Lloyd Austin kept his diagnosis from the commander-in-chief. Biden has to answer this question

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had already been in the hospital for three days when he finally broke the news to President Joe Biden. Even then, he withheld a key piece of information: He has prostate cancer.

Biden spoke to Austin last weekend but didn’t learn about the cancer diagnosis until Tuesday, just before the Pentagon made the information public, according to the White House.

Austin’s decision to keep his commander-in-chief in the dark is a stunning breach of protocol that has put the White House on the defensive and raised questions about Biden’s communications with the Defense Department.

“The last thing you want to do is blindside the most important person in the country, the president,” said Leon Panetta, who has served as both the Defense secretary and White House chief of staff in Democratic administrations. “It’s embarrassing.”

Panetta said in an interview with USA TODAY that Austin’s desire to keep his prostate cancer diagnosis private was understandable but incompatible with his position as Pentagon chief. By failing to promptly inform the White House that he had been hospitalized and transferred his authority to his deputy, Austin took “a hell of a risk” with national security, Panetta said.

“If you’re not informing the president and Congress in the area of national security, where a crisis is almost an everyday challenge, there’s a possibility that something is not responded to or somebody overresponds to a crisis,” Panetta said. “That’s a serious risk. That goes to the very heart of the responsibility of Secretary of defense, the national security adviser and the president of the United States.”

The White House, facing a torrent of questions about Austin’s actions, is standing by the defense secretary but has launched a review of the notification procedures that Cabinet secretaries must follow if they're unable to perform their duties.

“It is not optimal for a situation like this to go as long as it did without the commander-in-chief knowing about it or the national security adviser knowing about it, or frankly other leaders at the Department of Defense," said White House spokesman John Kirby, choosing his words carefully.

“It’s not the way this is supposed to happen,” Kirby said. “The president understands that.”

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The Pentagon is conducting a review over the next 30 days on "the notification process for assumption of functions and duties" for the secretary of defense.

Tuesday's announcement that Austin had been diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer ended a bizarre period of several days in which the Pentagon dribbled out increasingly alarming news about Austin’s condition. He remains hospitalized and is recovering from an infection after having surgery on his prostate Dec. 22.

The first public notice of his hospitalization occurred late Friday afternoon, as people’s attention turned to the weekend, a time often used by officials to reveal troubling information known as the “Friday news dump.” The Pentagon news release was terse and noted that Austin had been hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center since Jan. 1. Nothing about his illness or condition was noted.

In subsequent days, officials, most of them speaking anonymously, revealed that Austin had spent days in the intensive care unit. They also noted that he and his staff failed to notify the White House for three days about his hospitalization and that he had delegated his authority to Kathleen Hicks, his deputy secretary. Likewise, senior Pentagon officials, Congress and the public were kept in the dark.

The White House, meanwhile, has been forced to address an obvious question: In the five days since Austin's initial disclosure, did Biden, the White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients or National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan ask Austin what sent him to the hospital?

Pressed for an answer, Kirby told reporters Wednesday, “Once we found out that he was in the hospital, we certainly asked all of the questions you would think we would ask to try to ascertain his condition and what drove him into the hospital. Of course we were curious about that. He’s a key member of the administration.”

Austin remains hospitalized at Walter Reed and is in good condition, according to a statement Wednesday afternoon from Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.  Austin is in contact with his senior staff, has access to secure communications and continues to monitor the Pentagon's day-to-day operations worldwide, Ryder said.

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Austin's hospitalization comes as Middle East in crisis

Austin’s failure to promptly disclose his hospitalization comes at a particularly perilous time in international relations.

Israel and Hamas are at war in the Middle East. The U.S. and its allies have warned Iran-backed Houthi rebels to cease their attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea. And the Biden administration is pushing Congress to approve a military aid package for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

To keep the nation secure, it’s vital for the White House to know the whereabouts and condition of cabinet secretaries, none more so than the Defense secretary, Panetta said. That’s why he demanded as President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff to know where the Defense secretary was at all times, and the reason, as President Barak Obama’s Defense secretary, that he kept the White House informed of his movements.

“It’s the toughest job, and you always think about the worst consequences could be,” Panetta said. “To have three days go by and not having informed president or the national security adviser…It’s kind of hard for me to believe that somebody didn’t send an email.”

“From my point of view,” Panetta said, “the Secretary of Defense has to be particularly transparent. It’s such a key job in chain of command. In this case, somebody had to make clear that a call needed to be made to the chief of staff or national security adviser.”

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Even as the administration continues to field a fury of questions, Austin has said he plans to remain in his job, and the White House continues to say Biden fully supports him.

Still, the breakdown in the chain of command has fueled bipartisan criticism and a barrage of attacks from Republicans on the competence of the White House.

"It is mindboggling that the commander-in-chief was not aware of the location or operational competence of the Secretary of Defense," Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote in a letter to Hicks, the deputy Defense Secretary.

Rogers said he has opened a formal inquiry into Austin's failure to disclose his hospitalization and incapacitation.

“Everything from on-going counterterrorism operations to nuclear command and control relies on a clear understanding of the Secretary’s decision-making capacity," Rogers wrote in a separate letter to Austin. "The department is a robust institution, and it is designed to function under attack by our enemies, but it is not designed for a Secretary who conceals being incapacitated.”

Austin’s actions have renewed calls by some Republicans in Congress for his removal from office. Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said he planned to file an impeachment resolution against Austin, who was already facing impeachment articles that accused him of ignoring intelligence and overseeing the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2021. That impeachment effort, by Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., has failed to gain traction.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, said "this lack of disclosure must never happen again," demanding "transparency and accountability from the department."

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner in this year’s presidential contest, called for Austin to be "fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty." Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, argued "Biden should be fired.”

"This is unbelievable that we have a situation like this," Haley said during a Monday Fox News town hall in Iowa. "When I had a crisis in South Carolina 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."

While the Biden administration has had to deal with personnel issues, none of them have risen to this level.

Just weeks after Biden took office, White House deputy press secretary T.J. Ducklo resigned for making a sexist and profane threat to a journalist covering his relationship with another reporter. Sam Brinton, a deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Energy, left the administration in 2022 after being accused of stealing a suitcase from the baggage claim at the Las Vegas airport.

In Washington, it’s futile to keep almost anything secret, much less the Defense secretary’s serious illness, Panetta said.

“I just think the lesson that’s hard to learn in Washington is that ultimately the truth will come out,” Panetta said. “You’re better off saying what the truth is at the beginning. Not only does it mean it won’t be a story, it also means on almost everything else you have to deal with, there will be trust.”

Tom Vanden Brook covers the Pentagon. Joey Garrison and Michael Collins cover the White House.

Follow Vanden Brook on X, formerly Twitter, @tvandenbrook. Reach Garrison on X @joeygarrison and Collins @mcollinsNEWS.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lloyd Austin's prostate cancer scandal raises questions