# Sec Def Lloyd Austin "secretly" hospitalized **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 7, 2024, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719 "2024-01-07T01:29:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/21 "2024-01-07T03:28:17Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Yeah, this. Following up on what I said earlier, it’s no surprise that the public would be kept in the dark, but the President? That’s a major screw-up, whether done intentionally or accidentally. There’s no way to “accidentally” not notify the President. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/22 "2024-01-07T03:50:22Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > …it’s no surprise that the public would be kept in the dark, but the President? That’s a major screw-up… This. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/23 "2024-01-07T12:43:50Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > There’s no way to “accidentally” not notify the President. This all happened over the long weekend. People are taking time off (hell, the Deputy was on vacation). Someone thinks Bob is supposed to do it, but Bob is on vacation and hungover, so thinks Bill is covering, but Bill is waking up late. Shit happens. It’s not supposed to, but it does. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/24 "2024-01-07T13:00:22Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Following up on what I said earlier, it’s no surprise that the public would be kept in the dark, but the President? Joe Biden has a bunch of direct reports concerned with national security. His [principal military advisor](https://www.jcs.mil/Leadership/Article-View/Article/1974872/gen-charles-q-brown-jr/#:~:text=General%20Charles%20Q.,Defense%2C%20and%20National%20Security%20Council) is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown, and AFAIK Brown was on duty this whole time. When an emergency occurs, Joe Biden is informed. Democracy relies on an informed free press. So I consider telling the public about the state of my government leadership a greater issue than how Biden manages leave schedules for his many direct reports. This is an example of Biden having done nothing significant to combat a culture of government secrecy – an issue for me but not something differentiating this administration from any ticket it is likely to run against. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/25 "2024-01-07T14:25:12Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > This all happened over the long weekend. People are taking time off (hell, the Deputy was on vacation). Someone thinks Bob is supposed to do it, but Bob is on vacation and hungover, so thinks Bill is covering, but Bill is waking up late. Shit happens. It’s not supposed to, but it does. This is the seniormost levels of our national security apparatus we’re talking about here, not the post-New Year’s morning shift at a Cleveland Denny’s. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/26 "2024-01-07T15:20:52Z")
Austin is only the appointed head of the Defense dept. There are hundreds of professional analysts and bureaucrats that have lived and breathed their jobs in that Dept for decades. I can’t see how Austin leaving his office for a few days makes any difference. I know he was in the ER and it potentially could be a lengthy illness. His deputy would take over until Biden appointed someone else. Isn’t that the point of a bureaucracy? Administrations and political appointees come and go, but the trained people actually doing the work are there for most of their careers. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/27 "2024-01-07T15:28:03Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Austin is only the appointed head of the Defense dept. The Secretary of Defense is the highest in the command structure, aside from the president. There’s no way this is not a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/28 "2024-01-07T15:36:54Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > I guess y’all are just a lot more blase about the Secretary of Defense being hospitalized for days and nobody being told about it. It’s a matter of perspective. One party has a candidate who had a cabinet member hospitalized. The other side has a candidate who has personally committed sexual assault, election fraud, treason, and taken bribes from foreign governments. It’s pretty clear which party is more delusional about the quality of their candidate. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/29 "2024-01-07T15:44:57Z")
Perhaps I should be more impressed by political appointees. But, so many of those positions never get filled. I’m not singling out Biden. The system has been broken for decades. Secretary of Defense and State are the exceptions that gets appointed quickly. > **[Why Are So Many Government Positions Still Vacant? (Published 2021)](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/us/politics/biden-cabinet-appointments.html)** > > The problem is not unique to the Biden administration, said the head of a nonpartisan group that tracks vacancies. > [@](#): > > One of the running criticisms of the Trump administration was [how slowly it nominated and won confirmation](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/17/us/politics/trump-appointments.html) for hundreds of high-level government officials, especially in critical agencies like the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. > > But things aren’t going much better with the Biden administration. And arguably, the situation is worse: In the middle of a pandemic, there is still no confirmed head of the Food and Drug Administration, and there is no confirmed ambassador to Afghanistan to help manage the crisis there. > > To understand what’s going on, I turned to Max Stier, the head of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan organization that tracks vacancies and advises the government on how to improve the nomination and confirmation process. > > He made clear that while the Biden team was woefully behind, the problem was not unique to it — or to the Trump administration. Rather, he said, it’s typical of a broken system that has led to a long string of government failures. > > “You can go back in time, if it was the response to Hurricane Katrina under the Bush administration, or the botched rollout of [healthcare.gov](http://healthcare.gov) under the Obama administration, or any number of issues in the Trump administration,” he said. “There is an execution gap of consequence. And one of the big reasons for that is that the leadership system is broken.” ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/30 "2024-01-07T16:27:39Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Perhaps I should be more impressed by political appointees. Perhaps you don’t grasp the level of authority represented by this political appointee. The only person in the country above him in the military chain of command is the President, who therefore is the one person who should know when this political appointee is out of commission for more than a couple of hours. > [@aceplace57](#): > > I can’t see how Austin leaving his office for a few days makes any difference. It isn’t that he was out of office that is the problem. It is that the President was not informed. Try to imagine that something militarily critical happens during those four (I think) days. The Assistant Secretary, somewhere on a beach, has to make decisions, and maybe some of them don’t go so well. Imagine the ramifications afterwards. > [@aceplace57](#): > > There are hundreds of professional analysts and bureaucrats that have lived and breathed their jobs in that Dept for decades. But they don’t make large military decisions, they only carry out the decisions, and maybe some of them advise about the decisions. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/31 "2024-01-07T16:29:28Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Try to imagine that something militarily critical happens during those four (I think) days. The Assistant Secretary, somewhere on a beach, has to make decisions, and maybe some of them don’t go so well. Imagine the ramifications afterwards. Did the Assistant Secretary of Defense even know that they were acting SoD? Is there a formal process for this? ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/32 "2024-01-07T16:34:21Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I can’t see how Austin leaving his office for a few days makes any difference. I know he was in the ER and it potentially could be a lengthy illness. His deputy would take over until Biden appointed someone else. But according to what’s being reported, it wasn’t even clear when and how his Deputy was acting on his behalf during his illness. The Pentagon put out a statement that Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks “was prepared to act for and exercise the powers” of the defense secretary. But did she? Other sources say she “partially assumed some duties” of the Sec Def while she continued to vacation in Puerto Rico. What does that mean? It was clear as mud who was in charge at the Pentagon for those four days. And not much clearer now – Austin said he’s back in charge but he was still in the hospital as of last night. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/33 "2024-01-07T16:35:45Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Try to imagine that something militarily critical happens during those four (I think) days. > **[US Airstrike Kills Militia Leader in Iraq in Rare Targeted Attack](https://www.airandspaceforces.com/us-kills-militia-leader-iraq/)** > > A U.S. drone strike killed the leader of an Iranian-backed militia group in Iraq in response to dozens of attacks on U.S. forces. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/34 "2024-01-07T16:39:13Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Perhaps I should be more impressed by political appointees. In this particular case, this particular “political appointee” is a retired 4-star Army general, had been the commander of U.S. Central Command, had commanded in combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and is the recipient of a Silver Star medal. And, to echo what others have already said: the concerning part of this isn’t that he was/is seriously ill, and apparently unable to perform his duties; the concerning part is that he’s a Cabinet member, and it appears that the President wasn’t made aware of his incapacitation for days. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/35 "2024-01-07T16:46:09Z")
A Pentagon head needs to roll for this. Quickly and publicly. Preferably with an abject apology for fumbling the ball. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/36 "2024-01-07T16:55:34Z")
Yeah, **operationally** things continue to function because the system is well set up for that purpose. But the bit about CinC not knowing for days that his Defense Secretary was in ICU is something that should not happen. (_The rest of us_ not knowing, that would be the sort of thing that should be CinC’s call.) ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/37 "2024-01-07T16:58:07Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s a matter of perspective. One party has a candidate who had a cabinet member hospitalized. The other side has a candidate who has personally committed sexual assault, election fraud, treason, and taken bribes from foreign governments. This reeks of “but what about her e-mails?!?!” deflecting. Nobody’s criticizing the Administration for having a cabinet member hospitalized. They’re legitimately criticizing the way it was handled and raising valid questions about how and why the President and the public were left in the dark. I’m Team Joe, but I also don’t want to be the kind of person who can’t call out fucks-ups within the current Administration because TRUMP BAD. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/38 "2024-01-07T17:07:23Z")
Surely this wasn’t the only pointless insignificant news story this year. There must be thousands or even millions of people who did nothing worth mentioning in the first week of the year that deserve just as much mention and concern as this doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/39 "2024-01-07T17:11:45Z")
This is especially of concern as Secretary Austin is, with the President, designated one of the two people in the National Command Authority for the use of nuclear weapons. God forbid the President only finds out when, say, a North Korean missile is arcing towards Hawaii, that the SECDEF is unavailable. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719/40 "2024-01-07T17:16:40Z")
I suppose all I can do is disagree with you that this is a “pointless, insignificant news story.” I’d encourage you to ask yourself, though, if you’d have the same reaction if identical events had occurred during the Trump Administration. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sec-def-lloyd-austin-secretly-hospitalized/995719.md?page=3)