Pentagon struggles to explain Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's secret hospitalization

The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized Jan. 1 after experiencing "severe pain" from complications of a Dec. 22 elective surgery. But officials struggled to explain why the White House, senior Pentagon officials and congressional leaders were not told of his hospitalization for days. 

This opacity about the whereabouts and condition of the Pentagon chief "elicited bewilderment and frustration across the Biden administration" and Congress, The Washington Post reported. Several Republicans angrily called for more information.

Austin's chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, "was unable" to inform the White House or Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks about Austin's illness or hospitalization until Dec. 4 because she was sick herself, reportedly with the flu, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Sunday. He declined to elaborate on why another Austin aide — or Joint Chiefs chair Gen. C.Q. Brown, informed Jan. 2 — didn't spread the news.

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Hicks, on vacation in Puerto Rico, assumed some of Austin's duties on Jan. 2 but wasn't told why — "temporary transfers of authority are not unusual and are often done without detailed explanations," The Associated Press reported. Austin, who is still recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, resumed operational control of the Pentagon on the evening of Jan. 5, not long after Congress and then the public were informed of his hospitalization.

President Joe Biden, who was told about Austin's health problems on Jan. 4, spoke with his defense chief late Jan. 6 and wished him a speedy recovery, a White House spokesperson said Sunday, adding that the president maintains "full confidence" in Austin. Biden and Austin have a good relationship dating back more than a decade, and Biden generally values Austin's discretion and lack of knife-fighting through the press, Politico reported.

Austin, 70, had no definite legal obligation to tell his boss or Congress he was in the hospital, former Senate staffer and retired Gen. Arnold Punaro told The Wall Street Journal, "but there is a very long history and precedent that something of this nature would be immediately notified and it isn't even a close call." 

Officials attributed Austin's lack of transparency on his hospitalization to his intense privacy and small, tight circle of advisers. "You want a defense chief who's discreet, who's not going to jam the president," a senior official told the Post. "But in rare cases like this one, where more transparency was warranted, it served him poorly."