Kirby and Doocy Go At It Over DefSec’s Health Status: ‘Just Give Me a Second Here, Bub’

Many, many people (rightly) have questions about the communication breakdown that occurred when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized after complications from prostate surgery and, apparently, didn’t tell anyone where he was for several days. One of those people was Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy, who tussled with Coordinator for Strategic Communications for the National Security Council John Kirby on Tuesday.

While Austin took responsibility for his absence, Kirby did not try to sugarcoat the fact that there was a big communications failure that caused a blow to the credibility of President Joe Biden’s administration when it came to being transparent about the goings-on of their government. Kirby tried to explain that even without a Secretary of Defense, the Defense Department was still able to function as needed.

But Doocy wanted to know how anyone was ever supposed to trust the Biden administration “ever again,” and if this could happen with Austin, would they be just as loosey-goosey if the person with a health issue was the president himself. Doocy’s persistence eventually caused Kirby to channel Wolverine:

Doocy: [W]hy should we believe anything that this administration tells us about anything ever again?

Kirby: I think we all recognize, and I think the Pentagon has been very, very honest with themselves about, uh, the, um, the challenge to credibility by what has transpired here, and by what, and by, uh, uh, how hard it was for them to be fully transparent with the American people.

I think we all recognize that. And… Wait, wait, just give me a second now, I know you got another one coming here, but… We all recognize that this didn’t unfold the way it should have, on so many levels, not just the notification process up the chain of command, but the transparency issue. We all recognize that, and I think we all want to make sure we learn from that. I… It’s up to you and your colleagues, and it’s up to the American people to determine, you know, how much they’re going to ascribe what happened here to our credibility on every single issue. …

Doocy: But if the administration is going to go to such great lengths to keep secrets about the Defense Secretary’s health, how can anybody be certain that the administration would not go to the same lengths to keep secret problems with President Biden’s health in the future?

Kirby: If, if you could logically argue — and you can’t — but if you could logically argue–

Doocy: He’s 81 years old!

Kirby: Wait a second. Just give me a second here, Bub. I’ll get there. If — if — the administration made some sort of Machiavellian effort, uh, across the board to keep this from getting public, then I think your question has merit and certainly is a fair one. I don’t think it’s a fair one, because that’s not what happened here, Peter.

Watch the video above via Fox News.