When news broke last weekend that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in the hospital after undergoing surgery, Americans everywhere were astonished to learn he was there secretly for days. And while the media and taxpayers were left in the dark, surely President Joe Biden knew what was going on, right?
Wrong.
The news of Austin's absence only got more bizarre. The situation quickly turned into an indictment of federal government entitlement and incompetence.
"Austin—sixth in the line of presidential succession and second in the line of military command after the president—was hospitalized and his deputy required to step in from a beach in Puerto Rico where she was on vacation, days before Biden was informed," The Wall Street Journal reports. "On the day Austin returned to the hospital, Kelly Magsamen, his chief of staff, was sick with the flu, and her deputy was out."
After calling the surgery "elective" for days, the Pentagon finally gave up the real and much more serious details.
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"As part of Secretary Austin's routinely recommended health screening, he has undergone regular prostate specific antigen (PSA) surveillance. Changes in his laboratory evaluation in early December 2023 identified prostate cancer which required treatment. On December 22, 2023, after consultation with his medical team, he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and underwent a minimally invasive surgical procedure called a prostatectomy to treat and cure prostate cancer. He was under general anesthesia during this procedure," the Pentagon released in a memo. "On January 1st, 2024, Secretary Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with complications from the December 22 procedure, including nausea with severe abdominal, hip, and leg pain. Initial evaluation revealed a urinary tract infection. On January 2, the decision was made to transfer him to the ICU for close monitoring and a higher level of care."
The White House immediately jumped to Austin's defense, proudly declaring President Biden has "complete confidence" in him — an astounding statement given the circumstances — and declared he has been an important leader. No mention of the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan or his other disastrous failures.
"There are no plans for anything other than for Secretary Austin to stay in the job and continuing the leadership that he has been demonstrating," National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
While boasting about Austin's "amazing record" as Secretary of Defense, the White House downplayed dozens of missile attacks launched against U.S. troops in the Middle East during his mysterious absence.
As the details got worse, officials began to pivot to "lessons learned" about the situation, as if it weren't completely obvious how the entire thing should have gone down.
"We didn't know he was hospitalized. And I've said repeatedly that that's a problem. That should not happen again – that if a Cabinet official becomes hospitalized or has to be seen for medical, certainly to the degree where the authority has to be delegated, that the White House needs to know," Kirby told reporters. "I'm sure that they are learning lessons, as we all are, from what happened here, and we'll work to improve that, that transparency…We'll get better at this. We'll learn from this."
Only in government do you have to convene commissions and an agency-wide process to look into something already clear: checking in at work about your status, especially if you're the Defense Secretary while U.S. troops are in harm's way, is pretty crucial.
Not only did the incident prove President Joe Biden isn't in control of his administration, but that he also doesn't have much self-respect. The Secretary of Defense blew off his boss, the President of the United States, and Biden doesn't care? Doesn't he think there should be consequences for undermining him and putting the country's national security at risk? That it sends a message to every employee of the federal government that respecting Biden's position, your job and the taxpayers doesn't matter? How pathetic.
While Biden claims he has no plans to fire Austin, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are rightfully demanding a resignation.
