Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are taking Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to task over the lack of transparency surrounding his unexplained health emergency that prompted a hospital stay.
The defense secretary, 70, has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a week, first being transported to the hospital via ambulance on Jan. 1, and he was immediately put in the intensive care unit. Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Monday that Austin is no longer in the ICU but still in the hospital.
Ryder said he found out that Austin had been taken out of the ICU earlier Monday, though he could not confirm when exactly he was moved.
Austin had an undisclosed elective medical procedure on Dec. 22 and returned home the next day. He temporarily transferred some of his authority as secretary of defense to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks while he was in the hospital for the procedure, Ryder explained.
The exact nature of Austin’s procedure, as well as the complications that sent him to the hospital, remain unknown.
President Joe Biden was not informed of Austin’s hospitalization until last Thursday, with the two eventually speaking by phone on Friday evening. Despite this, White House officials say he “is not considering” removing Austin from the role.
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have been far less forgiving, however, with members on both sides demanding answers.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said Monday he believes there “needs to be” a hearing on the matter to get answers.
“Any type of hearing, closed, open, whatever — we need to get answers,” Manchin said, adding, “We can’t have a broken chain of command such as that.”
Manchin’s comments came shortly after Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, made a similar demand for answers.
Speaking to reporters late Monday, Wicker said he wanted a “quick hearing” because he was “not quite ready” to call for Austin’s resignation. The Mississippi senator then spoke by phone to Hicks about the situation, a call that left him unsatisfied.
Calling it “almost beyond credulity,” Wicker alleged that Hicks “doesn’t yet know what the condition is” of her boss.
“She says she does not know what the condition is,” Wicker told reporters of Hicks. “Now, this is what makes me so glad that we have a free press in America. So go forth and fulfill your constitutional duty.”
Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA) and Mike Rogers (R-AL), the top Democrat and Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, put out a joint statement demanding answers “as soon as possible.”
“While we wish Sec. Austin a speedy recovery, we are concerned with how the disclosure of the Secretary’s condition was handled,” Smith and Rogers wrote. “Several questions remain unanswered, including what the medical procedure and resulting complications were, what the Secretary’s current health status is, how and when the delegation of the Secretary’s responsibilities were made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the President and Congress.”
The two were backed up by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a member of the committee, who called on Rogers to hold a public hearing with Austin and Hicks.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), who pushed back on the idea that a hearing was necessary, suggested that the onus was on Austin to be transparent with Congress if he wanted to avoid an investigation.
“The best thing for him and for all of us is full disclosure,” Welch told the Washington Examiner. “Why was he in the hospital? What was the reason he didn’t disclose it? [We need] an assurance that he won’t do that again.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) predicted that lawmakers would give the Biden administration “an opportunity” to “show that they’ve actually remedied whatever failed in that particular case.”
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“I can’t imagine that they don’t want to rectify this as soon as possible,” Rounds told the Washington Examiner when asked about the potential for hearings. “So I would be very surprised if this wasn’t being discussed at the highest levels in this administration right now.”
“I don’t know that you need a hearing on it,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told the Washington Examiner when asked if she thought that could be useful. “What are you going to do at a hearing other than just kind of beat everybody up for the purpose of beating everybody up?”
Mike Brest contributed to this report.
