Published January 6, 2024
The Department of Defense didn’t notify the White House that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in the Walter Reed National Medical Center intensive care unit until Thursday. That’s it.
I’ve posted twice on the growing mystery of why the Defense Department failed to notify Congress that Secretary Austin was in the hospital. In the first episode, it was revealed in a Pentagon statement on Friday that Austin had been in the hospital since New Year’s Day due to “complications” from an “elective medical procedure.” This came as a shock to the Pentagon Press Corps and Congress.
The second act materialized earlier on Saturday with the report that Austin hadn’t just been in the hospital; he’d been in the intensive care unit from Monday to Friday evening. His deputy, Kathleen Hicks, was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time. While he was incapacitated and she was sunning herself, the US ordered a drone strike on the leader of an Iranian militia; the US Navy was trying to make the Red Sea safe for commercial traffic without upsetting the Iranians or Houthis, a war raged between Israel and Hamas, and North Korea lobbed a couple of hundred artillery rounds into South Korean waters.
I ended that update with this note.
While we are focused on Congressional notification, no one has yet asked if the White House was told.
Now we have the answer to that question.
The Pentagon did not inform senior officials in the White House’s National Security Council of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization until Thursday — three full days after he arrived at Walter Reed Medical Center, two U.S. officials said.
The news came as a shock to top staff, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, as they were unaware the DOD chief was dealing with complications following an elective medical procedure, the officials said. NSC staffers were surprised it took the Pentagon so long to let them know of Austin’s condition. The Pentagon didn’t make the information public until Friday evening, notifying Congress about 15 minutes before releasing a public statement.
For three days, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the National Security Council, and, it seems, a lot of senior Pentagon officials did not know where Austin was, nor did they miss him.
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SOURCE: www.redstate.com
RELATED: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s Hospitalization Saga Just Got Worse
Published January 6, 2024
Joe Biden promised a new era of government transparency when he was sworn in as president. It’s been anything but that, and the hospital saga surrounding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin shows how this promise is long dead. There are numerous other examples of this administration playing catch-up with the press and dropping the ball on other fronts. When the Chinese spy balloon penetrated US air space last year, the initial course of action from the Biden White House was to hide it from the public. You can’t do that because numerous witnesses saw the surveillance device from a passenger plane.
Austin may not be a top-dog defense secretary, but given Biden’s age and health, the line of succession matters, as does the man who is supposedly one of the president’s top military and national security advisers. A high-ranking member of the cabinet having a medical issue is a story, and burying it is even worse. Why? We learned this weekend that Lloyd was admitted into intensive care after an elective medical procedure (via Politico):
The Pentagon did not tell President Joe Biden and other top officials about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization for three days, three U.S. officials said.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior White House aides didn’t know of Austin’s Jan. 1 hospitalization until the Defense Department sent over word Jan. 4, two other U.S. officials said. Sullivan informed Biden shortly after DOD’s Thursday notification.
The officials said it was highly unlikely that Austin conveyed word to Biden privately before Sullivan’s briefing. “If Jake didn’t know, no way the president knew,” one of them said. “Who would have told him of Austin’s condition if not Jake? And if someone did tell the president, Jake would’ve been his first call.”
All officials and other people who spoke for this story were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
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SOURCE: www.townhall.com
RELATED: ‘Could Have Done A Better Job’: Lloyd Austin Addresses Lack Of Transparency Surrounding Hospitalization
Published January 6, 2024
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin acknowledged he could have better informed the public about his nearly five-day hospital stay, during which time the White House and Congress were mostly kept in the dark, in a statement on Saturday.
The Pentagon revealed Friday night that Austin was admitted to Walter Reed hospital on Monday following unspecified complications that arose from an elective medical procedure. He was recovering on Saturday when White House National Security Council (NSC) officials said they were not notified of Austin’s hospitalization until Thursday, while Congress and most of the Department of Defense (DOD) leadership did not know until Friday.
“I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better,” Austin said in the statement on Saturday.
“But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure,” he added.
It remains unclear exactly what triggered Austin’s emergency hospital stay, the nature of his elective procedure or to what degree Austin was aware of ongoing events. It’s also unclear whether Austin’s office intended to maintain a blackout on communication over the events.
The Pentagon’s secrecy over the ordeal sparked confusion and outrage among DOD officials, legislators and reporters over the Pentagon’s lack of transparency as conflict rages in the Middle East, Politico reported. President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, was not made aware of Austin’s absence from the Pentagon until Thursday.
Austin was in the hospital’s intensive care unit for four days, NBC News reported, citing two administration officials. He remained in the hospital on Saturday.
“At all times, the Deputy Secretary of Defense was prepared to act for and exercise the powers of the Secretary, if required,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in the Friday statement.
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SOURCE: www.dailycaller.c0m
