A potential threat to the chain of command triggered outraged responses after the defense secretary kept a secret, not only from the public but from officials up to and including the president.
Well wishes were quickly overshadowed by calls for accountability as severe as demands for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s resignation after an undisclosed medical procedure placed the U.S. Armed Forces leader in the intensive care unit for the better part of a week.
Friday, only moments after Congress learned that Austin had been admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Monday related to complications from an elective medical procedure that had been kept secret for “medical and personal privacy issues,” the public was equally made aware.
The most shocking revelation came after the Friday news dump when it became apparent over the weekend that President Joe Biden and the National Security Council had also been kept in the dark until Thursday.
U.S. Army veteran and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (R) spoke to the grave concerns over the failure in notification and the vulnerabilities it entailed in a statement released Saturday that read, “Secretary Austin must address promptly the troubling report that the Department of Defense didn’t immediately notify President Biden or the National Security Council that he was hospitalized and unable to perform his duties. The Secretary of Defense is the key link in the chain of command between the president and the uniformed military, including the nuclear chain of command, when the weightiest of decisions must be made in minutes.”
“If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown,” he added as the media picked up the story being dubbed “a scandal and absolutely outrageous.”
My statement following reports that the @DeptofDefense failed to disclose that Secretary Austin was hospitalized: pic.twitter.com/YjL4jSZURI
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 6, 2024
NEWS
This is a scandal and absolutely outrageous.
Not only was the public not informed that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized for four days. But he was in intensive care for those four days and not able to work.
The White House was not informed until… pic.twitter.com/2bxUq3Eoyy
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) January 6, 2024
WATCH: NBC News reports that President Joe Biden was not told for 3 days that his own Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in the ICU.
Impotent and feckless leadership from the top. pic.twitter.com/ai80l5H1fa
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 7, 2024
Wouldn’t it have been nice to think the president knew during those days who his defense secretary was? Apparently the White House didn’t find out about Austin’s hospitalization for days. https://t.co/U1jIXA7q1A
— Brit Hume (@brithume) January 7, 2024
As it happened, Austin’s deputy Kathleen Hicks, who was on a previously scheduled vacation throughout the week, was said to have taken over some of the responsibilities in the interim.
In his own statement released Saturday, after expressing gratitude for the medical team and for support from friends and colleagues, the secretary addressed the matter as a communication failure rather than a threat to national security.
“I also understand the media concerns about transparency and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better. But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure,” Lloyd said.
Speaking on behalf of the Senate Armed Services Committee, ranking member Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker (R) asserted Austin and the Defense Department’s “unacceptable” failure in disclosure went beyond the need for a half-hearted apology.
“We are learning more every hour about the Department’s shocking defiance of the law. When one of the country’s two National Command Authorities is unable to perform their duties, military families, Members of Congress, and the American public deserve to know the full extent of the circumstances. This episode further erodes trust in the Biden Administration, which has repeatedly failed to inform the public in a timely fashion about critical events such as the Chinese spy balloon and the withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
“…the full extent of the circumstances. This episode further erodes trust in the Biden Administration, which has repeatedly failed to inform the public in a timely fashion about critical events such as the Chinese spy balloon and the withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
(3/X)
— SASC GOP (@SASCGOP) January 7, 2024
The senator went on to ask a series of questions about the violation of the notification process that included “What role did the Secretary of Defense’s staff play?” and “To what extent was the Secretary incapacitated by his surgery?”
“The very fact that we have none of this information is an indictment of an administration which consistently holds Congressional authority on national defense matters in contempt,” added Wicker.
Likewise, the Pentagon Press Association, the organization of journalists behind covering the Defense Department, voiced their own outrage in a letter signed by members of the board of directors representing ABC News, the Associated Press, Breaking Defense and Reuters.
“We are writing to express our significant concerns about the Defense Department’s failure to notify the public and the media about Secretary Lloyd Austin’s current hospitalization. The fact that he has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for four days and the Pentagon is only now alerting the public late on a Friday evening is an outrage,” the letter read in part with a demand for “a meeting with you to discuss this troubling situation as soon as possible.
As CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr put it, “The lack of disclosure that Sec Def was ill is a huge strategic failure. As of tonight I do not see a way forward for believing the Pentagon tells the truth on anything. Reporters are always skeptics but this goes far and deep beyond that always professional skepticism.”
The lack of disclosure that Sec Def was ill is a huge strategic failure. As of tonight I do not see a way forward for believing the Pentagon tells the truth on anything. Reporters are always skeptics but this goes far and deep beyond that always professional skepticism. https://t.co/Zc1DWjMNLS
— Barbara Starr (@bstarrreports) January 5, 2024
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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