Why are Navy sailors trying to jump off the USS Abraham Lincoln?

0:02This is a global production. This was a war of Donald Trump's choice. And pretending that everything is OK and hunky-dory and just fine and dandy on board that Abraham Lincoln just isn't washing. Donald Trump has dismissed the concerns over the USS Abraham Lincoln and the conditions, but he's gone even further. He has basically said that this deployment that families say is unlike any other that their relatives have been on is not nearly long enough. I think just sounds sort of tone deaf. And you just have to listen, of course, to the members' families, sailors' families, that have come out and broken cover about what their family are facing on board the Lincoln.

0:47There are the resources people need to be out there for multi-month deployments. But the actual ships themselves feel like floating prisons. I mean, the quarters in which the sailors sleep are smaller than actual prison cells, than penitentiaries here in the United States. But then you talk about food disappearing. You talk about the deployments getting extended. And you have a pressure cooker that is built for mental health crisis. Mr. President, is there enough food on the USS Lincoln? Yeah, it is. That was a CNN fake report. The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time, good period of time.

1:29But over the years, we've had him out there much longer. I was at a group meeting and an admiral came up to see me over the weekend. And it was at a big group and he happened to be an admiral retired. He said, I've been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir. And I know people on the Lincoln, they say it's beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of. The problem is that the families of the sailors on board the USS Abraham Lincoln are telling a very different story. They have been at sea without going into port for nearly nine months now. A deployment that was meant to be much shorter just seems to be going on without end.

2:13Welcome to the News Agents USA.

2:22It's John in London. It's Miles here in the United States. And this story just won't go away in the same way that the ship, the Abraham Lincoln, just won't go into port. the stories of an attempted suicide, the pictures posted by family of appalling rations, the stories emerging of pipes leaking, of toilets overflowing, of no proper shower facilities, the places running out of food, and yet this deployment goes on and on, is absolutely the mirror of what has gone wrong in Iran with Operation Epic Fury, which was meant to be over in a few weeks, but is not. And so the deployment of these poor 5 ,000 or so sailors on board the Abraham Lincoln goes on seemingly without end.

3:23Well, John, the leaky pipes are the metaphor because the reason this story continues is the drip, drip, drip of revelations from those sailors' families about the conditions that they are facing. This is one of those classic examples in politics where if you take responsibility, a story can go away faster. If you evade responsibility, people keep digging into the details to get to the truth. And what this administration has done is denied that there is a problem. And that has meant we continue to see story after story from this ship about how disastrous the conditions are. Now, I visited the USS Abraham Lincoln before almost a decade ago on a previous deployment.

4:07What I can say is when you're on one of these aircraft carriers, look, they're usually well, you know, well-appointed. there are the resources people need to be out there for multi-month deployments. But the actual ships themselves feel like floating prisons. I mean, the quarters in which the sailors sleep are smaller than actual prison cells, than penitentiaries here in the United States. The ceilings are low. It's dark. It's dim. There's not a view outdoors. Sailors are prepared for that on these deployments. But then you talk about food disappearing. You talk about the deployments getting extended.

4:46You talk about communications to their families being forbidden. And you have a pressure cooker that is built for mental health crisis. And that is what we have seen in recent weeks. Of course, we had heard that troops were suicidal. And now, of course, this report about an individual actually jumping overboard before being rescued and evaluated. This does not align with what the Trump administration is saying. And until the Trump administration admits how bad it is, I think we're going to see more of this. Yeah. And the interesting thing about Donald Trump, when he's under pressure and when he's cornered about a policy, there is always someone who tells him, yes, sir, when I served, it was for much longer than that.

5:29And you just have this feeling that is a total invention. And, you know, what these sailors need to do is just toughen up a bit. And of course, it's tough out there. A nine month deployment is a very, very long time. And I have done the longest I've done on a ship is seven days. And I was in some luxury and it was pretty bloody fine. I was ready to get off after seven days because you simultaneously and this is harder unless people have spent time at sea, you simultaneously have claustrophobia and you have agoraphobia. You have claustrophobia because you're surrounded by people in this very confined space and you don't get any freedom from them.

6:12And you've got agoraphobia because all you see is the deep blue sea all around you and the occasional seagull, but nothing else. And so you feel very, very alone in the world. And, you know, I'm sure that they must have in the Navy at times of war that these things will go on and on. But this was a war of Donald Trump's choice and pretending that everything is OK and hunky-dory and just fine and dandy on board that Abraham Lincoln just isn't washing. And of course, as more and more families kind of tell USA Today or whatever it happens to be that their son is having an absolutely bloody miserable time and can't get any proper food and everything is leaking, including what's going on on board, then of course it paints a very, very different picture from the one that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump would like to promote.

7:06Well, John, it also would be one thing if what the administration was doing is denying that the conditions were as bad as people say they are. But as always, it is worse than that. Donald Trump has dismissed the concerns over the USS Abraham Lincoln and the conditions. But he's gone even further. He has basically said that this deployment that families say is unlike any other that their relatives have been on is not nearly long enough. No, that ship is moving on. That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it's been replaced with another very similar ship. Have the deployments gone on too long?

7:46Are you worried about mental health? Not nearly long enough. Thank you, everybody. There you have it, John, that Donald Trump, who has never served in uniform, has opined that the deployment needs to be even longer. I wonder what you make of that. Yeah, well, I just think it speaks to something else that we've discussed on this podcast over the past few weeks. You know, I've always was impressed during the first time by just how he had this visceral feel for where public opinion was and could always kind of ally himself with it. and now you just sense that he's sort of saying things that are not in tune with what people are saying you know when he says he didn't couldn't give a damn about gas prices going up um that's not the donald trump of the first term that's a donald trump who just thinks i can say whatever i like and there are no consequences and i think him saying oh well this deployment could have gone on far longer you know i think just sounds sort of tone deaf and you just have to listen of course to the members' families, sailors' families, that have come out and broken cover about what their family are facing on board the Lincoln.

8:53Have a listen. What was your reaction today to President Trump saying that, in fact, he didn't think the USS Lincoln's deployment has been, quote, long enough? Oh, my God. I don't think the man thinks before he talks. And I'm just, I'm really hoping, I was really hoping that at some point there would be a redemption. Try to redeem yourself. at least a little bit with everything that you do and everything that you say and try to redeem yourself. Have some sympathy, some empathy, take some accountability for what's going on with your military, your ships, and your war, in your war. It's infuriating.

9:33I mean, we heard what Hegseth said yesterday, what the president is saying today. It's infuriating, essentially saying that families are lying and service members are lying even though the proof is right here on my phone it is not fabricated nobody is lying everybody is is is it's infuriating so there you have a family member just kind of feeling exasperated with the lack of kind of accountability being taken you've also had donald trump um and hegseth apparently at camp david kind of squabbling over the degree to which the munition supplies have been seriously depleted. Donald Trump is in a mess, a real mess, over the Iran war.

10:20And it looks like there is still no visible exit ramp for him to go to that would leave the Strait of Hormuz open, would leave talks over Iran's nuclear stock, you know, nuclear kind of material underway. And you just think this is such a colossal foreign policy screw up on his part. Well, John, the human toll of what's happening on the USS Abraham Lincoln, as you note, has brought more attention to the cascade of strategic vulnerabilities that the United States is suffering because of this quagmire in Iran. One of the things that is noteworthy here is that the USS George Washington is being taken out of the Pacific and is being sent to relieve the Abraham Lincoln.

11:13Why does that matter? Well, that's the only United States aircraft carrier near China, near Taiwan, near the Taiwanese Strait. This is a vital strategic asset that the United States has in place in the Pacific to deter the Chinese from going and taking Taiwan. And a lot of China watchers are nervous about this, nervous about the United States taking assets out of the Pacific in a moment when there's been a lot of chatter about what the Chinese are doing. In fact, this literally comes on the heels of the Taiwanese doing emergency drills for the possibility, annual emergency drills, by the way, for the possibility that the Chinese might try to take the island.

11:56Not a very good signal. You add on top of that, John, additional news over this past week that Donald Trump has basically said he's backing away from allies in the region in South Korea. He's no longer going to do exercises or do fewer exercises with the South Koreans because he says they've been disrespectful to nuclear armed belligerent North Korea. OK, so another strategic retreat. And why? That is because he says South Korea did not participate in his effort to go after the Iranians. Final strategic vulnerability here. The United States has been taking its eye off the ball in Eastern Europe as well, where it's been reported that Vladimir Putin is stockpiling drones and potential military resources for a possible incursion into NATO territory to test NATO's defenses and NATO's resolve.

12:49So here you've got the distraction of Iran keeping Donald Trump from focusing on three potential major strategic flashpoints around the world. And we'll see what happens next. But right now, a lot of national security folks on both sides of the political aisle, by the way, are worried about those vulnerabilities. I think that the story that we start with about the USS Abraham Lincoln is, of course, a story about privation, about the misery of being at sea for that long. But it is also about, you know, it's such a great metaphor for the geopolitical mess that we now find ourselves in. As you say, you know, if you're President Xi in Beijing and you see sailing away from the Pacific, the only American aircraft carrier, what do you think?

13:39What is your what is your take out from that about America's commitment to Taiwan? And similarly, you know, Donald Trump holding up to the world his friendship with, you know, Kim Jong-un, one of the most brutal dictators the world has known and the way he's been willing to starve his own people as that being a reason why America might abandon South Korea to some extent over these military drills, which are there to deter North Korea from trying to launch an attack on the South. And so it goes on. And this just is magnifying through. And I don't see any sign of this being gripped at all, because you do feel with Donald Trump that it's, you know, it's tactics over strategy.

14:27What is my next move? What's my next move? Rather than what is the bigger picture? And I think that in the bigger picture, you know, we knew what we knew what we thought it would be when Donald Trump came to power, which was no forever wars, don't get involved in foreign entanglements. Instead of which, Donald Trump has got involved with foreign entanglements, but has no strategic view of how they end or what this means for America's position in the world vis-a-vis other theatres. Well, John, I'm going to encourage you and our listeners to go read a document that has Donald Trump's name on it, of which he is purportedly the author, but which I can tell you that he never read.

15:10And that is Donald Trump's first national security strategy. Every president is required to produce one. And I know a little bit about this one because I was one of the authors of it during the first Trump administration. Nine years ago, I helped author Trump's national security strategy to lay out his administration's vision for how to engage the world. Now, the dilemma at the time was we didn't think that the president had any sort of vision other than, as you note, moment to moment impulsivity and his own self-interest. And so if you go back and read that document, what it actually reads as is the wishful thinking of Trump aides who hoped they might be able to steer the president towards a more strategic posture in engaging the world.

15:56And specifically in that document, there are three areas of the world that are highlighted as places where the United States will use its power to tip the balance of power in favor of freedom. One is the Korean Peninsula. Two is the Taiwanese Strait. And three is Eastern Europe. Because of Donald Trump's fixation with the fight in Iran, because of that unnecessary war, all three of those strategic choke points have effectively been ignored by this administration. And the consequences could potentially be extraordinary. we'll be back in just a moment with the latest on who's up who's down in the democratic party and the primary contests that will shape the battle for capitol hill in november

16:56the newsagents usa these things are not radical They're not extreme. This is just basic human decency. It's caring for our neighbors. And I don't know about you, but I was taught to love my neighbors. That's what guides me. Some folks like Ashley Moody like to claim the mantle of morality, yet their actions tell a very different story. But we put actions behind our words. So Ashley Moody can call it whatever she wants. She can call us whatever she wants. But in November, she will call me Senator. That voice you hear is progressive Angie Nixon, who just pulled off a major upset in Florida's competition for who will be the next United States senator.

17:59In that primary race, she defeated Alex Vindman, and she will now go on to face the GOP's Ashley Moody, who's the sitting senator from Florida. This is a closely watched contest because Florida voters are preparing to replace term-limited Governor Ron DeSantis, and they're also trying to defend that, Republicans are trying to defend that Senate seat and Moody's position as a close ally of President Donald Trump. Now, this upset in the Democratic primary shows once again that Democratic socialists are showing their growing influence within the party. Now, this race had been very interesting because Alex Vindman, who had previously served in the Trump White House on the National Security Council and became known as a whistleblower and witness in Trump's first impeachment, decided to run as a Democrat, and he had amassed quite a war chest, up to$16 million at the end of July.

19:00In fact, he was campaigning as if he didn't have a rival in the primary. He was campaigning as if he was the general election nominee. But then Nixon emerges, who had less than a million dollars in the bank, and clinches that nomination. Once again, John, showing that democratic socialists are surging out of the woodwork in these races around the country. I saw the results, you know, when I woke up this morning and I thought, wow, Vindman has lost. Now, Alex Vindman, you said he was on the National Security Council. He was more than that. He was the guy who was instrumental in bringing the first impeachment against Donald Trump because he was the whistleblower who said that Donald Trump's phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky was not perfect a decade ago, well before Russia had invaded Ukraine, when Donald Trump wanted dirt on Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, and his links with a company called Burisma.

20:06And more or less, Donald Trump seemed to be suggesting, according to Vindman, that if you get dig the dirt on Hunter Biden we will release funds for you to be able to defend yourself and give you military support and equally if you don't dig that dirt then frankly there's no money coming your way so Vindman was public enemy number one of Donald Trump even more than you Miles if I might say so when he did that and you'd have thought that Democrats would have viewed him as something of a hero for having been the guy and the face that was prepared to take on Trump for acting improperly and that resulted in his first impeachment back in the first term.

20:52And yet he was defeated, even though he had a ton more money to spend than this Democratic Socialist candidate for the Senate seat. And I do think that speaks to the extraordinary appeal in certain sections of this more radical democratic offering of a candidate. Now, of course, the problem always then becomes that you win your primary where you go out to the kind of far left if you're a Democrat or maybe the far right if you're a Republican. But you've then got attacked to the centre to get all those centrist votes if you're going to win the Senate seat. And that's going to be the challenge, of course, for Angie Nixon now is whether she can do that.

21:36Well, you know, this is also interesting in terms of the trend lines of anti-Trump figures who've entered these races. And full disclosure, I'm a friend of Alex Vindman. I've known him since the first Trump administration before he came forward as a whistleblower. And, you know, of course, he's someone who has served in uniform for most of his career, was apolitical and tried to convince Democrats that he should be their nominee because of his bona fides in fighting Donald Trump. But the trend line here is we've seen a number of folks in sort of my dissenter ranks from the first Trump administration try to go run for office as Democrats and haven't met the mark.

22:21Alex Vindman was first, most recently George Conway, famously the Republican lawyer, former husband of Kellyanne Conway, a top Trump advisor turned top Trump critic. He had run for Congress in New York. He also lost in his Democratic primary. And then there was my friend Olivia Troy, who was a top advisor, Homeland Security advisor to Vice President Mike Pence in the first Trump administration, who also quit and spoke out in protest. She had attempted to run as a Democrat in Virginia, but did not manage to meet the mark there. So we are seeing Democrats not necessarily eager to embrace these anti-Trump former conservatives to run in these races.

23:05And the result is that you are seeing opportunities for the Democratic socialists to try to go take on these races. Now, as you know, John, the big question will be, can they go convince general election voters that they're not too extreme? And that's the challenge that Angie Nixon is going to face here. In fact, Nixon is someone who has demonstrated strongly against Ron DeSantis's policies, including mounting a sit in at the governor's office with other folks earlier this spring to protest Republican redistricting. As part of that sit-in, she faced misdemeanor charges of trespassing and resisting, which she is now fighting in court.

23:49But you can expect that's going to become the image that Republicans try to use to paint their rival in this race, Angie Nixon, as too extreme, too radical to paint her as an activist rather than someone who should be a United States senator. Well, I'm interested in what you say there about the kind of the other sort of Trump refusenics or Trump rebels who haven't been adopted by Democrats. Do you think it was a mistake for the Democrats to put, you know, to have Alex Vindman there to be fighting? Because, you know, I'm sure mainstream Washington Democrats were hoping that Vindman would become the Senate candidate in this primary.

24:32and you know i would have thought and kind of just abstractly you would think he'd be absolutely perfect you know a guy who served with distinction in a uniform and he gave evidence you know in the impeachment trial you know where wearing his uniform and looking every bit the he was the perfect american story a guy who'd come to this country from abroad had you know risen up through the armed services and all the rest of it, and yet rejected in this primary election. Well, look, I think the lesson here is the same lesson we're seeing around the country, which is that if the Democratic Party wants more electable people in the general election, they've got to get engaged a little bit more actively in those primary races.

25:16And earlier, they've got to get their house in order, because I do suspect that Angie Nixon is going to have a harder time in the general election than Alex Vindman would have. As you know, he probably appeals to more general election voters. You've got to remember in primaries, statistically, it's usually about 10 % of the party's most ideologically members that get out and vote. That's the same as the Democratic Party as it is for the Republican Party. You have the most ideologically extreme members come choose their candidate. But that, of course, makes it harder for that type of person who's picked by the ideologues to go win in a general election.

25:53Look, what I will say is that if they had nominated Alex Vindman, and I've declared that I had a horse in that race, I didn't contribute to either of the campaigns, but I was a supporter of Alex Vindman. If they had chosen him, this would have been someone who drove Donald Trump crazy in the general election race and absolutely would have made him apoplectic if Vindman had been elected to the United States Senate. The same could have been said of George Conway. The same could have been said of Olivia Troy. But it turns out that in the ideological litmus tests in a Democratic primary, that was not enough for Florida voters.

26:29That did not excite them as much as putting forward a highly progressive nominee for that race. I did think when I saw the results, Miles, that, you know, we talked in the first half about Donald Trump's kind of endless geopolitical problems. I bet he afforded himself a chuckle when he saw that Alex Vindman, who had been such a pain in the arse to him in the first term, had failed and that the Democrats had gone for a democratic socialist who presumably the Republicans think will be easier pickings in the Senate race come November. And that Alex Vindman has kind of, you know, has fallen by the wayside.

27:10And I'm sure Donald Trump, in that slightly vindictive way of his, will have enjoyed that. Well, then there's a question here, John, which is I'm sure Donald Trump did enjoy it. But the question is, who is going to get the last laugh? Remember, Vindman ended July with that nearly 17, 16 or 17 million dollar war chest, which now he needs to decide, is he going to spend that on helping to get Angie Nixon, his rival in the primary elected to go beat the Republican, Ashley Moody? Is he going to help do that? Because Ashley Moody and Republican candidates around the country, they are very nervous about money, right?

27:51Their standard bearer in the party, Donald Trump, is sitting on a$400 million war chest, and he has spent less than 1 % of it on midterm candidates in the Republican Party this cycle. They are starting to panic behind the scenes that Donald Trump has not opened the purse strings to help them. And this is race for race all around the country. Now, it's speculation why Donald Trump hasn't done that. But Trump has made very clear he's still entertaining thoughts of doing something politically in 2028. Potentially, he's keeping all of that powder dry for himself. But now those Republicans, including Ashley Moody in Florida, will be nervous about whether Donald Trump comes to their rescue with money.

28:34So, again, I know maybe Alex Vindman has the opportunity for the last laugh if he decides to spend his war chest to help his rival now turned nominee for the Democratic Party go beat the Republicans in the general election in Florida. We will be back in just a moment and discussing Natalie. She's like Oprah now or Prince. She's just she's just Natalie.

29:14The News Agents USA. And if you are wondering who Natalie is, where have you been these past few days? The Democratic senator, John Ossoff, from Georgia, was giving a speech and he made this throwaway remark about Donald Trump just wants to be flying around. and on his, you know, kind of aerial palace that's unprotected with Natalie. And everyone's going, sorry, what, Natalie? Who are you talking about? Well, Natalie turns out to be this very glamorous 35-year-old advisor, PA. She is known as the human printer because she carries with her, wherever she goes, a portable printer so that Donald Trump can have a printout version of whatever laudatory article she has managed to find that has been written about him.

30:07And it's led to a certain amount of, dare I say, scurrilous speculation. So what is the relationship between Donald Trump and Natalie? Can you shed any light, Miles? Well, look, I don't pretend to know what the real nature of their relationship is, But I think for most folks, you don't have to. What has drawn attention here is that you have this 30-something blonde aide to the president who stands there in meetings and looks at him the way a lot of us wish our spouses would look at us, looks at Donald Trump adoringly. But it doesn't just stop there, John. I mean, you know, Republicans are defensive about this.