Where in the world is Lloyd?

Normally, I wouldn’t comment on the odd fact that it took the Pentagon three and a half days to inform anyone at the White House — including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan — that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III had been hospitalized following complications from an elective procedure.

- Robert Reich

Austin was admitted to the intensive care unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, last  Monday. But senior defense officials say they didn’t know about it until Thursday. The Pentagon then informed the White House.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the chain of command in military decision-making, including over the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. As defense secretary, Austin is second only to Biden in that chain.

There’s supposed to be a system for knowing where the secretary of defense is at all times.

When I was secretary of labor (hardly as important an office as defense secretary), my staff reported daily to the White House on my schedule and whereabouts. It would have been impossible (if not unthinkable) for me to be hospitalized for three days without the White House knowing.

Besides, I had to be on call because I was number 11 in the order of presidential succession if the President became incapacitated, died, or was removed from office. The secretary of defense is number 6. I didn’t expect to be thrust into the job, but even the remote possibility meant I had to be reachable.