Lloyd Austin: Scrutiny grows on US defence secretary over hospital secrecy

Criticism of US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is growing, after it emerged his deputy was unaware that he was in hospital despite assuming some of his responsibilities.

Kathleen Hicks was not informed until 4 January that Mr Austin was in intensive care, four days after he entered hospital, US media reported.

Mr Austin, 70, resumed his full duties on Friday evening, the Pentagon said.

But questions are swirling around the secrecy of his medical situation.

The defence secretary sits just below the president in the chain of command for the US military and the Pentagon’s failure to disclose Mr Austin’s illness has raised concerns about a lack of transparency.

For three days, senior defence officials and even the White House were not aware of Mr Austin’s hospital visit.

Members of both parties have expressed alarm over the secrecy of the hospital stay, but the Biden administration has so far backed Mr Austin.

President Joe Biden, who spoke with him on Saturday, has “no plans for anything other than Secretary Austin to stay in the job”, national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.

“The president’s number one focus is on his health and recovery, and he’s looking forward to having him back at the Pentagon as soon as possible,” he said.

On Sunday, a Pentagon spokesman revealed Mr Austin had undergone an elective medical procedure on 22 December and returned home the next day.

But he began experiencing “severe pain” on the evening of 1 January and was admitted to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington DC, Air Force Maj Gen Pat Ryder said.

Mr Ryder added that the defence secretary’s medical needs required a stay in the intensive care unit and he “then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy”.

Even as he assumes his full duties, Mr Austin is believed to still be at Walter Reed and officials have not disclosed when he will be discharged.

In a statement on Saturday, he said: “I am very glad to be on the mend and look forward to returning to the Pentagon soon.

“I recognise I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better,” he added.

“But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.”

The failure to notify key officials within the chain of command, however, has drawn increasing scrutiny.

The United States has a civilian controlled military, and while the president is the commander in chief, his secretary of defence sits directly below him in the chain of command for the military. The armed forces take their direction from their political masters, and they need to know who is and who is not running things at any one time.

NSC spokesperson John Kirby has told reporters there was an expectation that “any hospitalisation” would be notified up the chain of command, and not informing the White House for three days is clearly not timely.

Officials told CNN that Kathleen Hicks, the Pentagon’s second-in-command, began assuming some of her boss’s responsibilities last Monday but was in the dark about her boss’s whereabouts until Thursday.

Mr Ryder has said that Mr Austin’s chief of staff Kelly Magsamen was ill and “unable to make notifications before then”.

“She made those notifications on Thursday to the deputy secretary and national security adviser,” he said.

He told CNN that the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff had been notified on Tuesday. Gen CQ Brown, however, is a subordinate advisor who does not fall in the chain of command.

Military service secretaries who sit in the chain of command were not notified until Friday, Mr Ryder conceded.

Leading Republicans and senior Democrats, including some allies of the administration, have expressed alarm over the incident.

“The most disturbing thing I heard is that neither President Biden nor members of the National Security Council were informed he was hospitalised until Thursday,” Leon Panetta, who served as defence secretary in the Obama administration, told CNN on Sunday.

“That’s not acceptable. We’ve got to be able to make sure that the chain of command remains solid and people responsible for protecting our national defence are in place.”

Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, the ranking member of the House armed services committee, wrote in a joint statement with a Republican colleagues that Mr Austin must provide “additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible”.

Some Republicans have called for Mr Austin to be sacked.

Former President Donald Trump said the secretary “should be fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty”, while Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton called for “consequences for this shocking breakdown”.

Off the record assurances that Mr Biden isn’t considering firing Mr Austin will do little to quiet the questions over what is undoubtedly a serious lapse in judgement.

Pressure will now grow on the secretary of defence to disclose more about his health problems and whether he is up to a demanding role, which sees the US deeply involved in two current theatres of conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine.