Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark’s promotion to lead Army forces in the Pacific and receive a fourth star is being held up in the Senate by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., the senator and his office confirmed Tuesday.
Tuberville is attributing the move to concerns over what role Clark, who currently serves as the senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, may have played in the initial secrecy surrounding Austin’s hospitalization earlier this year.
“He should have been the one that told the White House and commander in chief, ‘We got a problem, the secretary of defense is in the hospital in pretty bad shape.’ But he didn’t and so that’s a show of non-leadership,” Tuberville told reporters Tuesday. His office also provided a statement to Military.com confirming the hold.
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The hold, first reported by The Washington Post, pauses Clark’s career and once again revives the controversy and unanswered questions over Austin’s choice to keep a critical medical diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization a secret from all but his inner circle.
When asked about Tuberville’s move on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder urged the Senate to confirm all military nominees but stressed that Clark was a highly qualified officer.
“He’s exactly the kind of leader that we need in our priority theater,” Ryder said, also noting that…
