Senators press Pentagon on carrier conditions as Hegseth defends report
The USS Abraham Lincoln has been on deployment for more than 260 days — nearly nine months — supporting operations against Iran. Reported concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the carrier have escalated during that period. Trump refuted reports that family members have raised concerns about the deployment’s length.
“That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump said when asked about the lengthy deployment. The exchange took place as the president departed for a New York event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the country.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that reports about conditions aboard the carrier were “completely misrepresented.” His comments came before the congressional push now underway.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona are among several Democratic lawmakers pressing the Pentagon for accountability over conditions aboard the carrier. Concerns about those conditions — mental health and supply issues — have been raised during the carrier’s record-setting deployment.