even knew about it. can you, your reaction to this news. >> first, i think the important thing is that the chain of command was never broken. there was no issue as far as we can tell that somehow the secretary of defense or his deputy were not able to transmit orders to troops in the field. you know, when i worked at the pentagon, i saw that there are a lot of redundancy around the secretary. he's always with a communicator, security detail. even if he was having a private medical procedure. i think we can be assured that the national command was always secure. i know lloyd austin, i know kathleen is his deputy, they are veterans of the department. they know how to make sure that national security as protected. >> that is great when it comes to the pentagon but what about the disconnect in the communication between the pentagon and people inside the white house who should know? >> lloyd austin is a pretty private person, i know the media was upset that they didn't put out a release about his medical condition. he doesn't talk to the media