Report: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to remain in job, despite hospitalization controversy

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is not at risk of firing by President Joe Biden, despite effectively going AWOL while hospitalized without anyone informing the president or the White House.

Austin was scheduled for surgery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on New Year's Day, and complications led to him spending several days in intensive care.

The problem is that Austin failed to notify anyone in the upper echelons of the administration about his surgery, and the White House was kept in the dark about the complications, which kept him in the hospital far longer than initially expected.

Austin is second from the top of the chain of command in the US military, and his five-day absence is inexcusable, as he is required to be available at a moment's notice.

The Pentagon has been tight-lipped with information, saying that officials were required to keep confidentiality on the matter because of "medical and personal privacy issues."

However, Austin's decision to hide things from the White House, which in turn tried to hide the crisis from the public, is a serious issue. This is a massive scandal, and the Biden administration needs to be held accountable for this dysfunction and lack of transparency.