Congressman Matt Rosendale (R-MT) announced that he will file articles of impeachment against Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense who was recently secretly hospitalized. According to the Republican, the official “violated his oath” and endangered the lives of citizens, so he should be removed from office.
Rosendale, who came to Congress in 2021 and aligned himself with the House Freedom Caucus, announced that he will formally enter the articles on Tuesday, urging his colleagues to join his cause to “protect the American people.”
“Sec. Austin has violated his oath of office time and time again, and has jeopardized the lives of the American people. (…) This dishonesty seems to be a repeated pattern for the Secretary as he once again lied to our military and the American people about his health last week,” the congressman wrote in a statement released Monday night.
Sec. Austin has violated his oath of office time and time again, endangering the lives of the American people.
He is unfit for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which is why I urge my colleagues to join me in impeaching him to protect the American people.
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) January 8, 2024
“Furthermore, the Secretary failed to uphold his oath of office during the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan which led to the death of 13 American soldiers and enabled unvetted migrants to flow into the United States – including allowing an unvetted migrant to rape a young woman in Missoula. (…) Sec. Austin is unfit for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which is why I urge my colleagues to join me in impeaching him to protect the American people,” Rosendale stated.
What happened to Lloyd Austin?
It turns out that last Friday, January 5, the Pentagon revealed that the Secretary of Defense had been hospitalized since New Year’s, when he began to feel “severe pain.” Up to this point, everything seemed normal for someone who did not feel well.
However, the problem is that almost no one within the Federal Government was informed of Austin’s situation, not even Joe Biden himself.
The official himself acknowledged through a statement that he should have better managed the communication of his admission and assumed full responsibility for the decision to hide it from everyone, including the president of the Administration.
“I also understand the media concerns about transparency and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better. But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure,” the official wrote.
