Reported conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln are concerning. What can lawmakers do?

0:00It's Consider This where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, lawmakers demand answers about life on the USS Abraham Lincoln. This week, news broke that conditions aboard the naval ship have deteriorated. Being out at sea takes a toll on sailors. Normally, they would come into port after a month or so to resupply and let sailors spend time off the ship. The war with Iran has made that impossible. Steve Walsh covers the military and veterans for WHRO in Norfolk, Virginia. Morale starts to suffer. Most sailors live their lives below deck. They may not see the sun for weeks on a carrier.

0:36MSNOW and other news outlets have reported that service members have jumped overboard. NPR has not independently verified that reporting. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded. Completely misrepresented. Listen, we make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. Consider this. Service members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have spent more than 200 days at sea, and reporting shows that it's affecting their mental health.

1:18What can lawmakers do?

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2:11Check out new episodes of All Songs Considered in the NPR Music podcast every Tuesday. It's Consider This from NPR. The carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea for longer than any other U.S. carrier in history. And lawmakers are raising concerns about conditions aboard the naval carrier. One of them is Seth Moulton, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts. He's a member of the House Armed Services Committee, served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, and he's currently running for U.S. Senate. And before we begin, I will note that the story mentions suicide. Congressman Moulton, welcome.

2:47It's good to be here, Juana. I want to start this conversation just by noting that at this point, NPR has not independently verified the reporting conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. But I just want to start by asking you, when you heard these reports of sailors reportedly attempting to go overboard, what was your reaction? What did you think? My thinking is that this is horrific, that these brave young Americans signed up to serve our country, not be pawns for Pete Hegseth in a disastrous war that you can't figure a way out of. These reports by several media organizations of sailors jumping overboard, attempting to end their lives.

3:24Have you heard that directly? Are you able to confirm that? I'm not able to confirm it, but from my experience, reports like that wouldn't be getting out if they weren't true. Now, I'll note that the Navy has responded to this reporting. They wrote in a statement obtained by CNN, and I'm quoting it here. We have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship. They go on to say, quote, we take every service member's well-being seriously, end quote. How do you respond to that? They clearly don't. I mean, this is the second or third report of the administration ignoring the welfare of our troops.

3:57The first coming out of Kuwait when numerous troops were killed because they were not given adequate protection for Iranian drone attacks. And so this is a continued pattern with this administration. And it lays bare the fact, yet again, that they clearly had no plan going into this war with Iran and have absolutely no clue how to get out of it. Have you heard anything from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, other members of the military's leadership about this issue? No, Pete Hegseth seems to be more focused on his testosterone levels than taking care of our troops. I mean, it's just disgusting how backwards his priorities are as Secretary of Defense.

4:39And what I do hear from the troops, and I hear this from active duty troops, is that they just have no respect for the Secretary of Defense. And that's not good for the United States of America. That's not a partisan problem. That's a problem for our national security. Have you heard directly from any family members or loved ones of the crew on the ship if they shared their concerns with you? I have heard from family members of troops on other ships in the Gulf right now, not the Abraham Lincoln specifically. And they're very concerned. They're not just concerned for the welfare of their troops aboard ship.

5:10They're concerned for this war, that they are risking their lives for a mistake. And that's one of the hardest things here. You know, Americans can do extraordinary things when they believe in the mission. But it's so obvious that nobody here believes in the mission. I don't believe in the mission. How can our troops floating around the Gulf believe in this mission when it's been an abject failure, when it's actually done more to empower Iran than can curtail their nuclear weapons program or anything else. That's one of the things that's got to come through here is that the troops clearly don't believe in the mission.

5:46How could they? And that's why we got to end this war. So, Congressman, I'm hearing you describe a lack of confidence among some of our troops in Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the rationale for this war. And I just wonder, what does that kind of crisis of confidence mean for the operational capabilities of the military, people's ability to, frankly, just do their jobs? Look, our troops are amazing, and they do their jobs under the most difficult circumstances. But I'll tell you, as a platoon commander on the ground in Iraq, the most difficult question I've ever received in my life was, sir, why are we risking our lives for this?

6:26And that's a really hard question to answer. And it betrays the fact that it's just really hard to risk your life for something that you don't believe in. And I think it's just common sense that that must be the feeling a lot of troops have right now with the Iran war. A question specifically about the U.S. Abraham Lincoln. I understand from reporting that it's been deployed for more than 250 days. It hasn't made a port call in more than 200 days. Is that typical? It's not typical at all. And here's the fact that that betrays. We don't have any safe ports. This administration has done so much to alienate our allies, and they've actually made the Gulf so much less safe since they started this war with Iran, made it more vulnerable to Iranian attacks, that they can't even pull this ship into a port.

7:19As I mentioned, you are on the House Armed Services Committee. What role should Congress play here? A lot bigger role. We absolutely need to investigate this. I've made that commitment myself. And clearly, this administration needs a lot more supervision with what's going on in Iran. We need to have more briefings, more hearings, more investigations. And we need to put more pressure on the administration, on Pete Heggseth and on Donald Trump himself, to get us out of this disaster. That means that it's time for Republicans to find the basic backbone to stand up to this administration when they know what they're doing is a failure.

8:00I hear them say this behind the scenes in classified briefings where they know the press won't be allowed. But then they get out on TV and chirp in favor of this war. And that's just fundamentally wrong. and now we're really seeing the costs. Have you spoken to any of your Republican colleagues about this issue specifically and the issues with mental health and morale and safety of service members on the USS Abraham Lincoln and other ships? I've spoken a lot with my Republican colleagues about mental health issues because I was the co-author of 988, the National Mental Health Hotline, and we worked hard to make sure this was available to our troops even when they're stationed around the globe.

8:41But the bottom line is that this administration does not take the mental health of our troops seriously at all. Donald Trump himself has made fun of troops for having brain injuries as a result of disasters that he has caused. And so we need to do a lot more. It's time for Congress to step up. And we need more Republicans to do the right thing alongside Democrats. So what should Congress do next? Give me one or two specific things that you would like to see your fellow lawmakers do? Speak out as I am speaking out. Number two, commit that the armed services committees in both the House and the Senate will conduct investigations into this very specific issue and restore funding for mental health care.

9:27The Trump administration has been trying to cut funds for 988, the law I put in place to ensure that anyone in America can get help in a mental health crisis. Those funds need to be restored. And when this is happening to our troops, we need to make sure they have all the resources they need to keep themselves alive. Some other members of Congress who have also been raising alarm have called for a bipartisan congressional delegation to visit this aircraft carrier. Is that something you'd support? Absolutely. And I'd be proud to be on it. We've been speaking with Representative Seth Moulton. He's a Democrat from Massachusetts who is currently running for the United States Senate.

10:02He serves on the House Armed Services Committee and also served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Thank you. I want to thank you. If you or someone you know is in crisis, you can call or text the Suicide in Crisis Lifeline at 988. This episode was produced by Lauren Hodges with audio engineering by Ted Meebane. It was edited by Andrew Sussman and Tenbead Hermes. Our director is Jonas Adams, and our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning.

10:32It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Consider This sponsor-free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get NPR Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org. The working class. It's a term politicians throw around a lot these days, but do we know what it actually means? Midterm elections are coming up, and on It's Been a Minute, we discuss who these candidates are really talking about. Watch the full It's Been a Minute episode on YouTube or listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.