The Pentagon’s announcement late Friday that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been in the hospital since New Year’s Day shocked both the Pentagon press corps and the national security establishment. Three days on, many questions remain, including what’s wrong with Austin and when he’ll leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.
But CNN’s reporting and further disclosures from the Pentagon have begun to shed some light on the still murky circumstances around his hospitalization — and why it took so long to inform other senior officials.
Austin went into the hospital for an elective procedure on December 22 when he was on leave, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said over the weekend. He went home the following day, and “continued to work from home through the holidays.” In response to a question from CNN on Monday, Ryder said the Pentagon did not inform the White House that Austin was having the procedure.
On January 1, Austin began experiencing “severe pain” and was transported from his home to Walter Reed by an ambulance, Ryder said, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit.
“He was conscious, but in quite a bit of pain,” Ryder said. He underwent “tests and evaluations” at the hospital that evening and on January 2, and delegated some authorities to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks “on the basis of medical advice.” The same day, Austin’s chief of staff Kelly Magsamen, senior military assistant Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown were notified of Austin’s hospitalization.
Ryder was unable to provide details as to whether Austin was unconscious at any time between his arrival at Walter Reed on January 1 and his delegation of authorities to Hicks. But he emphasized that at “no time was national security in jeopardy,” and that…
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