Lloyd Austin’s secret hospital stay went unnoticed for days
FILE PHOTO © Win McNamee / Getty Images
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since the start of the year, with his deputy handling “routine business,” Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder revealed on Friday.
Austin was admitted to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Monday, for what Ryder described as “complications following a recent elective medical procedure.” The 70-year-old retired general is “recovering well and is expecting to resume his full duties today,” Ryder added.
The Pentagon would not disclose the sort of “elective procedure” that Austin had undergone, or what the complications might have been. Ryder told the MIlitary Times that the decision to keep Austin’s hospital stay secret was made “taking privacy into account” and due to the “evolving situation.”
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks was “prepared to act for and exercise the powers of the secretary, if required” and has in fact “conducted some routine business for the department on his behalf,” Ryder told reporters.
