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USS Benfold went days without power in the South China Sea

▶ Watch Video: U.S. Navy destroyer lost power for 4 days while deployed in South China Sea

The guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold spent four days without power last month after a problem with its engineering, according to a spokesperson for the Navy’s 7th Fleet. 

Commander Matthew Comer, the spokesperson, said there were no injuries to the crew. 

The loss of power impacted plumbing, meals, toilets and air conditioning aboard the ship. The issue has been fixed and is under investigation. The incident was not publicly disclosed for nearly a month. 

In addition to the poor conditions, the vessel was located in the South China Sea, which is not friendly waters. Officials told CBS News that the vessel is being protected by other air and surface assets nearby and that they wouldn’t leave an asset vulnerable to an attack “like a sitting duck.” 

Benfold received direct support from the George Washington Carrier Strike Group, and meals from Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls.

The vessel was towed by contracted tugboats into Subic Bay, Philippines, for repairs and was met on arrival by experts from the Ship Repair Facility – Japan Regional Maintenance Center on July 28. The crew was provided food and contracted lodging off the ship beginning a day later. The ship’s power was then restored on July 30.

USS Benfold
File: The Arleight Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold returns to Naval Station San Diego on Jan. 11, 2013. 

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

All the required repairs were completed by Aug. 7. The ship departed Subic Bay a day later with all engineering, combat systems and crew support systems functioning normally to resume routine operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet.

The news about the Benfold comes amid ongoing concerns about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed in the Middle East for nine months. Some family members have said they worry about conditions aboard the ship and fear the long deployment and grueling pace are worsening mental health issues. A U.S. official last week told CBS News that the USS George Washington is headed to the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln. 

Republican Rep. Don Bacon said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that Congress should conduct oversight, calling for testimony from top Navy officials. 

Justice Department to send a record 1,000 monitors to midterm polling places

▶ Watch Video: CBS News political panel on trends being seen so far in midterm elections Washington — The Justice Department is planning to deploy a record 1,000 federal monitors to polling places throughout the U.S. for the midterm elections, the head of the department's Civil Rights Division said this week.Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, made the announcement in remarks to Bloomberg on Monday.The Civil Rights Division has long sent out monitors to polling places throughout the country to ensure compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act. That law prohibits discrimination in voting and ensures voters are not intimidated or otherwise prevented from casting a ballot on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or another protected class.Historically, the Justice Department's own civil rights attorneys have served as monitors, and usually it sends out dozens of staff to a variety of polling places. In the 2024 general election, for instance, the department monitored compliance with federal voting rights laws in 86 jurisdictions across 27 states.The Civil Rights Division under the Trump administration, however, has been largely gutted. More than 70% of its career staff took early retirement or resigned amid concerns about changes to its mission under Dhillon's leadership. Although she has since recruited more attorneys, it remains understaffed.In order to reach 1,000 monitors for the upcoming election, a DOJ spokesperson told CBS News that the department will seek federal employees to volunteer for the effort. A department official added that the recruitment will target DOJ employees, including people in U.S. Attorney's Offices throughout the country.A full list of locations is expected to be made public once the primaries are concluded. On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced it was sending monitors to polling places for primary elections in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Laramie County, Wyoming.While it is longstanding practice for the DOJ to send monitors to polling places, some states are more suspicious this year, given the 31 lawsuits the Civil Rights Division has filed seeking states' unredacted voter data. The division has said it wants to ensure each state's rolls are clean, and that noncitizens are not registered. The states argue the suits are an effort to cast doubt on the integrity of the election process itself. The government has not prevailed in a single lawsuit so far, with judges blocking the requests for data in 23 cases to date.The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, wants to use the voter information to carry out criminal and immigration enforcement.President Trump, for his part, has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election, and claimed without evidence that it was stolen. The FBI has since launched a number of criminal investigations related to the 2020 election results, including in Fulton County, Georgia, and in Arizona.Recently, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes filed a public records request in the hopes of learning why DOJ was deploying monitors in three counties to monitor its primary election.
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