The Telegraph: Biden facing pressure to dismiss Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin

The Telegraph confirmed on Monday that US President Joe Biden is under increasing pressure to dismiss Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, after US officials said that the US President was not informed for 4 days of Austin’s hospitalization.

This apparent lapse, according to the Telegraph, came as the war in Gaza and Ukraine continued, which led to increased pressure on the White House to take action, as Republicans called for the Secretary of Defense to be replaced.

In turn, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton said, “There must be consequences for this horrific collapse, if this report is correct”.

House Armed Services Member Jim Banks added that Austin “was a disaster from day one”.

“He should be replaced by someone who focuses on making the military ready to fight and win wars rather than advancing the political issues of the Biden administration,” Banks said.

The Secretary of Defense sits immediately after Biden at the head of the chain of command in the US Army, and his duties require that he be available at any moment to respond to any type of national security crisis.

The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Roger Wicker, accused the Pentagon of not immediately informing Congress of such matters, as required by law.

He added that the incident further eroded public confidence in the Biden administration, pointing to previous failures to quickly disclose information about national security incidents, including “the appearance of a Chinese reconnaissance balloon over the United States last year.

On the other hand, the Chinese side repeatedly confirmed that the entry of an unmanned Chinese civilian balloon into US airspace was an accident caused by force majeure and stressed that the allegations that the Chinese balloon was espionage and specialized in collecting intelligence data are an absolute slander.

Wicker said in a statement, “When one of the nation’s two national command authorities is unable to perform its duties, military families, members of Congress, and the American public deserve to know the full extent of the circumstances”.

The Associated Press previously reported that it wasn’t clear when the White House and other key US officials were informed of Austin’s presence at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Maryland.

The Associated Press believed that the Pentagon’s failure to announce Austin’s hospitalization, for several days, reflects an astonishing lack of transparency regarding his illness and the extent of its seriousness.

“This secrecy, at a time when the United States is suffering countless crises related to national security, contradicts usual practice with the President and other senior US officials and members of the government,” the Associated Press added.

The Associated Press noted that Austin’s hospitalization comes at a time when US military bases and sites in Syria and Iraq are being subjected to repeated attacks, and commercial shipments heading to Israel are being subjected to attacks by the Yemenis, and in light of the continued aggression against Gaza, and these issues require sensitive discussions and decisions; High-level engagement by Austin and other key military leaders.