Defense Secretary Austin kept White House in dark about hospitalization
WASHINGTON – It took the Pentagon 3½ days to inform the White House that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized on New Year’s Day after complications from an elective procedure, two U.S. officials said Saturday.
The extraordinary breach of protocol – Austin is in charge of the country’s 1.4 million active-duty military at a time when the wars in Gaza and Ukraine have dominated the U.S. national security landscape – has baffled officials across the government, including at the Pentagon.
Senior defense officials say Austin did not inform them until Thursday that he had been admitted to the intensive care unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The Pentagon then informed the White House.
The Pentagon’s belated notification, first reported by Politico, confounded White House officials, a Biden administration official said. A spokesperson for the National Security Council declined to comment Saturday.
On Saturday night, Austin issued a mea culpa.
“I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,” he said in a statement. “I commit to doing better.
“This was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decision about disclosure.”
It was late Friday evening when Austin’s spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, put out a statement to the news media that Austin, 70, had been hospitalized. Ryder said patient privacy prevented him from elaborating about Austin’s medical issue.
In the Friday statement, he said Austin was “recovering well and is expecting to resume his full duties today.”
Austin was still in the hospital Saturday, a defense official said.
Pentagon officials had to call Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks while she was on vacation in Puerto Rico to handle affairs while Austin was hospitalized, a Defense Department official said Saturday, confirming a report by NBC News. The department said Friday that Hicks had assumed Austin’s duties temporarily. Austin has delegated authority to her in the past, when he has been on vacation and off the grid.
But just Thursday, while Austin was out of action, the United States launched a retaliatory strike in Baghdad that killed a militia leader who Pentagon officials said was responsible for recent attacks on U.S. troops in the region.
A Biden administration official said the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Michael Kurilla, already had authorization for the strike.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a member of the Armed Services Committee, demanded on Saturday that Austin explain why he had not immediately informed the White House that he had been hospitalized and was 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,” Cotton said in a statement.
“If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown.”
Criticism was growing in other quarters as well.
“The public has a right to know when U.S. Cabinet members are hospitalized, under anesthesia or when duties are delegated as the result of any medical procedure,” the Pentagon Press Association said in a statement Friday night. “As the nation’s top defense leader, Secretary Austin has no claim to privacy in this situation.”
Austin is notoriously private and has kept a low profile during his time as defense secretary. It has been more than a year since he appeared at the lectern in the Pentagon briefing room to address members of the news media, and he has been known to sometimes avoid reporters who travel with him overseas.
On those trips, he prefers to dine alone in his hotel room when he does not have an engagement with a foreign counterpart.
In his statement Saturday, Austin said, “I am very glad to be on the mend and look forward to returning to the Pentagon soon.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.