Tim Kaine Presses Navy Secretary Over USS Ford “Fake News” Claim

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Are you saying that these public reports and our constituents and the GAO report are lies?

[00:00:07]Senator Tim Kaine directly challenged Navy leadership after reports about plumbing failures aboard the USS Ford were dismissed as fake news during a tense Senate hearing. Thank you, Senator Blumenthal. Senator Kaine.

[00:00:21]Thank you, Mr. Chair, and to our Navy and Marine and to the committee a compliment on the timing of this hearing.

[00:00:28]Um president's budget first shipbuilding plan to a second hearing third. I love that order. In past years, we've sometimes done the posture hearing before we had the budget or before we had the shipbuilding plan, but this year we've timed it right, which means that we can do work we need to do. Uh Secretary Kahl, I'm going to ask you a question that I hadn't intended to ask, but um in your in your verbal testimony, you said something that perked my ears up because I didn't remember it from your written testimony. And I went back and looked at the written testimony, and I I think you added something. You were talking about um deploying recently with the Ford carrier strike group and how proud you are and we are of their service. And then you use this line, "Do not believe the fake news that claims food shortages, backed-up toilets, and low morale."

[00:01:17]And my ears perked up at that, um particularly the the subject of backed-up toilets.

[00:01:23]Um it has been widely reported by the Navy Times and the Military Times, by BBC and NPR, that there was a problem of backed-up toilets on the Ford.

[00:01:33]Um it had actually been predicted in a GAO report that was done in 2020 that the design of the plumbing system on the Ford was insufficient for 4,000 sailors and could lead to problems.

[00:01:47]And we also have a lot of constituents in Virginia who are connected to the Ford, and we've heard this from constituents.

[00:01:54]Um are you saying and and if I could, Mr. Chair, I'd like to introduce one of the articles for the record. Um it the Navy Times the Navy's largest ship continue to be plagued by plumbing issues dated January 2026.

[00:02:09]Are you saying that these public reports and our constituents and the GAO report are lies?

[00:02:18]Senator, in my years in the Navy it wouldn't be a sea story if there wasn't some embellishment. Again, with the food and stuff like that. I mean we I was serving these guys food and there's a lot of things.

[00:02:29]Backed up toilets. The commanding officer did show me the backed up toilets. It's actually next to the where the fire was. So it's it hasn't backed up since but it's just we we have finished some this stuff but Admiral Caldwell wants to comment on some of these things.

[00:02:43]>> I'd like him to but I just want to say if somebody tells me that something that is in the record as true is fake news, that's essentially telling me that it's a lie.

[00:02:54]And it raises honest issues but it raises another issue. When somebody says a problem is fake news then that makes me think they're not going to fix the problem because they're denying the problem. Now, Admiral Caldwell, are we taking steps with respect to the Ford and other ships in that category to make sure that the plumbing system is sufficient for the needs of sailors deployed? Of course, sir. I think what the secretary is trying to get across is, you know, it's not a binary state on calling out the article. It's a to what extent. 5,000 sailors a day flush a commode at least four times a day, at least, over a 10-month deployment, which is what, you know, this went a little bit into almost 11 exactly. That's 6 million flushes.

[00:03:39]That's a lot of flushes. We So this is a less than a 1% problem. Now, it's a significant problem when the heads are down but the but the time between somebody flushing a t-shirt in there, a rag in there, a something else in there not supposed to be by our procedure till it was up again is like couple hours type of thing.

[00:03:58]>> let me say it this way. The The reports that I've read including the one I put into the record, the Navy acknowledge that it's a problem they're working on.

[00:04:07]The Navy did not say this is fake news or a lie. They acknowledge that it was a problem.

[00:04:13]What is being done right now with respect to future deployments to make sure that the plumbing systems on these Ford class are sufficient? I I think the plumbing system on the Ford class is a good design. We went away from a gravity drain and normal flushing type system to a vacuum.

[00:04:30]>> current effort to do any improvement?

[00:04:32]Are you 100% satisfied with the >> No, I think it's I'd have to check on the specifics of whether or not there's a limb fact in the volume of of certain piping systems that allow a sailor to do something wrong and clog it and take it down and put it out of commission that I could go improve upon. But if that system is operating in accordance with procedure, then it does not clog. So, would you say that the reports of backed up toilets are fake news? Would you use that phrase?

[00:04:59]I would say that they're highly exaggerated. That's okay. That's what you would say.

[00:05:04]Um two last points that I'll just make as points. One, 250,000 civilians in the Navy, no proposal for a pay raise for civilians.

[00:05:13]There's a bonus pool. But good proposals for pay raises for sailors as there should be. We'll support that. I worry about the message it sends when we're increasing the budget from 800 billion to 1.5 when there's zero proposal for pay raise for Navy civilians. I'll have other questions for the record, but I yield back.

[00:05:34]A Senate hearing on Navy readiness took a tense turn after Senator Tim Kaine confronted Navy leadership over reports describing plumbing failures and living condition problems aboard the USS Ford.

[00:05:45]The exchange began after Navy Secretary John Faelan praised the deployment performance of the Ford carrier strike group during his testimony. But Kaine immediately focused on one specific line from the secretary's remarks.

[00:05:58]Faelan had urged lawmakers not to believe what he described as fake news reports claiming there were food shortages, backed up toilets, and low morale aboard the USS Ford. That phrase immediately caught Kaine's attention.

[00:06:11]The Virginia senator pointed out that multiple major outlets, including Navy Times, Military Times, NPR, and the BBC, had reported ongoing plumbing problems aboard the carrier.

[00:06:21]Kaine also referenced a Government Accountability Office report issued years earlier warning that the Ford class carrier's plumbing system design could struggle under the demands of thousands of sailors during deployment.

[00:06:32]Then Kaine asked the central question of the hearing exchange. Was the Navy now claiming those reports were false?

[00:06:39]The Navy secretary responded cautiously acknowledging there had been some plumbing problems aboard the ship, while also suggesting that portions of the reporting were exaggerated. He admitted that commanding officers had shown him backed up toilets aboard the carrier, but emphasized that repairs had already been made.

[00:06:55]Kaine, however, was clearly dissatisfied with the framing. He argued that labeling documented operational problems as fake news raises concerns far beyond public relations.

[00:07:05]According to Kaine, if leadership dismisses legitimate issues outright, it creates the impression that the military may not seriously address the underlying problem.

[00:07:14]That concern helped push the hearing into a broader debate about accountability inside the Navy.

[00:07:19]Admiral James Kilby attempted to clarify the issue by arguing that the plumbing failures represented a very small percentage of total system usage aboard the ship. He explained that thousands of sailors using the system during long deployments naturally create maintenance challenges, particularly when sailors improperly flush prohibited materials through prohibited materials through vacuum-based plumbing systems.

[00:07:39]But Kaine kept returning to one key point. The Navy itself had previously acknowledged the plumbing issue publicly and stated that improvements were being considered. So, why dismiss those concerns now as fake news?

[00:07:50]The hearing then shifted toward future Ford class carrier deployments and whether the Navy was making structural improvements to avoid similar problems moving forward.

[00:07:58]At one point, Kilby defended the overall plumbing system design, but acknowledged there could still be areas requiring refinement or operational adjustments.

[00:08:06]Keane pressed again, asking directly whether Navy leadership would personally describe the reports as fake news.

[00:08:12]This time the response was more measured.