Right out of the gate, let's extend our best wishes to Sec. Austin. A stay in a hospital's Intensive Care Unit, for any reason, at any age, is a serious and scary situation. May he recover fully. That being said, the manner in which the public, Congress, and even top echelons of the executive branch found out about his health status amounts to an unacceptable scandal. Lloyd Austin is the Secretary of Defense, overseeing the most powerful military on earth. He happens to be serving in an era of global unrest and danger. Russia's illegitimate war in Ukraine is approaching the two year mark, Israel is actively fighting (Iran-backed) Hamas in Gaza and beyond, and Iranian proxies have been attacking American service members in the Middle East for months -- in addition to fresh warnings America and our allies have issued against one Iranian-supported terrorist organization that is dramatically and violently disrupting global shipping lanes.
While the United States military is not engaged in a full-fledged war, the current threat matrix is complex and perilous. Austin's plate is full. And yet, when the Pentagon chief was sidelined with some undisclosed medical condition, to the point of being hospitalized and ending up in the ICU, apparently almost no one was told about it. Keeping the fact that Austin was out of commission a secret from the public is unacceptable unto itself. That the legislative branch was also apparently kept in the dark, including top leaders who deal with sensitive material on a regular basis, is worse. But the most scandalous and problematic component of this cover-up is the degree to which central figures in the Biden administration and within the military chain of command were also reportedly left out of the loop. As Matt noted over the weekend, the National Security Adviser wasn't told, with sources also saying that the Commander-in-Chief had no clue his SecDef was in intensive care. This went on for several days.
As Fox News' National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin observed, this sort of thing is generally expected from totalitarian regimes that lie and cover-up as a matter of course. This is not how the US government should operate. Making matters even more stunning, the woman tasked with taking over Austin's duties as Acting Secretary in the event of his incapacitation was also not aware that he was in that state. This could represent a serious military readiness and responsiveness issue, on top of the grave violations of basic transparency and good governance:
NEWS
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 7, 2024
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks was not informed that the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized in intensive care when she took over his duties while she was on vacation in Puerto Rico.
Hicks only learned that Austin had been hospitalized on… pic.twitter.com/N8qfM7u4MC
When the deputy secretary of defense began assuming some of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s responsibilities on January 2, not even she knew that it was because Austin was hospitalized, two defense officials told CNN. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, the Pentagon’s number two leader, was among the senior leaders kept in the dark about Austin’s true whereabouts until Thursday, three days after the secretary checked into Walter Reed medical center following complications from an elective surgery. Not even the president was aware of Austin’s hospitalization until three days into his stay there, CNN previously reported. The revelation that not even Hicks knew that Austin was hospitalized is sure to add to questions swirling within the administration about why his status was kept secret, not only from the public but from senior national security officials and the White House.
Once everything blew out into the open, Austin (or his team) published the following statement:
I want to thank the amazing doctors and nursing staff at Walter Reed for the exceptional care they have delivered to me and for the personal warmth they have shown my family. I also appreciate all the outreach and well wishes from colleagues and friends. Charlene and I are very grateful for your support. I am very glad to be on the mend and look forward to returning to the Pentagon soon. I also understand the media concerns about transparency and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better. But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.
"Could have done a better job" is a stark understatement. Austin makes clear that he takes "full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure." Well, those decisions entailed not only hiding extremely important information from people up and down the chain of command, but being actively misleading, in pursuit of the secrecy:
One DOD official said their office was told by Austin’s aides that the secretary was working from home for the week –– even though SecDef was in the hospital.
— Alex Ward (@alexbward) January 6, 2024
His team was reportedly engaged in misinformation, telling at least some people that the Defense Secretary was "working from home," when in fact he was hospitalized and in intensive care. That adds a layer of dishonesty into this episode. To put a finer point on something that should be obvious, this very same set of facts would be unacceptable if it dealt with, say, the Commerce or Transportation Secretary, with all due respect to those positions. The major national security implications surrounding SecDef being unable to carry out his duties -- with central figures in government having no idea about his status -- speak for themselves. As for Austin's supposed 'commitment' to "doing better," it's worth noting that as of today, we still don't know exactly what 'elective surgery' Austin underwent in the first place, or why he ended up in the ICU for days. Was his inner circle's plan to just ride out the hospitalization, pray the boss recovered, and hope nobody ever found out about his hidden absence? It's mind-blowing.
Parting thought: I don't think its melodramatic to suggest that Austin may, and very arguably should, lose his job over this incident. This is one of the most powerful people in government. He's sixth in line for the presidency, and helms the US Department of Defense. Given what just happened, at the very least, Austin is responsible for a grave breach of trust -- all the way up to his boss, whose administration is harmed and embarrassed by these revelations. He has also exhibited profound lack of judgment. Collapse of trust and poor judgment are not traits one wants associated with any colleague, let alone the American Secretary of Defense. There's a real chance he'll be gone, even within an administration that is broadly allergic to accountability.
UPDATE - No accountability is expected, it seems, which can't be especially surprising. If they're not going to fire a single person over the Afghanistan disaster, why would Austin get the boot for this?