Prostate surgery. Reporters asked where President Biden and the white house knew about secretary austins position . This is about an hour. As part of sec. Austins routinely recommended health screening, he has undergone regular antigen tsa surveillance. Changes in his Laboratory Evaluation in early december of 2023 identified Prostate Cancer, which required treatment. On december 22, 20 23, after consultation with his medical team, he was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center and underwent a minimally Invasive Surgery to treat and cure Prostate Cancer. He was under general anesthesia during this procedure. Secretary austin recovered from his surgery and returned home the next morning. His Prostate Cancer was detected early in his prognosis is excellent. On january 1, 2024, secretary austin was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center with complications from the december 22 procedure. Including nausea with severe abdominal hip and leg pain. Initial evaluation revealed a urinary tract infection. On january 2, the decision was made to transfer him to the icu for close monitoring and a higher level of care. Further evaluation revealed abdominal fluid and peering the function of the small intestines. This resulted in the backup of his intestinal contents, which was treated by placing a tube through his nose to drain his stomach. The abdominal fluid collections were drained by nonsurgical drain placement. He has progressed steadily throughout his day. His infections cleared. He continues to make progress and we anticipate a full recovery, although this can be a slows a slow process. Secretary austin never lost consciousness and never underwent general anesthesia. Prostate cancer is the most common cause of cancer among american men and it impacts one in every eight men and one in every six africanamerican men in their lifetime. Despite the frequency of Prostate Cancer in screening and treatment are personal and private. Early screening is important for detection and treatment of Prostate Cancer and people should talk to their doctors to see what screening is appropriate for them. Secretary austin continues to recover well and remains in good spirits. Hes in contact with his senior staff and has full access to capabilities and continues to monitor eods daytoday operations worldwide. At this time i do not have information to provide in terms of when he will be released from the hospital but will keep you updated and until then we will release daily status updates on his condition. We in the department of defense wish him a speedy recovery. The department recognizes the understandable concerns expressed by the public, congress and the news media in terms of notification, timelines and transparency. I want to underscore that secretary austin has taken responsibility for the issues with transparency in the department is taking immediate steps to improve our notification procedures. Yesterday the secretarys chief of staff directed the dod director of administration and management to conduct a 30 day review of the departments notification process or assumption of functions and duties of the secretary of defense. While the review is underway and Effective Immediately, the chief of staff directed several actions to ensure increased situation awareness about any transfer of authorities from the secretary of defense to include ensuring the dod general counsel, the chairman and vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, commanders, service secretaries, Service Chiefs of staff, the white house situation room and senior staff of the secretary and deputy secretary of defense are notified. That the notification for transfer of dirties includes an explanation of the region. We will keep you updated regarding the results of the review and the significant changes to process procedures as appropriate. As i highlighted yesterday, nothing is more important to the secretary of defense and the department of defense and the trusting confidence of the American People in the public we serve and we continue to work hard every day to earn and deserve that trust. Separately, deputy secretary Kathleen Hicks is traveling in route to u. S. Based command headquarters at Peterson Space for space in colorado. Tomorrow she will preside over the u. S. Based command change of command at 12 00 p. M. The event will be live streamed on defense. Gov. Also, dr. Michael chase, deputy secretary of defense for china, taiwan and mongolia began talks with peoples republic of china major general. Deputy director of the military office for International Military cooperation. At the pentagon for the 17th u. S. Prc defense policy coordination talks. Those meetings conclude today and we will issue a read this afternoon. Finally, as some may be aware, the you and the United States of america vietnam war commemoration was launched authorized by congress under the secretary of defense in support of a national 50th Anniversary Commemoration to thank the nations Vietnam Veterans and their families for their service and sacrifice on behalf of our nation. Thousands of organizations known as commemorative partners have joined the u. S. Vietnam war commemoration to honor americans Vietnam Veterans at home and abroad in the 10 million families of all those who served. This saturday, january 13 at 4 00 p. M. Eastern, a special commemoration of the legacy of vietnam war veterans and gold star families in a renewal of commitment to account for those heroes who may remain missing 50 years after the wars end, will be observed at the National Cathedral in washington, d. C. Supply the air and Space Force Association and the supporting organizations. The event is open to the public and will also be livestreamed. For more details, i refer you to the National Cathedral website. With that, i will take your questions and start with the associated press. Thank you for doing this. Have you are the staff had a chance to speak to the secretary, and has he shared why he was reluctant to make his condition public until now . Given the seriousness of his treatment, he might have to take a step back from some of the more rigorous parts of his job, such as the overseas travel he has been doing and delegate that to secretary hicks . The staff has been in contact with the secretary. I have not personally spoken to the secretary, but i do know he is in regular communication with this chief of staff. As per his travel schedule, i dont have anything to announce, i could tell you he is actively engaged in his duties, as i highlighted. , fully engaged. Im completely confident in that and we will keep you updated in terms of his status in the hospital. Has he expressed why he was reluctant to share what he was going through until now . At ohio that specifically from the secretary, but as i highlighted, its Prostate Cancer and the associated procedures are deeply personal, so, again, we will continue to work hard that we are paying as transparent as possible moving forward. Again, which to secretary a speedy recovery. There is still a lot of questions on the process about all of the notification that didnt happen when he was taken by ambulance to walter reed and had his personal security detail with them. Why wasnt there a call to an operation system or something that would trigger the greater awareness that he was getting medical care . A fair question, for the sake of not doing the review from the podium as i highlighted, the director of administration and management has been directed to lead a thorough review to look at those kinds of questions. The relevant circumstances during the time in question to evaluate the processes and procedures by which the deputy secretary of defense was notified and the associated timeline. We will commit to being as transparent as we can in terms of the review. The chief of staff and senior military advisor were told on tuesday secretary austin was in the hospital. Could the chief of staff could ask them to make the proper notification for her since she was sick with the flu . We fully recognize that there are going to be many questions in terms of notification timelines, as why as well as the transparency issues weve highlighted. I really think that this review will help us get to the truth in a holistic way so that we can learn from it importantly, but also ensure we are doing better next time. I think we need to allow this review to run its course. In the meantime, we have taken immediate steps as ive highlighted at the top. With that be under procedure to notify the White House National security advisor . Certainly we want to make sure notifications are happening in a timely way and there were some shortfalls, so its important we look at what those shortfalls were, what couldve been done better and make sure Going Forward we are in we are improving those processes. Do you still think its appropriate to call his medical procedure and elective medical procedure if it was treating Prostate Cancer . Im going to defer to medical officials. We released this information as soon as we had it, so, again, i will refer back to the statement. Going forward we will use it as the baseline in terms of describing. In this particular case, as soon as we have the information made available to us, we have provided to you. It seems like you are deceived by telling everyone that it was an elected medical procedure and by telling that to the public. It doesnt seem elective if he had Prostate Cancer and was treating it. Im not a medical professional. We will provide you with the information we have as quickly as we have it in recognizing, as i say that, we couldve done a better job last week. Again, we have this information now from these medical professionals, and i think that it will go along way in terms of helping the understand the situation and what needs to be done Going Forward. One was President Biden notified the secretary was diagnosed . I dont know. The memo that was directed by austins chief of staff that lays out the 30 day review thats going to be done doesnt mention the initial december 22 hospital stay. Has the pentagon determined that in that instance all notification procedures were followed despite the white house not being notified for surgery knowing he was under general anesthesia . I think the information that we gather in the lessons that we learn from last week will be applicable across the board. It would similarly apply to the situation on december 22. The bottom line is ensuring that if there is a transfer of authority, making sure the appropriate Senior Leaders in the chain of command know, and that importantly, there is a rationale to be able to provide some perspective in terms of why these transfers of authority are occurring. Certainly, Lessons Learned from that will be applied to transfers of authority in the future. Prior to him going under general anesthesia, he transferred his authorities to the general secretary . That is correct. When this happened in december, whose decision was it not to alert the president that the defense had Prostate Cancer . As far as this situation, in terms of what the elective surgery was in the secretaries condition, we are providing that information to you as we have received it. We received it this afternoon and we are providing it to you now. Clearly you didnt know, the chief of staff, did the chief of staff know . I wont go into specifics of who knew what, when and where, our review will help us understand. As soon as we have this information to make available, we provided it. We got it this afternoon and we have provided it minutes before i stepped in here. Did he lose consciousness at all during the december 22 surgery . To my knowledge, no. Has a secretary been on other medication that might harm his judgment . I have no indications anything that would affect his decisionmaking abilities. As i highlighted in the statement, at no time was he unconscious or under general anesthesia and is in the presence of them for the presence. When he resumed full duties on friday evening, that was in consultation with medical professionals. As we highlighted in the press releases that we put out, he continues to stay very actively engage with the senior staff and as making important decisions about National Security and defense. Has he asked the chief of staff to resign or has she offered to resign . No. The white house chief of staff put out a statement about procedures, as the secretary believe he has become a distraction for the administration in which he serves during an Election Year . The sec. Rep continues to remain carrying out his duties. Secretary blinken said the death toll in gaza was high. And they mentioned the terms. Does the pentagon agreement as we said for a long time, any civilian debt is a tragedy. The secretary and others, as we have engage with our israeli partners, continue to encourage them to do Everything Possible to mitigate and will continue to do that. No one wants to see civilians killed in this conflict, whether they be palestinian or israeli. We will continue to work towards that. They issued a statement condemning u. S. Weakness. Do you have any update that you can share and do you have reaction to the u. S. Being too weak . The u. S. Is not being two weeks two week. We are working to address the threat. Operation prosperity guardian is bringing together 20 nations to help safeguard International Commerce in mariners that are in the red sea. We will continue to work very closely to help deter by presence and also help to safeguard those ships that are transiting additionally. A statement was put out highlighting that there will be consequences for any type of continued attacks. Im not going to speculate or get in the hypotheticals or what of what we may or may not do. As it is addressing those issues as to say it will be addressing those issues. The secretary is expected to host the pentagon, has that been canceled for the pentagon preparing this . I dont have the specific details other than to say, we will continue to assess the secretary schedule in terms of here at the pentagon. Certainly, as things seem to be delegated, we will do that, the business of the department, the daytoday business continues, and the secretary is conducting his duties from the hospital. We will be sure to keep you and others updated in terms of who may be carrying out those specific duties or functions, or if we have to reschedule things. But right now, i dont have specifics. Just so i understand the timeline, President Biden did not find out austin was in the hospital until thursday, correct . Correct. We dont know at this time when President Biden was notified or if he was notified that he had Prostate Cancer . I have to refer you to the white house, i dont want to get into who was telling the president what and when. Why did it take so long to get President Biden and why did the statement take so long, assuming she returned on thursday morning. The statement did not come out until friday after 5 00, thats two full business days. What was the delay in the statement. We usually get delays. I covered a lot of this during yesterday, i recognize not everybody was there. When the notifications occurred, to the staff on tuesday, because the secretaries chief of staff was ill with the flu, it impacted a delay in reporting it to the deputy secretary staff and to the National Security advisor. Again, we recognize there were some shortfalls in this in terms of the obvious question about delegation, thats what this review will help us look at, where we can improve processes to ensure these kind of things dont happen again going into the future. I understand that. It still took all day thursday and all day friday to get a statement out. Im wondering where the delay was a was. We recognize we have to do a better job in terms of the timeliness and transparency when it comes to the Secretaries Health and we are committed to making sure we dont do this again and do a better job next time. Could you provide any updates on the Service Members in the attack . I would have to refer you. The latest numbers of attacks . Since january 4, there has been nine attacks since january 4, there has been 127 attacks total, 52 in iraq, 75 in syria. You previously said that the pentagon was looking into reports. Im just wondering if theres any updates on that . I dont have any updates, i havent seen anything come back. I would refer you to the israelis, they would know whether they did or not, im not aware of any updates or anything significant coming back at this stage. You talk about iraq, my question is do you have a deadline for the u. S. Withdrawal in iraq, will you stay as long as isis or until after the Iraqi Government wants you to stay or leave the country . We are in iraq at the invitation of the invitation of iraq. As you highlight, we remain focused on the defeat isis mission. We remain in close consultation with the Iraqi Government when it comes to the u. S. Safety and security of those forces. So we are engaged in a coordinated and deliver process with the government of iraq to discuss the evolution of that in a manner that preserves these games against isis and helps to ensure they can never