Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was admitted to a hospital Monday night after suffering from complications related to a recent elective medical procedure, the Pentagon announced Friday.
“He is recovering well and is expecting to resume his full duties today,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s spokesman, said in a statement.
“At all times, the Deputy Secretary of Defense was prepared to act for and exercise the powers of the Secretary, if required,” 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 when deciding when to tell the media about the defense secretary’s hospitalization.
“This has been an evolving situation in which we had to consider a number of factors including medical and personal privacy issues,” Ryder told reporters.
The Pentagon Press Association slammed the decision to keep the public in the dark about Austin’s hospitalization.
“The fact that he has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for four days and the Pentagon is only now alerting the public late on a Friday evening is an outrage,” the group said in a letter to Ryder and Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Chris Meagher.
“It falls far below the normal disclosure standards that are customary by other federal departments when senior officials undergo medical procedures or are temporarily incapacitated,” the letter continued.
Austin is a retired four-star Army general who served 41 years in the military.
