{"id":103876,"date":"2024-01-24T12:04:13","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T12:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-makes-first-public-appearance-since-secretive-hospitalization\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T12:04:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T12:04:13","slug":"defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-makes-first-public-appearance-since-secretive-hospitalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-makes-first-public-appearance-since-secretive-hospitalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin makes first public appearance since secretive hospitalization"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/01\/Austin-ht-ml-240123_1706018177264_hpMain_16x9.jpg\" alt=\"\"><figcaption>Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is seen making his first public appearance on Jan. 23, 2024 since his hospitalization while participating from his home in a videoconference with the 50 nations of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that are providing military aid to Ukraine. (DOD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>(WASHINGTON) &#8212; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin participated in a meeting virtually on Tuesday &#8212; his first public appearance since his secretive hospitalization &#8212; with the 50 nations providing Ukraine with military assistance.<\/p>\n<p>Austin appeared on a live stream of the video conference of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group made public by the Defense Department. He did not directly mention his hospitalization in his remarks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s great to see you all again. As you can tell, I&#8217;m joining from home today,&#8221; Austin said in his initial remarks in the monthly meeting. &#8220;I&#8217;m feeling good and looking forward to being back at the Pentagon very soon. And I&#8217;m grateful for all of your warm wishes. So thanks for working across the time zones to join us for the 18th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Austin, 70, was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland on the night of Jan. 1 following complications from a prostate cancer procedure on Dec. 22. Neither hospitalization was revealed publicly by the Defense Department.<\/p>\n<p>A political firestorm developed when Austin&#8217;s hospitalization in January was finally made public four days days later, and it became known that not even President Joe Biden had been made aware of the hospitalization.<\/p>\n<p>Congressional committees have pressed Austin for answers about why his hospitalizations were kept secret. The House Armed Services Committee has asked Austin to testify.<\/p>\n<p>Austin was released from the hospital on Jan. 15 and has been working from home &#8212; though it remains unclear when Austin will return to work at the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p>Dressed in a dark suit, Austin read his prepared remarks from a desk in front of a white wall adorned with the Defense Department&#8217;s seal and small U.S. Ukrainian flags placed atop a white printer.<\/p>\n<p>Austin urged the members of the contact group to continue providing military assistance to Ukraine, namely air defense systems to counter Russia&#8217;s missile and drone barrages.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A sovereign and secure Ukraine is critical to global security and we must not waver in our support for Ukraine,&#8221; said Austin, who did not make a direct mention of the administration&#8217;s stalled effort with Congress to secure more funding for Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s be clear, our work for Ukraine&#8217;s struggle against tyranny makes all of our countries more secure,&#8221; Austin said. &#8220;If we lose our nerve, if we flinch, if we failed to deter other would-be aggressors, we will only invite even more bloodshed and more chaos.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is seen making his first public appearance on Jan. 23, 2024 since his hospitalization while participating from his home in a videoconference with the 50 nations of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that are providing military aid to Ukraine. (DOD) (WASHINGTON) &#8212; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-makes-first-public-appearance-since-secretive-hospitalization\/\">Read More &rarr;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin makes first public appearance since secretive hospitalization - FM News Talk 92.7 \/ 1450AM KOBE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"TALK, DONE RIGHT\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-makes-first-public-appearance-since-secretive-hospitalization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin makes first public appearance since secretive hospitalization - 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