“Completely unacceptable”
Austin under fire for silence about cancer
February 29, 2024, 8:59 p.m
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In a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Pentagon chief Austin is harshly attacked. The Republican Rogers criticizes the secrecy surrounding his hospital stays as “completely unacceptable.” Austin admits mistakes and apologizes.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was harshly criticized for initially concealing his cancer at a congressional hearing in Washington. “It is completely unacceptable that it took three days to inform the President of the United States that the Secretary of Defense is in the hospital and is not in control of the Pentagon,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers in the minister’s presence.
The opposition Republican MP referred to the wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine and the attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. But President Joe Biden, as commander in chief of the armed forces, “did not know that his defense secretary was out of action.” Criticism of Austin also came from the ranks of Biden’s Democrats. Her chairman of the Armed Forces Committee, Adam Smith, said this “lack of transparency” should not happen again.
Austin emphasized that there was no “break in command and control” during his hospital stays. Because “at all times either I or the deputy secretary was capable of carrying out the duties of my office,” there were no gaps in the department’s control or the nation’s security, the Pentagon chief said. However, he again acknowledged errors in communication about his illness: “We didn’t get it right.”
The Pentagon chief had already apologized in a press conference at the beginning of February. “I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis,” he said at the time. He apologized to President Biden for his behavior and took full responsibility for the incorrect communication.
At the beginning of the year, the Pentagon chief came under heavy criticism because he had kept a secret for days in December and January about prostate cancer and a hospital stay, including in the intensive care unit. Even President Joe Biden didn’t know about it. Austin, 70, was hospitalized three times between December and January following his diagnosis.