MS NOW's Jen Psaki was horrified on Wednesday, following reports that the 19-year-old Navy sailor driven to jump from the U.S.S. Lincoln after months of squalid conditions and a lack of mental health treatment is now being punished.
Reports have been coming in for weeks, Psaki said, of "the outrageous conditions aboard that carrier, the exhaustion, the low morale, the lack of functioning toilets, laundry, hot water, as well as the shortage of food," and MS NOW itself spoke to the sailor's wife, who "only learned about what she described as a suicide attempt after one of her husband's friends on the ship messaged her."
"A 19-year-old sailor who had been on a record-long deployment, a sailor who was clearly struggling with his mental health while on the U.S.S. Lincoln during a war that has never been explained by the commander-in-chief ... was struggling so much that he jumped overboard and is now being punished for it," said Psaki.
According to charging documents revealed by MS NOW, she continued, the sailor is being accused of going on absence without leave and "malingering," or a servicemember "intentionally faking an illness or hurting themselves to avoid work duty or service," meaning they're claiming he faked being suicidal — despite the fact he reportedly warned his command he was suffering from health issues.
"To make matters somehow even worse, his wife also said that upon being medically evacuated and sent back to San Diego, he was taken to Balboa Naval Medical Center for five days, where he did not see a psychiatrist or a therapist," said Psaki. "And then after being released from the hospital, he was told to go back, right back to work." He didn't even get a therapy appointment until today, said Psaki.
The Navy, Psaki added, disputes this account of events, telling MS NOW they are "fully committed to the health and well-being of every sailor," and mental health resources are "available to our sailors 24/7," and that "asking for help is a sign of strength."
But this simply doesn't line up with the facts on the ground, said Psaki, and with the sailor's wife not even being contacted about her husband's attempt on his life "until four days after he jumped overboard."
All of this, she concluded, is "really just the latest, most egregious sign that the Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump's leadership, has pushed U.S. servicemembers to the absolute limit."