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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden is not considering firing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over the Pentagon chief's failure to disclose a hospitalization for days, a White House official said on Monday.
Austin, who sits just below Biden at the top of the chain of command of the U.S. military, withheld his hospitalization on New Year's Day from the president and the public for days.
Asked whether Austin had been unconscious at all since Jan. 1, and whether the White House had been informed about that, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he did not know.
Officials disclosed on Sunday that Austin's hospitalization was kept far more secret than previously known, adding his deputy to a long list of people right up to Biden who were kept in the dark for days.
Austin's duties require him to be available at a moment's notice to respond to any national security crisis. He said on Saturday that he took "full responsibility" for the secrecy over his hospitalization.
It is not known what health issue spurred Austin's hospitalization.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Susan Heavey and Paul Simao)
