Lloyd Austin will today face tough questions in Congress over his decision to keep his prostate cancer surgery and subsequent hospital stay secret.
The US defence secretary had not told Joe Biden or even his deputy at the Pentagon.
Mr Austin has previously apologised over the matter, including to the president himself, but he’ll be directly questioned by the Republican-led House of Representatives at 10am (3pm UK time) today.
It is expected to be one of the most contentious and personal questionings Mr Austin has faced in his career.
“It’s totally unacceptable that it took days to inform the president that the secretary of defence was in the hospital and not in control of the Pentagon,” Representative Mike Rogers, the committee’s chairman, will say at the hearing, according to prepared remarks.
“Wars were raging in Ukraine and Israel, our ships were under fire in the Red Sea, and our bases were bracing for attack in Iraq and Syria. But the commander in chief did not know that his secretary of defence was out of action.”
