House Armed Services committee member Rep. Mike Waltz, who is also the chairman of the subcommittee on Readiness, has really good questions about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin being MIA for the better part of the week without telling anyone.
You can bet they are going to bring Austin in front of the committee to answer these questions:
Inexcusable and dangerous for Secretary Austin to not inform the public – MUCH LESS THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF – he was hospitalized for multiple days.
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 7, 2024
If the Secretary of Defense is hospitalized the military chain-of-command needs to know, especially with heightened tensions in the Middle East.
For weeks American sailors & service members have been attacked by Iran-backed proxies.
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 7, 2024
Who was providing authorization for strikes and communicating orders from the president? Key authorities are delegated from the President only to the SecDef. Were those authorities passed on?
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 7, 2024
Was our nuclear deterrent affected? If the president had to launch a preemptive or retaliatory strike, would Deputy Secretary Hicks be fully authorized to make that recommendation?
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 7, 2024
Why, upon receiving this authority from Austin, did Deputy Secretary Hicks not come back immediately from Puerto Rico? Did the President know she was there?
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 7, 2024
Did the combatant commanders and the service secretaries know there was a new chain of command?
Who was communicating with the NSC over ongoing threats against our service members in the Middle East?
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 7, 2024
I don’t know whether it’s more concerning that the chain of command literally didn’t exist for multiple days or the White House apparently communicates so little with the pentagon that nobody noticed the Defense Secretary missing at a time of two major wars!
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) January 7, 2024