Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has come under scrutiny from a growing number of congressional lawmakers who are demanding answers after the Defense Department delayed informing administration officials, Congress and the public about his hospitalization.
The Pentagon waited three days after Austin arrived at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to inform senior officials in the White House’s National Security Council of Austin’s condition, including that he spent four days in the intensive care unit, a U.S. official previously confirmed to NBC News.
Austin’s deputy, Kathleen Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time, learned about his condition two days after she took over his duties, a senior defense official told NBC News on Sunday.
House Republican conference chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., the number four House Republican, on Monday called on Austin to resign. She decried the Pentagon’s move to wait several days to notify administration officials about Austin’s hospitalization as a “shocking and absolutely unacceptable” decision.
“This concerning lack of transparency exemplifies a shocking lack of judgment and a significant national security threat,” she said in a statement. “There must be full accountability beginning with the immediate resignation of Secretary Austin and those that lied for him and a Congressional investigation into this dangerous dereliction of duty.”
Austin was still in the hospital as of Sunday night with no end date for his hospitalization, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. Ryder noted that Austin is “recovering well” following complications from an elective surgery and that he has resumed his duties. The Pentagon has declined to share more information about his condition and what led him to be hospitalized, citing “privacy reasons.”
During a press gaggle aboard Air Force One Monday, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby confirmed that the White House and NSC were not told about Austin’s condition until Jan. 4, but said that President Joe Biden’s focus is on the defense secretary’s “health and recovery.”
Biden is not currently considering firing Austin for not disclosing his hospitalization last week, three administration officials told NBC News. The president still has “full trust and confidence” in Austin, one of the officials said.
Biden and Austin spoke by phone on Saturday evening in what one senior administration official described as a “warm conversation,” during which the president “wished him the best in his recovery.”
The Pentagon said that Austin does not intend to offer his resignation.
“Secretary Austin has no plans to resign. He remains focused on conducting his duties as Secretary of Defense in defense of our nation,” Ryder said in a statement on Monday.
Multiple members of Congress signaled that Austin will face questions from lawmakers as they return from their winter recess this week.
Republican Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Sunday Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the committee, said the Pentagon’s delay is “unacceptable” and demonstrates the Defense Department’s “shocking defiance of the law.”
“Members must be briefed on a full accounting of the facts immediately,” Wicker said in a statement.
He added: “Worryingly, we now have more questions than answers. Why was the notification process … not followed and who made the determination not to follow it? What role did the Secretary of Defense’s staff play? When exactly was the President notified? What justification did the Department have for withholding information from the National Security Council? To what extent was the Secretary incapacitated by his surgery? The very fact that we have none of this information is an indictment of an administration which consistently holds Congressional authority on national defense matters in contempt.”
Cotton demanded that Austin “address promptly the troubling report” of the Pentagon not immediately notifying President Joe Biden or the National Security Council of his inability to carry out his duties.
“The Secretary of Defense is the key link in the chain of command between the president and the uniformed military, including the nuclear chain of command, when the weightiest of decisions must be made in minutes. If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown,” Cotton said in a statement.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a member of the House Armed Services Committee who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told NBC News that Austin’s delayed disclosure was a “terrible mistake in judgment” and called for an “honest review” from the White House on the matter.
“With a ‘zero fail’ nuclear deterrence mission, the decision by the Secretary of Defense to not tell the White House nor his deputy who was on vacation that he was in the ICU was a terrible mistake in judgement,” he said. “But not only for our nuclear deterrence mission, we need a clear chain of command everyday with Russia, China, Iran and Hamas.”
“I’d like to hear an honest review from [the] White House on this, devoid of their usual spin, before calling for him to step down,” he added.
A Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee did not call for Austin’s resignation but told NBC News the defense secretary should hold a news conference to explain himself.
“It is very, very egregious in my opinion that the White House was not informed,” the Democrat said. “I don’t think he needs to step down, but I think he needs to explain this to the public.”
Austin in a statement Saturday took “full responsibility” for the lack of disclosure.
On board Air Force One, Kirby told reporters that Biden “respects the fact that Secretary Austin took ownership for the lack of transparency. He also respects the amazing job he’s done as Defense Secretary and how he’s handled multiple crisis over the last almost three years now. And very much values his advice, candor leadership, and again, looks forward to having him back.”
Asked whether the president wants an official review into the delay in communicating Austin’s hospitalization to White House officials, Kirby said he expects the NSC will “do what’s akin to a hot wash” to try to see if there are any changes or modifications to improve processes and procedures for Cabinet secretaries to disclose medical procedures and hospitalizations.