The Pentagon got here beneath elevated strain Sunday to clarify why senior Biden administration officers, congressional representatives and the president himself weren’t notified of the hospitalization of Protection Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III till days later.
Former Vice President Mike Pence referred to as Mr. Austin’s delay in disclosing his hospitalization a “dereliction of duty.” Talking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mr. Pence mentioned that the “handling of this by the secretary of defense is totally unacceptable.”
He mentioned that People “have a right to know about his medical condition, about the reasons for it.”
Representatives Mike D. Rogers of Alabama and Adam Smith of Washington, the highest Republican and Democrat on the Home Armed Providers Committee, mentioned in an announcement on Sunday that they had been “concerned with how the disclosure of the secretary’s condition was handled.”
“Several questions remain unanswered,” they added, “including what the medical procedure and resulting complications were, what the secretary’s current health status is, how and when the delegation of the secretary’s responsibilities were made and the reason for the delay in notification to the president and Congress.”
Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, instructed “Fox News Sunday” that the shortage of disclosure was “shocking.”
Mr. Austin has but to reveal why he has been at Walter Reed Nationwide Navy Medical Middle in Bethesda, Md., for the previous week. He was nonetheless there on Sunday however was making calls, receiving operational updates and “recovering well and in good spirits,” Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, mentioned in an announcement.
In response to questions from The New York Instances, Normal Ryder mentioned that Mr. Austin underwent an elective medical process at Walter Reed on Dec. 22, two days after coming back from a five-day journey to the Center East, and returned residence on Dec. 23. After experiencing “severe pain” on Jan. 1, Mr. Austin was taken to Walter Reed and put within the hospital’s intensive care unit, Normal Ryder mentioned.
Pentagon officers had been scrambling over the weekend to place collectively a proof about who knew what when. A senior army official mentioned that Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers and the nation’s most senior officer, was knowledgeable by his personal employees on Tuesday of Mr. Austin’s hospitalization.
However many members of Mr. Austin’s senior workforce on the Pentagon weren’t instructed, officers mentioned, and the White Home and the president weren’t knowledgeable till Thursday, three days after the protection secretary was hospitalized for what the Pentagon referred to as problems from an elective medical process.
Normal Ryder instructed The Instances that as a result of Mr. Austin’s chief of employees, Kelly E. Magsamen, was unwell, she was unable to make notifications till Thursday. At the moment, Normal Ryder mentioned, Ms. Magsamen notified Kathleen Hicks, the deputy protection secretary, and Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s nationwide safety adviser, about Mr. Austin’s hospitalization.
It was unclear why one other prime Pentagon aide didn’t make the notifications earlier within the week.
On Sunday, Pentagon officers had been nonetheless sorting by way of their timeline, saying that Mr. Austin had deliberate to make money working from home final week however that he and his employees didn’t intend to suggest that he was working when he was really hospitalized. That response was to assertions that Mr. Austin’s aides had instructed individuals he was working from residence after they knew he was within the hospital.
On Saturday evening, Mr. Austin issued an apology of types.
“I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,” he mentioned in an announcement. “I commit to doing better.”
Mr. Austin added, “This was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decision about disclosure.”
