Someone is likely to lose their job at the Pentagon over the shocking scandal involving Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's secret ICU hospitalization, but that person won't be the secretary.
Austin was hospitalized in the ICU at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last Monday with serious complications following an elective medical procedure before Christmas. The Pentagon has not released details about the procedure or the complications.
But instead of informing President Joe Biden, senior members of the government, Congress, the Pentagon press corps, or even Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks — who, while on vacation in Puerto Rico, assumed partial responsibility for Austin's duties while unaware that he was hospitalized — about the secretary's hospitalization, Austin's staff told everyone that Austin was working remotely.
The scandal has resulted in outrage over the shocking lack of transparency and what appears to be outright deception regarding the health of a senior member of the Cabinet.