Everyone’s blameless says the Pentagon after spending 30 days looking into the reasons why Lloyd Austin nor any of his staff informed ANYONE that he had prostate cancer or was in the ICU for several days.

Keep in mind, this is the Secretary of Defense. A major cabinet position. Yet, the Pentagon review (of which we only get the 3-page summary) finds that there was no “ill intent” in keeping Lloyd Austin’s major medical issue very very quiet. 

“[W]hen you look at the review it highlighted that there was no findings of ill will or ill intent or obfuscation, but that people, public servants, dedicated public servants, were doing what they thought was the right thing in order to continue to carry out the DoD national security mission,” Ryder said.

Austin was hospitalized on January 1 for complications related to a prostate cancer surgical procedure he had on December 22, including severe abdominal, hip and leg pain. Multiple days passed, however, before other US officials knew of Austin’s condition.

The White House was not informed of his December 22 procedure, nor was the White House told of Austin’s hospitalization until several days afterwards.

Despite transferring some responsibilities to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, on January 2 — the day Austin went into intensive care — CNN reported that Hicks was not informed of her boss’s health condition until January 4, when the White House was also told. Congress and the public were not informed of Austin’s hospitalization until January 5, drawing significant criticism from lawmakers over Austin’s failure to disclose the situation.

Lloyd Austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer. That’s not a minor medical issue no matter which way you look at it. Yet no one, other than evidently, Austin’s direct staff even knew he was going in for a procedure on December 22. The White House wasn’t fully informed of his cancer diagnosis until around January 10th!

There are so many things wrong with the Pentagon’s findings. Chiefly that Austin’s staff are being thrown under the bus. 

The Secretary’s staff was limited in three significant ways. First, medical privacy laws prohibited medical providers from candid sharing of medical information with the Secretary’s staff. Second, for privacy reasons, his staff were hesitant to pry or share any information that they did learn. Third, the Secretary’s medical situation remained in flux and as long as he remained in the Critical Care Unit, timely secured communications could not be assured. Although, as hindsight has shown, the process for making decisions to transfer the Secretary’s authority could and should be improved, as further explained in the recommendations approved by the Secretary, nothing examined during this review demonstrated any indication of ill intent or an attempt to obfuscate.

Oh, so being super diligent in protecting his privacy is the reason why the Pentagon is giving Austin and his staff a mere finger-wag ‘don’t do this again’ face?

We simply can’t know who’s to blame for Lloyd Austin lying to Lloyd Austin’s boss about what Lloyd Austin was doing https://t.co/BbEM7KUUyR

— Sunny (@sunnyright) February 26, 2024

Austin himself is claiming the secrecy over this isn’t a big deal. 

Except that NO ONE was told that 

A. Austin had been diagnosed with prostate cancer

B. That he was going to have surgery on December 22nd

C. That there were resulting complications

D. He was taken by ambulance with no lights or sirens per HIS request

E. Even the acting Secretary of Defense, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks wasn’t told WHY she had to take over, only that she needed to. 

During this period, the Deputy Secretary was on leave in Puerto Rico, traveling with a support
staff and with timely access to all necessary communications equipment. Although Deputy
Secretary Hicks, when informed of the “transfer of authority” to her, was not notified of Secretary Austin’s hospitalization, she was at all times positioned to perform all the functions and duties of the Secretary.

Read that again. Hicks was told she needed to take over for Austin, but wasn’t told the reasons why. This is at the time when Iran is flexing it’s muscles, Ukraine and Russia are in the middle of a war, China is a threat, Houthis are blocking the Red Sea, Israel is going after Hamas, and more. Yet she wasn’t told why it was necessary for her to step in as Acting Secretary of Defense. 

Meanwhile, Austin continues to tap-dance and claim it wasn’t his intent to create a culture of secrecy. Remember, everything pointed to the Biden Administration sweeping this under the rug. Except the Biden Administration was actually kept in the dark. The Joint Chiefs, National Security Advisors, Biden himself, State Department, ….EVERYONE was blindsided by this. 

A 30+ Army vet, who himself achieved the highest peacetime rank you can hold, pretending that dereliction of duty is okay because he didn’t have ill intent, according to him. Egregious and he should have lost his job.

— Steve R. (@steverosen1235) February 26, 2024

However, according to the findings, the Pentagon is now telling us no one is to blame for covering up his ICU stay.

The Pentagon press secretary discusses an internal review of communications following Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's secret hospitalization, saying they found no "ill intent."@LMartinezABC has more. pic.twitter.com/Hv0PXrPeqh

— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) February 26, 2024

Except it was and is a very very big deal.

Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, was completely incapacitated and unable to perform his duties. Any other soldier would be immediately removed for cause over this. Austin, who will be testifying on Thursday over this mess, should be fired for keeping this major medical issue a secret from everyone. But he won’t be, because that’s how the Biden Administration rolls. 

Feature Photo Credit: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, official 2023 portrait by Chad J. McNeeley for the U.S. Department of Defense, public domain