Sailors' families CONFRONT Navy leaders over ‘declining mental health’ on USS Lincoln — COMPILATION

[0:02] Welcome back. Just about the bottom of the hour. [0:04] So we've got some new reporting first here on MSNOW [0:06] about the brutally demanding conditions that service members are facing overseas [0:10] as we wait for some resolution to the war with Iran. [0:14] MSNOW spoke with a dozen family members of sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, [0:21] who say they're extremely concerned about the morale, safety, and conditions on that ship. [0:27] The 5,000-person crew has been at sea for nine straight months. [0:31] And engaged in combat operations since the beginning of the war against Iran all the way back in February. [0:38] Many family members described their kids or spouses telling them about non-operational toilets, [0:44] moldy showers, laundry facilities that were broken for weeks, [0:48] and extended periods with no hot water for showering. [0:51] The families say their loved ones have described food shortages [0:54] and standing in line at the ship's store for an hour or more, [0:57] even while it often lacks basic supplies like toothpaste, soap, and deodorant. [1:05] Let's bring in MSNOW Pentagon reporter Priya Shreether, who broke that story. [1:10] Former Acting Army Secretary Patrick Murphy also back with us. [1:13] Priya, it's a great, great story. [1:15] People think about service members, in this case sailors, in a combat zone. [1:20] They, of course, think about the dangers the enemy may pose. [1:22] They perhaps think less about just the conditions they have to live with each and every day, [1:26] sounding, from your reporting, sounding downright miserable and at times maybe even dangerous. [1:31] Yeah, that's absolutely right. [1:32] And, you know, the Lincoln just set a record in the Navy for having the most continuous days at sea, [1:38] with more than 200 days underway. [1:41] They left San Diego in November. [1:42] They had a brief stop in Guam in December. [1:44] And then they didn't stop for a port call again until early July, just briefly, in Oman, [1:50] where most of the sailors were able to get off the ship, but they had to stay in port. [1:54] And really what the families were telling me is they're very worried about exhaustion here. [1:59] Most of their family members are working 12 to 14-hour shifts. [2:02] They're, depending on their job, they're not getting any days off. [2:05] And when you talk about a flight deck on an aircraft carrier, [2:08] this is one of the most dangerous places in the military. [2:10] You're having high-speed aircraft taking off and landing. [2:13] You have munitions, weapons, and bombs being moved around at a very fast pace. [2:19] And the service members are also being exposed to, you know, [2:22] really loud noises for a sustained period of time, [2:25] which can really lead to long-term injuries like hearing loss. [2:29] So when you're talking about exhaustion, when you're talking about low morale, [2:33] because now this deployment has been extended for a second time and there's no end in sight, [2:38] they're worried that those things could lead to accidents that could potentially even be deadly. [2:42] I want you to take a listen to what some of them told me. [2:47] They didn't choose to be there. [2:50] They volunteered to be there. [2:52] They're willing to be there and they're doing their best. [2:54] So they want our support. [2:55] And part of that support means we have to have the tools to do our job. [3:00] That means the fuel. [3:01] That means the food, right? [3:03] That means the food. [3:04] That means the toothpaste and the deodorant. [3:06] That means all of it, right? [3:07] Now, I don't think it's the ship is the issue. [3:10] I think it's our president, it's our government that's not helping the morale. [3:18] I think the ship is doing what they can do with what they're given. [3:23] But I think our government needs to be doing more for our military that's sitting over there. [3:31] And so, you know, you're hearing from them about exhaustion, [3:34] but they're saying that, you know, even at the end of their shifts, [3:37] the fact that these sailors and Marines can't take showers, they can't wash their uniforms. [3:42] I had some family members tell me that they believe that prisoners and inmates in jail [3:46] are treated with more dignity and respect than our service members. [3:50] So, Patrick, let's get your take on this. [3:52] What does this tell you about Pete Hegseth's military? [3:57] Listen, we're stretched pretty thin. [3:59] And it's not just, I mean, Preet did a great job on his reporting. [4:02] Jonathan, at the one point she made in her article, which I'd like to highlight, [4:05] there's over 10,000 shorties off the USS Lincoln. [4:10] I mean, you know, in the Pentagon, we used to say, [4:13] amateurs talk strategy, experts talk logistics. [4:16] The USS Lincoln is the logistics machine there in the Middle East, [4:20] you know, pushing out these shorties every day. [4:23] And it is a very dangerous, you know, job. [4:26] And these are the ultimate warriors, whether you're a sailor or a soldier. [4:29] The fact is, is that you are doing really tough jobs. [4:33] And so my heart and thoughts and prayers are going out to these sailors and their families. [4:38] I know they've been extended twice. [4:40] They're stretched pretty thin right now. [4:43] And this is not a new boat. [4:43] The ship launched in the 80s. [4:46] Priya, talk to us. [4:47] It was also a conflict with no real end in sight. [4:49] Like there's, you know, negotiations off and on. [4:53] Every so often the president, you know, authorizes some sort of strike. [4:56] They could be there for a long time to come. [4:58] Yeah, and that's something I heard repeatedly from the families as well, [5:01] is that, you know, they understand that their loved ones volunteer to be in the military, right? [5:06] They're not expecting to be on a carnival cruise here. [5:09] They don't expect buffets. [5:11] They don't expect, you know, a hot tub. [5:12] They understand that the conditions are going to be rough. [5:15] They signed up to go to war. [5:17] But I think what's lacking here is any clear strategy. [5:20] And they said, you know, we're ready to do a mission and complete a mission. [5:24] But what we're failing to understand is what this mission actually is and when is it going to end. [5:29] So I think really what they're looking for is some goalposts that, you know, they can keep an eye on and some relief at the end of all of this. [5:38] You know, we had three aircraft carriers simultaneously in the Middle East, which hasn't, you know, you haven't seen a military buildup like that since 2003. [5:45] And this has been a war that has largely been fought by the Navy. [5:49] When you think about who's been imposing the naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz and who's been launching those airstrikes on Iran. [5:56] And so, you know, they say enough about enough talk about the stockpiles and the depletion of weapons and the sixty seven billion dollars that Secretary Hegseth has gone to the Hill to ask for. [6:05] Let's talk about our service members. [6:07] Priya Shreether, thank you so much for bringing this reporting to us. [6:10] Great work. [6:10] Patrick Murphy, thank you as well. [6:13] We appreciate you both. [6:13] It has been more than 260 days since the USS Lincoln deployed to sea. [6:20] What started as a routine mission in November was redirected to the Middle East over the war with Iran earlier this year. [6:27] Now, families of those on board are confronting Navy leaders about food shortages, water contamination and declining mental health. [6:37] Declining health, by the way, that has gotten so bad that there are multiple reports of sailors trying to jump overboard. [6:43] In an exclusive interview with MSNOW, the wife of a sailor who did jump off the ship earlier this month, says her husband told leadership that he was struggling, but that was brushed off. [6:54] She also says the Navy did not tell her until four days after the incident, a Navy spokesperson told MSNOW in part, quote, we have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations aboard the ship. [7:09] Joining us, MSNOW, Pentagon reporter Priya Shreether, former Naval Lieutenant Commander Julie Roland, who has served aboard the Lincoln, and Max Rhodes, who is back, Max Rose, who is back with us as well. [7:21] Priya, explain what this wife told you. [7:25] Yeah, Katie, it's just really heartbreaking, and I think it highlights the extreme stress that these sailors are under on the USS Lincoln. [7:35] Their deployment has been extended for a second time, and they feel like there's no end in sight. [7:40] This young woman who I spoke to said that her husband has been expressing to her that he's been struggling with this deployment for several months, basically since the middle of the deployment. [7:50] He works as an aircraft mechanic on the flight deck, really long hours, and she said that he notified his chain of command multiple times and went to the medical team saying that he was having suicidal ideations, but they were basically dismissed. [8:07] Now, she learned from a member of her husband's squadron that someone had gone overboard last Monday, but she didn't actually get any confirmation from the Navy that it was, in fact, her husband until Friday, despite her attempts to reach out to him repeatedly. [8:25] She also shared with me the last text message that he sent to her prior to him jumping off the ship, and I want to read part of it to you. [8:33] He basically said, I think the boat is finally getting to me, and I really don't think I can keep up my peace act anymore. [8:40] You are right about it all not being okay. [8:42] We were supposed to leave Fifth Fleet on July 15th, but then something had to come up, and my last hope of being home soon was gone. [8:51] I'm really trying not to feel negative or hopeless, but between the Wi-Fi and not knowing when I will come home and not knowing what is happening back at home, it's really getting me. [9:01] I don't think I can do another deployment after this, and I don't even know if I can finish this deployment. [9:07] So just really heartbreaking details, Katie, and I think now there's a lot of questions to the Navy about how they handled this situation. [9:16] I did reach out to them for comment, and they basically said that they can't comment on individual service members' medical records for privacy reasons, [9:25] but they are disputing the fact that there's any sort of uptick in suicidal ideations on this specific ship, Katie. [9:33] The journal is reporting, the Wall Street Journal, that the USS Washington is going to replace Lincoln as part of a previously scheduled rotation plan. [9:42] This isn't exclusive to them. [9:43] They're citing U.S. officials. [9:45] Priya, do you have anything on this? [9:48] Would this be a normal replacement? [9:50] Yeah, Katie, so there are different ways for the public to sort of see where our aircraft carriers are around the world. [10:00] And I did see that the Washington appeared to have been moving from where it's currently at in the Indo-PACOM, [10:09] so sort of off of Asia, that part of the world earlier today. [10:14] I did ask my sources. [10:16] They couldn't confirm that it is this ship that's going to be relieving the Lincoln, [10:20] but it seems like there's going to be a shifting of potentially several aircraft carriers to make sure that we still have a presence near the South China Sea, [10:30] but that we can also provide relief to this Lincoln crew. [10:34] So, Julia, you didn't do a full deployment on the USS Lincoln, but you have lived aboard that ship. [10:40] Tell me what it's like. [10:41] Well, I say that all aircraft carriers are pretty similar anyway. [10:47] I did deployment workups on the Lincoln, so preparation for deploying. [10:50] And then I also have deployed to the Persian Gulf with HSM-71, a helicopter squadron that's currently on board it. [10:58] But it's 5,000 folks living on a piece of floating metal together. [11:02] You don't have privacy. [11:04] You have limited Wi-Fi, if any. [11:06] You share your meals together. [11:08] And, you know, you don't have to commute to work, but your life is work all the time. [11:11] It's very hard. [11:13] And you normally get a port call about once a month, some 30 to 45 days. [11:17] But you're far away from your family. [11:20] You're gone for long periods of time, six months, seven months. [11:24] And these can be extended. [11:25] And we've seen long extensions, but typically not without port calls. [11:29] So it's a big sacrifice to be away this long. [11:31] It's incredibly grueling work, and it's already a sacrifice to do it. [11:35] So any folks who say this is what people signed up for, I mean, they probably didn't sign up to do this without port calls, with inadequate food, mental health care services, and a lack of accountability with their families and indefinite extensions. [11:47] So even if this is what they signed up for, it sounds already it's terrible to hear without text messages, we're not going to have great retention. [11:56] We're certainly going to have worse recruitment if this is what we're saying the deal is to join. [12:01] And most importantly, those folks actively serving who are in theater right now are not going to be able to operate at their best. [12:08] This is not lethality when we don't even have humanity to take care of our people out there. [12:12] Well, let's talk about the lethality here. [12:15] The Pentagon, I mean, they're deployed in a time of war with Iran. [12:20] I mean, they don't want to call it a war, but that's clearly what's happening. [12:23] What about the Pentagon's own priorities here? [12:27] Do they take precedent? [12:28] Does the need to have a ship there take precedent over the mental health and well-being of those on board? [12:36] Is there a way to have both? [12:37] Well, first, I think if they're not going to call it a war, then they don't get to play by the rules of a war. [12:43] There are sacrifices people are maybe willing to make if there's an actual war going on. [12:48] But that level of transparency needs to exist between the Pentagon and the American people. [12:52] But then I think if you want to put the mission first, you have to prioritize your people as part of that. [12:58] Really, I think you should lead with people first. [13:01] If you lead mission first and you decide to forget the people, that's the lesson we learned in Iraq is that you've got folks coming back. [13:06] That we've squeezed all of the juice out of them. [13:10] So if you're not going to take care of your people, how many missions after this first mission can you get through? [13:16] Maybe you get to the end of this mission and then what's left of our capacity. [13:22] If recruitment is going to plummet because of this, if retention is going to plummet, if the folks we currently have in aren't going to be up to future tasks, all of that spells readiness. [13:32] That spells national security. [13:34] So ultimately, even if you decide this is a worthwhile reason to be having American service members in these conditions, communicate that clearly to the American people, to Congress, but be transparent with the American people. [13:46] Be transparent with these folks and their families, which clearly isn't happening. [13:50] Otherwise, this is this you're not going to have a force that you need for the for the next conflict. [13:58] And what we're hearing from Pete Hegseth a lot of the time is how much stronger he's making the military. [14:03] He's given them testosterone. [14:05] Sure. Well, yeah, he wants to talk about testosterone. [14:07] What he doesn't want to talk about is his failure to plan for a protracted conflict and war against Iran. [14:15] You know, the reason why this is all happening right now is because they announced to the American people that this was going to be a four to six week conflict. [14:25] That's exactly what they planned for. [14:27] They did not plan for this. [14:30] How do they not? [14:31] I mean, we all learn the mission accomplished lesson. [14:34] Sure. [14:34] We've been talking about it for decades now. [14:36] It's a lesson that Donald Trump ran on successfully both times that or two of the times that he ran for president, not getting into foreign wars, not being as dumb as the other guys. [14:47] Right. Right. [14:48] You know, you know, he ran as the person who was going to be opposed to all forever wars. [14:53] And this is a broken promise, just like he ran that he was going to address affordability, another broken promise. [14:59] And so what ultimately has happened here is that for the entire term, they fired any general who would ever express an independent voice. [15:10] They fired any general who would ever raise their hand and say, no, sir, actually diversity is lethality. [15:16] Diversity is strength. [15:18] No, sir, it doesn't make sense for us to alienate segments of the population, for us to focus on fringe cultural issues. [15:25] Let's focus on continuing unity. [15:27] They would fire those people constantly. [15:28] So over the course of time, it built up a culture where no one was willing to express their honest military analysis. [15:36] And it has produced this protracted, unconstitutional, reckless conflict with no clear off ramp that is wasting money overseas that has led to the loss of life and has has now produced this great tragedy aboard the Lincoln. [15:52] Yeah, it does. [15:53] It does not sound good. [15:54] Max Rose, really good to have you. [15:56] Julie Rowland, thank you so much for joining us today. [15:59] We do hope to have you back. [16:00] And Priya, always great reporting. [16:02] On new developments in a story we brought to you a few days ago, MSNOW Pentagon correspondent was with us here on set. [16:08] Bring her reporting. [16:09] Priya Shreether on last week about angry military families challenging the acting secretary of the Navy over the conditions aboard the USS Lincoln as the combat mission against Iran stretches on with no clear timelines. [16:24] The families of those on board raised concerns over the sailors mental health about safety on deck. [16:29] Long work days, food shortages, water contamination, moldy showers, and sailors running out of toothpaste, deodorant, soap, and other supplies. [16:38] Now, new reporting shows some of those military members aboard the Lincoln have begun taking desperate measures as the aircraft carrier sets a modern-day record for the most continuous days at sea. [16:49] The aircraft carrier had been on deployment for well over 260 days after leaving its home port of San Diego on November 21st. [16:59] Military Times reports one woman says her husband was repeatedly overextended before he attempted to jump overboard from the carrier. [17:08] She adds that he's scared and remains on medical hold. [17:11] Another woman tells the outlet her husband was on watch when he saw a shipmate preparing to go overboard as well. [17:17] She says her husband intervened, calling out to the sailor before grabbing their arms and pulling them onto the deck. [17:24] This is extraordinary reporting, first from Priya at MSNOW, who brought us that last week. [17:30] Now the Military Times guy is going into detail. [17:33] Since November 21st, they have been out to sea. [17:36] This is the longest deployment on a ship like that ever. [17:39] And when we think about what these guys and women have been going through and with the fact that the Secretary of Defense seemed very interested and obsessed with their testosterone levels, [17:50] but not whether or not they're getting real food aboard the ship as this war drags on and on and who knows how long they'll be out there. [17:57] There have been town hall meetings from these military families in the San Diego area where they have just erupted, [18:03] understandably so, on leaders about the conditions they're hearing about from their loved ones on board that ship. [18:10] You know, it's about military readiness. [18:12] This is something that we worried about on the Armed Services Committee all the time. [18:17] You have to make sure the rotation is such that people can do their rotation, they can do their duty, then they can get home. [18:26] There is no rotation. [18:27] They can get back on base, they can rest up, they can be, again, prepared. [18:32] So this comes down to military readiness. [18:35] I've never seen anything like this before. [18:37] And again, this is the problem. [18:39] This is what happens when you have a defense secretary that's obsessed about the color of people's skin, [18:47] whether somebody is a man or a woman, testosterone levels. [18:53] This this obsession over DEI and that's all we ever hear about. [19:00] And what we're not hearing about is, well, the basics, the basics always start with readiness, readiness. [19:06] So men and women of the United States military militarily ready to go into combat if called upon. [19:14] And this is the exact opposite of what you do to make sure that they are prepared and ready to go. [19:21] And this doesn't have anything to do with toughness or this or that or the other. [19:25] There are normal rotations. [19:27] This is insane by any measure at all. [19:32] And so think about it, Jonathan Lemire. [19:35] We we we have this happening on the USS Lincoln. [19:40] We have our our our sailors being treated like third class citizens, treated like trash, actually. [19:52] So we're not taking care of job one, which is, again, military readiness. [19:57] And secondly, we're not even able to keep count of the munitions that we have. [20:05] Pete Hegseth's DOD has run out of munitions to fight a hot war with Iran that Pete Hegseth told the president we should start. [20:18] So he's sitting around talking about testosterone levels and doing all these stupid promo videos that are supposed to make him look tough, obsessing over somebody, whether somebody's black or white, taking down like obsessing over, taking down the pictures of the man who flew more combat missions than anybody else in the history of the United States military. [20:48] But because Chappie James was black, Pete Hegseth had to take the picture down. [20:54] These are the things he's obsessed on. [20:57] You know, we hear for years. [20:59] Oh, my God, they're too concerned about D.E.I. [21:02] It's getting in the way of the mission. [21:04] No, it's just the opposite. [21:06] It's Pete Hegseth, who is so obsessed with the color of somebody's skin or whether it's a man or a woman that's doing the mission or whether the person is black or white, that's doing extraordinary things to protect and defend the United States of America. [21:23] He's so obsessed over the little things that readiness is falling by the wayside, showing off on group chats, showing off on group chats. [21:32] Hey, we're about to bomb here and there who would have been able to identify the collateral damage in a war strike. [21:39] So school not taking care of first things first. [21:42] He's actually worried about social, you know, he wants to worry about social issues and social policies inside the Pentagon instead of making sure we have the munitions we need [21:55] and making sure that our our our military men and women are ready for warfare and they get like sane, rational rotations like every other commander in chief and every other secretary of defense before him actually did. [22:13] Yeah, the secretary obsessed with, as you say, you're rewriting the Pentagon's history, passing over officers for promotions, firing officers, almost all of those officers. [22:24] We should note either women or people of color. [22:28] You know, he is, I believe, posted another social media video this week. [22:31] He was out visiting some sailors in San Diego. [22:33] The secretary loves to do that. [22:35] And that connects to the Iran conversation we're having a few minutes ago that, yes, the president has settled on this campaign of economic pressure, [22:43] in part because even if he wanted to escalate us to hostilities, he can't. [22:47] We have plenty of offensive weapons. [22:49] That's true. [22:50] But when Iran hits back, we're so short of the defensive munitions, we have no confidence. [22:56] We report that we could defend our bases in the region as well as our allies who have absorbed the blunt of what Iran has done to this point. [23:05] And yes, I mean, the president and DOD leadership had a pretty heated exchange about 10 days ago or so at Camp David. [23:12] The White House continues to insist that Secretary Higgett's job is safe. [23:17] But I am certainly told, and I'm hearing this for a while now, yep, I'm hearing this for a while now that there are people in the building have soured on him. [23:24] But the president, at least for now, it's the only vote that matters. [23:27] Why? [23:28] President Trump still believes in him. [23:30] Why? [23:31] Why? [23:31] I mean, this is a guy that's caused problems time and time again, starting with SignalGate. [23:35] But now he's pushed the president into the war, along with Netanyahu, who's pushed the president into the war, supported this war. [23:42] And he doesn't even he can't even plan out the munitions to actually fight this war to defend the targets to defend who to defend our troops on the ground across the region. [23:55] This was abysmal planning. [23:57] There are disturbing new reports this morning about mental health and troop morale aboard the USS Lincoln in the Middle East. [24:12] The aircraft carrier beat the modern day record for most continuous days at sea without a port call. [24:18] Families of sailors are telling MS now. [24:20] They're worried about shortages of food and hygiene products, moldy showers, toilets that do not work, and broken laundry facilities. [24:28] They say in a fiery town hall with Navy leaders last week, concerns were raised about the sailors' mental health and exhaustion. [24:36] The military news outlet Stars and Stripes interviewed active duty sailors and family members who described at least one instance where a crew member had to be stopped from jumping overboard. [24:46] The Navy released a statement saying, in part, quote, we have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations aboard the ship. [24:53] We take every service member's well-being seriously and have medical and mental health professionals available to assess and address concerns as they arise. [25:02] Joining me now, Priya Sreeder, Pentagon reporter for MS Now. [25:06] Kevin and Peter are still with us, too. [25:08] Priya, I'm going to start with you because you've been covering the story for days now. [25:12] These concerns, these allegations, they are incredibly disturbing. [25:15] Is anything being done about them at all? [25:19] Yeah, Antonia, you know, I've been reporting about this over the last week or so, [25:23] and the family members really wanted to raise the alarm bells that this record deployment is really taking a toll on their loved ones' mental health [25:31] and that they're concerned that this exhaustion with these long 14- to 16-hour ships with very little days off could lead to deadly accidents. [25:41] And so there was an emergency town hall at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego last Thursday evening with Acting Secretary of the Navy, Hong Kao, [25:51] where family members confronted him about their concerns. [25:54] And they essentially were demanding answers about when the Lincoln could come home or when there could be relief, [26:01] as in another aircraft carrier could be sent into that area to relieve the Lincoln. [26:07] And he basically told family members that they're planning on sending the USS Theodore Roosevelt, [26:13] another aircraft carrier, in that direction, but he wasn't able to give them a definitive timeline [26:18] on when that could happen or when the Lincoln is going to come home. [26:22] And they also asked questions about these reports of a sailor going overboard. [26:27] And he basically said to them that that sailor was back on the ship and that he was, quote-unquote, fine. [26:34] That comment was met with extreme anger by the audience, where they said he is not fine. [26:41] So as you heard from the Navy right there, they're claiming that there's no uptick in suicidal ideations on the ship, [26:48] but we're hearing a very different story from the family members themselves, Antonia. [26:53] Yeah, very, very different stories. [26:56] Hard to imagine being told somebody's just fine after a description like the one that you laid out there. [27:02] You know, the thing is, Peter, the allegations about what's been unfolding on this ship, [27:07] they go all the way back to April. [27:09] Reports of food shortages then, concerns about morale and cleanliness then. [27:14] There have been images at times shared around publicly, and Hegseth has dismissed it as fake news. [27:21] So when you hear first fine, as you just heard Priya lay out there, [27:25] and then see sort of the history of what Hegseth has said about this, [27:29] what do you make of the Pentagon's handling of this? [27:32] And if any of it is normal, if this is, I guess, just sort of par for the course [27:36] and what happens during a conflict, a war like this one, [27:40] or if this administration is being less transparent about the reality and the conditions troops are facing [27:45] than other administrations have been in the past? [27:49] Yeah, look, the stress on the forces is significant. [27:51] You're almost done with six months of constant warfare, [27:55] or certainly constant deployment in the service of warfare in the Middle East. [28:00] And a lot of these units have been away for an awful long time. [28:05] They don't have the same rotation that they have in non-conflict situations. [28:12] And the stress on real soldiers, real troops, real sailors, you know, [28:16] then trickles back to their families. [28:18] They hear about it. [28:19] It's a significant concern for the military community. [28:23] Now, you know, this is war, and a lot of people say you have to just do what you have to do. [28:28] No question about it. [28:30] But there is an expectation that during times of conflict that the Pentagon is focused on the well-being of the force [28:37] and that they will respond accordingly. [28:39] So we'll see how Hegseth handles this. [28:41] Simply just brushing it off and pretending that it doesn't exist may not fly with people who see it in their daily lives [28:48] or see it through their families. [28:49] And I think that as this war continues without an obvious end in sight, [28:54] and these deployments are going to continue, you know, unrelieved for a while, [28:59] you know, there's going to be demands, certainly you'll hear on Capitol Hill, [29:03] for a plan for how to address the issues. [29:07] Yeah, I'm curious, Kevin, how you see this playing out on Capitol Hill, [29:10] because we know the president's strategy right now, at least as described to Axios, [29:13] is to be low-keying it, essentially sort of slowly dragging things out [29:17] to try to build up economic pressure on the Iranians. [29:19] But the reality is, the Iranians, in a way, are low-keying it with us as well. [29:23] They are dragging it out. [29:24] They understand the economic pressure our country is under. [29:27] And the difference between the Trump administration and the Iranian regime [29:31] is they are facing midterms here. [29:33] The Iranian leaders do not have to deal with democracy at home, [29:36] and the voters' will and interests. [29:39] And so I'm curious, when lawmakers see all of this, [29:43] they hear about the outrage of families, service members doing their best for our country right now, [29:47] and then also see what their voters, their constituents are dealing with at home at, say, the gas pump. [29:52] I mean, are they freaking out? [29:53] Yeah, I mean, it's an incredibly difficult line for these, particularly Republicans, to walk right now. [29:58] And look, I've been asking Republicans off and on about the Iran war, the gas prices issue, for months now. [30:05] And, I mean, I recall that just a few weeks ago, when gas prices were once again starting to skyrocket, [30:12] I pressed a bunch of Republicans, like, how do you explain this? [30:15] Is this the president's fault? [30:16] And they were always quick to pivot to blaming someone else. [30:20] That, yes, oh, maybe it's corporations that are doing price gouging. [30:24] This is Iran's war because we've been fighting them forever. [30:27] The list goes on. [30:28] But avoiding blaming the president by any means. [30:31] But Democrats then have this very easy opening. [30:34] I mean, they were already building an affordability message as part of their, you know, campaign strategy going back since right after 2024. [30:43] This bill plays right into it. [30:45] I mean, it's a very easy, you know, point A to point B. [30:48] Trump starts the war. [30:49] Your prices are higher. [30:50] It doesn't take a lot of explanation. [30:52] It basically fits on a bumper sticker. [30:54] And in politics, we know that, of course, short sentences do carry the day. [30:58] One thing I'll add to all of this conversation, though, is Congress is now gone. [31:01] They're out of town for the next month. [31:02] So there's not going to be any additional war powers votes, which, by the way, have largely failed. [31:07] There's not going to be a chance to, you know, have any additional say on, OK, we need to push back on the president. [31:13] Basically, we're waiting until September. [31:15] We'll see where the status of the war is then and what the status of gas prices are. [31:18] Part of the bet is, at least from Democrats, is that Republicans are going to go home and face their voters over the next couple of weeks. [31:24] Even if they're not helping in town halls, they're going to be talking to voters. [31:27] Are most of them waiting in town halls? [31:28] We don't see many lined up. [31:29] But at least they're going to be talking to voters because they need to court their vote. [31:33] And they're probably going to hear an earful about this. [31:35] Priya, I want to know what you may be hearing from sources and contacts about this whole plane swap post-NATO summit. [31:43] The Washington Post has this new reporting about the intelligence threat. [31:48] And officials told the Post that the original intelligence came from Israel and the CIA had doubts about it, actually, calling it, quote, low confidence. [31:57] At the same time, other outlets say that U.S. and Turkish intelligence said that it was credible. [32:02] What are you hearing? [32:04] Yeah, that's right, Antonio. [32:05] Well, it seems like a lot of the sources are saying that all of these threats were generated from Israel. [32:12] But regardless of whether or not the CIA thought that it was enough for it to be, you know, a credible, imminent threat on the president's life, [32:21] you have to look at what the actions of the White House and the Secret Service were, [32:26] which was, of course, to put him in this decoy plane and then fly the older Air Force One and the new Qatari model onwards to the United Kingdom and the United States. [32:38] So there's a lot of questions about exactly what the threat was. [32:42] We're hearing that it's a shoulder fired missile that was the exact cause that prompted him to switch planes. [32:49] Also, where that information coming is coming from, which we're hearing is from Israel and whether or not the CIA thought that it rose to the level of actually, you know, [33:01] getting him to get off of the Air Force One, which is what, in fact, actually happened. [33:06] And Antonia, Priya, Kevin, Peter, thank you all so much for your great reporting and good to see you. [33:13] What's up, everybody? [33:14] I'm Jacob Soberoff. [33:15] Good evening from New York. [33:16] And for Chris Hayes, let's take a quick trip back in time, if I might. [33:20] It was on May 1st, 2003, that George W. Bush declared mission accomplished in Iraq on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. [33:30] How could we forget? [33:32] That war, sadly, lasted for the better part of a decade. [33:34] Tomorrow marks two months since what some have called Donald Trump's mission accomplished moment. [33:40] When he posted that his war with Iran was over and he told all of the world he would be traveling to the Palace of Versailles in France with great pomp and circumstance to sign the formal agreement. [33:50] This is what he said back then. [33:52] The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. [33:54] Congratulations to all. [33:55] I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz and simultaneously herewith authorize immediate removal of the United States naval blockade. [34:06] Ships of the world, start your engines. [34:08] Let the oil flow. [34:11] Two months after Trump's mission accomplished moment, America is still at war in the Middle East. [34:16] Donald Trump is secretly switching planes to avoid alleged Iranian threats. [34:21] And Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz and 20% of the world's oil supply. [34:25] In fact, shipping traffic through the Strait this week reached its lowest level in three months, about 90% lower than it was before the United States and Israel attacked Iran. [34:36] That's driven the national average gas price to, you already know this, $4.07 a gallon today. [34:43] That is the highest it has ever been this late in the year. [34:47] The war is also exhausting the arsenal of the world's most powerful military. [34:51] As the United States and their allies have burned through most of their long-range strike missiles and the defensive interceptors as well. [35:00] And today, the Washington Post reports that the United States has lost 45 Reaper drones, 25% of its entire arsenal, in a war with a nation, according to Donald Trump, whose small air force was destroyed multiple times in the past six months. [35:16] That's odd. [35:16] Now, it's not just shortages of oil and weaponry. [35:20] Trump's war is also depleting morale among some of the service members who have been on station, waging his war since it started. [35:26] We're going to have more on that in just a minute, and you're not going to want to miss it. [35:29] What is Donald Trump doing about all of this? [35:31] What is he focusing on? [35:33] What do you think he is focusing on? [35:35] Today in Washington, Trump's hand-picked board voted to put his name back on the front of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. [35:41] It's been one of his obsessions to remake the Kennedy Center in his image. [35:46] He wants to do a quarter of a billion dollars of renovations on the center, including adding marble floors. [35:52] And yes, we have been here before. [35:55] Just last year, Trump's board had his name installed on the center, and they looked ready to break ground on the renovations. [36:01] But then a judge said no. [36:03] So they eventually removed his name from the wall behind a tarp, safe from public view. [36:06] I went to see the mess myself after the judge ordered the administration take his name down. [36:11] Did he leave that tarp up because he was embarrassed about the removal? [36:17] You decide. [36:19] But now it might be back, the name at least. [36:22] The board voted to install an inscription saying, [36:25] Restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump. [36:30] And they voted to close the main hall down for those renovations. [36:33] Both moves violate the judge's order, but Trump wants this so, so, so badly. [36:38] This week, PolitiFact reviewed all of Donald Trump's public events and speeches so far this year, [36:42] and they found that he had devoted nearly 45,000 words just to his vanity construction projects in Washington. [36:49] That is almost as many words as there are in Great Gatsby. [36:52] More, I think, than the latest book that I wrote about the costliest wildfire event in American history. [36:56] In fact, the review found that Trump mentioned his projects more than any other single topic except one. [37:02] Guess what? [37:03] The Iran War. [37:05] And it was pretty, pretty, pretty close, as Larry might say. [37:08] But PolitiFact notes the Iran War led the list when he was responding to reporters' questions about the war. [37:16] In other words, when the subject chosen was the subject that was chosen for him. [37:21] But they added, Trump returned to the construction projects repeatedly when he was the one choosing what to talk about. [37:30] He always comes back to the ballroom or the pool or the new marble floors in the Kennedy Center beneath his name in gold. [37:37] That is what he is focused on, not the war, and certainly not the more than 5,000 sailors and marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. [37:48] Get this. [37:49] The same aircraft carrier from George W. Bush's photo op left its home port last November, just after Donald Trump was elected, just after he was elected. [37:58] It left San Diego last November and headed for the Persian Gulf. [38:02] And by April, deep into Trump's war, the USS Lincoln went viral as friends and families were sharing photos that sailors had taken, look at this, of the meager portions those sailors got from the ship's mess halls. [38:16] They blamed the logistics of such a long deployment. [38:19] Pete Hegsett called those reports, these pictures, fake news. [38:26] That was back when the Lincoln crew thought their deployment would end in May. [38:29] It did not end in May. [38:29] They remained at sea today. [38:31] They're still there, 265 days after they left home. [38:35] Last week, MS Now's Priya Sridhar interviewed more than a dozen family members who say they're extremely concerned with the morale and the safety and the conditions on the ship. [38:44] They cited things like moldy showers and food shortages, sailors running out of toothpaste, deodorant and soap, too, as well as water contamination and mail disruptions. [38:57] It left care packages undelivered. [38:59] A lot of people warned that their sailors' mental health was at risk. [39:05] You know, fresh food is a problem, especially considering the conditions right now. [39:09] Just, I mean, there's a logistical problem with getting fresh food out there just based on where they are, right? [39:14] All he's really told me is there was a time where he was only eating half a cup of rice and two tortillas. [39:19] They want our support. [39:20] And part of that support means we have to have the tools to do our job. [39:25] That means the fuel. [39:26] That means the food, right? [39:28] That means the food. [39:29] That means the toothpaste and the deodorant. [39:31] That means all of it, right? [39:32] I don't think it's the ship is the issue. [39:35] I think it's our president. [39:39] It's our government. [39:40] Did you hear that? [39:43] I don't think it's the ship that's the issue. [39:46] I think it's our president. [39:47] It's our government. [39:49] This week, Military Times discovered multiple incidents in which sailors on the Lincoln attempted to jump overboard. [39:56] That's 60 feet down. [39:58] Pete Hegseth stopped short of calling that fake news today, but he seemed to deny that there were any problems on the Lincoln. [40:03] We do know that at least one Lincoln sailor did jump off the ship, but miraculously, he was rescued after an hour in the open ocean. [40:33] We know that because his wife today spoke exclusively, was treated her of MS Now, and shared texts from her husband earlier in the Lincoln's deployment, including one text that said, quote, the boat is finally getting to me. [40:49] Now members of Congress from both parties are demanding answers from the Pentagon about the Lincoln's cursed deployment. [40:55] And while there is certainly no mission accomplished victory banner hanging off the control tower of the Lincoln anymore, Donald Trump's pointless war in the Middle East drags on. [41:04] And this time, the USS Abraham Lincoln, the sailors, and the service members are calling for help, help to understand what their mission actually is. [41:16] Priya Sridhar is our MS Now Pentagon correspondent who has done truly incredible reporting on the hardships facing the crew of the Lincoln. [41:23] Priya, thank you so much for being here and for your reporting. [41:27] Thanks so much, Jacob. [41:28] Let me ask you, we had seen reports that sailors attempted to jump overboard from the Lincoln and were stopped, too. [41:36] But you have this reporting that one sailor actually did end up in the water. [41:39] Can you tell us a little bit more about that? [41:41] Yeah, that's right, Jacob. [41:42] And I actually just spoke to his 19-year-old wife who said that she saw him for the first time since he went on this deployment. [41:50] And by the way, he finally got to meet his five-month-old daughter who was born back in February while he was on the ship. [41:58] But now he is actually in the Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego because he got medically evacuated off of that ship after he tried to jump and take his life last Monday. [42:10] And his wife shared with me that she was growing increasingly concerned over some of the text messages that he had been sending to her since about halfway through the ship's deployment. [42:21] He was talking to her about being exhausted and hopeless, and he worked on the aircraft carrier's flight deck as a mechanic on the helicopter squadron. [42:32] And he shared with her that his prescription contact lenses had expired and that he was worried that he was having issues seeing and that that could potentially lead to accidents. [42:42] And he expressed those concerns and also some of the concerns over his mental health with his chain of command and with the ship's medical team, according to her. [42:53] And she says that they basically just brushed it off. [42:56] Now, what's even more concerning about all of this is she says that she learned about her husband's suicide attempt from one of his squadron mates. [43:04] And when she discovered that it was actually him who had jumped off the ship, she attempted to reach out to the Navy several times and didn't receive any sort of response until five days later. [43:16] So I think all of this, Jacob, just really shines a spotlight on the mental toll that it's this ongoing war in Iran is taking on our service members. [43:27] Well, it sounds like there was some kind of response from the Pentagon, you said. [43:30] But I wonder what more of the Navy or the Pentagon are doing about any of this. [43:33] What does your reporting tell you? [43:35] Yeah, that's right, Jacob. [43:36] So last week, I also exclusively reported on these two back-to-back town halls that Navy leaders held. [43:43] One was in person with the acting secretary of the Navy, Hung Kao, and about 200 family members in San Diego. [43:50] And actually, in that town hall, they confronted the secretary of the Navy about this report of a sailor who went overboard. [43:59] And another Navy leader who was there basically said that the situation was under investigation. [44:04] And it was unclear at that point if this sailor had actually intentionally jumped off the ship or if he had fallen off. [44:11] But this Navy leader said that that sailor was fine and that was met with a lot of anger from the families. [44:19] Now, Navy leaders inside of the Pentagon have told me that they have not seen an uptick in any sort of suicide ideations on this deployment. [44:27] But they said that they can't obviously specifically comment on any service members' medical records for privacy reasons. [44:35] The conditions sound horrific. [44:39] And I did see that an anonymous active-duty sailor wrote an opinion piece for the Military Times. [44:43] And it was called, If Long Deployments Are the Future, Endurance Can't Be the Navy's Only Plan. [44:50] It's got to be unusual for service members to write opinion pieces like this. [44:52] What does it tell you about the military morale six months into this war with the 30 seconds that we have left? [44:58] Yeah, Jacob, I think that the service members are desperate and I think that's why these family members are trying to sound the alarm here. [45:06] You know, what's going on with the Navy right now is unprecedented. [45:10] The Lincoln hit a modern-day record for the most continuous days at sea. [45:14] They didn't have a port call for 208 days. [45:17] That's completely unheard of. [45:19] The Ford that was also deployed in Operation Epic Fury hit a record for the longest deployment in modern Navy history. [45:27] So what's going on right now with the Navy is something that historically has never happened. [45:32] And that is what's prompting these service members and these family members to speak out, Jacob. [45:37] Priya Sridhar, thank you so much for being here. [45:39] I appreciate it.