Who's in charge? Lloyd Austin was AWOL, and Biden didn't have a clue
By: USA TODAY
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The complete breakdown in communication among our nation's top national security leaders is alarming, especially with U.S. forces under attack.
Ingrid JacquesUSA TODAY
After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, I recall the self-righteous assurances from the news media and Democrats that the "adults are back in charge."
The last few years have given the country plenty of reason to doubt that sentiment. But perhaps nothing belies the claim as much as what has transpired over the past week.
One of the most important Biden administration Cabinet members - Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin - has been hospitalized since the beginning of the year. The Pentagon noted Sunday that Austin, suffering from severe pain while recovering from a medical procedure performed in late December, was admitted on Jan. 1 to intensive care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
And not only was the public kept in the dark until Friday, but Biden, who after all is the commander in chief, had no clue for three days that the person he appointed to run the Pentagon was out of commission.
At a time when the world is increasingly dangerous, and thousands of U.S. military personnel are perched on the edge of a war zone, it would be nice to think that the United States is ready to confront those challenges in a competent way.
But this complete breakdown in communication among our nation's top national security leaders is far from comforting.
This mess goes way beyond a routine "gotcha" moment of Washington politics. American sailors and soldiers are now fending off regular drone and missile attacks in the Middle East. Any one of those attacks, plus myriad other threats, could easily trigger an all-hands-on-deck emergency in which the president can't afford to waste time asking: "Where's Austin?"
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Austin still has not come clean about why he's in the hospital and how severe his illness may be.
He issued something of a mea culpa on Saturday, stating: "I also understand the media concerns about transparency and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better."
That's quite the understatement.
While the public should have known what was going on, what's even more concerning is that Austin didn't bother telling his boss - the president of the United States − that he was in intensive care.
Austin didn't even think it pertinent to tell his deputy secretary, Kathleen Hicks, why she needed to assume some of his responsibilities. (Hicks was on vacation in Puerto Rico last week.)
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As Brett Bruen, a former diplomat who worked in the White House under President Barack Obama, told USA TODAY: "This is not a minor miscommunication. It's about the confidence that our national security structure has in its leadership and that the leadership is acting in a transparent way."
This reflects poorly on 'commander in chief' Biden
Austin's "hospital-gate" comes at a bad time for Biden. The president's approval rate is already cratering, and Americans don't trust him to handle the most pertinent issues they're facing.
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For instance, a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll in November showed that swing-state voters by a wide margin (10 or more points) trust former President Donald Trump over Biden to handle key international issues, including U.S.-China relations, the Russia-Ukraine war and the war between Hamas and Israel.
Biden on Friday gave a campaign speech marking the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, and he stressed how the 2024 presidential election is all about preserving "democracy" - and why he's the best person to do that.
I hate to break it to Biden, but if our country isn't ready to defend itself at a moment's notice and doesn't have competent leaders, democracy also is at risk.
Austin should absolutely have told Biden what was going on. Yet, Biden also should have demanded much sooner to know where his Defense secretary was. Maybe he was too busy working on his tan (OK, more like epic burn) in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he rang in the new year at a swanky villa.
Biden wants us to consider him the adult in the room. This fiasco makes that a much tougher ask.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
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No surprise here. Handlers fell down on the job.
Clown show
In the big picture, or even the medium picture, this news story is noticeably insignificant.
Ignoring a complete lapse of standard protocol, procedure, and most importantly accountability in the Brandon administration?
That is normal for Brandonites.
Somehow I don't think that would be your attitude if this had happened during the Trump administration. But keep wearing those partisan glasses, they help you maintain the illusion.
I'm less concerned that the public didn't know but I think that not letting his DepSecDef and the President know when he was hospitalized as inexcusable.
Sec Austin went into the hospital on 1 Jan.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs found out on 2 Jan.
The President found out in the afternoon of 4 Jan (after we carried out the airstrike in Bagdad).
DepSecDef Kathleen Hicks found out on 4 Jan.
The Pentagon released the first public statement late in the afternoon on 5 Jan.
The President had his first discussion on the year with Sec Austin on the evening of 6 Jan.
When Rumsfeld underwent rotator cuff surgery and when Gates broke his arm, the Pentagon made an immediate announcement.
When Congress voted to waive the law restricting 10 years of separation from the military before being confirmed as Sec Def, Austin swore he’d accept “meaningful oversight” from Congress and promised: “We will be transparent with you.
He wasn't last week.
And that would be different how exactly?