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Defense Secy Lloyd Austin Underwent Prostate Cancer Treatment & Pentagon Press Conference Expected Soon; Pentagon Press Briefing On Status Of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Shortfalls On Reporting. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired January 09, 2024 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:32:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Back to our breaking news. The Pentagon just revealed that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had an elective procedure to treat prostate cancer.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A Pentagon press conference expected to begin here any moment. We are keeping our eye on that. You see the dais there.

I want to go to Dr. Jonathan Reiner now.

Doctor, just walk us through this. Obviously, prostate cancer is incredibly common. But tell us about your reaction to the diagnosis, the treatment, and then the complications from it.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes. I think this was always going to be one of the more likely reasons for the secretary's hospitalization.

For many men, this is a private time. Prostate cancer is super common. There's almost 300,000 new cases every year. About one in 40 men will die of prostate cancer.

These moments in your life are very private. It seems like Secretary Austin is a private man. I understand why this is something that he perhaps would not want to deal with publicly.

This diagnosis, depending on what stage it is, is managed in a variety of different ways. From just observation to, you know, hormonal manipulation, to surgical excision of the prostate, which sounds like he had right before Christmas.

There are a variety of ways to remove the prostate. That includes robotic surgery. Complications can include bleeding or difficulty urinating.

It's a little hard to understand perhaps what exactly the complications Secretary Austin might have experienced. But it's surgery, it's invasive, and complications can happen. SANCHEZ: Doctor, I'm curious to get your perspective on the second

part of that. In a statement it was revealed his prognosis, when it comes to the cancer, is excellent.

However, days after the procedure he had the urinary tract infection that you mentioned. There was further evaluation that revealed a collection of abdominal fluid impairing the function of his small intestine. Fortunately, the statement says his infection has cleared.

Is that something common when it comes to that procedure? Is it something that could potentially be recurring?

REINER: It sounds like he probably had an abscess that formed either in his pelvis or in his abdomen.

When you have an infection, that can also result in something called inelias (ph), which slows down the passage of food through your intestines. That requires both bowel rest and the abscess would require perhaps drainage and antibiotics.

If you come in with a serious infection, that is called sepsis, you can come in with low blood pressure. Your life can be in jeopardy.

[14:35:03]

And it's not a stretch of the imagination to understand why a 70-year- old man following a recent surgical procedure, who's potentially septic, would need ICU management.

So these are not common complications following a typical prostate surgery, but they are not unheard of.

It sounds like he was in the right place and has had excellent care. But these procedures can sometimes in small numbers result in serious complications, and even rarely in death.

KEILAR: Yes. I'm glad you pointed that out. There are many complications that can obviously come along with surgery.

Let's actually listen in, Doctor, as we begin the Pentagon briefing.

MAJ. GEN. PATRICK RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: I appreciate your patience.

Secretary Austin currently remains hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and is in good condition.

By now, you should have seen the statement released by Walter Reed National Military Medical Center officials regarding his medical care.

For the sake of ensuring that everyone here today and everyone watching has the same information, I will read that full statement.

This is a statement from Dr. John Maddox, trauma medical director, and Dr. Gregory Chestnut, Center for Prostate Disease Research at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Beginning the statement: "As part of Secretary Austin's routinely

recommended health screening, he has undergone regular prostate- specific antigen PSA surveillance.

"Changes in his laboratory evaluation are early December 2023 identified prostate cancer, which required treatment.

"On December 22nd, 2023, after consultation with his medical team, he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure called a prostatectomy to treat and cure prostate cancer. He was under general anesthesia during this procedure.

"Secretary Austin recovered uneventfully from his surgery and returned home the next morning. His prostate cancer was detected early and his prognosis is excellent.

"On January 1st, 2024, Secretary Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Medical Center with complications from the December 22nd procedure. That included nausea with severe abdominal, hip and leg pain. Initial evaluation revealed the 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 collections impairing the function of his small intestines.

"This resulted in the backup of his intestinal contents, which was treated placing a tube through his nose to drain his stomach. The abdominal fluid collections were drained by non-surgical drain placement.

"He has progressed steadily throughout his state. His infection is cleared. He continues to make progress and we anticipate a full recovery although this can be a slow process.

"During this stay, 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 African-American men during their lifetime.

"Despite the frequency of prostate cancer discussions -- are often deeply personal and private ones.

"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." End of statement.

Secretary Austin continues to recover well and he remains in good spirits. He is in contact with his senior staff, and has full access to required secure communications capabilities, and continues to monitor DOD's day-to-day operations worldwide.

At this time, I do not have any information to provide in terms of what he might be released from the hospital, but we will be sure to keep you updated. And until then, we will continue to release daily status updates on his condition.

We, in the Department of Offense, of course, 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 DOD transparency.

I want to underscore again that Secretary Austin has taken responsibility for the issues of the transparency. And the department is taking immediate steps to improve our notification procedures.

Yesterday, the secretary's chief of staff directed the DOD's director of administration and management to conduct a 30-day review of the department's notification process for assumption of functions and duties of the secretary of defense.

[14:40:01]

While the review is underway and effective immediately, the chief of staff also directed several actions to ensure increased situational awareness about any transfer of authority from the secretary of defense.

To include ensuring that the DOD General Counsel, the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the combatant commanders, the service secretaries, the service chief of staff's, the White House Situation Room and senior staff of the secretary and deputy secretary of defense, are all notified.

And that the notification for transfer of authorities includes an explanation of the reason.

We will keep you updated regarding the results of the review, and any additional significant changes to process and procedures as appropriate.

As I highlighted to many of you yesterday, nothing is more important to the secretary of defense and the Department of Defense than the trust and confidence of the American people, and the public we serve.

And we will continue to work every day to earn and deserve that trust.

Separately, deputy secretary, Kathleen Hicks, is traveling today en route to U.S. Space Command headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado.

Tomorrow, she will preside over the us Space Command change of command at 12 p.m. Eastern Time, between General James Dickinson and Lieutenant General Stephen Whiting. The event will be livestreamed on defense.gov.

Also, Dr. Michael Chase, deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, began talks yesterday with People's Republic of China's major general, deputy director of the Central Military Commission 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 readout later this afternoon.

Finally, as some of you might be aware, the United States of America Vietnam War commemoration was launched in 2012, authorized by Congress under the secretary of defense, and in support of a national 50th anniversary commemoration.

To help thank the nation's Vietnam veterans and their families for their service and sacrifice on behalf of our nation. Notably, thousands of organizations known as commemorative partners have --

KEILAR: All right, we are listening there to the briefing at the Pentagon. We just heard what we were describing before, which is we learned that Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, had it removed, then had complications.

And that is what led to his being in the ICU. Then to the controversy over the fact he had not disclosed to the White House that he had this.

I want to talk to Dr. Reiner about this.

And I want to tell our viewers we will keep listening, because this will likely come up again as we get to the Q&A portion of the briefing.

Doctor Reiner, just what you heard there, I mean, we should be clear that there was an issue with a UTI, and then a blocked intestine, or a backup as it was described in the statement. It must have been incredibly painful.

We learned that during his stay, in this complication period, that the secretary never lost consciousness or never underwent general anesthesia.

Pardon me, let's go back to the Pentagon briefing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you suspect he might have to take a step back from some of the more rigorous parts of his job, such as a lot of the overseas travel that he's been doing, it may be delegated to Secretary Hicks?

RYDER: The staff has been in contact with the secretary. I have not personally spoken to the secretary. But I do know, for example, that he's in regular communication with his chief of staff.

As for his travel schedule, I do not have anything to announce. I can tell you he is actively engaged in his duties, as I highlighted. And he's fully engaged. And so completely confident in that.

We will obviously keep you updated in terms of his status in the hospital. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has he expressed at all why he was reluctant to

share what he was going through until now?

RYDER: I do not have that specifically from the secretary, Tara, but as I highlighted, prostate cancer and the associated procedures are obviously deeply personal.

So, again, we will continue to work hard to make sure we are being as transparent as possible moving forward. And again, we wish the secretary a speedy recovery.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Then one last thing. There's still a lot of questions about the process and notification that did not happen.

When he was taken by ambulance to Walter Reed and had a personal security detail with him, why at that point wasn't there a call to an operation center, or something that would have triggered a greater awareness that he was getting medical care?

RYDER: Yes, so again, a fair question. You know, for the sake of not doing the review here from the podium, as I highlighted, the director of administration and management was then directed to lead a thorough review to locate exactly those kinds of questions.

[14:45:00]

The relevant facts and circumstances during the period in question, to evaluate the processes and procedures by which the deputy secretary of defense was notified, and the associated timeline.

Again, we will commit to being as transparent as we can in terms of the results of that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you.

The chief of staff and senior military adviser were both told on Tuesday that Secretary Austin was in the hospital. Could the chief of staff has -- asked the estimate to make the proper notifications for her since she was sick with the flu?

RYDER: Again, we fully recognize that there will be many questions in terms of the notification timelines, as well as the transparency issues that we have highlighted.

So I really think this review is going to help us get the ground truth in a holistic way so that we can learn from it, importantly, but also ensure that we are doing better next time.

So I think we really need to allow this review to run its course in order to do that. In the meantime, we've taken immediate steps as I highlighted at the top.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Would that have been under a procedure for the SMA (ph) to notify the White House national security adviser?

RYDER: Again, certainly, you know, we want to make sure that the notifications are happening in a timely way, and we acknowledged there was shortfalls.

So it's important that we go back and look at what the shortfalls were, what could have been done better, and make sure that going forward we are improving the processes. Again, this review will help us.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you still think it's appropriate to call his medical procedure on December 22nd an elective medical procedure if it was treating prostate cancer?

RYDER: So I will defer to medical officials on this. Again, this is, you know, we have released this information as soon as we had it. So I will again refer back to the statement.

And going forward, we will use that as the baseline in terms of describing, but in this particular case, as soon as we had the information made available to us, we provided to you.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Frankly, it seems like you were deceived by telling everyone that it was an elective medical procedure, and by telling that to the public.

It does not seem elective if he had prostate cancer and was treating it.

RYDER: Yes. I'm not a medical professional. Again, we will try to provide you with the most information we have as quickly as we have it. And recognizing that, as I say, that we could have done a better job last week.

So, you know, again, we have this information now from these medical professionals. I think that it will go a long way in terms of helping to understand the situation and what needs to be done going forward.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When was President Biden notified that the secretary was diagnosed with prostate cancer?

RYDER: I would have to refer you to the White House. I just don't know.

Natasha?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you, General Ryder.

So the memo that was drafted by Austin's chief of staff that lays out the 30-day review that is going to be done, it does not mention the initial December 22nd hospital stay.

Has the Pentagon determined that all appropriate notification procedures in that instance were followed, despite the deputy secretary and the White House not being notified that he was undergoing surgery, which we now know he was under general anesthesia for?

RYDER: Yes, I think that the information that we gather and the lessons that we have learned from the period from last week will be applicable across the board. Right? So it would similarly apply to the situation on December 22nd.

The bottom line is ensuring that if there is a transfer authority, making sure that the appropriate senior leaders in the chain of command know. And that importantly, there is a rational to be able to provide some perspective in terms of why these transfers of authority are occurring.

So certainly, lessons learned from that will certainly be applied to transfers of authority in the future.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just to be clear, prior to him going under general anesthesia, he transferred his authority to the deputy secretary?

RYDER: That is correct.

Laura, and then I will go to --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just again, when this happened in December, whose decision was it to not alert the president that the defense secretary had prostate cancer?

RYDER: Again, as far as the situation in terms of what the elective surgery was, and the secretary's condition, we are providing that information to you as we receive it.

We received that this afternoon and we are providing it to you now. So I will just leave that there.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You clearly did not know. The chief of staff, did he know?

RYDER: I will not go into the specifics, about who specifically knew what, when and where.

Again, a review will help us better understand that. Other than to say, you know, as soon as we have the information to be made available, we provided it.

We've got it this afternoon and provided it literally minutes before I stepped in here.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did he lose consciousness at all during the December 22nd surgery?

RYDER: To my knowledge, no.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has the secretary been on any medication that might alter his judgment during any of those hospital visits?

[14:50:05]

RYDER: So I have no indications, again -- I have no indications of anything that would affect his decision-making abilities. He's obviously, as I highlighted in the statement, at no time has he been unconscious or under general anesthesia, and, of course, is in the presence of medical professionals for the duration.

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 engaged with his senior staff and is making important decisions about national security and defense.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has he asked his chief of staff to resign, or has she offered to resign?

RYDER: No

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Lastly and very quickly, the White House chief of staff put out a statement on different secretaries and procedures. Does the secretary believe he has become a distraction for the administration in which he serves during an election year?

RYDER: The secretary continues to remain focused on recovering but, more importantly, carrying out his duties as secretary of defense and defending the nation.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you. Different topic. Two questions.

Secretary Blinken said the death toll in Gaza was far too high and Senator Angus King said that the campaign reached diminishing returns. Does the Pentagon agree with these assessments? That is the first question and I have a second one.

RYDER: Sure. As we have said for a long time, any civilian death is a tragedy.

Of course, the secretary and others, as we have engaged with our Israeli partners, have encouraged them to do everything possible to mitigate civilian harm, and we will continue to do that.

No one wants to see innocent civilians killed in this conflict, whether they be Palestinian or Israeli. And so we'll continue to work to prevent them.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Second question. A statement was issued condemning U.S. weakness. Do you have any updates that you can share and any reaction to the claim that the U.S. is being too weak?

RYDER: The U.S. is not being too week. We are working actively with our partners to address the Houthi threat.

Operation Prosperity Guardian is bringing together 20 nations to help safeguard international commerce and Mariners in the Red Sea. We will continue to work closely with those partners to help deter by presence but also helping safeguard the ships transiting.

Additionally, as you saw last week, a statement was put out by multiple nations highlighting that there will be consequences for any type of Houthi, continued Houthi attacks. That warning still applies.

I am not going to speculate or get into hypotheticals about what we may or may not do as it pertains to or as it relates to addressing those issues other than it should be taken seriously.

Carla?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: First of all, the secretary is expected to host an honor court Thursday here at the Pentagon. Has that changed? Has it been canceled? Is the Pentagon preparing for someone else to host this?

RYDER: I do not have the specific details on that in front of me other than to say, we will continue to assess the secretary schedule in terms of here at the Pentagon.

And certainly, as we have updates, or if things need to be delegated, we will do that.

The business of the department, the day-to-day business continues and the secretary is conducting his duties from the hospital.

And we will keep you and others updated in terms of who may be carrying out specific duties or functions, or if we have to reschedule things. Right now, I do not have specifics.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just so I understand the timeline. President Biden did not find out he was in the hospital until Friday, correct?

RYDER: Correct.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: We do not know when President Biden was notified or if he was notified before Thursday that the secretary has prostate cancer, right? That's still unanswered?

RYDER: I have to refer you to the White House. I do not want to get into who is telling the president what and when.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: OK. So why did it take so long to get to President Biden? Why did the statement take so long when the chief of staff returned on Thursday, assuming she returned Thursday morning.

The statement did not come out until Friday after 5:00. That is two full business days. What was the delay? We usually get statements about strikes or meetings much, much earlier.

RYDER: Yes. Thanks. I will provide you a broad overview. I covered a lot of this during the gab yesterday but I recognize not everybody was there.

[14:55:04]

And so when the notifications occurred to the staff on Tuesday, because the secretary's 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 adviser. Again, we recognize that there were shortfalls in this, in terms of

the obvious question about delegation. That is what this review will help us look at, is where we can improve processes to ensure these kinds of things do not happen in the future.

The bottom line is --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I understand, post Thursday, it still took all day Thursday and all day Friday to get a statement out. That is where I'm wondering where the delay was there as well.

RYDER: Again, this will go back to what we will look at. We recognize that we have to do a better job in terms of timeliness and transparency when it comes to, especially the secretary's health.

Again, we are committed to making sure that we do not do this again and we do a better job next time.

Let me get to some other questions.

Joseph?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thanks. Can you provide updates on the three service members that were injured on the Christmas Day attack?

RYDER: Joseph, I would have to refer you to the Army. I do not have that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you give us the latest numbers of attacks in Iraq and Syria?

RYDER: Sure. Since January 4 -- let's see, there has been nine attacks since January 4. There has been 127 attacks total, 52 in Iraq, 75 in Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just finally, DOD and you previously said the Pentagon was looking into reports of Israelis the latest of November and October I wonder if there is an update.

RYDER: I do not have updates and I have not seen anything substantive come back. But I don't have any updates on that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you still looking into closing that?

RYDER: I would refer you to the Israeli's. They would know if they did or not. I am not aware of any updates or anything significant coming back at this stage.

Yes, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you, General.

Yesterday, you talked about Iraq. My question is, do you have a deadline for the U.S. withdrawal in Iraq? If not then, how long will you stay? Are you going to stay as long as the ISIS threats remains or the Iraqi government say they want you to stay all over the country? RYDER: Yes, so we are in Iraq at the invitation of the government of

Iraq. As you highlight, we remain focused on the defeat ISIS mission.

We do remain in close consultation with the Iraqi government when it comes to the U.S. force presence, in particular the safety and security of the forces.

So we are engaged in a coordinated and deliberate process with the government of Iraq to discuss the evolution of that mission in a manner that preserves these gains against ISIS and helps to ensure that they can never come back.

So I am not going to speculate or get into internal Iraqi government discussions. But we will continue to consult closely with our Iraqi partners.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You have a deadline to leave Iraq?

RYDER: Again, we are there at the invitation of the government of Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you. (INAUDIBLE). Can you give us any update on the U.S. as it stands in Japan --

SANCHEZ: We will keep monitoring this press briefing by Major General Pat Ryder at the Pentagon as he answers a variety of questions.

The focus of it though is the status of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after it was revealed earlier this afternoon that he underwent treatment for prostate cancer at the end of last year and suffered complications subsequently, and it has created some controversy and part of questions of transparency.

Ryder was specifically asked why the White House was not notified sooner that the defense secretary was being rushed to the intensive care unit at Walter Reed Medical Center.

Ryder, from the podium, saying he does not want to do a review at this point. Obviously, the Defense Department looking into the process that led to this lack of transparency. He did say, quote, "We could have done a better job."

KEILAR: There were so many questions, too, about it and he pivoted off of them saying there is a 30-day review and they would look at it.

But the fact is there are a lot of questions, including ones that you could ascertain answers to, but they are not answering at this point in time.

I want to get to Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon who has been tracking this briefing.

Oren, what did you think?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, there were two sets of questions. One, at the beginning, was a medical aspect of all of this. The other, as you point out, was on the notification problems and the fact that President Joe Biden did not know his defense secretary was in the hospital.