It’s a good thing there aren’t any serious international conflicts happening these days, or else the President not being informed that the Secretary of Defense is out of commission for a few days might have made a bad situation even worse.
That’s sarcasm, of course, because it actually happened. Two wars are raging where the United States is tangentially involved. Secretary of Defense Llyod Austin was in the hospital for three days before anyone bothered to tell President Joe Biden. That means the Secretary doesn’t trust the President and didn’t want him to know he’d have the opportunity to work around him for a while, or the President does not talk to the Secretary of Defense regularly. Hence, a days-long absence wasn’t out of the ordinary.
While the less Biden knows and can do on any issue, the better it is for the country, the concept of this should be of concern to everyone.
“Austin was admitted to Walter Reed hospital near Washington, D.C., on Monday for a medical issue related to an elective procedure he underwent, reportedly ending up in the intensive care unit for several days, according to NBC News and Politico,” reports the Daily Caller News Foundation, “Key White House National Security Council (NSC) officials were not informed of the hospitalization until Thursday, while DOD officials and legislators were not made aware until Friday.”
It begs the old question: If you have nothing to hide, why are you hiding things?
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Well, if you don’t respect the President of the United States, keep him out of the loop.
There are only a few reasons to keep information from a President, and the word “reasons” should really be in quotes. One is plausible deniability. It’s a political calculation to protect the President from damage, usually when things have or are about to go sideways. There really isn’t a scenario in which the Secretary of anything being hospitalized would be an embarrassment or politically damaging to a president unless a mistress or something stabbed them. That seems unlikely here.
The only other plausible option is the President of the United States is such a non-entity in the life and work of the Secretary that there’s no need to inform him. The only way a president could not matter to that extent is if there was not respect for the man.
While the idea of not respecting Joe Biden, either as President or as a man, is not a new one – as Senator, even other Senators thought him stupid and only didn’t ignore him when absolutely impossible – the presidency is bigger than its occupant, or at least used to be. People would respect the office, even if they didn’t respect the office holder.
This changed under Donald Trump. Democrats had to change things and upset the apple cart or the vaunted “norms.” They were always whining about Trump upsetting to the point that they disrespected the office.
Many liberals, even Members of Congress – detestable, corrupt ones like Maxine Waters – refused even to say Trump’s name, calling him only “45.” That had never been done before, but they broke the dam because of their irrational hatred for the man.
Well, once you break the dam the water flows no matter who the president is. You cheapen the office and get rewarded for it, the office stays cheapened. If you think the President is a moron, why would it occur to you to inform him of anything?
It’s highly likely the Secretary of Defense makes most of the decisions related to the military, with the senile Biden only being told what he absolutely must. From a quality of decisions standpoint, that’s probably best considering how feeble of mind Biden is. But from a constitutional standpoint, it’s terrible.
I do have to say that Austin’s disappearing act isn’t new, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg took three months off for “paternity leave” after he and his husband adopted twins and no one noticed or knew until the supply chain nearly collapsed. Did the President know about that? If so, when? If not, why?
We conservatives don’t respect the President because he’s dumb and an awful person. It may be the case that Democrats in his own administration don’t respect him for the same reasons.
