Top Democrat Says Biden Should Consider Removing Defense Secretary

‘There’s really no excuse that I can think of, for not having informed the President,’ said ranking member of House Armed Services Committee.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrives for a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at the Pentagon in Washington on July 18, 2023. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, believes President Joe Biden should at least consider removing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after the top defense official let days go by without notifying the administration that he had been hospitalized.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday evening, Mr. Smith called the defense secretary’s multi-day delay in notifying the Biden administration and Congress of his hospitalization “very troubling.”