Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) sharply criticized President Donald Trump over his handling of the war in Iran, accusing the president of showing little concern for United States service members and their families amid reports of troubling conditions on the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.
“Not only are these conditions, and the reports of these conditions, heartbreaking, the response of the president, the president of the United States, pisses me off,” Moore said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.
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Moore, who served in the Army, weighed in on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, stationed in the Iran war zone, after reports of moldy showers, bad food, and a shortage of personal hygiene supplies became social media fodder.
“And it should piss off all of us. I would have hoped that since he’s never been forward deployed, since he’s never put on the uniform and sacrificed for this country, that he would have more compassion for the people who are willing to,” Moore said.
The military conflict against Iran continues to draw scrutiny over the scope and objectives of U.S. involvement. Moore argued that Trump should be focused on the welfare of service members and their families, particularly those struggling to maintain contact with loved ones deployed overseas.
“Instead of saying, ‘I’m going to look into this, and I’m gonna get to the root of this, and I’m going to figure out what’s going on, and we’re going to make sure we’re protecting those who are willing to protect us,’ his response is, ‘their deployment haven’t lasted long enough,” Moore said.
Moore also criticized the financial cost of the conflict, saying, “while he continues to rake in billions of dollars, on a war that nobody understands and that all of us are paying for.”
Moore argued that the military is capable of carrying out virtually any mission but should not be expected to do everything, characterizing the conflict as a “foreign forever war.”
“Our military can do anything. But we shouldn’t be asked to do everything. And now we are continuing to fight this foreign forever war, for a commander-in-chief who seems to have not one monocle of concern for the people who are out there fighting it nor for the family members who are not in contact with their loved ones,” Moore said.
