nd surgery when austin was under general anesthesia and the authority in the powers have transferred to the deputy secretary what is the thinking there of what if the white house needs to contact the defense foreman, the secretary, issue an order. what was the rationale for behind not contacting them? as i highlighted, part of the changes effective immediately will be providing an understanding of why authority are being transferred. the transfer of authorities in conducting the day to day business of the department in and of itself are not that common. so it wouldn t when the white house again, i m going to i don t want to say speculate but give a scenario. if the white house needs to contact the department, they re going to contact the department and if the deputy secretary is in charge at that moment because
Walter reed officials out with a statement announcing that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. it was identified in early december, and on december 22nd, austin underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure to treat it. he was readmitted due to a resulting infection. a statement on the diagnosis coming days after the public and more importantly the white house learned that they were kept in the dark about his stay in the hospital. i want to bring in nbc news national security and pentagon correspondent courtney kube who s following this story. it s a story that s a little more complicated than we all thought. until you know these things, you don t know that the defense secretary is unique. they ve got more power in certain circumstances than any other cabinet secretary. right, let s say some of the worst case scenarios, there s an attack coming to the united states, to washington, d.c. he would be one of the people who would get on an urgent phone call and make a decision abou
One of the people who would get on a phone call and make a decision about a potential response. yes, he is one of the members, a critical member of the president s cabinet, and national security apparatus. that s why there has been so much outcry about his decision not to notify the president, the white house and senior people here in the pentagon that he had been hospitalized and, in fact, was in intensive care unit with very serious condition, an infection, and a build up, we learned today, a build up of fluid in his abdomen that had to be drained. it s been several days that he was in the icu. he s now out. he s recovering, but that statement that you referenced earlier even denoted, acknowledged that this could be a slow process for him to recover from this. the good news here, you know, now that we know that he was treated for this prostate cancer, the original procedure that he had on december 22nd that led to all of these complications, his prognosis is good according to the sta
Of that. first, there we learned a tremendous amount today. here s a look at a time line of the past couple of weeks in terms of austin s hospitalization. on december 22nd there he is hospitalized following a diagnosis with prostate cancer. it is caught early. he goes through a surgery, a minimally invasive surgery according to walter reid. he s under general aniesthesia and released the next to work from home. on january 1st he starts to feel discomfort and nausea and pain. according to walter reid he s transferred one day later to the icu, this is january 2nd. the chairman of the joint chiefs is notified as well as defense secretary kathleen hicks, but they re not yet told he s in the hospital. that doesn t happen until you see there, january 4thch that is when biden is notified, hicks and then others are notified over the course of the next couple of days including january 5th. but only today does the notification come out that he s been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Not know yesterday. on december 22nd, he was under general anesthesia. when you are under general anesthesia, it is during a time of the surgery, and then for several hours later when you are groggy and this and that. the crazy part is, and i get that they are dealing with the bad facts he has, but when he says at no time was the ability to defend our national security interests compromised, that s hogwash. at this time, american servicemen and women are being hit in iraq and syria. no one is doing anything about it. there is no national security meeting. no nsc council meetings. no one is talking to anyone e else. is there a memo that says we will allow this money to get hit, one right now i understand is in critical condition. more than 50 of them have traumatic brain injury, lifelong injury. i want to say one more thing.
Defense secretary, lloyd austin, is a private person. the decision to treat prostate cancer is a private decision. this is not an average citizen. is the defense secretary of the united states. privacy simply isn t there. why isn t it that president joe biden did not know? his secretary should have been in the hospital. deputy secretary of defense didn t know for days. there is also a question about whether anyone knew that he was under general anesthesia on december 22nd. he was initially treated with a minimally invasive surgery. four prostate cancer treatments. he spent the night in the hospital. that too, was a major question that has yet to be answered. the pentagon has initiated a 30 day review of the notification procedures. they say with chief of staff, they are passing on the notification to others. she had the flu as the answer or excuse. still, senior military advisers knew that.
Thank you, ginger. we turn now to the other news this tuesday night, and this evening, the pentagon now revealing that defense secretary lloyd austin is being treated for prostate cancer, and that the white house is now saying president biden was told just today. tonight, the white house now ordering a review of protocols for members of the cabinet when they have to delegate authority, still asking, why was the white house not told? here s selina wang. reporter: after days of outrage over his secret hospitalization, tonight the pentagon revealing the reason, defense secretary lloyd austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer in early december. but the white house only learning about it today. nobody at the white house knew that secretary austin had prostate cancer until this morning. reporter: austin s doctors at walter reed medical center saying he s been hospitalized since new year s day due to complications from what they say was a minimally invasive surgical procedure called
Laboratory evaluation, early december 2023, we are now learning. they identified prostate cancer, which they determined required treatment. it was then december 22nd after consultation with his medical team that he was admitted to the hospital and underwent that minimally invasive surgical procedure to treat and cure prostate cancer. he was under general anesthesia during that time, clarifying this most recent complication he was not, and never lost consciousness. his prostate cancer was detected early and prognosis is excellent, thankfully. on january 1st it was then that he was admitted to walter reed with complications from that december 22nd procedure, including nausea and severe abdominal and hip and leg pain. january 2nd, a day later the decision made to transfer him to the icu for close monitoring and higher level of care. general, you know, i understand
Alaska airlines engineer says this was resolved but the plane could not fly over bodies of water over long distances. when we reached out to alaska airlines, they said no comment due to the ntsb investigation. falling under scrutiny once again. thank you. linsey: tonight, abc news is learning the timeline in lloyd austin s illness as questions swirl around about when the president was told. a defense official says austin left the hospital on december 23rd following an elective procedure. he was then readmitted and admitted to intensive care. ike ejochi is in washington with the very latest. reporter: tonight, the extraordinary breach of protocol after top pentagon officials, members of congress, and even the white house were all unaware of defense secretary lloyd austin s hospitalization this week. pentagon officials telling abc news tonight that while on leave on december 22nd, austin had what was described as a minor elective procedure at walter reed national military medical c
People tell me he could get in there, and do something and it was surprising to me. jake tapper: surprising because the president would have no reason to even know who jeffrey clark was. evan perez: even within the department, very few people had really heard of jeffrey clark. jake tapper: but donald trump had. unbeknownst to rosen and donoghue, pennsylvania republican congressman scott perry had brought clark to the oval office to meet with president trump on december 22nd the day after perry had been amongst republican members of congress who joined trump at the white house to discuss overturning the 2020 election. trump also mentioned jeff clark on a separate call with rosen. jeffrey rosen: he made, what i regarded as a peculiar reference. i don t remember the exact quote, but it was something about did i know jeff clark or did i know who he was or something like that. i was quizzical as to how does the president even know mr. clark? jake tapper: rosen confronted clark who admitted