Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith (D-WA) joined “Forbes Newsroom” to discuss the continued controversy surrounding the Pentagon not informing the White House for a handful of days about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization.
“It’s deeply troubling,” Smith told Forbes Newsroom in reference to Austin’s failure to tell the White House about his hospitalization. “I’m at a loss for why Secretary Austin seemed to think that in his position, he could withhold this type of information. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Austin had prostate cancer surgery on December 22, and was then hospitalized in the new year due to complications from the procedure. The White House did not know for three days that the defense secretary was admitted to the hospital, and President Biden reportedly found out on Tuesday about Austin’s cancer diagnosis.
Since then, Republican lawmakers and former President Trump have called on the Secretary to resign. Smith is not calling for Austin to leave his position, though he believes his actions were “damaging to the president and damaging to the national security.”
Smith believes that Republican calls for Austin’s resignation are politically motivated. “Anything the Republicans have to say on this lacks any credibility whatsoever because they’ve made it very clear … they don’t care about the country,” the Washington Democrat told Forbes. “They care about destroying Joe Biden, and I have no doubt that they will try to use this to accomplish that.”
Watch the full conversation on Forbes Newsroom above.