Ruben Gallego

Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said Thursday on CNN’s “The Lead” that the Trump administration is abusing the military while discussing the extended combat deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East.

Anchor Jake Tapper said, “You’re among the Senate Democrats demanding answers from the Pentagon. You’re asking for a bipartisan congressional delegation to be able to visit the USS Lincoln. What have you heard from the Department of the Navy or from the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth?”

Gallego said, “We haven’t heard anything. All we heard is like public announcements. What we’re seeing and what we’re hearing are absolute fabrications. However, I’m actually texting and communicating with a spouse of a sailor that’s on the USS Lincoln. And she’s been forwarding me some of the text messages that her husband has been sending her about the conditions, about the work, about the overwork that’s happening. The lack of sleep, lack of food, lack of morale—all these things that have just been compounding over and over again because this war was not properly planned.”

He added, “These guys do not care about these men and women. They only want to use them as much as they can and abuse them as much as they can and not really think about the best outcome for them. And I know it’s hard being in combat zones, but even when I was in some of the hardest days of combat, in the most dangerous parts of Iraq, I still was able to receive meals and mail and keep morale up. The fact that this administration does not care enough for these men and women to plan for a proper deployment tells you that they didn’t really care, A—to plan for a full war, and B—don’t care about these men or women.”