National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin‘s prolonged stay at the hospital was because his doctors still feel like he “may need some additional care.”
In an appearance on CBS News’s Face the Nation, Kirby gave an update on Austin’s condition, saying that while he is not Austin’s physician, it was his understanding that the defense secretary was following his doctor’s orders. Kirby did not provide an expected release date for Austin.
“My understanding is that … he’s following his doctor’s orders and in consultation with their views in terms of what kind of additional care he needs,” Kirby said. “And we’ll see, you know, when he can get released, but obviously they still feel like he may need some additional care. I understand that part of that is just physical therapy.”
When pressed, he stressed that Austin is still able to do his job from the hospital, but that not every decision needs to be handled at the highest level.
“I think it’s important for people to remember that the Cabinet officials don’t have to sit and talk every single day to make every decision,” Kirby said. “A lot of the work that gets done in national security is done at the staff level.”
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Despite this, Kirby ceded that the failure of Austin’s team to disclose his hospitalization to the president was a major failure, and the administration was working to prevent such things from happening in the future.
“And that’s a problem, as the president has spoken to,” he answered when questioned about the incident. “That is not the way it’s supposed to be. It’s certainly something we need to get more answers to, and the Pentagon‘s investigating this, and we’ll see what comes out of that, but that is not the way the process is supposed to work.”
