by The Pentagon came under increased pressure Sunday to explain why senior Biden administration officials, congressional representatives and the president himself were not notified of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III’s hospitalization until days later. .
Former Vice President Mike Pence called Austin’s delay in disclosing his hospitalization a “dereliction of duty.” Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Pence said “the Secretary of Defense’s handling of this is totally unacceptable.”
He said Americans “have a right to know about their medical condition, about the reasons for it.”
Representatives Mike D. Rogers of Alabama and Adam Smith of Washington, the top Republicans and Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Sunday that they were “concerned about how the disclosure of the state of the secretary”.
“Several questions remain unanswered,” they added, “including what the medical procedure was and the resulting complications, what is the current state of health of the secretary, how and when the delegation of the secretary’s responsibilities was made, and the reason for the delay in the notification to the President and Congress.”
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told “Fox News Sunday” that the lack of disclosure was “shocking.”
Austin has not yet revealed why he was at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for the past week. He was still there Sunday, but he was making calls, receiving operational updates and “recovering well and in good spirits,” Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.
In response to questions from the New York Times, General Ryder said Austin underwent an elective medical procedure at Walter Reed on December 22, two days after returning from a five-day trip to the Middle East, and returned home in December. 23. After experiencing “severe pain” on January 1, Mr. Austin was taken to Walter Reed and placed in the hospital’s intensive care unit, General Ryder said.
Pentagon officials were scrambling over the weekend to craft an explanation for who knew what and when. A senior military official said Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation’s top officer, was informed by his own staff on Tuesday of Mr. Austin’s hospitalization.
But many members of Austin’s top team at the Pentagon were not informed, officials said, and the White House and the president were not informed until Thursday, three days after the defense secretary was hospitalized for what the Pentagon called complications from an elective medical exam. procedure.
General Ryder told The Times that because Austin’s chief of staff, Kelly E. Magsamen, was ill, he was unable to make notifications until Thursday. At that time, General Ryder said, Ms. Magsamen notified Kathleen Hicks, the deputy secretary of defense, and Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, about Mr. Austin’s hospitalization.
It was unclear why another senior Pentagon adviser did not make the notifications earlier in the week.
On Sunday, Pentagon officials were still reviewing his schedule and said that Austin had planned to work from home last week, but that he and his staff did not intend to imply that he was working when he was actually hospitalized. That response was to claims that Austin’s aides had told people he was working from home when they knew he was in the hospital.
On Saturday night, Mr. Austin issued an apology of sorts.
“I recognize that I could have done a better job ensuring the public was adequately informed,” he said in a statement. “I am committed to doing better.”
Mr Austin added: “This was my medical procedure and I take full responsibility for my decision on disclosure.”
