A Democratic congressman from deep-blue Massachusetts said Friday that if he were President Biden, he would fire Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin “within five minutes” over a lack of transparency regarding hospitalizations and cancer removal surgeries.
“I would fire him in about five minutes,” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., told NewsNation on Friday.
Moulton, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the scandal in which Austin failed to promptly notify key officials in the Biden administration of his hospitalization is “totally unacceptable.”
“I can't imagine something like that happening at the lowest level of a military chain of command, like where I was when I was just a lieutenant platoon leader in Iraq,” Moulton said. “When I was a 15-year-old busboy, I never imagined something like this would happen. If I was going to take a week off work, I had to tell my boss.”
Defense Division Officer Lloyd Austin is in “good condition,'' approaching two weeks in hospital: Pentagon official
Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) told Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley during a July 9, 2020 House Armed Services Committee hearing, Ask questions about the authority and role of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Washington DC. (GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized this month after suffering severe pain following elective surgery to treat prostate cancer. (Ian Waldie/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Democrat said it was the president's decision to keep Austin as Pentagon chief, but Biden needed to “send a decisive message.”
“It's up to the president to decide whether to fire Secretary Austin, but let me tell you, he needs to send a definitive message that something like this will never happen again,” Moulton added.
Biden says Austin made poor judgment in hospitalization scandal, says he still trusts Austin
“This is terrible for Secretary Austin and his family,” Moulton said, wishing him a speedy recovery.
“But most importantly, America gets the national security it needs and our military gets the oversight it needs,” he said. “That's a secretary's job.”
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House on Wednesday, December 13, 2023 in Washington, DC, USA. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
President Biden continued to support Austin during his hospitalization, saying he still has confidence in the defense secretary's leadership.
When visiting small and medium-sized enterprises Suburbs of Allentown, Pennsylvania On Friday, Mr. Biden was asked by reporters whether Mr. Austin made a mistake in not telling him about his condition, and he answered, “Yes.”
When a reporter asked if he still had confidence in Austin's leadership following the hospitalization fiasco, Biden said, “I have confidence.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin participates in a meeting with Italian Defense Minister Guido Crossetto at the Pentagon on June 23, 2023 in Arlington, Virginia. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Austin, 70, remains hospitalized as he is being treated for the following complications: prostate cancer surgery.
The Department of Defense announced this on January 5th. Austin was there He has been hospitalized since January 1 due to complications from elective surgery.
Pentagon officials stunned by Secretary of Defense who kept cancer diagnosis a secret from Biden
However, it was later revealed that not only was the media kept in the dark, but that the highest levels of the White House and the Pentagon did not know that Austin was hospitalized until January 4th.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during the plenary session of the 19th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's annual defense and security forum, Saturday, June 11, 2022, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Danial Hakim)
The nondisclosure raised bipartisan concerns, with top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees calling for more transparency about the incident.
Austin's hospitalization began on New Year's Day.
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Details of his visit were not disclosed, other than that he was there for a scheduled surgery.
Representative Seth Moulton's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
