In the new year's strangest bureaucratic mystery (and one of the strangest in any year), Austin, who is 70, was hospitalized on Jan. 1, but nobody in the White House-not even President Joe Biden-knew of the fact until Jan. 4.
The fact that Biden learned of Austin's absence only after four days-i.e., the fact that Biden hadn't been in touch with his secretary of defense for four days during a period of round-the-clock military operations and crisis-suggests that Austin is far from essential.
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