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Politico: The Lloyd Austin fallout is growing: ‘Someone’s head has to roll’
The defense chief is facing criticism for keeping his bosses in the dark.
At a White House meeting last week, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, noticed that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was absent. A top Pentagon official, Sasha Baker, was there in his place.
There was nothing obviously unsettling about this. Austin was scheduled to work from home and lower-level aides often sit in for their boss.
But what neither Sullivan nor Baker knew at that moment was that Austin was already hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, with complications from an undisclosed surgical procedure.
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.
Read more ….
WNU Editor: The US Defense Secretary is in damage control …. US defense secretary says he takes ‘full responsibility’ for secret hospitalisation (The Guardian). More here …. US: Austin pledges better transparency after hospitalization (DW).
You would think that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s security detail would have sent out the alarm that he was going to be hospitalized. But apparently they did not. Someone had to make that decision, and that person should be held accountable.
Update: The Republicans see an opportunity …. GOP senators outraged over ‘shocking breakdown’ related to Defense Sec Lloyd Austin’s secret hospitalization (FOX News). More here …. Pence calls defense secretary’s undisclosed hospitalization a ‘dereliction of duty’ (The Hill).
The Lloyd Austin Fallout Is Growing
Defense Secretary Austin secrecy on hospitalization stirs outrage, calls for Biden to provide facts — USA Today
Senior Biden leaders and Pentagon officials unaware for days that defense secretary was hospitalized — AP
Lloyd Austin at the ICU: A Symptom of a More Serious Malady — John F. Di Leo, American Interest