Protection Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III appeared on the lectern of the Pentagon briefing room on Thursday to take questions from reporters for the primary time in additional than a yr, starting what is anticipated to be a protracted interval of explaining why he stored the general public, and the president, in the dead of night for weeks about his prostate most cancers and surgical procedure.
“We didn’t deal with this proper; I didn’t deal with this proper,” Mr. Austin mentioned. “I ought to have instructed the president about my most cancers analysis. I ought to have additionally instructed my crew and the American public, and I take full accountability.”
Mr. Austin additionally mentioned that he by no means instructed his workers to not inform the White Home about his hospitalization.
The protection secretary, lengthy referred to as an excessive introvert who loathes speaking about himself in public, sought to elucidate why he stored quiet about an sickness that he described as a “intestine punch.”
Mr. Austin mentioned his first intuition was to not say something. He mentioned docs instructed him that he had a slim window to get his surgical procedure, and he determined to have it simply earlier than Christmas, considering that was a time when he was anticipated to be away from work. Mr. Austin mentioned that he thought President Biden had sufficient to fret about with out having to be involved in regards to the private issues of his protection secretary.
“If you’re president of the USA, you’ve bought a number of issues in your plate,” he mentioned. “I simply didn’t really feel that that was a factor that I ought to do on the time. However once more, I acknowledge that that was a mistake.”
Mr. Austin was transported to the information convention room in a golf cart 45 minutes earlier than the scheduled begin of the convention and walked slowly, utilizing a cane, to a inexperienced room to organize along with his aides. He didn’t have a cane when he walked to the lectern.
The protection secretary was extensively criticized for failing to instantly disclose his sickness and absence to the White Home, a breach of protocol that baffled officers throughout the federal government, together with on the Pentagon.
The Home Armed Providers Committee has requested Mr. Austin to testify this month about why he and his aides stored his sickness secret. The committee’s chairman, Consultant Mike D. Rogers, Republican of Alabama, mentioned that “Congress should perceive what occurred and who made selections to forestall the disclosure of the whereabouts of a cupboard secretary.”
Mr. Austin, 70, has lengthy been referred to as an intensely personal man who eschews the limelight and dislikes speaking to the information media — qualities that Mr. Biden was high-quality with, his aides mentioned, when he appointed the 40-year Military officer to be his protection secretary.
However in holding his hospitalization secret, Mr. Austin attracted extra consideration to himself than at any level in his lengthy profession. He additionally drew criticism of Mr. Biden’s nationwide safety crew throughout a interval of a number of crises around the globe, together with wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
