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The answer seems to be a combination of hubris, terrible staff work and real dysfunction at the top of our national security policymaking system.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center released a statement on Tuesday revealing that Austin had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in “early December” and had received a “minimally invasive surgical procedure” there on Dec. 22 under general anesthesia. He returned to Walter Reed on Jan. 1 with severe pain from an infection and remains there. Austin’s prognosis is “excellent,” and he is expected to make a full recovery.
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On Monday, Austin’s chief of staff Kelly Magsamen released a memo confirming that “certain authorities” of the defense secretary were transferred to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, from Jan. 2 to Jan. 5. Magsamen ordered a 30-day internal review “to identify the relevant facts and circumstances during this period” and examine procedures for notifications when defense secretaries are unable to perform their full duties.
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Case closed? Not so fast.
Austin’s problematic actions and those of his senior staff go well beyond his failure to tell Hicks why she was assuming some of his duties and his failure to tell the White House he was in the intensive care unit. Austin also failed to disclose his diagnosis for several weeks. And the way this was handled constituted a breakdown in the United States’ national security bureaucracy.
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“It’s a system failure, there’s no other way that you can say it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told me.
Several other senators told me Tuesday they couldn’t understand why Austin hid his health issues and they promised to press for a full and public accounting.
“It may be something that he doesn’t want to talk about publicly, but the public has a right to know,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-Md.).
Austin was partially incapacitated while U.S. forces were conducting lethal operations against militia groups in Iraq and fending off attacks in Syria and the Red Sea. His deputy was on vacation in Puerto Rico. The president, national security adviser and secretary of state didn’t know where he was. The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees were also kept in the dark.
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Senate Armed Services Committee member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told me the defense secretary’s actions were particularly disappointing considering Austin has championed ending the stigma surrounding health issues in the military.
“It’s very much a national security concern,” Blumenthal said. “I understand the concern for his privacy, but there’s nothing shameful about needing surgery. The entire set of events that led us to this place is inexplicable and unacceptable.”
There are several theories about what all this reveals about the Biden administration. Some say it shows Biden’s officials don’t respect him. Some say it shows an administration in chaos. Some say it shows Austin is so unimportant to national security decision-making that when he disappeared for several days, nobody realized it.
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There is truth to the assertion that national security policymaking no longer functions the way it was designed. In theory, the defense secretary and other Cabinet members are so crucial that their input is constantly needed. But in this administration, the White House and the National Security Council run the show and the agencies are subordinate.
“It’s shocking that we are literally at war in the Middle East and nobody noticed the secretary of defense was off the playing field,” Senate Armed Services Committee member Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) told me.
But this episode also exposes something about Austin. As a general, he was never a big fan of speaking to Congress or the media. Even now as a Cabinet official, he apparently doesn’t feel he owes them basic transparency. That’s hubris. And the fact that Austin’s senior staff thought they could keep a secret this big from his own deputy and his boss, the president, shows they are operating as their own island with little connection to reality. That’s incompetence.
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Many Republicans are calling for Austin to resign. The White House is standing by him for now, but there are also calls for accountability for his senior staffers. Lawmakers are skeptical of the explanation that Magsamen couldn’t notify the White House about Austin’s hospitalization until Jan. 4 because she had the flu. Austin’s press secretary, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, is also coming under fire for misleading the media during the first days of Austin’s hospitalization. He has since apologized.
Will Austin resign? Probably not. But his credibility and confidence in his leadership have taken huge hits, as have the credibility of his chief of staff and press secretary. They undermined the public’s trust in the U.S. government and created a completely avoidable scandal for Biden at the worst possible time.
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For several excruciating days, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s staff gave incomplete or misleading explanations about his health to the White House, Congress and the public. Now that the details of his hospitalization have been revealed, one big question remains: Why did he hide it in the first place?
The answer seems to be a combination of hubris, terrible staff work and real dysfunction at the top of our national security policymaking system.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center released a statement on Tuesday revealing that Austin had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in “early December” and had received a “minimally invasive surgical procedure” there on Dec. 22 under general anesthesia. He returned to Walter Reed on Jan. 1 with severe pain from an infection and remains there. Austin’s prognosis is “excellent,” and he is expected to make a full recovery.
On Monday, Austin’s chief of staff Kelly Magsamen released a memo confirming that “certain authorities” of the defense secretary were transferred to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, from Jan. 2 to Jan. 5. Magsamen ordered a 30-day internal review “to identify the relevant facts and circumstances during this period” and examine procedures for notifications when defense secretaries are unable to perform their full duties.
Case closed? Not so fast.
Austin’s problematic actions and those of his senior staff go well beyond his failure to tell Hicks why she was assuming some of his duties and his failure to tell the White House he was in the intensive care unit. Austin also failed to disclose his diagnosis for several weeks. And the way this was handled constituted a breakdown in the United States’ national security bureaucracy.
“It’s a system failure, there’s no other way that you can say it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told me.
Several other senators told me Tuesday they couldn’t understand why Austin hid his health issues and they promised to press for a full and public accounting.
“It may be something that he doesn’t want to talk about publicly, but the public has a right to know,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-Md.).
Austin was partially incapacitated while U.S. forces were conducting lethal operations against militia groups in Iraq and fending off attacks in Syria and the Red Sea. His deputy was on vacation in Puerto Rico. The president, national security adviser and secretary of state didn’t know where he was. The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees were also kept in the dark.
Senate Armed Services Committee member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told me the defense secretary’s actions were particularly disappointing considering Austin has championed ending the stigma surrounding health issues in the military.
“It’s very much a national security concern,” Blumenthal said. “I understand the concern for his privacy, but there’s nothing shameful about needing surgery. The entire set of events that led us to this place is inexplicable and unacceptable.”
There are several theories about what all this reveals about the Biden administration. Some say it shows Biden’s officials don’t respect him. Some say it shows an administration in chaos. Some say it shows Austin is so unimportant to national security decision-making that when he disappeared for several days, nobody realized it.
There is truth to the assertion that national security policymaking no longer functions the way it was designed. In theory, the defense secretary and other Cabinet members are so crucial that their input is constantly needed. But in this administration, the White House and the National Security Council run the show and the agencies are subordinate.
“It’s shocking that we are literally at war in the Middle East and nobody noticed the secretary of defense was off the playing field,” Senate Armed Services Committee member Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) told me.
But this episode also exposes something about Austin. As a general, he was never a big fan of speaking to Congress or the media. Even now as a Cabinet official, he apparently doesn’t feel he owes them basic transparency. That’s hubris. And the fact that Austin’s senior staff thought they could keep a secret this big from his own deputy and his boss, the president, shows they are operating as their own island with little connection to reality. That’s incompetence.
Many Republicans are calling for Austin to resign. The White House is standing by him for now, but there are also calls for accountability for his senior staffers. Lawmakers are skeptical of the explanation that Magsamen couldn’t notify the White House about Austin’s hospitalization until Jan. 4 because she had the flu. Austin’s press secretary, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, is also coming under fire for misleading the media during the first days of Austin’s hospitalization. He has since apologized.
Will Austin resign? Probably not. But his credibility and confidence in his leadership have taken huge hits, as have the credibility of his chief of staff and press secretary. They undermined the public’s trust in the U.S. government and created a completely avoidable scandal for Biden at the worst possible time.
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