January 9, 2024 • 29 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I want you to imagine, for just a moment, that
you're the CEO of a major company. I want you
to imagine that you decide to go have an elective
surgery and you tell no one about it, and then
you get sick from that surgery, and then you go
into the ICU and still tell no one about your absence.
(00:23):
Question is would you then be fired? I think most
of us know the answer to that question is, well, absolutely. Imagine, however,
that you're in charge of the Pentagon. You're in charge
of every man and woman or transgendered weirdo that's in
the military, and your job is to be on the
ready for all threats foreign and domestic.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
While there are multiple wars.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Going on in the war in the world right now
that you're supposed to be involved in or even leading
on them. Well, that's exactly what happened with the Secretary
of Defense Austin. That's right, Austin, and don't worry. The
Biden administration is like, hey, we're not considering sacking the
(01:08):
Defense secretary who failed to disclose his hospitalization to us
and everybody else in the administration.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Defend Secretary Lloyd Austin and The question now is is
there anything you can do in this administration that would
get you fired? He failed to inform the White House
about his hospitalization. President Joe Biden is not considering firing him.
That is what Politico is now reporting. The outt side
a group of senior administration officials, if Austin were to
(01:37):
issue a resignation, Biden would refuse it. A person among
them also stated, Austin is going nowhere, is what one
official told Politico. The report noted Republicans have been calling
for Biden to dismiss the Defense Secretary. During a recent interview,
Senator James Langford, a Republican from Oklahoma, said this Apparently
(01:59):
the National Security Council didn't.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Know it either. The White House didn't know it. Congress
didn't know it.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
We're at a time of a lot of termoil internationally,
and suddenly we have the Secretary of Defense more than
just a matter of wasn't there Actually he sent over
false information saying I'm working from home when.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
He's not actually available at all. He's in the ICU.
That's right. Who knew?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
No one knew, is what we're being told right now.
No one at the White House was aware of any
of this. Austin is also being criticized for failing to
tell officials that he'd been hospitalized at Walter Read National
Military Medical Center regarding complications from a quote undisclosed surgery.
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday urge Biden to fire
(02:50):
Austin for the delayed announcement regarding his stay at the hospital,
saying this failed. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin should be
fired immediately for improper perfer national conduct and dereliction of duty.
He has been missing for one week and nobody, including
his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to
where he was or might be. He has performed poorly
(03:14):
and should have been dismissed long ago, along with General
Mark Milly for many reasons, but in particular the catastrophic
surrender in Afghanistan, perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the
history of our country.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Now. It was reported on Sunday that Austin.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Was in the hospital's intensive care unit for several days
and not a single person was told where he was.
The Outlet noted the failure to communicate happen as military
confrontations between US troops and I ran back proxy groups
was heating up in the Middle East, threatening a bigger crisis.
(03:53):
It was also noted early Monday morning that Biden was
also on vacation at the same time Austin was in
the hospital, and no one knew about it. Biden Austin
apparently had a phone conversation on Saturday. President said he
was looking forward to seeing the Defense Secretary at work
in the near future. Quote unquote from the White House. Now,
(04:15):
I want you to hear what John Brennan, former CIA director,
on MSNBC had to say about this. Take a listen,
and thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The White House was in the dark for three days
about Secretary Austin's hospitalization. There's the Israel Hamas War, Ukraine War,
attacks on American troops in Syria, and Iraq hostilities in
the Red Sea, just to name a few things that
are happening in the world. You've held a similar cabinet
level position as the Secretary, and you have worked closely
(04:45):
with Secretary Austin in the past.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
What's your reaction to.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
This, Well, Ema, First of all, I think we all
wish Secretary Austin a full and speedy recovery, and as
you point out there's still a lot that we don't
know about his medical condition and what it was that
required him to go back into a well to read
and the ICU on one January, and it is possible
(05:07):
that his health condition or his medical condition clouded his
judgment at that time. I don't know whether or not
he was under certain types of medication, whatever else, and
so that could have been the reason why he decided.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
Not to notify people as he should have.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
That said, it's clear that the system broke down because
there needs to be established protocols that if a cabinet
secretary or a senior member of the president's staff is
going to be incapacitator in the hospital and the authorities
that they have to execute could be in fact affected, that.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
Needs to be that immediate notification that is done.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
And so I know over the holiday period and there's
reports that his chiefest staff, Kelly Maximum, was ill, but
there still needs to be this chain of command in
terms of any type of notification that should have taken place.
So I do think that the Pentagon is going to
do quite a review of what happened, what needs to
place under these types of circumstances, but also I think
(06:03):
the White House is going to make sure that there's
going to be no similar type of occurrence, whether it
be in the Pentagon or in other cabinet offices.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Can you just tell us what the rules are, what
is the protocol typically for notification in a situation like this.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Well, again, if a cabinet secretary, particularly one with such
genormous responsibilities and authorities such as the Secretary of Defense,
is going to be out of commission in any way
or it's going to be unavailable, there needs to be
this notification done to deputies, to the person's deputy, and
also to the White House, because we don't want there
(06:41):
to be any type of misstep or a miscommunication in
terms of what has to happen, particularly a time of
a lot of crises around the world. So, whether or
not you're the Secretary of State, a Secretary of Defense,
or the director of the CIA, your staff is supposed
to have on readiness calls in terms of who needs
(07:01):
to be notified, what steps need to be taken, whether
it's a delegation of responsibilities and authorities, or whether it's
not a simple notification as done to the White House
or to members of Congress and.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Clearly that system was not followed.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Again, maybe it was a result of the holiday weekend
and the fact that some people were out of their
position for illness or whatever, but there always needs to be,
irrespective of whether or not there are holidays or illnesses,
the ability to be able to transfer those responsibilities to
others so that those protocols are followed, those notifications are made,
and that all of the different responsibilities of the individuals
(07:36):
are going to be taken care of.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Just in the last hour, we got a statement from
a Republican leader in the House, Elie Stephonic, calling for
his resignation, saying that this was a significant national security
threat the.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
President national security threat. Did you notice that there? They said?
I mean you heard her there. National security threat protocol
was not done the right way, clearly, But maybe after
ten hours or twelve hours. This went on for multiple days,
more than one, more than two, at least three that
(08:11):
we know of so far, where no one knew where
the Defense secretary was.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
What if the you know what hits the fan?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
You're telling me we couldn't find him, and then who
would make the decisions?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
That's the first thing here.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
The second thing is, how do you defend this and
say he's not going anywhere when clearly there was some
sort of of cover up slash corruption that was involved here.
This is not a joke, by the way, this is
a very very very significant issue that should matter to
all Americans.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
You're talking about national security.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
You've got a war going on right now between terrorists
and Israel.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You've got a war with Ukraine in Russia.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
You've got another basically war that's going on in the
Middle East where Americans are being targeted and hit by
terrorists organizations in the Middle East on a regular basis.
And you've got to defend secretary that forgets to tell
them that he's going in for surgery and that he's
in the ICU, and we're supposed to act like this
is somehow not.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
A big deal. Get me a break.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Joe Biden, by the way, was asked about Lloyd Austin,
and it's in the background. I'm going to play it
for you, but you can hear the reporters yelling at
him as he's getting off of Marine one. Listen to
this in the background, saying like dude, like come on,
like you got to comment about Secretary Austin not knowing
where he was listen.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Nothing. They confused.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Joe Biden was ignoring reporters when he was asked again.
Their words, they were yelling, mister President on Secretary of Austin,
are you still confident of Secretary Austin. Sir Biden's response incomprehensible.
You could not understand what he was saying. It was
a confused President of the United States of America when
answering that question, I guess there's any time to be confused.
(10:06):
It's when something like this is happening, because the rest
of the world is, by the way, paying attention. Secretary
Blinken was also asked about this issue.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Here's what he said about it.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
With regard to Lessera Austin, I wasn't aware of his
undical issue. In fact, I talked to Lloyd last weekend
for the system, and I know that he's put out
a statman addressing. What I can say is this, it
(10:39):
has been, it remains one of the great privileges in
my career for thirty years now working in government to
serve alongside Loud Austin. He is an extraordinary leader for
this country in uniform and now out of uniform, and
(11:01):
it's been a highlight of my service to be able
to serve alongside him, and I'm very much looking forward
to seeing fully recoverment and working side by side in
the year ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Policy.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
By the way, Secretary Lincoln is sitting there and he's like,
all right, I want to distance myself from this. So
he's like, I didn't know he was out, So he
didn't know the secret So if the Secretary of State
had a major problem, he couldn't call the Defense Secretary.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
He didn't know he was out.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
If the president was faced with a national security issue,
a major problem, if they and I go back to
worst case scenario, because I do think that's the point here,
and when you have contingencies and plans and staffing and
everything else, what if a nine to eleven attack happens, well,
hell forget that, let's use the new standard by Democrats.
(12:00):
What if another January sixth would have happened over the
three days that no one could find Lloyd Austin. What
if the Secretary of State or an American official was
attacked or something happened around the world on a major.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Like in a major way, right, what would have happened?
Speaker 8 (12:18):
Then?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
All right, somebody called the Secretary of Defense, Like, we've
got hostages, we've got a terrorist attack, we've got a
nine to eleven, we've got a whatever it may be.
You can't find him. What do you mean You can't
find him, but no one knows where he is. What
do you mean no one knows where he is? Well,
we don't know where he is. What you're telling me,
we don't know where he is. Nope, we have no
idea where he is. So let me get this straight,
(12:39):
the Secretary of Defense, no one can find him. He
has incapacitated when you do find him. So let's say
they do find him quickly, right, Let's say phone calls
are made and you need, you know, advice you need,
there's a major problem, there's a nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And then you do find him.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
He's apparently at that point point the ICU incapacitated, so
he can't take your phone call anyway, So then there's
a question of chain of command. You notice how this
is spiraling right now as we go through this in
a real life scenario, which, by the way, is exactly
why you have contingencies, which is exactly why Lloyd Austin
should have made it clear. Hey, guys, I'm going in
(13:21):
for surgery, and this is the chain of command.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
While I'm out.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
This is what's going on, so that you know what's
happening in case something unimaginable happens, or even if it's
not something unimaginable, maybe it's just American troops are yet
again being attacked in the Middle East, and they're successful
in that attack, or they're under attack.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Then you notice how this can again spiral very quickly. Well,
if the guy you can't find him and he can't
answer your call, and that's why Secretary Blincoln is doing
what he was doing there, right, Well, it's you.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Know, we knew where he was, right, We knew what
was going on here.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You know, we understood it, you know, but I still
stand by him, right, I didn't know about it, but
I understand it, and he's a great man. It's exactly,
by the way, the same exact line. The White House
presser to Jean Pierre and John Kirby had a gaggle
aboard Air Force One. Here's what they said about Secretary
Austin on Air Force one.
Speaker 8 (14:28):
Should the American people have confidence in Austin given because
lack of transparency and then also seeing the American people
need to be concerned about a lack of transparency for
the president given this lass.
Speaker 9 (14:41):
So I want to go back to Austin's statement a
couple of days ago where he has taken responsibility.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, and so I think that's important.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
So, by the way, what does taken responsibility mean? Hey,
I got caught? Is that now taking respect onsibility?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
What does it mean when they say he's taken responsibility?
Taking responsibility would be apologizing. He's not done that, stepping down,
He's not done that. In fact, he's taken no responsibility
for his actions. Just saying in the future, I'll communicate better.
That is not taking responsibility in any form and or fashion.
(15:27):
There is no way that you can tell me that
Austin has taken responsibility for this.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
That is a bs PR line.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That's all that is, is a bs PR line from
the White House saying, oh.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Well, he's taken responsibility.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Show me how, Show me where he took responsibility because
I'm still waiting as an American citizen to that.
Speaker 9 (15:52):
And I will just reiterate that the president has complete confidence,
continues to have confidence in Secretary's off put to Austin,
and as the adamlet just stated, I think the number
one thing right now is for him. We want to
see him back at the Pedsagon, get well, then back
at the Pensagon. And I'll just add one more thing
is at the president. As we have shared, the President
(16:15):
spoke to Austin, a secretary of Austin on Saturday. They
had a very good conversation. And again you know, the
President appreciate Austin's statement.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I take it full responsibility here.
Speaker 9 (16:26):
And I think that's what matters, is him getting.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Back to to the Pentagon and taking full responsibility.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
So he took responsibility, but we don't know what that
actually looks like. And we just want him to get
better so he can get back to his job, which
he didn't tell anybody he wasn't doing, and we didn't
know where he was. So actually, somehow this is a
great story with a great ending. That is your White
(16:53):
House Press here, Terry, who says, oh, and again right,
Biden respects the way that Austin's hand multiple crisises over
the last three years, which included the withdrawal from Afghanistan,
which was a complete and utter disaster as well. Here
is them defending him as what he's done in office when.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
There are some calls for him to be fired. Is
that something that the President is wanting or considering doing.
Speaker 10 (17:18):
President's Number one focuses on his health and recovery, and
he looks forward to having him back at the Pentagon
as soon as possible. The President respects the fact that
Secretary of Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency.
He also respects the amazing job he's done as the
event secretary and now he's handled multiple crisis over the
(17:39):
last almost three years now and very much values his advice,
candor leadership, and again looks forward to having him the
fact that he.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Got Can anyone tell me what the success was?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
His amazing success pulling us out of Afghanistan in such
a horrific manner was not a success.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
There's even some Democrats now that are saying this is
not okay. I'll give you example Representative Abigail Spanberger. She
is a former CIA operative. She had this to say
on CNN about what went down.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
A couple other questions for you.
Speaker 11 (18:17):
First about Defense Actuary Lloyd Austin, who is facing a
lot of criticism this morning for keeping White House officials,
his own deputy the President in the dark for days
about this hospital stay. He remains in the hospital. You
sit on the Intelligence Committee. We are in the midst
of obviously the warren Ukraine continues, but also what maybe
an expanding conflict in the Middle East. Do you think
(18:40):
it is appropriate how this was handled.
Speaker 12 (18:43):
No, I think it's appropriate in the right step forward
that he has taken ownership and asserted that this was
a mistake. I think that once he's fully returned to
the job, a conversation as to why this decision was
made is one that in and after action, report and understand.
Is an important conversation to have. But I do hope
that every person in the cabinet recognizes that this was
(19:07):
not an appropriate step, not an appropriate way to handle
what was his hospitalization, and hopefully there will be greater transparency,
at least within the administration.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
So that's a Democrat saying there's not transparency in this administration.
This is someone that's former CIA who's saying and understands
the gravity of the situation, basically, what the hell are
you doing and how did you allow this to happen?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
How on Earth.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Could you imagine that this was somehow going to be appropriate,
or that this is something that should in fact be
able to happen.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
How did you even let this happen?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And she understands how many lives were at risk because
of these actions, especially if there was a nine to
eleven type a terrorist attack or an attack on American
troops abroad. You know, you go back to the White
House and they say, oh, he has amazing accomplishments.
Speaker 10 (19:59):
Name me.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
There is not an amazing accomplishment by Lloyd Austin. If anything,
the accomplishments have been total disasters. This is the guy
that was in charge when we were getting out of Afghanistan.
And look at what happened when we were getting out
of Afghanistan. Look at the American troops that were killed
there because we were taking orders from the Taliban, because
we weren't giving appropriate oversight, because they weren't allowed to
(20:22):
take the shot that they said that they need to
take against the guy who ended up blowing up that
bomb that killed that suicide bomber that killed multiple American
soldiers there at the gates to that airport. This is
the guy who masterminded the pullout of Afghanistan that turned
into a massive disaster on top of everything else.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I just told you.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
And they're like, oh, well, we're really impressed with him.
We're really thankful for him. He's done an amazing job.
We hope he continues to you know, we just we're
not going to ask any questions. He's in the hospital.
We just want him to get better. He has our
full support. What screw up does it take? And I
guess at the bar is at the level of your
(21:05):
own son. If the bar is at the level of
where Hunter Biden is when it comes to screw ups,
and you still do business with him and everything else
the way that Hunter Biden is, then I guess Lord
Austin screw up with our national security in mind, really
doesn't matter, right, I guess it's just a non issue.
It's like, okay, so what the guy in charge of
(21:26):
our defense. We can't find him. He's in the ICU,
he's incapacitated, he can't take phone calls, not telling anybody
lying to us, trying to cover it up. Hey, we
get all that, but I mean it's not as bad
as you know, buying an illegal gun and lying on
a form that your crackhead.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Right, it's all relatives.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
As bad is doing sex trafficking and human trafficking and
taking money from communists China.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Who are we to throw stones?
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Size bad is taking money from Russian oligarchs or the
CCP are sitting on a board of a company that
you know nothing about, Barisma and making millions of dollars. Right,
it's as bad as the honeypot scandal of these prostitutes
in the Washington.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
DC area. Hey, look the guy out of surgery. We
don't even know what it was.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
So what that he was incapacitated for a little while,
It's all fine. That's the logic of this White House.
If they're willing to treat the Defense secretary like this.
Can you imagine the media's response, serious question? If this
would have happened under Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense number one,
there's no way that he would survive. Congress would be
saying impeach. Everybody would be going nuts. They would talk
(22:34):
about every worst case scenario. They would talk about the
nine to eleven, They would talk about Pearl Harbor, they
would talk about all the worst days in American history.
When it comes to military issues that have happened. They
would talk about War one, they would talk about War two.
The list would go on and on and on, right like,
they would give you every example, many of them I mentioned,
(22:54):
which are right right to mention, because those are the
worst days of a presidency when your defense secretary is
the most important. So if one of those would have
happened on the anniversary, you know, on a nine to
eleven style, something happened the southern border, Americans were taken
hostage somewhere in the world in a large scale attack.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
We got a guy, we can't find him.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That is that if there's no accountability for those types
of actions, then what you've just told everybody that works
in and around this White House and in any part
of this administration, whether it be at the DoD or
Department of State, or Energy or CIA or anywhere else,
it's basically, there is no screw up too big that
you can do that where you're not allowed to do,
(23:39):
where you lose your job.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
That's what they're telegraphing here.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
And that's the reason why I think you have Representative Smamberger,
who is a former cooperative, who wasn't giving him a
free pass as a Democrat because she actually understands this.
Joe Scarborough on Lloyd Austin chilling for the White House, right,
that's what he normally done.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Here's what he said on MSNBC.
Speaker 13 (24:02):
Don't see how a guy disappears for three days and
doesn't tell the President of the United States, the commander
in chief the White House that he's gone and continues.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Working in that position.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
I just don't And I.
Speaker 13 (24:17):
Like Secretary. I think Secretary of Austin's done a wonderful job.
This is just one of those very clear cut issues. Yeah,
I know, there's no doubt it's a bad one. I
mean White House.
Speaker 14 (24:30):
I've been reporting on this story for days now, and
when Secretary of Austin's one of his subordinates showed up
at a White House meeting at the end of last week,
Jake Sullivan was confused, like, where's the Secretary of What's
going on? And only after that where they informed that
the Secretary was in the hospital. And we're right to
underscore the timing here. It comes as the US is
(24:52):
ramping up its presence.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
In the Red Sea going after the Hooties.
Speaker 14 (24:55):
That's an airstrike called in by the US that Secretary
Austin had approved pre hospitalization, but it's a time of
real rising tensions in the Middle East, Ukraine as well.
We're not clear if the Congress is going to pass
funding to support Kiev it is.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
It is stunning that this job. So that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
By the way, that's Joe Scarborough saying that. How he's
even saying how does this guy keep his job? Because
I do think that Joe Scarborough understands that when it
comes to issues of national security, and if you were
around when nine to eleven happen, you can quickly get
to a point where you're like, like, there's no transparency.
You can't trust this guy to be doing his job.
(25:36):
You don't know when he's off the job. The next
question should be has he done this before? And I'm
not talking about being in a hospital. I'm just saying,
like being completely off the grid. Does Lloyd Austin go
M I A on a regular basis? And how often
does that happen? That's the question that should be being
asked here. But is he described like I don't know
how he keeps his job? How the how the commander
(25:57):
in chief can say this guy is doing a great job.
This is one of the worst things. Let me rephrase
it this way. You would fire a nanny, you would
fire a babysitter. You would fire a basic minimum wage
employee if they didn't show up for work three days
in a row and didn't call, didn't text, and didn't
tell you where they were, right, you would do that,
Like if you had an employee that just went off
(26:19):
the grid for three days and didn't tell you, and
their excuse was, oh, well, I went to the hospital
and I could have told you beforehand, because it wasn't like,
you know, I'm in a car wreck and I'm incapacitating
and I can't call you or my cell phone was
left in the car as they rushed me to the er,
right Like in that type of scenario, I could even
get there, But not even for three days unless you're incapacitated. Literally,
(26:41):
this guy knew he was going to be in the hospital.
This guy knew there were complications and he and still
he didn't disclose it. So the question is why why
did he not disclose it? That's the question that all
of the media should be should be asking. And listen
to this follow up question from Scarborough. Is it whack
job liberal?
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Can I ask you, do you have it confirmed?
Speaker 13 (27:05):
Is it rock solid confirmed that the Secretary of Defense
did not notify the Commander in chief.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
That he was not at his post for three days?
Is that confirmed it is? Are we going to hear, Oh,
they talked on the side, and no.
Speaker 13 (27:25):
Are you hearing from the White House that the Commander
in chief was unaware of the fact that the Secretary of.
Speaker 14 (27:32):
Defense was not at his post for three days. We
and others have reported for days now that President Biden
did not know. So if suddenly another narrative was to
be presented, that's not one known to not just reporters,
but senior White House staff, there's no belief that Secretary
of Defense Austin notified President Biden about what had happened. Now,
the two men have spoken, and we are told by
(27:53):
senior officials that for now, Secretary of Austin's job is safe.
We know that President Biden does not like firing people.
We know President Biden is fond of Secretary Austin. We
also know President Biden is very proud of the continuity.
Has had no very little turnover in his senior staff
since taking office. In fact, only one cabinet member departure,
which is pretty remarkable heading in here into his fourth
(28:15):
year in office. And I think also because this is
such a tense time around the globe, there's a sense
that this would not be a good time to change
leadership at the Pentagon, so things, of course could change.
There's been an a real uproar from both Republicans, but
also we should note some Democrats about the real breakdown
in communication here, and there's explanations that start dav of
Austin is a very private man. He doesn't like talking
(28:37):
about things regarding his personal life and a health issue
like this. That said, it is a breakdown in the
chain of command, and there will be continue to be
real questions raised as to what happened, even if for now,
and I stress for now, Sartory of Austin's job seems.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Secure, seems secure. I don't believe that White House is
going to fire him. I think going to say, who
get a crap? Just like the way they're running the government,
who cares? Who gives a crap? Was national security at risk? Yes,
if you know what hit the fan? Were we not prepared? Yes,
we were not prepared. Was there a breakdown literally in
the chain of commander of our government for days now
(29:16):
twenty four hours, not forty eight, but seventy two plus hours. Yes,
this is what you get with a Biden administration, zero accountability,
and national security at risk, just like our open southern border.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Make sure you share this podcast with your family and friends.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Please write us a five star review that makes a
huge difference for us of being able to see new
audience members.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
And we'll see you back here tomorrow morning.
I want you to imagine, for just a moment, that
you're the CEO of a major company. I want you
to imagine that you decide to go have an elective
surgery and you tell no one about it, and then
you get sick from that surgery, and then you go
into the ICU and still tell no one about your absence.
(00:23):
Question is would you then be fired? I think most
of us know the answer to that question is, well, absolutely. Imagine, however,
that you're in charge of the Pentagon. You're in charge
of every man and woman or transgendered weirdo that's in
the military, and your job is to be on the
ready for all threats foreign and domestic.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
While there are multiple wars.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Going on in the war in the world right now
that you're supposed to be involved in or even leading
on them. Well, that's exactly what happened with the Secretary
of Defense Austin. That's right, Austin, and don't worry. The
Biden administration is like, hey, we're not considering sacking the
(01:08):
Defense secretary who failed to disclose his hospitalization to us
and everybody else in the administration.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Defend Secretary Lloyd Austin and The question now is is
there anything you can do in this administration that would
get you fired? He failed to inform the White House
about his hospitalization. President Joe Biden is not considering firing him.
That is what Politico is now reporting. The outt side
a group of senior administration officials, if Austin were to
(01:37):
issue a resignation, Biden would refuse it. A person among
them also stated, Austin is going nowhere, is what one
official told Politico. The report noted Republicans have been calling
for Biden to dismiss the Defense Secretary. During a recent interview,
Senator James Langford, a Republican from Oklahoma, said this Apparently
(01:59):
the National Security Council didn't.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Know it either. The White House didn't know it. Congress
didn't know it.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
We're at a time of a lot of termoil internationally,
and suddenly we have the Secretary of Defense more than
just a matter of wasn't there Actually he sent over
false information saying I'm working from home when.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
He's not actually available at all. He's in the ICU.
That's right. Who knew?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
No one knew, is what we're being told right now.
No one at the White House was aware of any
of this. Austin is also being criticized for failing to
tell officials that he'd been hospitalized at Walter Read National
Military Medical Center regarding complications from a quote undisclosed surgery.
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday urge Biden to fire
(02:50):
Austin for the delayed announcement regarding his stay at the hospital,
saying this failed. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin should be
fired immediately for improper perfer national conduct and dereliction of duty.
He has been missing for one week and nobody, including
his boss, Crooked Joe Biden, had a clue as to
where he was or might be. He has performed poorly
(03:14):
and should have been dismissed long ago, along with General
Mark Milly for many reasons, but in particular the catastrophic
surrender in Afghanistan, perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the
history of our country.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Now. It was reported on Sunday that Austin.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Was in the hospital's intensive care unit for several days
and not a single person was told where he was.
The Outlet noted the failure to communicate happen as military
confrontations between US troops and I ran back proxy groups
was heating up in the Middle East, threatening a bigger crisis.
(03:53):
It was also noted early Monday morning that Biden was
also on vacation at the same time Austin was in
the hospital, and no one knew about it. Biden Austin
apparently had a phone conversation on Saturday. President said he
was looking forward to seeing the Defense Secretary at work
in the near future. Quote unquote from the White House. Now,
(04:15):
I want you to hear what John Brennan, former CIA director,
on MSNBC had to say about this. Take a listen,
and thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The White House was in the dark for three days
about Secretary Austin's hospitalization. There's the Israel Hamas War, Ukraine War,
attacks on American troops in Syria, and Iraq hostilities in
the Red Sea, just to name a few things that
are happening in the world. You've held a similar cabinet
level position as the Secretary, and you have worked closely
(04:45):
with Secretary Austin in the past.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
What's your reaction to.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
This, Well, Ema, First of all, I think we all
wish Secretary Austin a full and speedy recovery, and as
you point out there's still a lot that we don't
know about his medical condition and what it was that
required him to go back into a well to read
and the ICU on one January, and it is possible
(05:07):
that his health condition or his medical condition clouded his
judgment at that time. I don't know whether or not
he was under certain types of medication, whatever else, and
so that could have been the reason why he decided.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
Not to notify people as he should have.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
That said, it's clear that the system broke down because
there needs to be established protocols that if a cabinet
secretary or a senior member of the president's staff is
going to be incapacitator in the hospital and the authorities
that they have to execute could be in fact affected, that.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
Needs to be that immediate notification that is done.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
And so I know over the holiday period and there's
reports that his chiefest staff, Kelly Maximum, was ill, but
there still needs to be this chain of command in
terms of any type of notification that should have taken place.
So I do think that the Pentagon is going to
do quite a review of what happened, what needs to
place under these types of circumstances, but also I think
(06:03):
the White House is going to make sure that there's
going to be no similar type of occurrence, whether it
be in the Pentagon or in other cabinet offices.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Can you just tell us what the rules are, what
is the protocol typically for notification in a situation like this.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Well, again, if a cabinet secretary, particularly one with such
genormous responsibilities and authorities such as the Secretary of Defense,
is going to be out of commission in any way
or it's going to be unavailable, there needs to be
this notification done to deputies, to the person's deputy, and
also to the White House, because we don't want there
(06:41):
to be any type of misstep or a miscommunication in
terms of what has to happen, particularly a time of
a lot of crises around the world. So, whether or
not you're the Secretary of State, a Secretary of Defense,
or the director of the CIA, your staff is supposed
to have on readiness calls in terms of who needs
(07:01):
to be notified, what steps need to be taken, whether
it's a delegation of responsibilities and authorities, or whether it's
not a simple notification as done to the White House
or to members of Congress and.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Clearly that system was not followed.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Again, maybe it was a result of the holiday weekend
and the fact that some people were out of their
position for illness or whatever, but there always needs to be,
irrespective of whether or not there are holidays or illnesses,
the ability to be able to transfer those responsibilities to
others so that those protocols are followed, those notifications are made,
and that all of the different responsibilities of the individuals
(07:36):
are going to be taken care of.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Just in the last hour, we got a statement from
a Republican leader in the House, Elie Stephonic, calling for
his resignation, saying that this was a significant national security
threat the.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
President national security threat. Did you notice that there? They said?
I mean you heard her there. National security threat protocol
was not done the right way, clearly, But maybe after
ten hours or twelve hours. This went on for multiple days,
more than one, more than two, at least three that
(08:11):
we know of so far, where no one knew where
the Defense secretary was.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
What if the you know what hits the fan?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
You're telling me we couldn't find him, and then who
would make the decisions?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
That's the first thing here.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
The second thing is, how do you defend this and
say he's not going anywhere when clearly there was some
sort of of cover up slash corruption that was involved here.
This is not a joke, by the way, this is
a very very very significant issue that should matter to
all Americans.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
You're talking about national security.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
You've got a war going on right now between terrorists
and Israel.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
You've got a war with Ukraine in Russia.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
You've got another basically war that's going on in the
Middle East where Americans are being targeted and hit by
terrorists organizations in the Middle East on a regular basis.
And you've got to defend secretary that forgets to tell
them that he's going in for surgery and that he's
in the ICU, and we're supposed to act like this
is somehow not.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
A big deal. Get me a break.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Joe Biden, by the way, was asked about Lloyd Austin,
and it's in the background. I'm going to play it
for you, but you can hear the reporters yelling at
him as he's getting off of Marine one. Listen to
this in the background, saying like dude, like come on,
like you got to comment about Secretary Austin not knowing
where he was listen.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Nothing. They confused.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Joe Biden was ignoring reporters when he was asked again.
Their words, they were yelling, mister President on Secretary of Austin,
are you still confident of Secretary Austin. Sir Biden's response incomprehensible.
You could not understand what he was saying. It was
a confused President of the United States of America when
answering that question, I guess there's any time to be confused.
(10:06):
It's when something like this is happening, because the rest
of the world is, by the way, paying attention. Secretary
Blinken was also asked about this issue.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Here's what he said about it.
Speaker 7 (10:19):
With regard to Lessera Austin, I wasn't aware of his
undical issue. In fact, I talked to Lloyd last weekend
for the system, and I know that he's put out
a statman addressing. What I can say is this, it
(10:39):
has been, it remains one of the great privileges in
my career for thirty years now working in government to
serve alongside Loud Austin. He is an extraordinary leader for
this country in uniform and now out of uniform, and
(11:01):
it's been a highlight of my service to be able
to serve alongside him, and I'm very much looking forward
to seeing fully recoverment and working side by side in
the year ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Policy.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
By the way, Secretary Lincoln is sitting there and he's like,
all right, I want to distance myself from this. So
he's like, I didn't know he was out, So he
didn't know the secret So if the Secretary of State
had a major problem, he couldn't call the Defense Secretary.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
He didn't know he was out.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
If the president was faced with a national security issue,
a major problem, if they and I go back to
worst case scenario, because I do think that's the point here,
and when you have contingencies and plans and staffing and
everything else, what if a nine to eleven attack happens, well,
hell forget that, let's use the new standard by Democrats.
(12:00):
What if another January sixth would have happened over the
three days that no one could find Lloyd Austin. What
if the Secretary of State or an American official was
attacked or something happened around the world on a major.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Like in a major way, right, what would have happened?
Speaker 8 (12:18):
Then?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
All right, somebody called the Secretary of Defense, Like, we've
got hostages, we've got a terrorist attack, we've got a
nine to eleven, we've got a whatever it may be.
You can't find him. What do you mean You can't
find him, but no one knows where he is. What
do you mean no one knows where he is? Well,
we don't know where he is. What you're telling me,
we don't know where he is. Nope, we have no
idea where he is. So let me get this straight,
(12:39):
the Secretary of Defense, no one can find him. He
has incapacitated when you do find him. So let's say
they do find him quickly, right, Let's say phone calls
are made and you need, you know, advice you need,
there's a major problem, there's a nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And then you do find him.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
He's apparently at that point point the ICU incapacitated, so
he can't take your phone call anyway, So then there's
a question of chain of command. You notice how this
is spiraling right now as we go through this in
a real life scenario, which, by the way, is exactly
why you have contingencies, which is exactly why Lloyd Austin
should have made it clear. Hey, guys, I'm going in
(13:21):
for surgery, and this is the chain of command.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
While I'm out.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
This is what's going on, so that you know what's
happening in case something unimaginable happens, or even if it's
not something unimaginable, maybe it's just American troops are yet
again being attacked in the Middle East, and they're successful
in that attack, or they're under attack.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Then you notice how this can again spiral very quickly. Well,
if the guy you can't find him and he can't
answer your call, and that's why Secretary Blincoln is doing
what he was doing there, right, Well, it's you.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Know, we knew where he was, right, We knew what
was going on here.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You know, we understood it, you know, but I still
stand by him, right, I didn't know about it, but
I understand it, and he's a great man. It's exactly,
by the way, the same exact line. The White House
presser to Jean Pierre and John Kirby had a gaggle
aboard Air Force One. Here's what they said about Secretary
Austin on Air Force one.
Speaker 8 (14:28):
Should the American people have confidence in Austin given because
lack of transparency and then also seeing the American people
need to be concerned about a lack of transparency for
the president given this lass.
Speaker 9 (14:41):
So I want to go back to Austin's statement a
couple of days ago where he has taken responsibility.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, and so I think that's important.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
So, by the way, what does taken responsibility mean? Hey,
I got caught? Is that now taking respect onsibility?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
What does it mean when they say he's taken responsibility?
Taking responsibility would be apologizing. He's not done that, stepping down,
He's not done that. In fact, he's taken no responsibility
for his actions. Just saying in the future, I'll communicate better.
That is not taking responsibility in any form and or fashion.
(15:27):
There is no way that you can tell me that
Austin has taken responsibility for this.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
That is a bs PR line.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That's all that is, is a bs PR line from
the White House saying, oh.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Well, he's taken responsibility.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Show me how, Show me where he took responsibility because
I'm still waiting as an American citizen to that.
Speaker 9 (15:52):
And I will just reiterate that the president has complete confidence,
continues to have confidence in Secretary's off put to Austin,
and as the adamlet just stated, I think the number
one thing right now is for him. We want to
see him back at the Pedsagon, get well, then back
at the Pensagon. And I'll just add one more thing
is at the president. As we have shared, the President
(16:15):
spoke to Austin, a secretary of Austin on Saturday. They
had a very good conversation. And again you know, the
President appreciate Austin's statement.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
I take it full responsibility here.
Speaker 9 (16:26):
And I think that's what matters, is him getting.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Back to to the Pentagon and taking full responsibility.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
So he took responsibility, but we don't know what that
actually looks like. And we just want him to get
better so he can get back to his job, which
he didn't tell anybody he wasn't doing, and we didn't
know where he was. So actually, somehow this is a
great story with a great ending. That is your White
(16:53):
House Press here, Terry, who says, oh, and again right,
Biden respects the way that Austin's hand multiple crisises over
the last three years, which included the withdrawal from Afghanistan,
which was a complete and utter disaster as well. Here
is them defending him as what he's done in office when.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
There are some calls for him to be fired. Is
that something that the President is wanting or considering doing.
Speaker 10 (17:18):
President's Number one focuses on his health and recovery, and
he looks forward to having him back at the Pentagon
as soon as possible. The President respects the fact that
Secretary of Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency.
He also respects the amazing job he's done as the
event secretary and now he's handled multiple crisis over the
(17:39):
last almost three years now and very much values his advice,
candor leadership, and again looks forward to having him the
fact that he.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Got Can anyone tell me what the success was?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
His amazing success pulling us out of Afghanistan in such
a horrific manner was not a success.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
There's even some Democrats now that are saying this is
not okay. I'll give you example Representative Abigail Spanberger. She
is a former CIA operative. She had this to say
on CNN about what went down.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
A couple other questions for you.
Speaker 11 (18:17):
First about Defense Actuary Lloyd Austin, who is facing a
lot of criticism this morning for keeping White House officials,
his own deputy the President in the dark for days
about this hospital stay. He remains in the hospital. You
sit on the Intelligence Committee. We are in the midst
of obviously the warren Ukraine continues, but also what maybe
an expanding conflict in the Middle East. Do you think
(18:40):
it is appropriate how this was handled.
Speaker 12 (18:43):
No, I think it's appropriate in the right step forward
that he has taken ownership and asserted that this was
a mistake. I think that once he's fully returned to
the job, a conversation as to why this decision was
made is one that in and after action, report and understand.
Is an important conversation to have. But I do hope
that every person in the cabinet recognizes that this was
(19:07):
not an appropriate step, not an appropriate way to handle
what was his hospitalization, and hopefully there will be greater transparency,
at least within the administration.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
So that's a Democrat saying there's not transparency in this administration.
This is someone that's former CIA who's saying and understands
the gravity of the situation, basically, what the hell are
you doing and how did you allow this to happen?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
How on Earth.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Could you imagine that this was somehow going to be appropriate,
or that this is something that should in fact be
able to happen.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
How did you even let this happen?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And she understands how many lives were at risk because
of these actions, especially if there was a nine to
eleven type a terrorist attack or an attack on American
troops abroad. You know, you go back to the White
House and they say, oh, he has amazing accomplishments.
Speaker 10 (19:59):
Name me.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
There is not an amazing accomplishment by Lloyd Austin. If anything,
the accomplishments have been total disasters. This is the guy
that was in charge when we were getting out of Afghanistan.
And look at what happened when we were getting out
of Afghanistan. Look at the American troops that were killed
there because we were taking orders from the Taliban, because
we weren't giving appropriate oversight, because they weren't allowed to
(20:22):
take the shot that they said that they need to
take against the guy who ended up blowing up that
bomb that killed that suicide bomber that killed multiple American
soldiers there at the gates to that airport. This is
the guy who masterminded the pullout of Afghanistan that turned
into a massive disaster on top of everything else.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I just told you.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
And they're like, oh, well, we're really impressed with him.
We're really thankful for him. He's done an amazing job.
We hope he continues to you know, we just we're
not going to ask any questions. He's in the hospital.
We just want him to get better. He has our
full support. What screw up does it take? And I
guess at the bar is at the level of your
(21:05):
own son. If the bar is at the level of
where Hunter Biden is when it comes to screw ups,
and you still do business with him and everything else
the way that Hunter Biden is, then I guess Lord
Austin screw up with our national security in mind, really
doesn't matter, right, I guess it's just a non issue.
It's like, okay, so what the guy in charge of
(21:26):
our defense. We can't find him. He's in the ICU,
he's incapacitated, he can't take phone calls, not telling anybody
lying to us, trying to cover it up. Hey, we
get all that, but I mean it's not as bad
as you know, buying an illegal gun and lying on
a form that your crackhead.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Right, it's all relatives.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
As bad is doing sex trafficking and human trafficking and
taking money from communists China.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Who are we to throw stones?
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Size bad is taking money from Russian oligarchs or the
CCP are sitting on a board of a company that
you know nothing about, Barisma and making millions of dollars. Right,
it's as bad as the honeypot scandal of these prostitutes
in the Washington.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
DC area. Hey, look the guy out of surgery. We
don't even know what it was.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
So what that he was incapacitated for a little while,
It's all fine. That's the logic of this White House.
If they're willing to treat the Defense secretary like this.
Can you imagine the media's response, serious question? If this
would have happened under Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense number one,
there's no way that he would survive. Congress would be
saying impeach. Everybody would be going nuts. They would talk
(22:34):
about every worst case scenario. They would talk about the
nine to eleven, They would talk about Pearl Harbor, they
would talk about all the worst days in American history.
When it comes to military issues that have happened. They
would talk about War one, they would talk about War two.
The list would go on and on and on, right like,
they would give you every example, many of them I mentioned,
(22:54):
which are right right to mention, because those are the
worst days of a presidency when your defense secretary is
the most important. So if one of those would have
happened on the anniversary, you know, on a nine to
eleven style, something happened the southern border, Americans were taken
hostage somewhere in the world in a large scale attack.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
We got a guy, we can't find him.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That is that if there's no accountability for those types
of actions, then what you've just told everybody that works
in and around this White House and in any part
of this administration, whether it be at the DoD or
Department of State, or Energy or CIA or anywhere else,
it's basically, there is no screw up too big that
you can do that where you're not allowed to do,
(23:39):
where you lose your job.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
That's what they're telegraphing here.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
And that's the reason why I think you have Representative Smamberger,
who is a former cooperative, who wasn't giving him a
free pass as a Democrat because she actually understands this.
Joe Scarborough on Lloyd Austin chilling for the White House, right,
that's what he normally done.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Here's what he said on MSNBC.
Speaker 13 (24:02):
Don't see how a guy disappears for three days and
doesn't tell the President of the United States, the commander
in chief the White House that he's gone and continues.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Working in that position.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
I just don't And I.
Speaker 13 (24:17):
Like Secretary. I think Secretary of Austin's done a wonderful job.
This is just one of those very clear cut issues. Yeah,
I know, there's no doubt it's a bad one. I
mean White House.
Speaker 14 (24:30):
I've been reporting on this story for days now, and
when Secretary of Austin's one of his subordinates showed up
at a White House meeting at the end of last week,
Jake Sullivan was confused, like, where's the Secretary of What's
going on? And only after that where they informed that
the Secretary was in the hospital. And we're right to
underscore the timing here. It comes as the US is
(24:52):
ramping up its presence.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
In the Red Sea going after the Hooties.
Speaker 14 (24:55):
That's an airstrike called in by the US that Secretary
Austin had approved pre hospitalization, but it's a time of
real rising tensions in the Middle East, Ukraine as well.
We're not clear if the Congress is going to pass
funding to support Kiev it is.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
It is stunning that this job. So that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
By the way, that's Joe Scarborough saying that. How he's
even saying how does this guy keep his job? Because
I do think that Joe Scarborough understands that when it
comes to issues of national security, and if you were
around when nine to eleven happen, you can quickly get
to a point where you're like, like, there's no transparency.
You can't trust this guy to be doing his job.
(25:36):
You don't know when he's off the job. The next
question should be has he done this before? And I'm
not talking about being in a hospital. I'm just saying,
like being completely off the grid. Does Lloyd Austin go
M I A on a regular basis? And how often
does that happen? That's the question that should be being
asked here. But is he described like I don't know
how he keeps his job? How the how the commander
(25:57):
in chief can say this guy is doing a great job.
This is one of the worst things. Let me rephrase
it this way. You would fire a nanny, you would
fire a babysitter. You would fire a basic minimum wage
employee if they didn't show up for work three days
in a row and didn't call, didn't text, and didn't
tell you where they were, right, you would do that,
Like if you had an employee that just went off
(26:19):
the grid for three days and didn't tell you, and
their excuse was, oh, well, I went to the hospital
and I could have told you beforehand, because it wasn't like,
you know, I'm in a car wreck and I'm incapacitating
and I can't call you or my cell phone was
left in the car as they rushed me to the er,
right Like in that type of scenario, I could even
get there, But not even for three days unless you're incapacitated. Literally,
(26:41):
this guy knew he was going to be in the hospital.
This guy knew there were complications and he and still
he didn't disclose it. So the question is why why
did he not disclose it? That's the question that all
of the media should be should be asking. And listen
to this follow up question from Scarborough. Is it whack
job liberal?
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Can I ask you, do you have it confirmed?
Speaker 13 (27:05):
Is it rock solid confirmed that the Secretary of Defense
did not notify the Commander in chief.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
That he was not at his post for three days?
Is that confirmed it is? Are we going to hear, Oh,
they talked on the side, and no.
Speaker 13 (27:25):
Are you hearing from the White House that the Commander
in chief was unaware of the fact that the Secretary of.
Speaker 14 (27:32):
Defense was not at his post for three days. We
and others have reported for days now that President Biden
did not know. So if suddenly another narrative was to
be presented, that's not one known to not just reporters,
but senior White House staff, there's no belief that Secretary
of Defense Austin notified President Biden about what had happened. Now,
the two men have spoken, and we are told by
(27:53):
senior officials that for now, Secretary of Austin's job is safe.
We know that President Biden does not like firing people.
We know President Biden is fond of Secretary Austin. We
also know President Biden is very proud of the continuity.
Has had no very little turnover in his senior staff
since taking office. In fact, only one cabinet member departure,
which is pretty remarkable heading in here into his fourth
(28:15):
year in office. And I think also because this is
such a tense time around the globe, there's a sense
that this would not be a good time to change
leadership at the Pentagon, so things, of course could change.
There's been an a real uproar from both Republicans, but
also we should note some Democrats about the real breakdown
in communication here, and there's explanations that start dav of
Austin is a very private man. He doesn't like talking
(28:37):
about things regarding his personal life and a health issue
like this. That said, it is a breakdown in the
chain of command, and there will be continue to be
real questions raised as to what happened, even if for now,
and I stress for now, Sartory of Austin's job seems.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Secure, seems secure. I don't believe that White House is
going to fire him. I think going to say, who
get a crap? Just like the way they're running the government,
who cares? Who gives a crap? Was national security at risk? Yes,
if you know what hit the fan? Were we not prepared? Yes,
we were not prepared. Was there a breakdown literally in
the chain of commander of our government for days now
(29:16):
twenty four hours, not forty eight, but seventy two plus hours. Yes,
this is what you get with a Biden administration, zero accountability,
and national security at risk, just like our open southern border.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Make sure you share this podcast with your family and friends.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Please write us a five star review that makes a
huge difference for us of being able to see new
audience members.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
And we'll see you back here tomorrow morning.
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