Democrats on Thursday during a congressional hearing with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin defended his failure to inform President Joe Biden that he was in the hospital for three full days amid two wars and American troops being under attack in Iraq and Syria.
After House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) called Austin’s failure an “embarrassment,” the top Democrat on the committee leapt to his defense.
“There was nothing embarrassing about what happened here. There was nothing that makes us appear weak,” Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) responded.
Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state, Photographer: Rich Clement/Bloomberg via Getty Images *** Local Caption Adam Smith ***
Similarly, other Democrats on the committee either defended Austin or argued that there were more important things to discuss than whether Austin’s failure to inform Biden led to a breakdown in the chain of command.
Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) said that it was “wrong” to take Austin to task instead of passing a bill to fund Ukraine.
John Garamendi
“We’re spending our time here taking you to task. That’s wrong. We’re failing. Let me put it this way — the leadership in this House is failing. We have a supplemental appropriation absolutely necessary for the defense of Ukraine. That has been languishing for months,” Garamendi said to Austin.
Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) told Austin that he was “satisfied” with how Austin has addressed the matter:
While the situation could have been handled better, hindsight is 20/20. You have taken accountability, apologized and work to make recommendations to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again. As far as I’m concerned, as a veteran myself, there’s nothing else to be said on this matter. I’m satisfied with how you’ve addressed mistakes made.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) — a former Pentagon official under the Obama administration — thanked Austin for “puttting up with the outrage and drama.” She said:
UNITED STATES – DECEMBER 17: Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., talks to reporters after a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus in the Capitol on Tuesday Dec. 17, 2019. (Photo by Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
I would just say, ‘Look, you made a mistake. You admitted it. You’re taking steps to address it.’ And you want to know what accountability is accountability is having to come and sit in front of people and their outrage and their drama in public about your health issues and the mistakes you’ve admitted you made.
This committee has always been a a real calm in the storm when it comes to bipartisanship. So I would ask that when we come back together in a month and have a hearing with the Secretary, we focus it on the things that are actually important to national security. Instead of denying this man the apology that he’s made, the mea culpa that he’s made and get on to the business of the American people.
During the hearing, Austin denied that there was any break in the chain of command from the president to the military, but conceded that his military aides made the decision to transfer his authorities to the deputy secretary of defense after he entered critical care on January 2 because he did not have a cell phone after January 1 and reaching him would be difficult.
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