US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has admitted he “messed up” and should have come clean to President Biden and the country about his prostate cancer diagnosis.
But he denied he ordered his staff to conceal his condition.
“We messed up and I messed up. I should have been upfront with the president about my cancer diagnosis. I admit my error,” Mr Austin said. The defence secretary discovered he had cancer in early December, and had surgery on 22 December, but hid it from the president and other senior figures until days after he ended up in intensive care on 1 January.
Mr Austin confessed his mistake in his first media briefing since he was diagnosed.
His late disclosure of his condition has triggered an internal Pentagon inquiry and an inspector general review into his department’s notification processes.
Mr Austin was taken back to hospital by ambulance with agonising pain 10 days after his surgery. It was revealed one of his staff asked paramedics not to use lights and sirens when picking him up from his Virginia home.
The 70-year-old handed over decision-making authority to deputy defence secretary Kathleen Hicks, but did not tell her why.
Mr Austin is second only to the president in the military chain of command and is expected to be ready at any time to deal with any national security emergency.
“I never instructed anyone to keep my January hospitalisation from the White House,” he told reporters on Thursday.
President Biden earlier said it was bad judgement from Mr Austin not to tell him he was in intensive care.
But he said he still trusted him.
Mr Austin worked from home for two weeks after being released on 15 January and came back to the Pentagon on Monday.
