If the last month has made anything clear, it is that President Joe Biden does not have the respect of his staff, from his Cabinet down to the most irrelevant interns.

That is the biggest takeaway from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s unexplained absence, aside from the fact that Austin should not remain in his job. Austin has been absent from his job due to complications from an elective surgery, which we still have sparse details about, that left him hospitalized. Austin was hospitalized on New Year’s Day, but Biden was not told until three days later and was not even told by Austin himself.