Defense Minister tries to explain why he kept his illness a secret

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III appeared at the lectern in the Pentagon briefing room Thursday to answer questions from reporters for the first time in more than a year, beginning what is expected to be a lengthy period of explaining why he held the audience. and the president, who spent weeks in the dark about his prostate cancer and surgery.

“We did not handle this well; I did not handle this properly,” Mr Austin said. “I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. I should have told my team and the American public, and I take full responsibility.”

Mr. Austin, long known as an extreme introvert who hates talking about himself in public, tried to explain why he remained silent about an illness he described as a “gut attack.”

Mr Austin said his first instinct was not to say anything. He said doctors told him he had limited time to have the surgery, and he decided to have the surgery just before Christmas, thinking this was a time when he would be expected to be off work are. Mr. Austin said he thought President Biden had enough on his mind without having to worry about his defense secretary's personal problems.

“When you're president of the United States, you have a lot of things on your plate,” he said. “I just didn't feel like I had to do that at the time. But again, I recognize that was a mistake.”

Mr. Austin was transported to the press conference room in a golf cart 45 minutes before the scheduled start of the conference and walked slowly, with the help of a cane, to a green area to prepare with his assistants. He had no cane when he walked to the lectern.

The Defense Secretary was widely criticized for not immediately disclosing his illness and absence to the White House, a breach of protocol that stunned officials across the government, including in the Pentagon.

The House Armed Services Committee has asked Mr. Austin to testify this month about why he and his aides kept his illness a secret. The committee's chairman, Representative Mike D. Rogers, Republican of Alabama, said that “Congress must understand what happened and who made decisions to prevent the disclosure of a Cabinet secretary's whereabouts.”

The 70-year-old Austin has long been known as a fiercely private man who shuns the spotlight and is reluctant to talk to the news media — qualities that Mr. Biden was fine with, his aides said, when he named the 40-year-old Army officer an orphan his Minister of Defense.

But by keeping his hospitalization a secret, Mr. Austin drew more attention to himself than at any time in his long career. He also criticized Biden's national security team during a period of multiple crises around the world, including wars in Gaza and Ukraine.