Lloyd Austin is no longer in intensive care. The United States Secretary of Defense is ” Good shape “ but still feeling ” discomfort “, according to a spokesperson, requiring medical supervision for the time being. The embarrassment felt by the White House is of another nature, political. For several days, Joe Biden and his advisers were not kept informed of the hospitalization of the head of the Pentagon. A breach of protocol and a cover-up which raises many questions. It was not until Tuesday, January 9 that the public – and Joe Biden himself – learned the original reason for his hospitalization: prostate cancer.
On December 22, Lloyd Austin, 70, underwent surgery under general anesthesia at Walter Reed Military Hospital (Maryland). The White House was not informed, nor was Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks. The next day, the head of the Pentagon was back home and resumed his activities remotely, according to the official version. But the 1er January, after a video conference with the White House on the situation in the Middle East, Lloyd Austin felt acute pain, caused by a urinary infection. An ambulance took him back to the hospital.
The next day, January 2, several advisors to the Secretary of Defense learned of his whereabouts, as did the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Charles Brown. Through a simple email, Kathleen Hicks – who is traveling in Puerto Rico – discovers that she is temporarily exercising the prerogatives of the minister. As if nothing had happened, on January 3, the United States and thirteen allied countries published a statement threatening the Houthi forces for their attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Inexplicable in the middle of a security crisis
It was not until January 4, three days after Lloyd Austin’s new hospitalization, that Kelly Magsamen, his chief of staff, informed the national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, of his condition. The Pentagon explained that Kelly Magsamen could not have acted more quickly because she herself was sick with the flu, as if emails and telephones did not exist. An inexplicable delay, a vacancy of authority kept hidden, in the middle of a security crisis, with a risk of regional conflagration in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
On January 5, around 5 p.m., Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization was finally made public. The next day, Joe Biden spoke with the convalescent, without anything filtering out of their exchange. The Secretary of Defense simply published a press release, in which he said he assumed “full responsibility” of the way in which the information was disseminated, and especially not disseminated. Lloyd Austin admitted that he could have “do a better job of making sure the public was properly informed.”
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