Absentee Leadership

Lloyd Austin's Hospitalization and the Questions it raises for the Biden Administration

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized last week, and no one informed the White House or other defense officials. Secretary Austin underwent an unknown elective surgery on December 22, 2023. On January 1, 2024, he had severe pains and was rushed to Walter Reed Medical Center by ambulance. He spent the next four days in intensive care at the hospital. According to CNN, few defense officials were told Austin would be on week-long leave.

I first noticed this story on Friday afternoon. Having been a political appointee in the past, I knew just how severe this absence was when Austin kept the entire defense leadership in the dark about his condition. Congress needs to immediately demand an investigation into who knew and when.

Allegedly, the Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, the National Security Council, and President Joe Biden were unaware of Secretary Austin’s absence until Thursday, January 4, 2024. Hicks was in Puerto Rico all last week. Austin was supposed to return to his duties on Friday, January 5. Over the weekend, Austin also stated that he does not intend to resign, and the Biden Administration is circling the wagon to protect him.

Now, a cabinet secretary can be absent occasionally and allow the department to function normally. These absences occur regularly as many cabinet secretaries are often involved in important meetings and diplomatic ventures, with the rest of the political appointees and senior career officials running the day-to-day duties of the department. However, this circumstance is unique for multiple reasons.

First, American troops are in contact with hostiles. In Iraq, we’ve seen US troops attacked and wounded on Christmas in an Iranian drone attack. The US retaliated last Thursday by killing a leader of an Iranian-backed militia. Off the coast of Yemen, the US Navy is combatting Houthi attacks on global shipping lanes, with numerous interdictions of drones and raids by the US Navy and allies. While the day-to-day decisions here are at a much lower level than the Secretary of Defense, the fact that the Deputy Secretary was left unaware in case a situation should arise at the cabinet level.

Second, the circumstances of this absence are unique. Whatever the procedure was, Austin was inclined to minimize its importance and the reason for hospitalization. Fine, fair enough. However, the fact is that other key leaders involved in national security did not know the Secretary of Defense was in the hospital.

Let me put it this way – the Secretary of Defense has a government-issued cellphone (likely an iPhone) and can text his Deputy Secretary, the National Security Advisor, and the Chief of Staff of the White House. More simply, he could have called his Chief of Staff and delegated informing key stakeholders if he could not do so himself.

In this context, it’s important to understand that his staff, chief of staff, and advisors were likely aware of Austin’s absence. While this is no great criminal conspiracy, we must ask what decisions were made in Austin’s name. We need some accountability in the Biden Administration and some accountability in the Austin Pentagon.

I was at a defense conference in Vevey, Switzerland, in September. A prominent politician from another country said that many believe National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan runs Biden's foreign and defense policy. If this is true, we must ask tough questions about how the Biden Administration runs and what that means for state affairs.