You have a point there if that is the case. The point is that we shouldn’t be so dependent on specific people who can’t be unavailable for even a moment. However, that being the case I have to admit this was a screw-up by someone in the administration for failing to notify the president.
Yes I would. Given additional info as just provided by @Elendil_s_Heir I would have changed my mind as well.
Why should a “Pentagon head” roll for this? The only person who seems to be responsible is Secretary Austin himself.
I’m not sure I’d blame a guy in the ICU for not making a phone call. Someone on his staff should have taken care of the proper notifications.
In this WaPo article (gift link below), Austin himself is taking responsibility for it.
Do we know that, though? Was he so incapacitated by the medical emergency that he was unable to communicate? In which case, someone must have had a duty to keep the White House informed of such things, and fell down on the job.
ETA: And although he’s taking responsibility, unless he expressly forbade any mention of it to the White House, I still say someone on his staff goofed up.
I don’t mind at all that the press and the public (and hence our enemies) weren’t informed. And I wouldn’t mind if the specifics of the “elective medical procedure” are never revealed, that being a matter where even a public figure should expect some degree of privacy. But that the president wasn’t informed he was hospitalized is unconscionable and unforgivable. The political party of the administration is utterly immaterial. This is a national security issue, not a political issue.
As I understand it, the chain of command from the president to the military ordinarily flows through the Secretary of Defense. If the Secretary is incapacitated or unreachable, or at risk of becoming so, the White House absolutely needs to know about it. It’s not clear Austin was actually incapacitated or unreachable at any time (I would guess not), but if he was in the ICU for four days as NBC reports, I’d say he was reasonably at risk of becoming incapacitated. At a minimum, the President, the White House Chief of Staff, the National Security Advisor, and the Deputy Secretary of Defense should have been informed immediately. To that list, I would probably add the other members of the National Security Council and a few key senators, including the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff cannot substitute for the Secretary. According to Wikipedia: Joint Chiefs of Staff:
Following the Goldwater–Nichols Act in 1986, the Joint Chiefs of Staff do not have operational command authority, either individually or collectively, as the chain of command goes from the president to the secretary of defense, and from the secretary to the regional combatant commanders
I suspect it was Austin himself who made the decision to keep the White House in the dark. But even if he expected an underling to report the news to the White House, he is ultimately responsible for the message not getting delivered. He needs to resign.
I wouldn’t go that far, but this must never happen again.
My based-on-nothing guess is that a proud older man who spent his entire career demonstrating strength and resilience in the face of adversity convinced himself and those closest to him that these complications were “no big deal” and he could continue to execute his responsibilities from his hospital bed. And so didn’t see the need to notify anyone as this was no different than working from home. He erred in that thinking, obviously.
I’m not certain this is a resigning/firing offense, but at the very least it requires a full accounting of what happened and why and establishing clear protocols regarding how similar situations will be handled in the future.
If that’s what he was thinking, it demonstrates incredibly poor judgment. In any case, I expect he’ll announce retirement, perhaps within the week.
Austin should have at least told the President and his Deputy Secretary. Other staff members within the Defense Dept would have to follow HIPAA laws.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/07/politics/austin-hospitalization-leaders-not-informed/index.html
I tend to agree. Unless there’s way more to the story, somebody needs to get torn a new one (Austin, I guess?), and then we move on.
I also agree, he should do the honorable thing and resign his position. Unless there is more to the story, this is definitely not okay. Our country faces a lot of challenges and we can’t have this kind of slip-shod behavior from the head of our defense.
I do like him, so I am sorry to feel this way.
I don’t think we’re agreeing. I don’t think anyone needs to lose his job, not unless there’s way more to the story.
Sorry, I misread what you were saying/agreeing with.
Pretty sure if North Korea launches a nuclear attack against the United States, tomorrow’s headline will not involve Lloyd Austin.
The hospitalization, and stay in the ICU, started with an elective procedure. He could have, and should have, made the appropriate notifications prior to undergoing that procedure, in effect incurring the equivalent of the 25th Amendment.
Watched Pence crying about this on CNN this morning, reminding us that “our Allies are at war” in Israel and Ukraine, and how important it was that something something Defense Department blah blah blah…
Yes, these same Allies that are at risk of getting the aid they need cut off. That was some good disconnect, there!
Yeah, our allies that Republicans are happy to leave without American funding.
Speaking of Republicans, what are they saying if we are being so harsh? There’s a roundup of tweets at Breitbart.
Interestingly, nobody seems to be calling for Austin’s resignation or removal. Good ol’ Tommy Tuberville wouldn’t trust him with a “potato gun,” which is colorful, albeit nonsensical. I think everybody is waiting to get their talking points to know how far to push this.