(REUTERS/Leah Millis)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin addressed his cancer diagnosis and secret hospitalization in a rare press conference on Thursday at the Pentagon, where he faced an intense grilling by reporters.
“I asked my assistant to call the ambulance. I did not direct him to do anything further than just call the ambulance,” Austin said, referring to a Jan. 1 911 call, the contents of which were first reported by The Daily Beast.
An aide, whose identity is redacted, can be heard in audio of the call asking the dispatchers to have the ambulance arrive at the secretary of defense’s house with no lights and no sirens.