Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks throughout a joint press convention with Israel’s protection minister in Tel Aviv on Dec. 18.

Alberto Pizzoli/AFP by way of Getty Images

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Alberto Pizzoli/AFP by way of Getty Images

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks throughout a joint press convention with Israel’s protection minister in Tel Aviv on Dec. 18.

Alberto Pizzoli/AFP by way of Getty Images

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized beginning on Monday for issues from elective surgical procedure.

He stays hospitalized as of Saturday night at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the Pentagon stated.

Pentagon officers didn’t make a public announcement about Austin’s hospitalization till Friday. The secrecy is in distinction to the standard follow among the many president and Cabinet members, who will typically present discover of when they’re stepping away from their official duties.

Austin stated in a press release launched Saturday night: “I am very glad to be on the mend and look forward to returning to the Pentagon soon. I also understand the media concerns about transparency and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better. But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.”

The Pentagon and Austin haven’t specified the character of his medical process.

The protection secretary resumed his full duties on Friday. In the intervening days, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks “was prepared to act for and exercise the powers of the Secretary, if required,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder stated in a press release on Friday.

NPR has confirmed that the Pentagon didn’t inform the White House about Austin’s hospitalization till Thursday, which was first reported by Politico.

The board of administrators of the Pentagon Press Association, a bunch that represents journalists overlaying the army, stated in a letter to Pentagon public affairs leaders that the delay in informing the general public was an “outrage.”

“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 group’s board said.

One Capitol Hill supply instructed NPR that lawmakers acquired phrase of Austin’s hospitalization only a half hour earlier than the Pentagon’s press launch on Friday.

“We still haven’t been told specifics or anything more than what you saw [the Pentagon] say,” stated the supply, who was not approved to talk publicly.

Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated in a press release that the lack of awareness was “unacceptable.”

“When one of the country’s two National Command Authorities [the president and secretary of defense] is unable to perform their duties, military families, Members of Congress, and the American public deserve to know the full extent of the circumstances,” he stated in a press release.

NPR’s Tom Bowman contributed reporting.