'This Week' Transcript 8-16-26: Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Adm. Mike Mullen, Sen. Ruben Gallego, Sen. Bill Cassidy & the Generational Divide in the Democratic Party
This is a rush transcript of "This Week" airing Sunday, August 16.
A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday, August 16, 2026 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the "This Week" transcript archive.
MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC “THIS WEEK” CO-ANCHOR: And I'm joined now by the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.
Good to see you, Admiral Mullen.
Just your reaction to what you've seen and the deployment, 200 days without a port call?
ADM. MIKE MULLEN, FORMER JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CHAIR & U.S. NAVY (RET.): Well, it's significant, and it's tough. Those deployments are very, very difficult. Historically, we've been able to typically go to a -- go to a port to take a break, do maintenance, and then come back online. Even back in Vietnam, a timeframe we did that.
The problem right now is in the AOR, the places we would do that, Bahrain, in the theater, Bahrain or in the United Arab Emirates, those are -- those are targeted right now. In fact, we've, because of that, established a base down in Diego Garcia. But even Diego Garcia, the Iranians have taken a shot at. So, the security and that the safety and security, obviously, of these assets is hugely concerning. So, there just isn't an easy place to go in terms of a port visit.
RADDATZ: You told me you were a bit appalled by -- by this.
MULLEN: Well, I was certainly -- from what I could see in the -- in the news reports, that the conditions on the ship were certainly of great concern. Now I know the commanding officer, in particular the commanding officer of the Lincoln is working these issues hard. And I also believe the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
Some of these problems, I was connected with Admiral Cooper last night, who was on the ship yesterday, and he told me he had a really good visit. He said many of these problems were early in the deployment and they were solved. But those -- these are morale issues on a ship, which you really have to focus on. And they have been pressed in combat -- the number of missions, the accomplishments. Cooper talked about how significant they have been in the war itself.
And my experience is these crews will do absolutely everything to make sure the mission goes well. And they clearly have done that on Lincoln.
RADDATZ: And we know that, and we know they're pressed, and Admiral Cooper, we did see fly out there to check on things. He sounds like he has confirmed that there were some problems. If they were problems that were solved, what does that say about the planning to begin with that they happened at any time?
MULLEN: Well, I think we clearly didn't expect the -- our allies’ bases where we have had people before to be wiped out --
RADDATZ: By the Iranians because of the war?
MULLEN: By the Iranians. And that happened in Bahrain and Kuwait and in the UAE.
And so those places where we normally would go for some rest and relaxation, they just -- they weren't usable. So the planning with respect to that, I think you had to adjust on the fly, and it became very, very difficult to find a place to do that. So, basically, you end up staying at sea.
And Lincoln, while certainly very much in the headlines now, she is not the first carrier in a long deployment. There have been almost no carriers in recent years that have gotten back home on time.
One of the positives of Cooper's visit yesterday is he announced to the crew that they're going home. And I can tell you the uplift in morale when you have that, even if they don't have an exact date, you know you've got a relief that George Washington is coming from the Pacific. And so, the morale is up significantly from where it was just a few days ago.
And I just can't emphasize enough how well this group has performed. And when you're at war, you -- there's always adjustments. You've got to be flexible and adaptable. Things change.
So could you plan for this? That would have been pretty difficult to predict.
RADDATZ: Okay. And I want to say that like Bradley Cooper, I'm sure, Admiral Cooper, raised morale, but let me repeat what President Trump said when asked about the deployment, whether it had gone on too long and about the mental health. He said, “No, no, no,” adding that it has not been nearly enough.
What do you think of that?
MULLEN: Well, we -- I mean, we focused on mental health, I mean, for the last 20, 25 years coming through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the services have done that. And there are always challenges with that even in some of the most benign environments. So -- so I'm sure that the chain of command has addressed that issue.
RADDATZ: How about the president's statement, however?
MULLEN: The deployments -- we learned -- in Vietnam, we deployed for a year at a time there. That's just too long. You wear yourself out. You actually start to cash in future readiness significantly.
These ships, these people, these families, you know, need to basically come back, figure out how to get ready for the next post, but it takes time to do that.
And in particular with the carriers, I mean, we've only got 11 of them. I was involved in a debate with Rumsfeld back in the early 2000s, who moved us down from 12 to 11. We actually need more, I think, in the current environment if we're going to deploy them like this.
So there's a sacrifice of the future, which we're eating now as well, particularly with the capability that we've got.
RADDATZ: I know one thing, I just want to go back to the extension a little bit. A retired general I spoke to last night was reminding me in Iraq, when they extended these time periods. He said it practically broke the force.
MULLEN: Yeah, I -- I mean, I've been around the Navy my whole life, and we've been on an extended deployment. I don't think that this will do that for the Navy. I get the concern, although I think the word now that they have a relief and that they're going to come home is going to, you know, relieve that. I think people deploying on aircraft carriers even with a set date when they start, because none of them have come home on time, have an expectation that just may not happen.
And the other thing that's so important here are the families. We work hard to take care of them. Obviously, they're concerned. They, too, obvious -- their morale, I think, will go up significantly now that they know they're coming home.
RADDATZ: I'm sure it will. Thanks for joining us this morning, Admiral.
MULLEN: Okay, Martha.
RADDATZ: Okay, thank you.
MULLEN: All right.
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