Pressure is mounting on the Pentagon to explain the timeline of Austin’s hospitalization

The Pentagon came under increased pressure on Sunday to explain why senior Biden administration officials, congressional representatives and the president himself were not informed of Defense Secretary Lloyd J’s hospitalization until days later. Austin III.

Former Vice President Mike Pence called Mr. Austin’s delay in disclosing his hospitalization a “dereliction of duty.” Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mr. Pence said the “handling of this by the Secretary of Defense is completely unacceptable.”

He said Americans “have a right to know what his medical condition is, and the reasons for it.”

Reps. Mike D. Rogers of Alabama and Adam Smith of Washington, the top Republicans and Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Sunday that they were “concerned about the way the disclosure of the secretary’s condition was handled .”

“Several questions remain unanswered,” she added, “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 occurred and the reason for the delay in notification to the secretary. president and Congress.”

Sen. James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, told “Fox News Sunday” that the lack of disclosure was “shocking.”

Mr. Austin has not yet revealed why he has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for the past week. He was still there Sunday but was on the phone, receiving operational updates and “recovering well and in good spirits,” Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.

In response to questions from The New York Times, General Ryder said Mr. Austin underwent an elective medical procedure at Walter Reed on December 22, two days after returning from a five-day trip to the Middle East, and returned home in December. 23. After experiencing “severe pain” on Jan. 1, Mr. Austin was taken to Walter Reed and placed in the hospital’s intensive care unit, General Ryder said.

Pentagon officials spent the weekend preparing a statement about who knew what and when. A senior military official said that Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the nation’s highest-ranking officer, was informed of Mr. Austin’s hospitalization by his own staff on Tuesday.

But many members of Mr. Austin’s senior team at the Pentagon were not notified, officials said, and the White House and the president were not notified until Thursday, three days after the defense secretary hospitalized for what the Pentagon called complications resulting from an elective medical exam. procedure.

General Ryder told The Times that because Mr. Austin’s chief of staff, Kelly E. Magsamen, was ill, she could not make any reports until Thursday. General Ryder said at the time that Ms. Magsamen informed Kathleen Hicks, the deputy secretary of defense, and Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, of Mr. Austin’s hospitalization.

It was unclear why another top Pentagon aide did not make the reports earlier this week.

On Sunday, Pentagon officials were still reviewing their timeline and said that Mr. Austin had planned to work from home last week, but that he and his staff had no intention of suggesting he was working while he was actually in the hospital. That response was in response to claims that Mr Austin’s aides had told people he was working from home when they knew he was in hospital.

On Saturday evening, Mr. Austin issued an apology of sorts.

“I recognize that I could have done a better job in ensuring the public was properly informed,” he said in a statement. “I am committed to doing better.”

Mr Austin added: “This was my medical procedure and I take full responsibility for my decision to disclose.”