The Pentagon announced Monday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was finally released from the hospital after being admitted on New Year’s Day following complications from an earlier surgery on December 22 to treat prostate cancer and will work from home for “a period of time.”
“The Secretary continues to recover well and, on the advice of doctors, will recuperate and perform his duties remotely for a period of time before returning full-time to the Pentagon. He has full access to required secure communications capabilities,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
The Pentagon added Austin is expected to make a full recovery.
Austin released a statement thanking doctors for the “excellent care” he received and said he was eager to return to the Pentagon “as quickly as possible.”
I’m grateful for the excellent care I received at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and want to thank the outstanding doctors and nursing staff for their professionalism and superb support. I am also thankful and appreciative of the well wishes I received for a speedy recovery.
Now, as I continue to recuperate and perform my duties from home, I’m eager to recover and return as quickly as possible to the Pentagon.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Austin never bothered to inform Joe Biden or White House staff, Congress, or even Pentagon officials regarding his hospitalization or condition.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, who was on leave and vacationing in Puerto Rico, had to take over Lloyd Austin’s duties. She was informed of Austin’s hospitalization on January 4th, as the U.S. military was conducting a strike in Iraq.
Hicks then relayed the information to the White House. Congress was subsequently informed a day later, just minutes before the media, as the National Pulse noted.
The Pentagon ran interference for Austin instead of penalizing his shocking dereliction of duty. President Trump pointed out that terminating Austin is the only acceptable option.
Kash Patel explained in an exclusive piece for TGP how Austin’s actions destroyed the National Command Authority:
Any SECDEF who is absent in his duties and fails to notify the chain of command has committed one of the most egregious acts against the national defense of this nation.
SECDEF Austin, tragically, did just that. For four entire days, he was in a hospital and never informed the national command authority of his incapacitation. No one is saying the SECDEF can’t be out due to illness or even take a vacation, but there is a reason our command authority must be maintained: the Department of Defense never takes a knee. By intentionally breaking the national command authority and failing to inform the commander-in-chief, President Biden had no idea his SECDEF was even laid up. Worse, the deputy secretary of defense has since admitted she was not even made aware of her boss’s hospitalization until days later- thus, there can be no claim of lawful delegation (putting aside the fact that not all authorities can lawfully be so delegated).
The impact: What order does one take from whom, which is valid, and most importantly, how can there be any confidence it derives from a sound national command authority? Without such, there is no chain of command, and our military remains rudderless.
This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
