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U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, mentioned Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wants to clarify why the White House and senior officers weren’t instantly notified that he’d been hospitalized earlier this week till days later, amid a fancy time because the Biden administration offers with a slew of nationwide safety issues overseas.
Austin was admitted to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday for issues following a latest elective medical process,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday, at which time the press was told.
Ryder said that the hospitalization was kept from the media due to “medical and private privateness points.” However, staffers with the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, congressional leaders, and the White House weren’t immediately told, either, officials confirmed to Fox News.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon last year. Austin was hospitalized this week, but has come under fire after it was revealed senior U.S. leaders, including President Biden, weren’t informed until days later. The Pentagon informed the media Friday. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik/File)
“Secretary Austin should handle promptly the troubling report that the Department of Defense didn’t instantly notify President Biden or the National Security Council that he was hospitalized and unable to carry out his duties,” Cotton said in a statement released Saturday. “The Secretary of Defense is the important thing hyperlink within the chain of command between the president and the uniformed navy, together with the nuclear chain of command, when the weightiest of choices should be made in minutes.
“If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown.”
After Austin was admitted to the hospital, his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, who was on a beforehand scheduled trip and never bodily within the Pentagon, partially assumed a few of his duties from Monday by way of Friday, an official informed Fox News.
The National Security Council in addition to President Biden weren’t notified of Austin’s hospitalization till Thursday and Congress wasn’t informed till Friday, minutes earlier than a public assertion was launched to the press, officers mentioned. Even senior Pentagon officers weren’t informed, the official mentioned.
Austin was saved in intensive care after an elective surgical procedure that he did not need publicized. The secrecy stands in distinction to Marine Corps Commandant Eric Smith, who suffered a coronary heart assault on Oct. 29, 2023. A press assertion was launched inside hours with common updates despatched out.
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Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. (Screenshot/CSPAN/File)
In an announcement launched Saturday, Austin thanked the docs at Walter Reed in addition to colleagues and pals whereas acknowledging transparency considerations.
“I am very glad to be on the mend and look forward to returning to the Pentagon soon,” he mentioned. “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 delayed information enraged the press. The Pentagon Press Association (PPA), a company that serves because the voice of journalists protecting the Pentagon, despatched a letter from its board of administrators to Secretary Austin’s personnel on Friday night.
“We are writing to express our significant concerns about the Defense Department’s failure to notify the public and the media about Secretary Lloyd Austin’s current hospitalization,” the letter mentioned. “The fact that he has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for four days and the Pentagon is only now alerting the public late on a Friday evening is an outrage.”
The Pentagon in Arlington, Va. (Tom Brenner/Bloomberg through Getty Images/File)
News of Austin’s hospitalization got here at an advanced time for the Biden administration. U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have more and more come below assault by drones and rockets by Iran-backed teams. Ground forces there have fended off greater than 100 assaults up to now.
In addition, the U.S. is concerned in a proxy conflict with Russia because it continues to arm Ukraine whereas additionally aiding Israel with funding and weapons in its conflict with Hamas.
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Several American warships are additionally within the Red Sea and have shot down dozens of drones and ballistic missiles launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
On Thursday, U.S. forces killed the chief of a terrorist group in Iraq, Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al-Jawari, a pacesetter of the Iran-backed Harakat al-Nujaba concerned in planning and finishing up assaults towards American personnel, the Pentagon mentioned Thursday.
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