Lloyd Austin went to the hospital for elective surgery on January 1, but the White House was not notified.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said he takes “full responsibility” for the secrecy after it emerged that he had been in the hospital since last Monday and that many senior White House officials, including the President Joe Biden, they didn’t know.
Austin, 70, was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Jan. 1 for what the Pentagon announced Friday were “complications following a recent elective medical procedure.”
The secrecy surrounding Austin’s hospital admission is a violation of standard protocol and comes amid the war between Israel and Gaza and rising tensions in the Middle East.
Austin sits just below Biden at the top of the US military’s chain of command and must be available at a moment’s notice to respond to any type of national security crisis.
“I recognize that I could have done a better job ensuring the public was adequately informed. “I am committed to doing better,” Austin said in a statement Saturday night.
“But it’s important to say this: This was my medical procedure and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.”
He added that he would “return to the Pentagon soon.”
Politico was the first of several media outlets to report that Austin had been in the hospital for three days before Pentagon officials briefed national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior White House officials on the situation.
Sullivan then briefed Biden, the outlet said. He also reported that Congress learned of Austin’s admission to the hospital 15 minutes before Friday night’s public statement.
The defense department has said Austin resumed “all duties” from his hospital bed Friday night.
The Pentagon Press Association, whose members are journalists covering the defense department, criticized the secrecy surrounding Austin’s condition, saying he was a public figure who had no right to medical privacy in such a situation.
He also noted that even American presidents reveal when they must delegate duties due to medical procedures.
“At a time when there are increasing threats to American service members in the Middle East and when the United States plays key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical that the American public be informed about the health condition. and the decision-making ability of your top defense leader,” the association wrote in a letter to the Pentagon on Friday.
Other top U.S. officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, have been more transparent about the hospitalizations. Garland’s office informed the public a week in advance and outlined when he would return to work when the attorney general was admitted for a routine medical procedure in 2022.
