Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was admitted to a hospital Monday night after suffering complications related to a recent elective medical procedure, the Pentagon announced Friday.
“He is recovering well and expects to resume full duties today,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.
“At all times, the Undersecretary of Defense was prepared to act and exercise the powers of the Secretary, if necessary,” he added.
Ryder did not say when Austin, 70, would be discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and said several elements were at play in deciding when to tell the media about the defense secretary’s hospitalization.
“This has been an evolving situation in which we have had to consider a number of factors, including medical and personal privacy issues,” Ryder told reporters.
The Pentagon Press Association criticized the decision to keep the public in the dark about Austin’s hospitalization.
Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since Monday, an Air Force general said. ZUMAPRESS.com
“The fact that he has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for four days and that the Pentagon is only now alerting the public late on a Friday night is a scandal.” the group said in a letter Ryder and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Chris Meagher.
“It falls far below the normal disclosure standards used by other federal departments when senior officials undergo medical procedures or become temporarily incapacitated,” the letter continues.
Austin is a retired four-star Army general who served 41 years in the Army.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn