MS NOW anchor and former Republican Party chairman Michael Steele barely concealed his anger on Thursday while laying out the suffering that President Donald Trump's war in Iran has inflicted on U.S. Navy sailors.
The USS Abraham Lincoln has become a poster child for the issue, having been deployed to the Persian Gulf for a record amount of time, leaving sailors with strained resources and a mental health crisis.
"There are 18 families who have proof ... when we look at how this began, where we are now, and the lack, I think, of regard for the sacrifice of those 18 service members," said Steele.
Steele then went on to tear down remarks on the subject made today by Vice President JD Vance.
His red flags, he said, were "onhigh, high red alert when hesays, we're not going to set anartificial timeline. What if Itold you three weeks? Well, the president told us four. Mr. Vice President, do you remember that? Did he miss thatpart of the conversation? Inthe month of February? March?He told us four weeks when hesays, you know, I have aproblem with the phrase an endto the war. I want to push back on that just a little, because major combat operations are currently not ongoing."
"Well, sir, that's not the definition of a war," said Steele. Regardless of whether combat operations are taking place, he said, "once I can still shoot at you and you still be in war, that's what Iran is doing. You have no response to that."
It's high time, he continued, for Congress to "step in and bring some coherent sanity to this madness before more lives are lost."
"We have the USS Lincoln just docking, taking, getting to a port after how many months at sea. And no one in this government had the common sense to realize we can't leave that big-behind ship out there all this time, with none of the soldiers or sailors getting off at a port. Someone has got to take control of this. The country at this November election is going to be looking to someone to do that, because clearly these numbnuts can't do it."