U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wants Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to explain why top officials were not told he was hospitalized until three days later.
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin needs to explain why the White House and senior officials weren’t immediately notified that he’d been hospitalized earlier this week until days later, amid a complex time as the Biden administration deals with a slew of national security matters abroad.
Austin was admitted to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday for complications following a recent elective medical procedure, » Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday, at which time the press was told.
Ryder said that the hospitalization was kept from the media due to « medical and personal privacy issues. » However, staffers with the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, congressional leaders, and the White House weren’t immediately told, either, officials confirmed to Fox News.
« 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, » Cotton said in a statement released Saturday. « 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.
