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The Pentagon’s internal watchdog announced Thursday that it will investigate the circumstances surrounding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s secretive prostate cancer surgery and a subsequent lengthy hospital stay and will examine whether the secretary’s office has effective procedures in place for the “transition of authorities” when such an emergency arises.
The formal review marks a significant step in the growing scandal around Mr. Austin’s handling of the matter. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are now calling for the secretary to step down.
The Defense Department inspector general’s investigation is separate from the internal White House review, which Biden administration officials announced earlier this week.
Congressional Republicans cheered the news of a watchdog review and stressed that significant questions with national security implications must be answered. They questioned why Mr. Austin and his staff initially framed his Dec. 22 surgery as a minor “elective procedure” when, in fact, he underwent a prostatectomy, a surgery to remove all or part of the prostate gland.
“When a secretary of defense … has surgery to remove cancer from his prostate, that is not a minor elective procedure, and it’s misleading for the department to have ever suggested that,” Sen. Roger F. Wicker, Mississippi Republican and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a press conference Thursday.
“When the secretary of defense is in so much pain that he must be removed from his residence by an ambulance, taken to a hospital and put in the intensive care unit, that is not a minor occurrence,” Mr. Wicker said. “It is an occurrence of such magnitude and importance and seriousness that certainly key members of the department, including his own deputy, should be notified.”
Mr. Austin has admitted a lack of transparency around the medical ordeal, which seems to have led to a major breakdown in communication inside the administration and sparked uncertainty about who was in charge at the Defense Department.
In its letter to Mr. Austin and other top Pentagon officials on Thursday, the Defense Department’s inspector general said the objective of the review “is to examine the roles, processes, procedures, responsibilities and actions related to the secretary of defense’s hospitalization in December 2023-January 2024, and assess whether the DoD’s policies and procedures are sufficient to ensure timely and appropriate notifications and the effective transition of authorities as may be warranted due to health-based or other unavailability of senior leadership.”
Mr. Austin, 70, was rushed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Jan. 1 after experiencing abdominal pain. In an attempt to keep his prostatectomy quiet, he did not notify his senior Pentagon staff, the Pentagon press corps or the White House for several days. His decision sparked a full-blown national security crisis and calls from lawmakers on Capitol Hill for investigations and even his impeachment.
Republicans are furious with Mr. Austin, particularly after revelations that Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, the effective acting secretary of defense for two days last week, didn’t know that Mr. Austin was in the intensive care unit. On Jan. 2, Ms. Hicks was on vacation in Puerto Rico when she received an email notification that “certain authorities of the secretary of defense” were transferred to her. She was not notified about Mr. Austin’s hospitalization until Jan. 4 — two days later.
Some Democrats say the issue is severe enough to warrant Mr. Austin’s resignation.
“I have lost trust in Secretary Lloyd Austin’s leadership of the Defense Department due to the lack of transparency about his recent medical treatment and its impact on the continuity of the chain of command,” Rep. Christopher Deluzio, Pennsylvania Democrat and member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Wednesday night. “I have a solemn duty in Congress to conduct oversight of the Defense Department through my service on the House Armed Services Committee. That duty today requires me to call on Secretary Austin to resign.”
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, announced an independent investigation into the Pentagon’s handling of the incident.
“With wars in Ukraine and Israel, the idea that the White House and even your own deputy did not understand the nature of your condition is patently unacceptable,” Mr. Rogers wrote this week in a letter to Mr. Austin. “Everything from ongoing counterterrorism operations to nuclear command and control relies on a clear understanding of the secretary’s decision-making capacity.”
So far, Mr. Austin has not offered to resign. The White House has faulted the Pentagon’s handling of the matter but said President Biden still has full confidence in the retired Army general.
Mr. Austin was briefed Wednesday by other top military officials and can monitor the day-to-day operations of the Defense Department from his hospital bed, defense officials said.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Thursday that the Defense Department welcomes the inspector general review and will fully cooperate with the investigation. He insisted that national security was not compromised at any point over the past several weeks, even when Mr. Austin was in surgery or the intensive care unit.
“At no time was there a gap in command and control for the Department of Defense,” he said. “At all times, national security was in good hands.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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