It may be time for the Defense Secretary to go

[BlueNIndiana]

The idea that the President was not informed the Defense Secretary was hospitalized for several days needs to be investigate thoroughly.

Were along the chain did this break down happen?

Unless the Defense Secretary was incapacitate during that time he has some very serious questions that need to be answered.

[brush]

1. Start with the Deputy Sec'y/DOD failure to notify the president.

Makes one wonder if a death was hoped for, then an ascension.

[RockRaven]

2. Sounds like you have it backwards...

"Unless the Defense Secretary was incapacitate (sic) during that time he has some very serious questions that need to be answered."

If the SecDef was incapacitated, he would not have been the party responsible for notifying POTUS of that particular fact. For painfully obvious reasons. Being incapacitated is exactly the circumstance in which he wouldn't be the person needing to answer for any such non-notification.

[Freethinker65]

3. One assumes the elective procedure was a low risk routine operation under local anesthesia, and something went wrong.

Once incapacitated (the guy ended up in the ICU) everyone up the chain should have been informed. Someone needs to be fired.

[elleng]

4. ' following complications from an elective procedure, '

'Mr. Austin is notoriously private and has kept a low profile during his time as defense secretary. It has been more than a year since he appeared at the lectern in the Pentagon briefing room to address members of the news media, and he has been known to sometimes avoid reporters who travel with him overseas.

On those trips, he prefers to dine alone in his hotel room when he does not have an engagement with a foreign counterpart.

In his statement Saturday, Mr. Austin said, “I am very glad to be on the mend and look forward to returning to the Pentagon soon.”'

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/06/us/politics/lloyd-austin-hospitalization.html#:~:text=It%20took%20the%20Pentagon%20three,two%20U.S.%20officials%20said%20Saturday.

[Tetrachloride]

5. too early to judge

[marble falls]

6. I don't think for a moment this happened in a vacuum. I don't think for a moment this was not in ...

... in the Presidents morning briefings. I don't think for a moment those who needed to know didn't know.

[former9thward]

7. People did not know.

The National Security Advisor did not know of the hospitalization until Thursday, and he informed Biden on Thursday. Those who needed to know did not know.

[RandomNumbers]

9. Then why is the press being fed that Biden wasn't informed?

Are you claiming it was in the PDB but Biden didn't read it and no-one ensured that he knew?

That doesn't make sense.

And all the news outlets are going with Biden not being informed. Meaning not in the PDB.

[Demovictory9]

8. Weird story