Even as the White House assures everyone that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s job is secure after going AWOL from Monday through Friday, the search is on for someone to take one for the team.
The public relations disaster Austin’s staff handed to the Biden White House on Friday just keeps growing. It started out with the admission that Austin had been hospitalized from New Year’s Day through Friday due to “complications” from a yet undefined “elective medical procedure.” Congress learned about his absence from duty at the same time as the rest of us.
At first, many of us took this as Austin just sticking his thumb in the eye of Congress. Then, another detail emerged. Austin had not merely been in the hospital; he had been in the intensive care unit while the deputy secretary of Defense was on vacation in Puerto Rico. And, by the way, unlike the Friday DOD announcement implied, we found out that Austin has not been discharged from the hospital. He had only been moved from the ICU.
Another thunderclap of information was on the heels of that change in the narrative. Austin had not informed Biden’s national security adviser he was hospitalized, and aides had told senior DOD officials that Austin was “working from home.” This phrase may soon enter the political lexicon in the same way that “hiking the Appalachian Trail” has.
BACKGROUND:
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Has Been Hospitalized for a Week and Just Told Congress Today
UPDATE: Congress Not Told SecDef Austin Was in the ICU and His Deputy on Vacation for the Last Week
NEW UPDATED UPDATE: SecDef Austin Did Not Tell Biden’s National Security Adviser He Was in the ICU
The kicker came Saturday night when CNN reported that Biden was not aware Austin was in the hospital, much less in the ICU.
President Joe Biden was not aware for days that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan ultimately informed Biden late Thursday afternoon, soon after Sullivan himself learned Austin had been hospitalized, the source said. Austin was admitted to the hospital on New Year’s Day due to complications from an elective surgery.
There is no evidence that Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks either signed memoranda notifying anyone she was acting Secretary of Defense or that she was even in the loop on the scheme to keep secret Austin’s absence.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made the obligatory “I’m sorry you are disappointed” apology.
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.
The White House says Austin has Biden’s complete support.
Still, Biden held a “cordial conversation” with his defense secretary on Saturday night, per one of the U.S. officials. “The president has complete trust and confidence in Secretary Austin,” the official said. A National Security Council spokesperson echoed that sentiment, noting Biden “is looking forward to [Austin] getting back to the Pentagon.”
I think everyone in Washington understands that the President giving a cabinet secretary his “complete trust and confidence ” comes about a nanosecond before the White House chief of staff makes that call telling them to pack their s*** and get off the battlefield.
Days later, Austin’s secret hospitalization has spiraled into a drama engulfing the upper echelons of the Biden administration. Senior White House officials are struggling to answer questions about who knew what, and when, about the former general’s medical emergency. Criticism is pouring in from Congress and the media.
And since the Pentagon went public with the situation Friday night, new reports are coming in, including POLITICO’s disclosure on Saturday evening that the Pentagon had not informed President Joe Biden or the National Security Council for days that Austin was indisposed.
The strange saga has fixed Washington on one question: What is going on with the secretary of Defense?
White House and Pentagon aides insist that Austin’s job is not in jeopardy — at least not yet. But they are sticking to that line despite seeming to lack full information about what’s actually been going on at the Pentagon. The precise nature of Austin’s surgery, medical complications and even his current condition remain unclear or addressed only in vague terms. Senior Defense Department and White House officials still don’t know the details of the procedure.
What may save Austin is the fact that this is an election year, and there is no way possible the Senate will confirm a new Secretary of Defense. Jill Biden, or whoever is calling the shots in the White House, may make the calculation that an unreliable and erratic SecDef is better than an acting SecDef. But there is a realization that this requires a sacrificial victim.
But some officials speculated a senior aide at the Pentagon is likely to lose their job over the brouhaha. “Someone’s head has to roll,” said a DOD official.
“Not telling the [White House], Congress or the media he is sick, and then telling Pentagon staff he is working from home is next level. This is a problem,” said one former senior DOD official. “Someone made the decision not to disclose. That person will likely be gone shortly.”
Let’s be clear. The official narrative is that Austin was engaged in his duties despite being hospitalized. If that were the case, no one but Austin would be to blame for this. If Austin was incapacitated more than usual, then not only is the official narrative a lie, someone very senior, though probably not Kathleen Hicks, gave the order to hide his condition and to continue to lie about it. And there should be a federal prosecution of some kind waiting for them.
The damage this has done to US credibility can’t be overstated. When the US government is in such chaos and disarray that the Secretary of Defense can be in the ICU while the national security adviser is told he’s “working from home” and, by the way, not available for meetings, no foreign government can think it knows what is going on or what the US will do. In retrospect, the French and Australians refusing to send ships to assist in Operation Prosperity Guardian may have had more to do with what is a chaotic and dysfunctional national security team than anything else.
BACKGROUND: Red Sea Security Coalition Melts Down As Member Nations Refuse to Accept US Leadership
The inability of Biden to fire Austin for gross dereliction of duty shows just how politically weak and morally decrepit he is. If this sort of indiscipline is running rampant in Defense, we don’t want to know what the other agencies look like.
