Why was Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospital stay kept secret for days?

[putnam6]

Why was Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospital stay kept secret for days?

Kind of irks me we had our second in-command, on vacation in Puerto Rico, while he was in the ICU


https://web.ground.news/article/a-pentag...ays_7c8630

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization was kept secret from Members of Congress and Pentagon leaders for several days, raising questions about transparency and the severity of his condition.
It remains unclear when key US officials, including the White House, were informed about Austin's stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre.
Austin, who is recovering well, was hospitalized due to complications from a minor elective medical procedure, highlighting the Pentagon's lack of transparency about his illness.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who took over when Austin was hospitalized, was also away. A US official said she had a communications setup with her in Puerto Rico that allowed her to do the job while Austin, who spent 41 years in the military and retired as a four-star Army general in 2016, was incapacitated.

[Blaine91555]

There is nothing that any government official can't do from any location with access to the internet or phones. Unless of course it requires something physical.

What I find most odd about this is Biden was not informed. Now that is very odd.

Biden wasn't aware...

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 that Austin had been hospitalized, that source said. Austin was admitted to the hospital on New Year’s Day due to complications from an elective surgery.

He's still in the hospital it looks like.

Austin offered no details about his condition, nor did he say exactly why he was hospitalized on January 1. As of Saturday evening, he remained in the hospital, according to a defense official.

For him to hide it from the public is one thing, but hiding it from his boss is another altogether. There has got to be more to this story. He's still not even saying why he's in the hospital. That many days sure makes it look like something major.

I wonder if it was Covid and he got it even though he's vaccinated? Or even worse was he was unvaccinated after members of the military were tossed out for refusing the vaccine and then got it?

All speculation of course. There is no information beyond he's in the hospital I can find. Good catch.

One problem with hiding this is that it leaves it wide open to wild speculation like I just did. Seems like a serious mistake and a slap in Biden's face for not even informing the White House.

From the articles popping up, it's clearly a mistake to do what he did.
Sen. Tom Cotton outraged...

"Secretary Austin must address promptly the troubling report that the Department of Defense didn’t immediately notify President Biden or the National Security Council that he was hospitalized and unable to perform his duties," Cotton said in a statement released Saturday. "The Secretary of Defense is the key link in the chain of command between the president and the uniformed military, including the nuclear chain of command, when the weightiest of decisions must be made in minutes. 
"If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown." 

Part of holding an appointed office at that level is your life must be an open book.

[putnam6]

There is nothing that any government official can't do from any location with access to the internet or phones. Unless of course it requires something physical.

What I find most odd about this is Biden was not informed. Now that is very odd.

Biden wasn't aware...

He's still in the hospital it looks like.

For him to hide it from the public is one thing, but hiding it from his boss is another altogether. There has got to be more to this story. He's still not even saying why he's in the hospital. That many days sure makes it look like something major.

I wonder if it was Covid and he got it even though he's vaccinated? Or even worse was he was unvaccinated after members of the military were tossed out for refusing the vaccine and then got it?

All speculation of course. There is no information beyond he's in the hospital I can find. Good catch.

One problem with hiding this is that it leaves it wide open to wild speculation like I just did. Seems like a serious mistake and a slap in Biden's face for not even informing the White House.

From the articles popping up, it's clearly a mistake to do what he did.
Sen. Tom Cotton outraged...

Part of holding an appointed office at that level is your life must be an open book.

Yeah it's not that she can't pick up a secure line and call in an air strike, it's that it was being hidden from Congress the President everybody except a select few. We are the most powerful nation in the world and we have to keep the fact our Defense Secretary is in the ICU a secret. 

What else do the select few know that they aren't telling others? It's a bad look for some crappy company or corporation, even more so for our Defense Department when our sailors, soldiers, and air personnel are in immediate harm's way. 

Makes it seem the Defense Department is detached and separate from our political leaders, and they probably are. Now ask yourself why the DoD doesn't want the Executive and Legislative branches to know what is happening, why don't they trust them?

FWIW at least some of the media is calling them out.

[Nugget]

First thing that came to my mind was why bother Biden, when he's doesn't seem to be in charge of anything anyway, other than mucking up an occasional public speech.

Austin spent FOUR DAYS in the ICU; that's pretty serious for a 'relatively minor' procedure. 

What this tells me is all the checks and balances that our government was founded on are no longer in place. When one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing only anarchy can ensue.

[Blaine91555]

Austin spent FOUR DAYS in the ICU; that's pretty serious for a 'relatively minor' procedure. 

I can only imagine what kept him there for that many hours.

I'm perfectly fine with him having his privacy, but hiding that he was in the hospital is a step too far for someone at his level. Even that might be understandable, but not telling the POTUS is very odd. We don't really need to know to be honest, but the White House certainly does.

I wonder if there is even a policy on that?

[putnam6]

I can only imagine what kept him there for that many hours.

I'm perfectly fine with him having his privacy, but hiding that he was in the hospital is a step too far for someone at his level. Even that might be understandable, but not telling the POTUS is very odd. We don't really need to know to be honest, but the White House certainly does.

I wonder if there is even a policy on that?

Did you see the letter from the press? ABC, AP, Reuters, and Breaking Defense a Defense Industry resource. Which is weird in itself. Did the other normal top media sources not want to respond? like the other networks or our top newspapers NY Times WAPO etc.  

Policy or not it isn't normal protocol in a Democratic and supposedly transparent government.

[CoyoteAngels]

Having worked for DoD for 30 years, the only thing surprising about this is how high up it goes.   When any position of leadership is on leave, an acting is named.   If that named acting also had leave scheduled, they are not forced to cancel it.  The onus is on the higher to name an available acting.   In an emergency this would maybe be difficult, so there is chain of command at that high a level.  My thought is that his time card indicated 'work from home' so that he didnt have to take leave for a minor procedure.   Time card cheating.   The acting may have put 'work from home' on the time card as well.   It happens all the time, and is cause for dismissal in the regular ranks.

[putnam6]

Having worked for DoD for 30 years, the only thing surprising about this is how high up it goes.   When any position of leadership is on leave, an acting is named.   If that named acting also had leave scheduled, they are not forced to cancel it.  The onus is on the higher to name an available acting.   In an emergency this would maybe be difficult, so there is chain of command at that high a level.  My thought is that his time card indicated 'work from home' so that he didnt have to take leave for a minor procedure.   Time card cheating.   The acting may have put 'work from home' on the time card as well.   It happens all the time, and is cause for dismissal in the regular ranks.

Thanks for your insight, didnt know but assumed there would be documentation for how to handle such situations


EVIDENTLY, the Generals and grunts wrongly have different protocols and procedures, they could have avoided it all by having a memo once he was admitted to the ICU, but they chose not to like it's no big deal. 


Not gonna lie if the world was relatively peaceful, I wouldn't mind as much, but it isn't so it bothered me. It was good to see the press calling them on it though.

[CoyoteAngels]

Thanks for your insight, didnt know but assumed there would be documentation for how to handle such situations


EVIDENTLY, the Generals and grunts wrongly have different protocols and procedures, they could have avoided it all by having a memo once he was admitted to the ICU, but they chose not to like it's no big deal. 


Not gonna lie if the world was relatively peaceful, I wouldn't mind as much, but it isn't so it bothered me. It was good to see the press calling them on it though.

The problem is 'work from home'.    It started with the 'green carpool' points thing that seems to have fallen out of fashion for DEI.  That was when flex time and 'work from home' got popular.   Then it really took off during the pandemic.   Nobody takes sick leave or any kind of leave anymore.   It's all 'work from home'.   I knew people in management that were actually 'work from hospital', 'work from fishing boat', etc....    Nobody calls anyone out on it because they all do it!

[Blaine91555]

It turned out to be prostate cancer. He had the surgery, then developed a bad infection that landed him back in the hospital in ICU.

Being of a similar age, I know that his keeping it secret may in large part be due to wanting privacy. I can easily understand that but keeping it from his boss was a step too far.

Perhaps at his age, he's afraid of being thrown under the bus and being pushed to retire.