Lindsey Reiser on USS Abraham Lincoln, Mangioni and ICE gloves!

The list of conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, food shortages, broken plumbing, mental health crisis, this is horrendous when you start looking at this list and what these people who are defending our country and representing our country are having to face. Joining us now. On the John Schuster-Coldwell banker hotline is Lindsay Riser with CBS News. Good morning, Lindsay. I just, you just shake your head and you think how horrible for these sailors. Yeah. Well, and you think about why this is. They've been deployed for more than 250 days. This is a record deployment. They have not visited a port since more than 200 days. And those port calls usually break up these deployments. You get on solid ground, let off some steam, and they haven't had that. And so military families are sounding this alarm about poor conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln. Some say their loved ones are dealing with food shortages, broken plumbing, and mental health problems. And we've got more than 5,000 sailors and Marines on board. It departed San Diego on November 21st for the South China Sea. It was rerouted to the Middle East when the attacks on Iran began on February 28th. We had spoken at CBS News 24-7 to retired Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, and he had said that they really try and mitigate. the harms to the personal experience with R&R visits, keeping deployments to a reasonable cycle. He had said that should be six or seven months. So we are above the six-month threshold. The Navy is saying that... They did have a sailor go overboard earlier this month. That sailor was safely rescued. It's under investigation. I should note, it's unclear the circumstances around why this sailor went overboard. But it is coming as we have had these reports and families are raising these concerns about mental health crises. They're saying that there has been an uptick in suicidal ideations among sailors. The defense secretary is. downplaying all of that and saying that it's being woefully misrepresented. The Navy is saying their numbers are showing they do not have an uptick. But. We also know now that the USS George Washington is en route to relieve the USS Lincoln. And so that is good news. Militarily, it's going to leave the Indo-Pacific region uncovered essentially. I should mention there's only about 10 or so of these large fleet carriers. So that is why they have these long deployments. And so it still is going to take several more weeks for the Lincoln to come back to port in San Diego. But I spoke with Mark Kansian.

of the Center for Strategic Studies last night. And he said at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel for these sailors. At least they know that there will be an end to their deployment. And I was wondering about that, too, you know, if there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But Congress is getting involved. It sounds like senators are really saying we got to do something. So far, two Democratic senators, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona are demanding action answers. Gallego is going as far as to say he wants a congressional delegation to go aboard the USS Lincoln to view conditions themselves. We'll have to see any more fallout today. I mean, the news of this really started breaking yesterday when Richard Blumenthal released a letter demanding answers. And so we could hear a more outcry from lawmakers today on this. But at least we do know that there is relief coming for them. We're following, of course, this Luigi Mangione case because of the link here to Minnesota and the CEO here. But this plea deal, this possible plea deal, can you kind of give us a little more sense of what this is and what it could involve? So sources tell CBS News that Luigi Mangione has been in discussions about a possible plea deal in the federal case. So the defense and prosecution asked for a hearing today at 11 a.m. Eastern. We're going to have reporters there. And this was an unexpected, unscheduled court hearing today. Now, in the federal case, Mangione faces a January trial on a federal stalking charge. This is, of course, in the 2024 murder of Brian Thompson. Before that, he is expected to be tried on murder and weapons charges in New York State. trial is slash was supposed to start next month. And so obviously if there is a plea deal in the federal case, which carries those charges still carry a maximum life sentence. He could still face that even if a plea deal is reached and we're not going to know his sentencing right away. He's pleaded not guilty in both. But if this plea deal does come to fruition, it could have an impact on the state case because of a potential double jeopardy concern. His lawyers might argue that a person can't be tried. prosecuted twice for the same offense. There are a number of exceptions that are listed. Also, they could argue we can't get a fair jury because we have this guilty plea. Now, the same attorneys are representing him in the federal and state cases. And so I asked our legal reporter Katrina Coffin last night on the daily report, is this a gamble for the defense? Because yes, well, if this happens, they are going to be arguing double jeopardy. They could, all of these arguments could get struck down and they could be dealing with a jury for the state trial that now knows that he pled guilty to these federal charges. And so, I mean, it is a bit of legal gamesmanship here. We should learn more after that court hearing. Remember, there are no cameras inside federal court. And so we will be relying on our reporters to run out.

come to our cameras or run out and get access to their phones to tell us what happened. Okay. We'll be watching that closely here from Minnesota. Talking to Lindsay Reiser with CBS News 725 on this Friday, August 14th. One of the things we talked about, we had a primary on Tuesday here in Minnesota. One of the effects of some of the winners, progressives did well on the Democratic side, specifically because of... They think the link to Operation Metro Surge here in January. And this news coming out that ICE plans on giving electric shock gloves to agents is alarming on so many levels, Lindsay. And I want to understand a little bit more about this and how it's possible for them to do this. So we can talk about it from a couple of different lenses. So here's what we know. ICE plans to spend between $10 and $20 million to get these new gloves, these electric shock gloves. They're already being used by some jails and police departments. DHS posted this notice Monday saying they're looking to spend this money. It's called a CTG5 glove. They're literally gloves. It stands for generated low output voltage emitter. The company that sells the gloves says they're designed to de-escalate situations between law enforcement and people who are non-compliant by delivering electrical pulses and shocks. So it sounds, no pun intended, very shocking. Yes, it sounds horrible. It's a lower voltage. Yeah. It's a lower voltage than a taser. And so Tom Homan was on Fox yesterday and he said that this is going to be better because. Agents right now, their only option is to reach for something more serious that can potentially be more lethal. But certainly, critics are saying that this is especially in light of all of these operations to crack down on illegal immigration and these arrests that aren't even necessarily targeting. the most dangerous illegal criminals, that this is only going to escalate instead of de-escalate. That this is certainly, it's a max voltage of 380 volts, people who have experienced it. Like when jailer spoke to another news outlet and said it causes extremely painful shocks. And so... DHS is saying this is still under review. They're reviewing and assessing their options. The ACLU has come out strongly against this, saying that it would be terrifying to have ICE agents using this device because, according to the ACLU, they have already proven they are too quick to use force under this administration. I spoke with Jessica Levinson, who is one of our legal contributors and the Loyola Law School professor. She said one of the big constitutional questions. is going to be whether this can constitute excessive use of force under the Fourth Amendment. So, you know, part of that legal argument will be. How does it compare to tasers? And certainly that, you know, it's not a perfect legal analogy tasers. They are different, but we could certainly see some legal action against this. Okay. We'll have to follow this closely. Lindsay, thank you so much. Have a good weekend. Thank you, you too. Lindsay Reiser, CBS News.