Pence blasts Lloyd Austin for not disclosing hospitalization to White House: ‘Dereliction of duty’

Former Vice President Mike Pence has joined a chorus of Republicans who have criticized Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for a multiday delay in notifying President Joe Biden that he was hospitalized.

Austin was admitted to the hospital on New Year’s Day due to complications from an elective surgery, though Biden was not informed that the Pentagon head was hospitalized until Jan. 4, prompting Pence to join others who’ve declared the lack of transparency is “totally unacceptable.”

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“I believe the American people have the right to know about his medical condition, about the reasons for it,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union, characterizing Austin’s actions as a “dereliction of duty.”

“To think that at a time when we have allies at war in Eastern Europe and here in Israel, that the leader of America’s military at the Pentagon would be out of commission for a number of days, and the president of the United States didn’t know about it,” Pence said. “I think it was a dereliction of duty, and the secretary and the administration frankly need to step forward and give the American people the facts.”

Although the 70-year-old defense secretary said Sunday he was “on the mend” while recovering in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he nor the Pentagon have offered any details about why he was in the hospital, and no details have been disclosed about the medical procedure.

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Pence’s remarks come as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, the Pentagon’s second-in-command, was also left in the dark about Austin’s whereabouts until Jan. 4, according to CNN.

Austin released a statement saying he “could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better,” but offered no clear apology for failing to notify the press or public in a timely manner.