RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesThe former Marine Corps staff sergeant compared the carrier crew’s living conditions to his own deployment in Afghanistan
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Fox News presenter Joey Jones is under fire following a three-minute on-air outburst targeting service members deployed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln who recently voiced concerns about deteriorating shipboard conditions .
Sailors and their families have complained about conditions, including the food, on the ship given its deployment for more than 200 days. The carrier has been in the Middle East helping in Donald Trump’s war in Iran. Administration officials, including the president, have dismissed concerns about the conditions.
“How weak are you?” Jones asked while co-hosting Fox News’s “The Big Weekend Show” on Saturday, reacting to a segment that originally aired Thursday on CNN .
“On TV, complaining about tuna and noodles?” Jones said. “I’m sorry, you volunteered to serve your country. You can come back, get out of the military, and do like all of these Democrat veterans and complain about it and make commercials and be a sellout if you want to.”
On social media, critics immediately turned the host’s own framing against him.
“Put him on that ship for the same length of time under similar conditions,” user Darryl Brown posted on X .
Another commentator, Doan Jeannot, called the remarks “hilarious given that MAGA is the truest personification of weakness.”
The host’s remarks followed an anonymous interview with a sailor stationed on the aircraft carrier, which has been in the Middle East since Nov. 21, 2025. It was recently announced that the ship would return home after more than 250 days.
“I would say morale’s pretty low, and not just in the division, like in the ship entirely,” the service member told CNN, adding that crew members were running low on food. “I mean at some points in the day it would just be about noodles and tuna mixed in together, and that was it … sometimes you get a corndog, sometimes you get a hot dog.”
Following the clip, Jones, a former Marine Corps staff sergeant who lost both legs to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2010, drew comparisons to his own military service.
“To sit there and say that it was terrible because you had a corn dog and a hot dog?” Jones said. “I would’ve traded a block of C-4 to the Taliban for a hot dog by about July 2010. I just do not understand the mentality.”
Viewers quickly condemned the network’s tone toward deployed personnel.
“Good job Fox News, let's shame service members,” X user @crimephotosss wrote in response .
“So now they’ve successfully dehumanized all Hispanics, Democrats and now they’re going after the military,” another X user, Ann Panel, wrote . “Making fun of our service men and women is absolutely shocking. These people go out and are willing to sacrifice their lives for this country.”
The host's remarks come as the carrier strike group faces growing concern following reports of severe supply shortages, declining mental health and incidents of sailors jumping overboard, according to Stars and Stripes .
Top administration officials have consistently downplayed the reported hardships aboard the vessel.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the military’s logistics during a visit to Panama, telling reporters : “We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere conditions with less port calls — it’s incredible.”
Speaking at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, President Donald Trump flatly disputed accounts of sailors jumping into the ocean.
“No, they’re not,” Trump said when asked about the reports . “That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship.”
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