U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday that the ordeal endured by sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln was “unforgivable,” and demanded that President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth be held accountable for what she described as an “egregious lack of planning.” The statement came hours after The New York Times reported that the aircraft carrier had finally departed the Middle East and begun its journey home to San Diego, capping a deployment that stretched to nine months and became one of the most scrutinized Navy operations of the war with Iran.
Duckworth’s statement, posted to X at 4:51 p.m. on August 20, 2026, read in full:
“What our troops endured aboard the USS Lincoln is unforgivable. Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth must answer for this egregious lack of planning. Our servicemembers cannot keep paying the price for their failures.”
The senator’s post came directly in response to a New York Times article published Thursday confirming that the Abraham Lincoln, along with its roughly 5,000-member crew, had left the Middle East and begun the estimated 13,000-mile voyage home. The carrier’s departure was first alluded to by Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, in a Wall Street Journal opinion essay published Sunday in which he wrote sailors should “enjoy the well-deserved reunion soon.”
According to the Times, the Abraham Lincoln departed San Diego on November 21, 2025, and spent all 272 days since at sea, aside from a brief stop in Guam in December and a resupply visit to Oman. The carrier has now been replaced in the region by the Japan-based USS George Washington, which Central Command said began operating under its control on Wednesday.
The deployment’s length became a flashpoint in recent weeks after Navy Times and Stars and Stripes reported deteriorating conditions aboard the ship, including shortages of basic supplies, contaminated water, plumbing failures and a worsening mental health crisis among the crew, with multiple reported attempts by sailors to go overboard. The New Republic reported this week that the resupply breakdown stemmed from Iran’s destruction of Naval Support Activity Bahrain, the Navy’s main logistics hub in the region, forcing operations to shift to a British base on Diego Garcia roughly 2,200 miles away.
Hegseth publicly dismissed those accounts as “completely misrepresented” during a press availability while traveling in Panama, telling reporters that “every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment.” He did not address specific reports of water contamination, food shortages or the man-overboard incidents. Natalie Oliverio, the Military Times reporter who broke the original story, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that Hegseth’s response amounted to “gaslighting” of the force.
Duckworth’s Thursday statement adds her voice to a bipartisan pressure campaign that has been building against Hegseth for over a week. On August 15, all 13 Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, led by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), sent a letter to Hegseth demanding a full accounting of “mounting evidence that conditions aboard the carrier have deteriorated to the point that the safety and wellbeing of its crew could be compromised.” Duckworth was among the signatories, along with Sens. Jack Reed, Jeanne Shaheen, Kirsten Gillibrand, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine, Angus King, Elizabeth Warren, Gary Peters, Jacky Rosen, Mark Kelly, Elissa Slotkin and Chris Coons.
That letter pressed Hegseth on his failure to provide a clear timeline for the crew’s return, and specifically condemned both his “completely misrepresented” comment and President Trump’s own remarks suggesting the Lincoln had not been deployed “nearly long enough.” The senators requested detailed answers on mental health and medical resources, hygiene and food conditions, the full extent of the reported man-overboard incident, and support provided to military families, and formally asked for a bipartisan congressional delegation to visit the ship.
Separately, Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, both of Michigan, sent their own letter to Hegseth on August 17 stating plainly, “As the Secretary of Defense, you are accountable to the men and women who serve our nation. It is time for you to demonstrate leadership, rather than peddle excuses. The servicemembers we send into harm’s way deserve nothing less.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) was the first to formally press the Pentagon on the matter, writing to Hegseth and Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao on August 12 to detail what his office called widespread reports of “shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system.” At the time, the Lincoln had not made a port call in more than 200 days, a modern-day record for a U.S. carrier’s continuous time at sea.
The criticism from Duckworth is consistent with a pattern she has established toward Hegseth throughout his tenure as defense secretary. Before his confirmation, she called him “inordinately unqualified” to lead the Pentagon. In April 2025, after reports that Hegseth shared detailed military strike plans in a Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, Duckworth called his conduct “singular stupidity” and said, “Every day he stays in his job is another day our troops’ lives are endangered by his singular stupidity. He must resign in disgrace.”
During a June 2025 Senate hearing on the Pentagon’s budget request, Duckworth confronted Hegseth directly over the cost and results of U.S. military operations against the Houthis in Yemen, telling him, “Your failures, Mr. Secretary, since you’ve taken office, have been staggering.” She cited the Signal chat breach, the financial cost of the Houthi operation, and what she described as a “hostile command environment” inside the department.
The Lincoln’s deployment has unfolded against the backdrop of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military campaign against Iran that began February 28, 2026. The carrier has spent the entirety of that conflict supporting American operations in the region, including enforcement of President Trump’s blockade of Iranian ports, which Central Command said Thursday had entered its 38th day. The Navy currently maintains roughly 20 warships in the Middle East outside the Persian Gulf, including two carrier strike groups built around the USS George H.W. Bush and the newly arrived George Washington.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also weighed in on the deployment this week, sending his own letter to Hegseth on August 18 expressing “deep concern” for the sailors aboard the Lincoln and criticizing the administration for what he called a lack of transparency, noting the Pentagon had not even confirmed how many Illinoisans were among the crew.
As of Thursday, the Abraham Lincoln was underway on its return voyage to Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, a trip Navy officials estimate could take four to five weeks. Neither the Pentagon nor Hegseth’s office had issued a formal response to Duckworth’s statement or the broader wave of congressional letters as of publication.