Biden has no plans to sack ailing Austin

US President Joe Biden does not plan to fire Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after his failure to disclose his hospitalization last week, officials said on Monday, as the Pentagon revealed a second hospital stay that was kept from the White House.

Biden’s administration attempted to quiet a political furor that has erupted following revelations over the past several days that Biden did not know his defense secretary was in the hospital for several days, although Austin’s role means that he is supposed to be available at a moment’s notice in the case of a national security emergency.

Some top Republicans, including Donald

Trump, called for Austin to be fired.

But the Pentagon said the retired fourstar general had no plans to resign and the White House said Biden was not seeking to remove him. Austin remains at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington DC, where he was taken by ambulance on New Year’s Day and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit for reasons that are unclear.

The Pentagon said that Austin was carrying on with business, even as he remains hospitalized. He had calls on Monday with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, General Erik Kurilla, who heads US troops in the Middle East, and other senior national security leaders.

Austin, who is 70, sits just below Biden at the top of the chain of command of the United States military, and his duties require him being available to respond to any national security crisis.

Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, disclosed that Austin had also been admitted to Walter Reed on December 22 for an overnight stay for a still-undisclosed elective medical procedure that required him to transfer certain authority to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks. Ryder said the White House also was not informed of it.

(Reuters)