On Thursday, the Pentagon press corps were able to question Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for the first time since his secret December hospitalizations and prostate cancer diagnosis he hid from the American public and President Biden until early January. There were plenty of tough questions, but most notable was NBC’s Peter Alexander (pinch-hitting for Pentagon correspondent Courtney Kube, who was reporting from Qatar).

Better yet (and unlike with tense White House press briefing exchanges), Alexander’s hardballs to Austin on both his lack of transparency and whether the Biden administration bears responsibility for allowing Iranian proxies to kill U.S. soldiers last weekend made it onto both Thursday’s NBC Nightly News and Friday’s Today.

Alexander first asked about the cancer bout, which arguably became a scandal in and of itself. The NBC White House correspondent was extremely blunt on the double standard between Austin keeping his job without repercussions and if someone else in the military had done this:

[Well, my goodness – I’m DYING here. No way did Austin expect that, and good on Alexander! MORE, please. This incompetent boob should have been out of his job a week ago. ~ Beege]