Scandals are a dime a dozen in Washington, D.C., and occur so frequently that some don't even make headlines anymore. But the kerfuffle over Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospital visit, where he failed to inform the White House of complications over prostate cancer surgery, is perhaps one of the more perplexing scandal in the modern era.
After receiving treatment in late December, Austin returned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center about a week later due to post-surgery complications. The defense secretary was transferred to the intensive care unit, where he was monitored by doctors and hospital staff for days. His colleagues and deputies, including his chief of staff, the chair of the Joint Chiefs and the Pentagon's chief spokesperson learned about Austin's hospital stay on the same day. But nobody in the building got around to informing the National Security Council or the White House staff about Austin's situation and whereabouts until days later. Congress, including senior lawmakers on the armed services committees, were in the dark as well. President Joe Biden didn't know about Austin's cancer diagnosis for weeks. In short, there was a massive failure of communication at the top level of government.
Austin was quick to take responsibility, owed up to his mistake, and promised to do better in the future. But that hasn't quelled the anger and intrigue. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens suggested the U.S. military could have been partially immobilized if Austin wasn't at his desk during a crisis (a poor reading of how the chain-of-command actually works). Some lawmakers are calling for consequences, with one congressman even introducing articles of impeachment against the defense secretary for allegedly violating his oath of office and being "dishonest." Some Democrats are perturbed by the whole thing. That includes Senate Armed Services Committee chair Jack Reed, the man tasked with overseeing U.S. defense policy and shepherding Pentagon appointments through the confirmation process.
The White House, caught with its pants down, is now trying to get to the bottom of what happened. White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has ordered all agencies to notify his office when they are preparing for a delegation of authority from a cabinet officer to a subordinate (although one would have thought those notification procedures were already be in place). The administration will learn from this experience and move on. Most of the people griping will move on too.
Zoom out, however, and the whole story is indicative of a systemic lack of transparency within the U.S. government. The Pentagon is the epitome of secrecy, a place where everything is slapped with a classification label based on the lamest national security justifications.
Secretary Austin's circumstances are a bit different since they involved a personal matter. U.S. defense officials weren't keeping information close to the vest because of sources of methods, but rather they thought Austin was entitled to privacy. Yet the secretary of defense is not an average American on the street going into the doctor's office. Whoever holds that important office is deep in the chain-of-command, makes operational decisions during a time of war, and is sixth in the line of presidential succession. Their salary is paid for by the American taxpayer, which means secretaries are in fact public figures who not only work for the president but also the American public. The notion that neither one of Austin's employers knew he was sick, let alone in emergency care, is borderline outrageous. The Pentagon leadership needs to get this through their heads: just because they have a gargantuan budget that gets even bigger every year and boast significant sway on Capitol Hill doesn't mean they run the country, or are beneath basic transparency requirements.
With this being said, it's also a bit rich for lawmakers in particular to be so outraged about the Pentagon's less-than-stellar disclosure practices. Theoretically, the outrage is justified. As the duly elected representatives of the American people, lawmakers have a constitutional right to oversight over the executive branch. Oversight is a key ingredient in the American Republic's separation of powers principle. Without it, Americans don't know what they're funding and how their government is acting. A government without oversight is like a village without police officers; over time, nefarious things can happen.
But practically speaking, lawmakers are more interested in carping from the sidelines when things go wrong than they are in preventing the bad things from happening in the first place. Some, frankly, are downright lazy and assume the executive branch is being as honest as it can be. This is naïve in general but downright foolish when it concerns the Defense Department, which has failed to pass an audit, often neglects to comply with congressional requests on a reasonable timeframe, and is reticent to give Congress details lest they be leaked to the press. To take one example: It took the ambush and killing of four U.S. troops in October 2017 for key senior lawmakers to learn that the U.S. military had a presence in Niger.
In truth, there are no winners in this strange story. Secretary Austin and the department he leads look overly secretive. The Biden administration looks like it doesn't know what it's key members are doing. And Congress looks impotent. The institutions of government have failed across the board.
Daniel R. DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a syndicated foreign affairs columnist at the Chicago Tribune.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Lloyd Austin's Strange Scandal
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11.01.2024
Scandals are a dime a dozen in Washington, D.C., and occur so frequently that some don't even make headlines anymore. But the kerfuffle over Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospital visit, where he failed to inform the White House of complications over prostate cancer surgery, is perhaps one of the more perplexing scandal in the modern era.
After receiving treatment in late December, Austin returned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center about a week later due to post-surgery complications. The defense secretary was transferred to the intensive care unit, where he was monitored by doctors and hospital staff for days. His colleagues and deputies, including his chief of staff, the chair of the Joint Chiefs and the Pentagon's chief spokesperson learned about Austin's hospital stay on the same day. But nobody in the building got around to informing the National Security Council or the White House staff about Austin's situation and whereabouts until days later. Congress, including senior lawmakers on the armed services committees, were in the dark as well. President Joe Biden didn't know about Austin's cancer diagnosis for weeks. In short, there was a massive failure of communication at the top level of government.
Austin was quick to take responsibility, owed up to his mistake, and promised to do better in the future. But that hasn't quelled the anger and intrigue. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens suggested the........
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