8/12/26: Hunter Biden On Tucker Show, USS Lincoln Morale Collapse, Israel Attacks In Gaza

Summary

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Episode Date: August 12, 2026
Main Topics: Hunter Biden on Tucker Carlson, USS Lincoln Morale Crisis, Ongoing Israeli Attacks in Gaza
Hosts: Krystal Ball, Saagar Enjeti, Ryan Grim, Emily

---

Episode Overview

This episode of Breaking Points delivers an incisive analysis of three major news threads: Hunter Biden’s controversial interview on Tucker Carlson’s show and the evolving narrative of his infamous laptop, a mental health and morale crisis aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln as it remains at sea for an unprecedented length during the Iran conflict, and a detailed timeline of persistent Israeli military actions in Gaza during what is officially regarded as a “ceasefire.” The episode features detailed fact-checking, context, and vivid reporting from Ryan Grim, with additional insights from Emily on military matters.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Hunter Biden's New Laptop Narrative on Tucker Carlson

(See timestamps: 01:24–16:56)

The New Origin Story

• Hunter Biden appeared on Tucker Carlson's show to discuss the origins of his infamous laptop, diverging from earlier accounts and suggesting international intrigue, including Israeli involvement.
  • Hunter: “We get approached by Israelis connected to Benjamin Netanyahu…who are shopping this stuff to me at Fox News.” (01:39–02:10)
  • Asserts he never dropped off a laptop at the Delaware repair shop: “I have literally zero recollection or memory of ever dropping off a laptop at John Paul McIsaac’s.” (02:26)

Hosts’ Analysis and Fact-Check

• Krystal Ball references court evidence that confirms the laptop was presented and its serial number matched to Hunter Biden, noting he consistently uses “I do not recall” language (05:16).
• Ryan Grim questions motive: “What’s the point of him lying about this? … Is he just trying to deflect this to Israel now that Israel is like the boogeyman?” (06:51)
• Discussion on plausible Israeli interests: skepticism about Israeli involvement, but consensus that multiple actors (notably Giuliani, Ukrainian and Russian interests) sought to use the laptop for political payloads (07:09–08:20).
• Consistency of ambiguity: “So they found the laptop. They matched its serial number. Like, he dropped the laptop off. Somebody dropped the laptop off. Who else would do it?” – Ryan Grim (08:53)

The Grift and the “Authenticity” Pivot

• Krystal: Critiques Hunter’s media tour as a form of lucrative attention-seeking wrapped in ostensible transparency: “Right now, the way to make money in Washington is to say that you’re revealing how people make money in Washington. Like, that’s the new…grift.” (11:59)
• Ryan Grim highlights Hunter’s ironic “anti-corporate” stance: “I don’t want to be a corporate shill anymore…That’s why I want to live in authenticity now. It’s why I’m an artist. It’s why I’m working with bitcoin…because I love bitcoin, but also because I’m getting paid.” (11:59–12:33)

Notable Quotes

• Krystal Ball: “The blind guy at the computer shop, like, only Hunter.” (09:20)
• Ryan Grim (riffing on Hunter as a Bitcoin promoter): “Have you ever needed to move huge amounts of money untraceably across borders to make purchases that may or may not be legal in the state where you live?...I have a product for you.” (12:46)
• Krystal Ball: “He says that the laptops found nothing that implicates him in trading on access…Well, if we’re agreeing that this laptop is real, there’s so, so much evidence that he was trading on access.” (13:05)

Reality Check and Corruption Context

• Scrutiny of Hunter’s denials regarding influence-peddling, with reference to documented Café Milano meetings, international business partners, and infamous threatening texts (14:21).
• Comparison between the Biden family's activities and the Trump family's more “open” brand of corruption.
  • Ryan Grim: “Corruption that he was engaged in are just deeply corrosive to our democratic system. At the same time, they’re also patty cake compared to Trump’s sons…They’re like, we want to own half the mine.” (15:26–15:56)

---

2. USS Lincoln: Morale Collapse and Mental Health Crisis

(See timestamps: 16:56–24:32)

Harsh Realities at Sea

• Emily exposes dire mental health conditions aboard the USS Lincoln; the deployment has lasted 271 days—250 days without a single port call, a near-unprecedented duration.
  • “My nephew has a friend on board…Six people have tried to jump off that ship. The most recent was last Monday…it defies logic, it defies reason, and it defies basic fucking humanity.” (18:42–20:18)
  • Reports of “gruel-like slop,” moldy showers, lack of basic hygiene supplies, and families being informed about suicide attempts highlight a crisis spiraling out of the Navy’s control.

Institutional Apathy & Costly Policy

• Department of Defense and Navy leadership accused of downplaying the crisis and mismanaging the operation.
• Ryan Grim: Notes both the historic harshness sailors faced and the contemporary consequences of endless deployment: “This is not good.” (20:46)
• Morale further undermined by shifting war aims and the sense among sailors that their suffering is in service of “missile defense for Israel” rather than a clearly defined US mission (22:47).

Notable Quotes

• Stars and Stripes reported a spouse received a message from her deployed husband: “He hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.” (22:04–22:35)
• “They also don’t have a publicly announced return date…It’s a bad situation for everybody. If you support the war, this is obviously a bad situation. Even if you’re one of the few people in this country that actually supports the war, this is a bad situation.” – Krystal Ball (23:43–24:31)

---

3. Gaza: Ongoing Israeli Attacks in the Era of ‘Ceasefire’

(See timestamps: 24:32–38:06)

A Month-by-Month Breakdown of Violence Post-Ceasefire

• Ryan Grim delivers a granular, month-by-month account of continuing Israeli military operations in Gaza from October 2025 through August 2026—actions that sharply contradict the official “ceasefire” narrative.
  • Netanyahu’s own words: “As long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will arise. Not in Gaza and not in Judea and Samaria…Israel rejects the 15-point document. The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.” (24:39–25:39)
• Documentation of systematic violence:
  • Burning buildings, destruction of sewage treatment plants, denial of humanitarian aid, and regular airstrikes on civilian targets—even as Israel builds new military outposts within Gaza (multiple months detailed, 26:00–35:20).
  • Ongoing Palestinian deaths: “By this point in January, Israel was killing an average of 5 Palestinians every day since the ceasefire.” (28:00)
• Humanitarian disaster: Public health crises from garbage pileup, winter deaths from exposure, lack of reconstruction, and denial of basic supplies (27:45–31:10).

Suppression of Journalism

• Israel’s efforts to limit information: Killing and detaining Palestinian journalists, arrests in the West Bank, and keeping international reporters out. “If there aren’t journalists to tell the story, then there’s nothing to kind of take your attention away from.” – Ryan Grim (36:33)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Gaza mother Ola Rihan: “She went to school like every other time she goes…Not even 15 minutes later they told me, your daughter has been martyred...She was in the school when the bullet found her. What do you want me to say? Ritaj is everything to me. Ritaj is a piece of my heart.” (32:58)
• Krystal Ball: “There is technically a ceasefire in place yet on a near daily basis, Israel will announce that it struck so-and-so person…It’s so hard for me to get my head around this idea that you’ll reach a ceasefire and then just continue shooting at the person.” (35:25)
• Ryan Grim: “One reason that there’s less coverage is that Israel has literally killed so many of the journalists there.” (36:33)
• Krystal Ball: “I think Trump knows that he can make this public relations push to say he settled a conflict and then watch the corporate press put it on the back burner so that politically none of this matters. That’s what he’s betting on, is that politically none of this matters. And I do think, sadly, that’s kind of proving to be true.” (35:25–36:33)

---

Memorable Quotes (by Timestamp)

• Hunter Biden’s deflection:
  “The laptop is real. I thought that from day one. But the way that it entered the bloodstream…American media was not real.” – Hunter Biden, (02:11)
• On USS Lincoln morale:
  “Six people have tried to jump off that ship. The most recent was last Monday…it defies logic, it defies reason, and it defies basic fucking humanity.” – Emily, (18:42–20:18)
• On Gaza’s so-called ceasefire:
  “There was supposed to be a ceasefire, but it didn’t happen. She was in the school when the bullet found her.” – Ola Rihan (mother of victim), (32:58)
• Media blackout:
  “If you are killing and detaining the people who are going to tell you the news…if there aren’t journalists to tell the story, then there’s nothing to kind of take your attention away from.” – Ryan Grim, (36:33)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Hunter Biden / Laptop Discussion: 01:24–16:56
• USS Lincoln Morale Crisis: 16:56–24:32
• Gaza Timeline and Reporting Suppression: 24:32–38:06

---

Tone & Takeaways

The episode is sharp, skeptical, and pulls no punches—alternating between deadpan humor, deep outrage, and meticulous fact-checking. The hosts question official narratives and expose what they see as elite self-dealing, government incompetence, and the cost of endless warfare—both at home and abroad. The inclusion of lived experience (deployed families, Palestinians, and journalists) injects urgent humanity, especially in the Gaza segment.

---

For those seeking unvarnished context and critical reporting across America’s political and military crises, this episode is a must-listen—and deeply sobering.

Transcript

[Krystal Ball]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Guaranteed Human.

[Krystal Ball]

The worst time to need medicine is when you can't get it. Jace Medical helps you prepare before illness turns into a crisis. With Jace Medical, you're not scrambling. When sickness hits, you're ready. The Jace case gives you 10 emergency medications, including antibiotics and symptom relief, delivered to your door after an online physician evaluation. Fall travel, back to school. Germs surprise sickness. Don't wait for the cough, the fever, or the pharmacy scramble. Go to jace.comj-as e.com and get your Jace case from Jace Medical today. Hey, guys. Sagar and Krystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist and anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breaking points.com Become a member today and you'll get access to our full shows unedited ad free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breaking points.com. well, Hunter Biden stopped by Tucker Carlson's show this week to make a new case about where potentially his infamous laptop came from.

[Ryan Grim]

It's.

[Krystal Ball]

We're going to. The parts of the story sound legitimate, other parts of it less legitimate. We'll have a little fact check. But first, take a listen here to this origin story or this new version of the origin story of the Hunter Biden laptop.

[Hunter Biden]

Then the official story comes out about how the laptop was left. You left a couple of laptops in a laptop repair store in Greenville, Delaware, which I'm a town I'm very familiar with, so. And the guy was blind. Then I interviewed the guy who seemed to totally believe the story, John McIsaac. I mean, he seemed to be telling the truth, but the story did not make sense. Meanwhile, I'm getting. We get approached by Israelis connected to Benjamin Netanyahu. Like, I know that.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah.

[Hunter Biden]

Who are shopping this stuff to me at Fox News.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah.

[Hunter Biden]

And I'm like, I don't think that that part of the story. The laptop is real. I thought that from day one. But the way that it entered the bloodstream.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Exactly.

[Hunter Biden]

American media was not real. So I just want to ask you point blank, did you drop off laptops? No.

[Saagar Enjeti]

And this is the thing that I've said over and over again. I have literally Zero recollection or memory of ever dropping off a laptop at John Paul McIsaac's. No. The answer is no. And John Paul. So John Paul McIsaac, who's legally blind.

[Hunter Biden]

Yes.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Who on the day when the laptop became public, sat in outside of his shop, he gave an interview and flat out says that he doesn't remember seeing me, he couldn't identify me. And also that his security cameras that he has, don't have any footage from that time. And so regardless, though, regardless of anything, just this, the laptop, according to Lev Parnas, under oath in his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, was being sought by Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine in all the way back in 2018. And so Rudy Giuliani is working with a guy named Andre Derkach, who was a MP in Ukraine and a known Russian GRU agent. So Rudy goes over there and basically takes his dossier and receives information that Hunter Biden's hard drive, not laptop, is for sale. And, and the person that they can go to is this other Ukrainian Russian oligarch who is living in Austria. That's what LED Parnas and Igor Frewin were doing getting on the plane before they were arrested. So how did, before John Paul McIsaac was ever a, A twinkle in anybody's eye?

[Hunter Biden]

I believe that the story that was always the weak part of the story, like, yeah, he drops off laptops.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Even John Paul McGy, okay, from there is no such thing as a laptop. The laptop that he turned, that eventually turns over year later, 18 months later to the FBI. The thing that he. That is dis. Distributed and disseminated, that John Paul McIsaac claims that he got off of a device was a hard drive. And that hard drive had a limited amount of information, a limited amount of like gigabytes. I don't know the difference between a gigabyte and a whatever. And that goes into the hands. He, he, he somehow can't find anybody. You, you could, you. You can't throw a stone in Trolley Square without hitting someone that is. That knows me personally.

[Hunter Biden]

Right.

[Saagar Enjeti]

And he knows that he lived there his whole life. Instead, what he finds through this guy Applebaum and is Rudy Giuliani's lawyer, Bob Costello, he turns over this hard drive. The hard drive becomes the platform.

[Krystal Ball]

So a couple of things just. First of all, that laptop was presented as evidence in trial and they traced the serial number. So I'm reading from the New York Post here, which originally broke the story. The actual laptop was presented as evidence at then first Sun's 2024 illegal gun possession trial. FBI Special Agent Erica Gent testified that the MacBook Pro 13 serial number on the back belonged to then President Joe Biden's son as he sat in the courtroom. So Hunter Biden is being careful. Notice the language when he says, I do not recall. This is his story. Consistently, I've watched literally every major podcast interview that he's done. He has said consistently, he doesn't recall dropping off the laptop at John Paul McIsaac's repair shop in Delaware. John Paul McIsaac is blind and has said that people, because of this, he could not confirm that Hunter Biden did it. There is no security camera footage that we know of of Hunter Biden dropping off the laptop. But the timeline would fit with Hunter Biden potentially not recalling that he had dropped off the laptop. Ryan, important ways to contextualize new Hunter Biden coverage since the second Trump administration has kicked off by saying Hunter Biden corruption, which was very real and which he is not totally copying to, is, is on a level, it's on a totally different planet from what we're seeing from the Trump administration, the Trump family, the Witkoff family. It is not comparable in any way whatsoever. That is not necessarily vindicating. But I'm curious, from your perspective, having covered Israeli influence operations, especially as they relate to the media, how much of the story sounds plausible?

[Ryan Grim]

What's the point of him lying about this? I don't understand, like, if the hard drive. The hard drive is authentic. What I'm trying to get. At what point is he trying. How does it help him? Is he just trying to deflect this to Israel now that Israel is like the boogeyman?

[Krystal Ball]

Yes. And I think the D.C. establishment is the bogeyman as well. I think there were, and you'd probably agree with us, there are absolutely hanky things going on with Rudy Giuliani going to Ukraine and trying to pin this, trying to drum up corruption evidence on Hunter Biden, which really was not that difficult to do. So, yes, Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, they're involved in this wild plot to implicate Hunter Biden in corruption because they knew about the burisma thing. And so I think they knew that if they scratched the surface, perhaps other evidence would present itself. But he says, and Tucker's now saying that he was approached by people, Israelis, he said Israelis. Not, you know, people connected to Israel, he said, specifically by Israelis when he was at Fox News pushing the story. And that does sometimes happen when somebody is pushing a story or when a story is suddenly Starting to kind of materialize. You can sometimes connect the dots about who is behind the scenes trying to make the story materialize by who's pushing it on you, by who's saying, like, you should really cover this anyway. But does that. I mean, I actually don't even know why the Israelis would do that to Hunter Biden. Blackmail.

[Ryan Grim]

They really love Trump so much. I don't know. I mean, I don't see it. Yeah, well, there's something. I mean, anytime you've got Ukrainian, you know, it's an amorphous world. But I also don't see the point.

[Krystal Ball]

And he claims to have gotten sober, I believe, in the spring and summer of 2019. And the laptop was, according to MacIsaac, dropped off in April of 2019. So this would not have. That's why I think, again, he's being careful in saying. I don't recall any of that.

[Ryan Grim]

But to your question also, can we underline. So they found the laptop. They matched it serial number. Like he dropped the laptop off. Somebody dropped the laptop off. Who else would do it? I don't know.

[Krystal Ball]

And from the laptop, we know he was hanging out with quite an interesting cast of characters at the time.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah. And also the fact that the blind guy at the computer store didn't see you does not. I don't need to point out the obvious. Of course he didn't see you.

[Krystal Ball]

It's such a wild Hunter Biden story. The blind guy at the computer shop, like, only Hunter. But to your point about why he's making these claims, I would submit as evidence. D2. Let's watch.

[Hunter Biden]

You know, you could say lots of things about Trump are bad, but getting us into a war we can't win, in which Americans are dying in Iran, that will only diminish America's power and bankrupt us. I mean, that's the only exit, really.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah.

[Hunter Biden]

And make Iran stronger. And like, no, no. Chuck Schumer is like, yeah, it's bad. But of course he endorses, like, the whole leadership structure endorses that. So, like, can't really say, like, they like Trump now.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Yeah. I don't know if they like Trump. Maybe.

[Ryan Grim]

I think it's a little bit.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I think that's.

[Hunter Biden]

Whatever. But he's doing what they want.

[Saagar Enjeti]

I think it's a little bit of a. Well, by the way, I, I don't disagree that. That there is an enormous failure. Failure of the, of what I call the. The elite oligarch Epstein class of Washington, D.C. yes. That are. That you and I both know very well. Yes. And that have. That are as interested in protecting their. Their. Their corporate overlords as they are in protecting anything.

[Krystal Ball]

Okay, so the elite Epstein class, which, Ryan, speaking our language here, right up our alley. Let's put this Fox News chair sheet up on the screen. D3. Hunter Biden, in a deposition that was recently released, is saying that his family is broke. He's being crushed by legal fees. Fox reports the deposition is related to an ongoing lawsuit between Biden and the firm Winston Taylor for unpaid legal bills. Winston Taylor claims the Biden scion owes its $17 million from representing him in criminal prosecutions, congressional investigations, and defamation suits against his critics. Joe Biden actually left the presidency in debt, I think, like, $800,000 of debt. So the Bidens are trying hard to gin up business one way or another. Joe Biden released her book. Joe Biden's about to release his book. And Hunter Biden has a substack that he's plugging in these interviews. Ryan, I think the T here is actually really clever, and I'm as amused and entertained by Hunter Biden's sometimes revelatory interviews on these podcast channels as much as anyone else's. I think it's. It's clever. I do think it's strategic. But right now, the way to make money in Washington is to say that you're revealing how people make money in Washington. Like, that's the new. That's kind of can become the new grift.

[Ryan Grim]

There was a funny point, funny moment in the interview where he says, I don't want to be a corporate shill anymore. What on earth was I even adding to the conversation? It's like, that's why I want to live in authenticity now. It's why I'm an artist. It's why I'm writing a substack. It's why I'm working with multiple nonprofits that are doing aftercare and doing drug treatment. It's why I'm working with bitcoin. It's why I'm working with. You're like, wait, what was that last one? Bitcoin.

[Krystal Ball]

Bitcoin.

[Ryan Grim]

And then he says, because I love bitcoin, but also because I'm getting paid. It's like, okay, what are we doing here?

[Krystal Ball]

Yes. And he keeps saying that there's also,

[Ryan Grim]

like, he is a perfect spokesperson for bitcoin.

[Krystal Ball]

So perfect.

[Ryan Grim]

Like, have you ever needed to move huge amounts of money untraceably across borders to make purchases that may or may not be legal in the state where you live or the country where you live. I have a product for you.

[Krystal Ball]

He should be doing ads. Yes, just like that.

[Ryan Grim]

Tag Hunt Hunter.

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah, yeah. Discount code Hunter. But he is also in all of these interviews saying that the laptops found nothing that implicates him in trading on access. He says that he shouldn't have done burisma, that he understands now why that was bad. No kidding. The people quietly in the Obama administration at the time were raising red flags about it. The State Department were raising red flags about it at the time. But again, he said to Tucker, I did not trade on access. Well, if we're agreeing that this laptop is real, there's so, so much evidence that he was trading on access. The Post points out he was doing these dinners at Cafe Milano with his dad, with, with Kazakhstani, Russian and Ukrainian patrons, all easily connected to the government. He was doing coffee at the Four Seasons with the Chinese business associates. And that, by the way, we remember, as the Post points out, he, quote, threatened his father's wrath if a payment was not made. And you can tell when he's doing these business deals, he's on crack. Over and over again, he's on something because he's unintelligible in some of the text messages where he is threatening his dad's wrath. Like, that's actually pretty obvious. But Tucker's the one who did the interview with Tony Bobulinski, who was formerly a business partner, was involved in the

[Ryan Grim]

show, said he met Trump in the lobby of a hotel. I mean, met Biden.

[Krystal Ball]

Right?

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah.

[Krystal Ball]

And Bob Alinsky is the one who revealed the 10% for the big Guy comment. And so anyway, all this to say, if you go to, who's the guy that's done the great laptop breakdowns? I wish I remembered the name so I could plug the website. But if you go to this website, there is just enormous amount of breakdowns. Not about any of the sexual stuff, but about the business stuff from the laptops.

[Ryan Grim]

It's like a YouTuber.

[Krystal Ball]

He might be a YouTuber, but he has like, PDFs where he's isolated a lot of the important parts from the laptop documents. And you can look at the business connections. It's also convoluted and pretty impossible to follow. You're like Charlie Kelly on the Pepe Silva board when you're trying to put it together. But it's just ridiculous. There was intelligence agents that were working to cover up the story, that were using CIA email addresses to organize that 51 former intelligence agent letter, to make it so that when you tried to send the new York Post reporting on this. In a direct message, Twitter said, nope, can't do it. It came back with an error.

[Ryan Grim]

I remember you couldn't do that. And the types of corruption that he was engaged in are just deeply corrosive to our democratic system. At the same time, they're also patty cake compared to Trump's sons.

[Krystal Ball]

Yep.

[Ryan Grim]

Who are just straight up like, oh, Kazakhstan, you want, you know, you want a defense pact.

[Krystal Ball]

Yep.

[Ryan Grim]

And you want. Then how about we, how about you make us, you know, 50% owners of this mine.

[Emily]

Yep.

[Ryan Grim]

Like, I'm sorry, what?

[Krystal Ball]

Why it is.

[Ryan Grim]

Just forget the $50,000 a month retainer. They're like, we want to own half the mine.

[Krystal Ball]

Wide open. Corruption for free for all of you to see. Like, it's staggering levels of corruption. Family business dealings. Their argument is probably internally that it makes them more like the Arab countries who can just like wheel and deal in a way that's better for the country because they know best and they're

[Ryan Grim]

more sophisticated cocaine rather than crack.

[Krystal Ball]

So yes, much more sophisticated. But anyway, worth remembering. And I went through some of that stuff on an after party episode. No, not the cocaine. I didn't go through some of that stuff, but some of the laptop stuff on an after party episode a couple of weeks ago if people wanted to take a look at it. Because the Hunter Biden media tour is amusing and I'm all for him spilling the secrets. We also don't need to whitewash the truth about what he was mixed up in either. So that's enough of that. Let's head to the USS Lincoln.

[Ryan Grim]

This episode sponsored by Lettuce Financial. Self employed.

[Krystal Ball]

Congrats.

[Ryan Grim]

You fired your boss and hired five new ones. Taxes, bookkeeping, payroll, healthcare, and retirement. That's why I use Lettuce financial. Leave a W2 job and suddenly every back office task is your job. Lettuce Financial helps solo business owners organize spending, savings and taxes in one place so your money finally makes sense. If you're a freelancer, creator or consultant, Lettuce Financial helps you save time, cut stress, and get back to the work you actually want to do. Visit Lettuce L E T T U C E Co now to find out how much time and tax money Lettuce Financial could help you save. Less back office, more business. So at the start of the Iran war, the United States had two carrier groups in the region. One of them had multiple difficulties, including the underwear section of the of the ship Catching Fire. That's a Gerald Ford. As well as people accidentally flushing socks and T shirts down the toilets, clogging them up. So the Gerald Ford carrier group had to retreat from our war effort. That left the USS Lincoln, which cost us something like 10 or $20 billion to produce, which costs us, I think, around $8 million a day to operate. I was just doing a little math. That's about $300,000 an hour to keep that thing going. Let's check in on how it's going. Not so well. And put this first element up on the screen. Sailors are trying to jump off the thing as it's been out in the ocean for more than 240 days at this point. Let's roll this first thought, you guys.

[Emily]

There's a mental health crisis happening aboard the USS Lincoln in the Middle east that no one is talking about, and mainly because the Navy's pretty much quashing it. You will read online about food shortages, supply shortages, poor morale among crew members. That's because they've been at sea continuously for 250 days. They've been deployed a total of 271 days. 250 without a port of call. That's unheard of. Normally they would go to port every three to six weeks. Weeks. They have not been to port in 38 weeks. Keep in mind, there are 52 weeks in a year. And yes, the showers are moldy. They are eating basically like a gruel kind of slop at this point. There is no deodorant. There is no toothpaste. My nephew has a friend on board there. And I was basically hearing updates last week when I was in the States in real time. They're not talking about the mental health crisis. Six people have tried to jump off that ship. The most recent was last Monday. You know, when you have not touched land in 38 weeks in over 200 days, things start to happen to you mentally. You know, combine that with exhaustion and deadly mistakes start to happen. So, you know, this is how the Department of War. This is how Donald Trump treats our service men and women whose lives are already being put in harm's way for a bullshit war of aggression that was supposed to be over in a matter of weeks. We are further putting their lives at risk out of sheer ineptitude and neglect. It defies logic, it defies reason, and it defies basic fucking humanity.

[Ryan Grim]

And this is not just a guy saying his nephew talked to his cousin. We can put up this next element. E2 from the Military Times. Multiple USS Abraham Lincoln sailors have tried to go overboard amid extended deployment. Families say so this is a extraordinarily serious. This Is, you know, you go back, you read novels are about like 19th century seafaring, okay? They had it worse than these guys had. This is not good.

[Emily]

No.

[Krystal Ball]

38 weeks.

[Ryan Grim]

And, you know, they're getting resupplied, you know, from shore as quickly as possible, from little, you know, shuttle boats going back and forth. But this is getting dark. And this is what the US has to threaten Iran with as it's going into these negotiations or negotiations that aren't exactly happening, Right. Like, if you don't give us what we want in these talks, you know, we're going to, you know, unleash hell on you again. Because we have the fearsome USS Lincoln nearby, which we spent billions of dollars to construct and many billions more, you know, training and recruiting sailors and supplying them. And if you're looking at this, you're like, I don't, I'm not so sure this is in fighting force. If, you know, it has already moved significantly out of, you know, close range of Iranian missiles, which undercuts the whole point of having an aircraft carrier group, right? Like supposed to be mobile and get you close to your targets. Now if they come under, you know, drone barrages or other cruise missile attacks, you're going to be, you know, the sailors who are in charge of the defense of the ship are not going to be at their peak performance.

[Krystal Ball]

Clearly not so Stars and Stripes, which my recollection is the Department of War has tried to sort of editorially assert dominance over. Also reported yesterday that there's this massive meeting between families of people who are deployed on the USS Lincoln and Navy Secretary Hunk. How, in one case, they say from this meeting, a spouse tearfully told officials that she received a message that same day from her husband saying, quote, he hopes he doesn't wake up tomorrow.

[Ryan Grim]

Yeah, I mean, 38 weeks in, right. And for what it's like not really even in the fight.

[Krystal Ball]

And I think that's what's so demoralizing

[Ryan Grim]

probably for them, the actual for what is that it's there to provide missile defense for Israel. Like, that's what, that's the Navy's main role at this point in the region is if hardcore fighting breaks out again, Israel is down to, as we've reported, double digit ballistic missile interceptors and is relying almost exclusively on the US Navy being nearby to be able to shoot down Iranian, Iranian cruise missiles. Otherwise Tel Aviv would look like Kyiv now, which has basically depleted its, its stock of missile interceptors. And now when there are ballistic missile attacks from Russia on Kyiv, you see headlines of 10, 12, 25, 55, like significant casualties because they're no longer able to shoot them down.

[Krystal Ball]

Yeah. They also don't have a publicly announced return date. And so they're just kind of in limbo. And that's enormously demoralizing, too, especially when the commander in chief is vacillating back and forth between, well, the war is about this, or the war is about this. The war is over. The war is not over. I just can't imagine they were supposed to. The anticipated end date was back in May, and now they don't have a return date. There doesn't seem to be an end in sight for them right now. They did a record deployment without stop. Without. What's the best way to put it? Without a port stop. It's a bad situation. Bad situation for everybody. If you support the war, this is obviously a bad situation. Even if you are one of the few people in this country that actually supports the war, this is a bad situation.

[Ryan Grim]

Yep. Yes, indeed.

[Krystal Ball]

All right, let's move on, Ryan, to your reporting out of Gaza.

[Ryan Grim]

Since reaching a ceasefire with Hamas in October 2025, the Israeli military has not stopped attacking Palestinians in Gaza. Now that Netanyahu is rejecting a disarmament deal and pledging to stay in Gaza indefinitely, it's worth taking a closer look at what Israel has been doing there month by month. I'll talk about that in a moment, but to get you up to date first, last week, after the Board of Peace, the US And Hamas reached a deal that would see Hamas disarm and relinquish power in exchange for Israel withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. An odd thing happened, or I should say it's odd. If you have believed American media claims over the past three years that Israel was not attempting to carry out ethnic cleansing in Gaza and had no intention of expelling the population and seizing the territory, but instead was truly only interested in getting its hostages back and making sure Hamas could never threaten Israel again. If you believed that hearing this from Netanyahu would have been odd, here he is speaking in Hebrew after a recent Security Cabinet meeting. As for the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu is saying, first of all, I want to clarify the main thing. As long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will arise. Not in Gaza and not in Judea and Samaria. Neither Fatastan nor Hamas. Stan. As for specific things coming up in the news lately, I want to be precise here. Israel rejects the 15 point document. I heard people saying you didn't say it, so here I am saying it again. Israel rejects the 15 point document. The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. And when I say disarming Hamas of its weapons, that means the heavy weapons, the less heavy weapons, all the weapons. And we're talking about real disarmament, not fictitious disarmament. Now we're talking to the Americans about this issue. They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some are not acceptable to us. And we know how to stand firm on these things. Now, Netanyahu is resisting the agreement for a number of reasons. Among them is the looming election in which any concessions at all to Hamas, even ones already agreed to and done for the purposes of disarmament, would be costly among voters. Of course, most Palestinians under Israeli control cannot vote now. The deal being discussed is an extension to of the one struck in early October 2025. What has happened since is chilling. Shortly after the agreement was reached, the IDF began burning homes, shops and crucially, the Sheikh Adjleen sewage treatment station, a central component of Gaza City's sanitation network. In September. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, some 2,500 people were killed by the Israeli assault in October. In the weeks after the ceasefire was reached on the 11th, Israel and its proxies killed 226 Palestinians in Gaza and injured 594. In November, Israel continued its deadly strikes with warplanes bombing tent encampments and displacement shelters, conducting one of the bloodiest assaults, killing over 30 Palestinians, a majority of whom were women and children. Troops also continued moving deeper into Gaza City, expanding the so called Yellow line and seizing more territory. On a humanitarian front, aid restrictions continued, with even emergency aid being denied as heavy winter storms hit, causing massive flooding and tents to collapse from the rain, putting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at risk. Israel had agreed to allow for reconstruction as part of the deal, but instead blocked supplies and equipment needed. Israel killed another 130 people in November and wounded 315 in December. Satellite images showed that Israel was preparing for a permanent presence by constructing at least 13 new military outposts inside Gaza. A lack of waste management resulting from the earlier attacks led to a buildup of 900,000 tons of garbage, exacerbating the public health crisis due to Israel's control of all of Gaza's major landfill areas. Israel killed 60 Palestinians in December, the least violent month of this quote unquote ceasefire, and wounded another 244 in January. Israeli encroachment into Palestinian land continued with the military turning the yellow line splitting Gaza into a physical barrier. Palestinians walking Too close to it would be shot on sight, with no indication given of what counted as too close. At the same time Trump rolled out his Board of Peace plan, children continued to be killed in a surge of attacks and in what were supposed to be safe zones. By this point in January, Israel was killing an average of 5 Palestinians every day since the ceasefire. As the winter weather continued, shelter supplies were blocked from entering the Strip, leading to dozens dying from cold temperatures, including babies. One year old Mohammed Basiuni became the seventh child to die of exposure that winter. At least 25 more were crushed to death by collapsing buildings as storms were ripped through Gaza and even more of the population was forced into tents. Even as Israel blocked delivery of tents. That month, 107 were killed by Israeli attacks and 290 wounded. In February, Gaza's government media office put out a report demonstrating that Israel had violated the ceasefire agreement over 1,500 times. With civilians, including women, children and medical workers being routinely targeted. The prevention of equipment and supplies to search for bodies in the rubble led to families resorting to crude measures to try and find the family's remains. One man was left to search for his family, the remains of his pregnant wife, unborn child and children by digging through the dirt with a flour sifter. That month, Israel blocked engine oil and spare parts from getting into Gaza, a move that would have debilitating consequences for machinery, vehicles and generators over coming months. Throughout February, 106 people were killed and another 250 wounded. In March, after strikes on Iran, Israel reimposed a total siege on Gaza, causing fuel and food supplies to dwindle. 84 people were killed as the world's attention turned away and another 247 were wounded. In April, as Israel began increasingly outsourcing violence to local militias, one of them launched a deadly attack on a refugee camp, firing at people's homes and at children under the COVID of airstrikes, killing at least 10 and wounding dozens. Later, a nine year old girl, Ritaj Rehan, was shot to death in Beit Lahiya while attending class at a school made up of makeshift tents. Drop site's Mohamed Ahmed spoke with her mother, Ola Rihan, about the day and she told him, quote, she went to school like every other time she goes. She hadn't even been there an hour when I got the news that she was injured. I said, maybe it's a minor injury in her leg or her hand. Not even 15 minutes later they told me, your daughter has been martyred. I collapsed to the ground from shock. I Couldn't bear it. There was supposed to be a ceasefire, but it didn't happen. She was in the school when the bullet found her. What do you want me to say? Ritaj is everything to me. Ritaj is a piece of my heart. She said. She went on her own two feet and she came back to me on a stretcher. Meanwhile, Israel was also denying insecticide and rat poison. Ahmed Dremley reported on the surging rat infestation. Those sleeping in tents had to contend with more than just the elements and now would be routinely bitten while they slept. 115 more Palestinians were killed in April and 402 were wounded. All of this continued in May with warnings of an environmental and biological apocalypse if urgent action was not taken. Families continued searching through rubble for their loved ones by hand due to a lack of appropriate equipment allowed into the Strip. The physical divide at the Yellow Line had been fortified with newly constructed military bases. On Eid Day, strikes killed at least 16 Palestinians. The world Central Kitchen announced it was rolling back their food and contribution due to financial pressure, noting specifically that the reduction was not due to a change in need on the ground. That month, Israel killed another 104 people and wounded 517. In Gaza. In June, the number of people killed since the ceasefire topped 1,000. Israel also temporarily closed all of the border crossings in retaliation for Iran's retaliatory strikes, which came in response to Israel's attacks. In Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes on tent encampments on the beach continued. Here's the Yassin family surveying the wreckage of around their tents. Meanwhile, at the G7, Trump told the world that Hamas had been respecting the ceasefire. Here he is praising them in his bizarre Trumpian fashion.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Look at the job we've done in Gaza. Look at Hamas. Hamas has been very silent. You haven't read anything about Hamas and we're trying to get them unarmed.

[Ryan Grim]

You know, they grew up with a machine gun in their hand. I think they actually, when they were born, they came out with a machine

[Saagar Enjeti]

gun in their hands.

[Ryan Grim]

That's not the easiest thing, but they've

[Saagar Enjeti]

actually behaved pretty well considering this was

[Ryan Grim]

not the lifestyle that they were taught to have. June ended with Israel killing another 127 Palestinians in Gaza and wounding 570. July saw further escalation and was the deadliest month of 2026. Israel firebombed a family home with children sleeping in the middle of the night. The Israeli army pushed the Yellow Line further in. Hundreds of bodies remain unidentified, buried in a mass cemetery identified with numbers and not names. It's known as the cemetery of the missing. 163 were killed in July and another 624 wounded in August. After the Board of Peace, Hamas and the US agreed to the disarmament plan, Israel rejected it. And so, Emily, I just wanted to. Because Gaza has been fading a little bit from mainstream coverage, just wanted to remind people that there is technically a ceasefire in place yet on a near daily basis, Israel will announce that it struck so and so person or tried to strike so and so person, or there will just be news of like huge explosions in homes and 10 encampments blown up. And it's a very odd understanding of a ceasefire when Israel will say, well, this was a commander who was involved in October 7, so we attacked their home. It's like, okay, but I thought there's a ceasefire. Like this whole, they're Hamas, you made a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. So it's just such a. It's so hard for me to get my head around this idea that you'll reach a ceasefire and then just continue shooting at the person.

[Krystal Ball]

And I'm so glad you did this because I've been waiting for somebody to put this all together, just personally, for a long time. Because it's hard to wrap your head around the day to day in Gaza, especially now that there's a war in Iran. It's just genuinely hard to keep track of day to day what's happening with the quote unquote ceasefire. And for example, you wrote 13 military outposts have gone up. Is it really military outposts? I'm ashamed to say I didn't realize it was 13 had gone up in Gaza since the ceasefire. Right. That is a remarkable fact. And it's something to your point that's getting buried in the coverage. And just the last thing I would say on that is I think that was part of Trump's plan. And we've talked about this, we've asked Jeremy this too, multiple times since he's been covering the Iran cease fire. And he covered the Gaza ceasefire so closely. I think Trump knows that he can make this public relations push to say he settled a conflict and then watch the corporate press put it on the back burner so that politically none of this matters. That's what he's betting on, is that politically none of this matters. And I do think, sadly, that's kind of proving to be true.

[Ryan Grim]

And one reason that there's less coverage is that Israel has literally killed so many of the journalists there. Two days ago was the one year anniversary of the deliberate assassination of Anas Al Sharif, who was the most prominent Palestinian journalist working in Gaza. And just this morning we got news that Mohammad Awad, who is a well respected photojournalist in the west bank and a drop site contributor as well, was arrested in a raid on his home in Ramallah. He becomes, by our count or by account, I saw the 40th journalist who is currently detained by Israel. And so if you are killing and detaining the people who are going to tell you the news, even if. And letting nobody else in, and letting nobody else in, even if the public's attention is waning and moving to other issues, if there aren't journalists to tell the story, then there's nothing to kind of take your attention away from. So. What you just saw was the work of journalists who are still going in Gaza. Abdelkader Sada, Mohammed Ahmed, terrific, courageous journalists, as well as some others that I named there, led by our Middle east bureau chief, Sharif Abdel Kaddus, who's just absolutely terrific. And they're still pushing, but so many of their colleagues have been killed and imprisoned that the work becomes that much more difficult.

[Krystal Ball]

Well, thank you so much for putting that all together, Ryan. Appreciate it.

[Ryan Grim]

All right, that'll do it for us today. Crystal and Sagar will be back tomorrow and we'll be back on Friday.

[Krystal Ball]

Apologies. This one's probably gonna hit your inbox late. We had some teleprompter issues.

[Ryan Grim]

Yes, we did. Our apologies.

[Krystal Ball]

And also we just kept talking. There's that, too.

[Ryan Grim]

Our apologies for that, too.

[Krystal Ball]

Yes, thanks so much, everyone. This is an I heart podcast.

[Saagar Enjeti]

Guaranteed human.