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Report: Biden Admin Demands Cabinet Members Review Delegation Protocols After Austin Hospitalization

Report: Biden Admin Demands Cabinet Members Review Delegation Protocols After Austin Hospitalization

Austin underwent surgery to treat prostate cancer in December. He has been at Walter Reed since January 1, recovering from complications from the surgery.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s secret hospitalization and surgery has put the White House under immense pressure since no one outside his inner circle knew anything.

Fox News reported on a memo it obtained from the White House, telling Cabinet Members they need to review their agency’s protocols if they cannot fulfill their duties.

“The White House is conducting a review of agency protocols for a delegation of authority from Cabinet Members,” wrote White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients. “The purpose of this memo is to direct your agencies to submit your existing protocols for a delegation of authority to the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs, and to ensure an updated process for such delegations in the interim. The Office of Cabinet Affairs will convey these protocols to the White House Chief of Staff.”

First and foremost, the agency has to contact and tell “the Offices of Cabinet Affairs and White House Chief of Staff in the event of a delegation of authority or potential delegation.”

The Cabinet Members have until January 12 to submit their delegation of authority plans to the White House.

We learned today that doctors treated Lloyd for prostate cancer.

On December 22, Austin had a “minimally invasive surgery” for the cancer.

That does not sound like elective surgery, which the Pentagon told us he had.

He returned home the next day.

But on January 1, Austin returned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center due to complications from the surgery.

The doctors said Austin had “nausea with severe abdominal, hip, and leg pain.” The first exam concluded he had a urinary tract infection.

The doctors admitted Austin to the ICU on January 2. Another exam “revealed abdominal fluid collections impairing the function of his small intestines.”

“This resulted in the back up of his intestinal contents which was treated by placing a tube through his nose to drain his stomach,” the doctors described. “The abdominal fluid collections were drained by non-surgical drain placement.”

The doctors stressed that Austin “never lost consciousness and never underwent general anesthesia” while at Walter Reed.

“He continues to make progress and we anticipate a full recovery although this can be a slow process,” the doctors added.

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Comments

Mr. Austin has my sympathy, and I wish for him to make a speedy recovery. However, with this breach of protocol and failure to live up to their responsibilities to the country and the citizens, he and/or his staff need to go.

Elective surgery means the surgery can be scheduled, in contrast to urgent or emergency surgery.

The prostate surgery described is elective surgery.

Quoting hopkinsmedicine.org, or find same information all over: “An elective surgery does not always mean it is optional. It simply means that the surgery can be scheduled in advance. It may be a surgery you choose to have for a better quality of life, but not for a life-threatening condition. But in some cases it may be for a serious condition such as cancer. Examples of elective surgery include removing a mole or wart, and having kidney stones removed. It may also be done if other forms of treatment are not working.”

When I was in the Army, I was just an NCO. An Abrams crewman. Had I not informed my immediate chain of command about even a minor medical issue and then not show up to formation, I’d no longer be an NCO, and I’d probably no longer be an M1 tanker as well.

    Olinser in reply to SField. | January 9, 2024 at 6:09 pm

    I was just a junior officer, and if I didn’t inform my command about being in the hospital and lied about ‘working from home’, I would have been in the brig.

UnCivilServant | January 9, 2024 at 5:20 pm

I thought the cabinet members delegated any theoretical authority they had on the day they are sworn in and are just there to fill photo ops.

About 80% of men who reach age 80 have cancer cells in their prostate. It is very common and very slow growing cancer. Treatment continues to improve longevity. Men with prostate cancer often die from something else.

But he needs to retire for health reasons. With wars going on in the world that entangle the USA, the top general can’t be inaccessible, and must be required to make life or death decisions for others in the military with no advance notice.

Time to replace another DEI hire with somebody with higher standards of professionalism. There are other generals who can better handle the job responsibilities.

There are rumors that Autsin was killed or severely In Kyiv. Take it for what it’s worth.

If only the military would accept this level of responsibility in regards to the lack of information and disinformation as to what happened with how the Afghanistan withdrawal occurred. I don’t recall one single person taking responsibility of what happened there.

This is a way larger issue than the WH and their allies want to admit. Heck it is more than one issue. First they didn’t tell POTUS? They didn’t tell the NSC staff? They didn’t coordinate with his Deputy who was on vacation in PR? The 3rd in the chain was unaware as well. If a BN CDR was off the net in the hospital, with his XO on vacation and the S-3 didn’t know WTF was going on with all this I can assure you that the BDE and Div CDR would be collecting scalps.

In essence the DoD was leaderless for several days b/c Sec Austin decided to be hardheaded and secretive. If a foreign adversary had done the same thing, made the top three positions at DoD irrelevant and unable to perform duties of the Sec Def for several days via a cyber attack or taking them hostage people would be up in arms. This had the same result but was self inflicted. Unforgivable, especially so in an Admin where heath issues and perception or reality of folks to perform their duties is already in question.

His deputy was on vacation in Puerto Rico.

ALLEGEDLY, when told that he was hospitalized (meaning that she was now the acting Secretary of Defense), she told them essentially, ‘screw it, I’m on vacation’, and refused to return.

If true, that’s blatant dereliction of duty.

    Gremlin1974 in reply to Olinser. | January 10, 2024 at 6:58 pm

    They only emailed her while on vacation and she wasn’t checking her emails. They didn’t call her issued phone that is specifically for emergencies such as this. So she didn’t see the email until 2 days after it was sent.

    I believe she returned within the next couple of days which was the end of her vacation, is the report I heard, but at this point I think everything in the media is a lie.

As far as the confusion about the surgery itself being ‘elective’, just because it was ‘for prostate cancer’, doesn’t mean it wasn’t elective.

There’s various forms of pre-cancer that can develop, and based on a whole number of factors, their removal can be at the discretion of the doctor and patient, which is why it’s classified as elective.

I had a mole on my back that they did a biopsy of and determined that it was possible pre-cancer, and I elected to have it removed. It’s called ‘surgery’, but it was basically just them freezing and cutting it off my back to a certain depth and stitching it closed.

Not defending him or anything, this was clearly blatant dereliction of duty and thumbing his nose at the LAWS about what is supposed to happen if the SecDef is incapacitated, but just trying to point out what could possibly be the source of the confusion about ‘elective’ and ‘cancer’ surgery.

    Gremlin1974 in reply to Olinser. | January 10, 2024 at 7:04 pm

    The surgery happened in late December, that wasn’t the issue. Austin had to be admitted to ICU because he had developed an infection at the surgical site. Since they put him in ICU that probably means the infection was either close to becoming or had become sepsis (blood poisoning in laymens terms).

    The surgery isn’t the issue, it is the complete breakdown in the top level of our militaries chain of command. Also, depending on how bad the infection was, Austin may not have been in any condition to inform anyone. But all of these useless bureaucrats have a gaggle of “assistants” that I am sure were aware of what was happening and either decided to not inform the chain of command or were to stupid to know they should. Personally, I lean towards the former.

Sure Biden was clueless but I’m sure Austin notified the party actually in charge.

    Olinser in reply to Concise. | January 9, 2024 at 6:50 pm

    Honestly? I don’t think he did.

    Incompetent jackasses like Austin, when put under weak leaders like Biden, think that because they’re Important People, that they can do basically whatever they want and the laws and rules and procedures don’t matter.

    It’s also a pretty good demonstration of how little Austin actually affects day-to-day operations that he thought that nobody would notice if he was gone for multiple days.

The new angle is redefining “elective surgery”. Elective means planned with no emergent need yet now “cancer surgery” which is elective…isn’t. Before that he was a private person…. despite being Sec of Da Fence. He wants privacy… bust him down to private for his retirement pay.

“That does not sound like elective surgery, which the Pentagon told us he had.”

In the end, all surgery is elective. They are playing semantic games.

By the time someone is at the highest levels of government, they should not have to be told to show up for work or else make sure someone else will be available to fill in. This is one of the most minimal aspects of professionalism.

If there was anyone in the administration who understood concepts such as professionalism and competence, the memo would be unnecessary. Austin would have been fired the moment his irresponsible, unprofessional and unethical behavior became known. The rest would have gotten the messageimmediately.

Instead, they’ve gotten the message that the president is a fool and their jobs are just for show. Way to go Brandon!

Jeebus H Command and Control has Neither… what is there to review?

Every Cub Scout troop and JV hockey team knows how to operate a phone tree to keep people coordinated and informed when stuff happens. And knows that inevitably, stuff happens.

Oh, right. We don’t have those any more. Carry on.