Resumed his duties friday evening and is recovering well. joining us now, national security and military correspondent courtney kube. what more do we know? there are a lot of questions here about disclosure, and also who was in charge? yeah, i mean, the details as we learn, every detail about this incident is more of a head-scratching scenario. so as you said, secretary austen, he was admitted to the hospital on monday, new year s day. a week ago today. we now know that he had some sort of an elective medical procedure about a week earlier, on december 22nd. i required an overnight stay at the hospital at walter reid. he was released on the 23rd. on new year s day, he started having severe pains and was taken to the hospital where he has now been a week, mika. while he was there, he was put into the icu. now, fast forward to last
Joining us now, nbc news national security and military correspondent courtney kube. courtney, what more do we know? there are a lot of questions here about disclosure and also who was in charge. reporter: yeah. i mean, the details as we learn every new detail about this entire incident, it s more of a head-scratching scenario. so, as you said, secretary austin, he was admitted to the hospital on monday, new year s day, so a week ago today. we now know that he had some sort of an elective medical procedure about a week earlier on december 22nd. it required an overnight stay at the hospital at walter reed. he was released on the 23rd. but on new year s day, he started having severe pains and was taken to the hospital where he s now been for a week, mika. he was and while he was there, he was put into the icu. now, fast forward to last friday when all week long, we were told that secretary austin was on leave and no one really had any
Severity of his medical emergency. it was december 22nd when austin secretly underwent a still unknown elective surgery. he was released the following day. but on monday evening, january 1st, austin was in such severe pain, he was taken by ambulance to walter reed hospital and immediately rushed to the intensive care unit. his personal security detail following the ambulance. on january 2nd, austin s chief of staff, his senior military aide, and senior pentagon press secretaries were made aware he was hospitalized. but no one contacted the white house or congress. and the press secretaries, major general pat ryder and chris meagher, kept the information hidden from the press and the public. on the afternoon of january 2nd, due to the seriousness of the secretary s condition, routine authorization, which normally happens when the secretary is
Didn t know he was innocent charge, but they didn t know that he may have been very ill. as you said in that intro, he was in that intensive care unit for at least part of his stay. as far as we know, he s still in the hospital now. he had this elective procedure on december 22nd that required an overnight stay at walter reed. we still don t know what that was. we do know about a week later he was experiencing extreme, severe pain and was taken to the hospital. that was a week ago, ana. he remains there. still more questions than answers, including why is it that deputy secretary of defense kathleen hicks was notified she would have to assume some of his duties? why that is critical is two days later on thursday, when she was notified he was in the hospital, he started making plans to come back to d.c. it indicates some of the potential urgency that she felt she needed to return to d.c. why wasn t she told 48 hours
December 22nd. he returned home the very next day. but on january 1st, defense secretary lloyd austin was admitted to the icu because of severe pain. his number two at the pentagon was on vacation. president biden was not told until january 4th, some three plus days later. and oddly enough, in the white house, there may not be feeling it or saying it, but outside 1600 pennsylvania avenue, there is outrage. the national security council didn t know it. white house didn t know it. congress didn t knot. that s not the way the pentagon ought to conduct business. it was a dereliction of duty. the secretary and administration need to step forward and give the american people the facts. harris: a stark reminder of what we are up against.
To reveal for days. i do hope that every person recognizes this was not an appropriate way to handle what was his hospitalization. reporter: that is unacceptable, said roger wicker. we are learn more every how about the defense department s shocking defiance of the law. also in the dark, the most senior members of the biden administration. i was not aware of his medical issues. reporter: biden says he still has complete confidence in austin. the white house said today the way austin notified them needs to be reviewed. i think there s an expectation when a cabinet official becomes hospitalized, that s notified up the chain of command. reporter: the initial surgery was on december 22nd. he went home the next day, then rushed to the icu by ambulance
The chairman of the joint chiefs, how were they all notified of this on tuesday, in addition to the pentagon press secretary, major general pat ryder, he was notified tuesday as well, but no one thought to tell the white house. the only reason we re getting is the chief of staff who made the call ultimately on thursday had the flu and couldn t call for a couple of days, katy. do we know what the elective procedure was and what the complications were? we don t. believe me, we re asking. we don t know anything about what the procedure was on december 22nd. we know secretary austin had to stay in the hospital overnight for it, but he was discharged. he had severe pains on new year s day. and they were concerned enough he went via ambulance to walter reed on new year s day. the reason the next day he transferred some of his responsibilities and authorities to his deputy secretary, kathleen hicks, was because according to the press secretary here, austin s condition worsened. we don t k
He has no idea. i don t like it when people say he should be fired, but i think if biden allows them to stay, that s another lack of judgment, because it is just too serious to let it go. jeanine: jesse, what dana says is true. everyone is starting to worry about what s going on in the biden administration, who is running it. from the beginning, we kept saying who is running it? thinking about our adversaries, xi jinping, putin. they are saying the skies had surgery, they know it s going on, he is m.i.a. biden doesn t know he is m.i.a. we can do what we want, and they won t even get their cavalry around together. jesse: who can forget robert mcnamara s tet offensive, or donald rumsfeld s lifo during operation iraqi s freedom. i did not select an elective
Austin for failing to disclose his hospitalization. he was hospitalized on the 1st of january spending four days in the intensive care unit but president biden and other officials weren t notified about it until three days later. this morning, john kirby addressed the controversy on board air force one. there is no plans for anything other than for secretary austin to stay in the job and continuing the leadership that he s been exude, that he s been demonstrating. joining us now is courtney from the pentagon. also with us, monica alba. so, courtney, how did this happen? this is a major breach of protocol, isn t it? yes. the reality is we don t know how this happened. secretary austin, he had this elective procedure on december
And our consciousness abroad. you want to know someone was in such an important position of power is not there, and if he s not there, you know why he s not, and that the proper line of command is in place. i assume nothing will change in terms of a resignation on this. friday could come, and then the sunday shows. the biden administration was obviously caught flat-footed by this, but he has a lot of explaining to do. a critically dangerous moment in history for this to have happened. the interesting thing is that the day he had the surgery, december 22nd, didn t telling thing about that. to comment on what they were saying, may be an cloud of judgment had to go to the icu. didn t have a clouded judgment before he went in for elective surgery. that was reckless judgment. okay, when we come back.