Austin Addresses Hospital Stay Debacle: 'I Didn't Handle This Right'

I did want to address my recent Hospital stay and some of the issues around it I'm recovering well but as you can see I'm still recovering still having some leg pain and doing physical therapy to get past it I'm deeply grateful to my doctors and the nursing staff at Walter Reed and I very much appreciate all the good wishes but I want to be Crystal Clear we did not handle this right and I did not handle this right I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis I should have also told my team and the American public and I take full responsibility I apologize to my teammates and to the American people now I want to make it very clear that there were no gaps in authorities and no risk to the Department's command and control at every moment either I or the deputy secretary was in full charge and we've already put in place some new procedures to make sure that any lapses in notification don't happen in the future if the deputy secretary needs to temporarily assume the off the duties of my office she and several White House offices will be immediately notified including the White House Situation Room and so will key officials across the department and the reason for that Assumption of Duties will be included in writing now I want you all to know that to know why this happened I was being treated for prostate cancer the news shook me and I know that it shakes so many others especially in the black community it was a gut punch and frankly my first instinct was to keep it private I don't think it's news that I'm a pretty private guy I never lik burdening others with my problems it's just not my way but I've learned from this experience so taking this kind of job means losing some of the Privacy that most of us expect the American people have a right to know if their leaders are facing health challenges that might affect their ability to perform their duties even temporarily so A Wider Circle should have been notified especially the president