Republicans Are In Hysterics Over Lloyd Austin's Urinary Tract Infection
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The officials at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center finally put to rest the mystery of what has been going on with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who went incommunicado for a few days. It turns out that Austin had undergone prostate surgery and then he had developed a severe urinary tract infection. It may be that Austin simply wanted to avoid any possible embarrassing public revelations. That would be understandable, especially if we were living in a sane political age, but we're not, so the situation has created yet another opportunity for performative outrage in the Congress.
To be fair, Austin made it easier for them. He went off the grid entirely, not even notifying the White House and leaving officials at the DOD out to dry. And this is hardly a propitious time in history for the Secretary of Defense to go missing. No matter how jealously he wanted to guard his privacy, he handled this very badly. And he clearly did not reckon with the likes of Senator Tom Cotton , the bobble-throated slapdick from Arkansas.
“Secretary Austin must address promptly the troubling report that the Department of Defense didn’t immediately notify President Biden or the National Security Council that he was hospitalized and unable to perform 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.”
Wow. That sounds bad. Except that, as Matthew Gault reports on Vice , the Defense Secretary isn't part of the nuclear chain of command.
“It is a frequent misperception that the Secrecy of Defense is part of the chain of command for nuclear launch decisions—perhaps because it defies common sense that he is not. But the chain of command for nuclear launch goes straight from the President to the military command center at the Pentagon, which authenticates the order and relays it to the commands and units,” Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, told Motherboard. “The President may consult with the Secretary of Defense, and would likely do so in most nuclear launch decisions, but is not required to do so and the Secretary has no formal vote. It irks many that we have a system where one person has sole authority, certainly for decisions where the United States has not been attacked with nuclear weapons or only a few,” Kristensen said. “This became eerily clear during the Trump presidency where even the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff sought to interject himself into the procedure. In all other military matters, the Secretary is formally part of the decision chain and should certainly be so for first use or limited use of nuclear weapons short of a reaction to a large-scale surprise nuclear attack.”
And that's the reasonable position. Cotton's already gone beyond these concerns into full partisan high-sterics. From Politico:
“It raises questions about Joe Biden’s competence or that he’s really in charge at the White House,” Cotton, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said Monday on Fox News. With more Americans concerned about Biden’s age and cognitive health than Trump’s — despite the former president being just three years younger than the current commander in chief — Cotton took a jab there, too. Biden, the oldest sitting president in American history, would be 82 at the time of his second inauguration and 86 at the end of the term. "It raises some troubling questions: If this administration would conceal a mere elective minor surgery for a Cabinet secretary, what might they be concealing about Joe Biden’s health,” Cotton said.
Then, there are those members of Congress who leaped into the saddle of their favorite hobby horse of the moment. From Axios:
"Very concerning. Sounds like the President didn't even know about it," Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told Axios. Politico reported that Biden likely learned of the hospitalization in a briefing from Sullivan. Banks added that Austin "has been a disaster since Day One and should be replaced by someone who will focus on making the military ready to fight and win wars instead of advancing woke political causes of the Biden admin. Enough is enough."
Oh, just shut up.
Out on the campaign trail, the Republican presidential aspirants added their two cents, which is approximately what their thoughts were worth. The former president* already has called for Austin to be fired, because, as you know, he's radically opposed to keeping the health problems of government officials secret. And Nikki Haley, "surging" among the caucus Caucasians, decided to combine the thoughts of Cotton and the former president* in one tasty bowl of innuendo.
“This is unbelievable that we have a situation like this. When I had a crisis in South Carolina, if we were dealing with anything and I had to deal with my adjutant general, I was on the phone with him every day, twice a day. We have a war in Europe, we have a war in the Middle East, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States, China is on the march. The one thing that keeps me up at night is what happens between now and Election Day because Biden is making the country very vulnerable and putting us at risk."
All this means is that, sooner or later, Austin will have to trudge up to Capitol Hill and undergo a public probe that will rival anything the doctors did to him at Walter Reed, and this one will be on TV.
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Tom Cotton and that ilk will go to any lengths to make fools out of themselves.
The only fool here is anyone who defends this breach of protocol, the Secretary of Defense does NOT go off grid for any reason without notifying the White house.
I dont think anyone is defending it, we are just yawning.
Exactly, the President didn’t talk with Sec Austin until 5 1/2 days after Austin was hospitalized, maybe Sec Blinken is the important one WRT the MidEast and Ukraine.
Sen. Jack Reed and chair of the SASC said the major failure of disclosure “must never happen again” and urged the Pentagon to be more forthcoming with the facts. The top Democrat promised to closely track the situation. “I remain concerned that vital chain of command and notification procedures were not followed while the Secretary was under medical care,” Reed said in a statement.
Rep. Adam Smith , minority chair of the HASC has said, “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.” Transparency is vitally important, Sec Austin must provide these additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly criticized Austin’s action, “too early to say” whether Austin should resign, but said the Pentagon chief needs to explain himself. “This is not an acceptable situation for one of the most senior Cabinet-level responsibilities, and given what’s going on around the world. It is a complicated world, there are wars going on, we have engaged in hostile action to take out a terrorist leader. The secretary of defense cannot go missing and cannot go missing unexplained.”
Apparently you find fools on both sides of the aisle.
Im not surprised someone like you would find equivalence between what Reed, Smith , and Connoly said , and the over the top hysteria coming from Republicans in Congress and right wing media. Par for the course.
What do you think those Dem Sen and Rep meant?
The only hysteria we see is leftists defending the indefensible.
The left will never hold the Brandon administration accountable for anything.
UTI? I read it was prostate cancer surgery with post surgery complications.
The Walter Reed statement says he underwent a minimally invasive procedure for prostate cancer, which was detected early, and his outlook is excellent.
"To be fair, Austin made it easier for them. He went off the grid entirely, not even notifying the White House and leaving officials at the DOD out to dry. And this is hardly a propitious time in history for the Secretary of Defense to go missing. No matter how jealously he wanted to guard his privacy, he handled this very badly."
Yep, it was handled badly, but after all, this is the administration of Joe Biden. But it was a little more serious that a simple procedure, and hiding the fact of his condition from his boss is unprofessional.
We Now Know More About Why Secretary Austin Had Secret Surgery (townhall.com)
Let see here, we have an on going proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, the middle East is about to explode, the Iranian proxies are shooting missiles at American ships and at Americans in Syria and the Sec of Def goes missing and doesn't tell anyone and some fucking morons in the press thinks it okay because of why it happened?
By your "logic" all hell should have broken loose in the last few days because the Secretary of Defense was away from his post. I hope to god that our back up procedures are better than that.
They work well when the DepSecDef and the President know the situation.
Since nobody knew we needed back-up procedure because the Sec failed in his duties to notify the CoC, who knows what could have happened.
This is classic, I lack the ability to debate what you actually wrote, so i will just make something up and argue against that.
I think the relevance of my comment eluded you.
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Any one above the rank of sergeant knows what a Serious Incident Report means and the suspense of submitting it up the chain of command. Sec Austin is no stranger to that report. He failed to do what he knows was his responsibility.
(deleted) not worth it…
Rumsfeld let the chain of command know immediately before he underwent shoulder surgery and Gates did the same when he broke his arm.
Hell, I let my chain of command know 3 hours after I was diagnosed with cancer.
It really eluded me John, what was the relevance of 3.1 ?
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f what has been going on with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who went incommunicado for a few days.
I see marching orders have been issued. Progressive kept their mouth shut for the last few days amidst bipartisan denunciation of Austin simply disappearing from the chain of command as American troops were under fire not knowing what to say. Now we see, what the approved line is. It's okay to disappear without telling the President you were in the ICU because the reason can be mocked.
As we saw with Gay's plagiarism, Democrats will hand wave away any behavior to protect their own.
Much ado about nothing.
Once again right wingers make mountains out of molehills.
As if he was out of contact at Walter Reed.
It's a good thing the nations enemies knew nothing about it.
Until our nations internal traitors brought it up.
As with the Gay thing this is all about far-right racism.
As if he was out of contact at Walter Reed.
He was incapacitated in the ICU and didn't tell the NSC or the President.
No one thinks this is okay. Is there any progressive behavior you won't shill for?
a good thing the nations enemies knew nothing about it.
Maybe it would be a good thing if the Secretary of Defense followed protocol?
Until our nations internal traitors brought it up.
Now you are calling the pentagon staff internal traitors? Get a grip.
Gay thing this is all about far-right racism.
Racism or fascism. I guess you flip a coin before every response and just force it in there.
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Nice to see that right wing hysteria over this has spread to NT. Why should our guys be left out.
You want to point that out? I don't see it.
“Nice to see that right wing hysteria over this has spread to NT. Why should our guys be left out.”
Actually, NT has become just a sounding board for those who refuse to accept the future they face and are content in regurgitating the party line, believing beyond belief that they will never be denied.
Actually, concerns were expressed by Reps and Sen from both Parties.
Personally, I don't really care about it either way.
It isn't like there were any wars going on / S
A bigger issue also comes out of this. According to reporting, American troops were attacked 8 times while Secretary Austin was hospitalized.
It's obvious that the Security Council never met or discussed this issue because if they had, there would have been questions on "where is Austin or anybody from the Pentagon". Does the White House not care about the security of our troops? Does anybody in this administration care?
I don't disagree with how this has been handled. However, Secretary Austin and his staff have created a problem for himself and the administration out of whole cloth. He could have spared us and the news cycle (and Congress' less than sincere upcoming investigation of himself and the administration) this which is about to occur if he had just ordered his staff to disclose his whereabouts to the president. An unforced error, for which it is "indefinite" how long it will be front and center as a a story.
Incidentally, we are about to know "all" about it anyway, because the media is relentless in getting the 'goods' that others do not wish/intent to share.
This is barely a blip on the Lame Stream Media's radar. Other than to criticize Republicans/Conservatives for "making too big of a deal about it."
There is zero accountability in the Brandon administration. So it is up to Congress to do their job for them. What is surprising is the number of Congressional Democrats calling for investigations. Guess they must be in on the Republican plot.
Don't give me your projection, okay. I don't want it, don't need it, and have no intention of receiving it favorably. My comment 8 is explicitly clear about my view of this situation. Take your negative partisanship away from my proximity as it is unhelpful and I won't tolerate it.
Projection. How about the blatant lie that Austin had a "urinary track infection"- when he has cancer.
Nothing more than we expect from the lame stream media and leftists.
Your 'argument' or "disbelief" is not with me. Take it up with those 'guys" over there or over yonder or out there - Defense Secretary Austin has some clean up to do, but since I don't work for him you will not give me shit about his defense/white house intrigue.
Austin, defense department staff, the White House, president, and media have to clear this up to their satisfaction, because as of right now none of us know any more than what has been shared and so you have nothing to EXTRAPOLATE and bitch about-if you're being honest. However, since you are clearly partisan and negative about it too-don't project your mind-game onto my comments. It will be rejected.