Defense Secretary Austin’s urgent health update has Congress in total chaos

Austin made headlines after secretly being treated for cancer. Now he’s telling all.

And Defense Secretary Austin’s urgent health update has Congress in total chaos.

Once you see the hypocrisy of the Left, you can never unsee it.

When Republicans are in office, Democrats will cry about accountability and transparency.

It gets so bad that they’ll throw a fit if Republican presidents don’t divulge their war plans against our nation’s enemies.

But when Democrats take the reins of power, it’s a completely different story.

Biden has been hiding from the press and only relays canned answers written for him by speechwriters.

Crises don’t have to be answered for. In fact, the media will even pretend their aren’t crises for Democrats.

And, recently, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was completely incapacitated for medical treatment that he told no one about.

Now he’s having to answer for it.

Lloyd Austin attempted to persuade lawmakers that the nation’s security was in capable hands as he was whisked into intensive care during an unknown hospital stay in January.

On Thursday, lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee were skeptical of his answer.

The session was the first opportunity for senators to interrogate Mr. Austin, 70, about his lack of transparency at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

The White House, Congress, and Pentagon colleagues were kept in the dark for days about Mr. Austin’s Dec. 22 prostate cancer treatment and the complication that brought him back to the hospital on Jan. 1.

Critics pointed out Thursday that the country was dealing with various crises in Ukraine, the Red Sea, and the Middle East while Mr. Austin was either ill or recovering at home, raising legitimate national security concerns.

President Biden did not hear that his defense secretary was in the hospital until January 4. Congress and the American public were alerted the following day. The event sparked calls on Capitol Hill for Mr. Austin to resign or be fired.

“It’s totally unacceptable that it took over three days to inform the president that the secretary of defense was in the hospital and not in control of the Pentagon,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican.

“Wars were raging in Ukraine and Israel, our ships were under fire in the Red Sea, and our bases were bracing for attack in Iraq and Syria. But the commander in chief did not know that his secretary of defense was out of action.”

Although he has repeatedly apologized for his handling of the affair, Mr. Austin insisted that there were no gaps in Pentagon control at any time, even when he was taken to an intensive care unit and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks took over as commander of the world’s most powerful military force.

“At all times, either I or the deputy secretary was in a position to conduct the duties of my office,” he said.

“There was never any lapses in authority or in command and control.”

The problem isn’t that there was a lapse in control. It’s that unelected bureaucrats aren’t informing the people supposedly in power, the president and Congress.

Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.