a man named john kirby. john kirby was the voice of the joint chiefs during the height of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. john kirby can also be seen here in this photo with former defense secretary chuck hagel. john kirby was his spokesperson at the pentagon for a while, too. that was before mr. kirby went on to become spokesperson for the secretary of state, when john kerry was secretary of state under president obama. he's had these very high visibility jobs at the pentagon, at the state department, he's also a rear admiral in the united states navy. john kirby served in the nave eas the public affairs officer for the blue angels. he served as the editor in chief of the navy magazine, he serves as the spokesperson for the navy. these days he's back at the daapartment of defense, revising his role as press secretary, this time in the biden administration for a defense department that is now led by secretary lloyd austin. john kirby has been a very, very high-profile person in washington for a long time.

we will be speaking with john kirby, admiral john kirby, the spokes person at the press secretary at the pentagon. lots to talk with him about today. with the fda given full gold standard approval to the pfizer vaccine against covid-19. that cleared the way within hours today, for the pentagon to institute a new requirement, that all active dewy u.s. troops must be vaccinated. that's fascinating new developments, that the defense department. will a big implications in terms of how quickly it's roll out and what happens to service members who may refused to get vaccinated, even though they are required to get other lots of vaccines as part of their service. admiral kirby is also been the main explainer to the public and the press, on the urgent and increasing the massive u.s. airlift after. to evacuate after americans and allies out of it -- between yesterday and today they got nearly 11,000 people evacuated in 1:24 hour period. they had said last week that their maximum range was 5 to 9000 people being evacuated per day. they have evacuated nearly 11,000 in the last 24 hours. that me

kimberly, we heard it from john kirby moments ago. these pentagon spokesman, we heard it yesterday from jake sullivan. it sounds like the us line is strengthening towards the we will get out by august 31st. as the taliban digs in their heels. is that what's going on? well, certainly appears that way. however, the person making that decision, if you are the president, joe biden, the commander in chief of the us military. and he is expected to speak in the coming hours following his virtual meeting with g 7 leaders. as we've been reporting, joe biden, under a lot of pressure to extend that august 31st deadline, so that the evacuations of those who wish to get out of afghanistan can continue. so the us president deliberating on that, but he has to make that decision today because as early as friday, those 6000 us soldiers that are assisting in that effort would need to begin their withdrawal. it cannot happen overnight. and so this is something that is being discussed widely here at the white house. but in the midst of all of this, john

we're waiting, john kirby is updating via twitter. there is supposed to be a pentagon briefing at 10:30. as with everything on the ground has changed and what is going on with the administration right now has changed. let's get over to kylie atwood at the state department. what are you hearing from there? >> reporter: two bits of new news in the tweet from spokesperson john kirby. first of all, this is a complex, in his words, attack. that demonstrates this wasn't just a one-off but many multiple parts to it. and saying there were two at least two explosions. there could have been more. this is clearly an unfolding situation. we're talking to the sources closely monitoring it but it is significant to note that the state department put out an alert to all american citizens saying there was an explosion and saying there were reports of gunfire. so clearly this isn't just the explosions but there are gunfire happening. also, important spokesperson said that one of the explosions happening at the abbey gate. it is significant because that

i asked john kirby, on august 13th, friday the 13th when john kirby sat the podium and stood there and said there's no imminent danger of kabul falling, we know what happened, two days later it fell and we've seen cities fall over afghanistan that week. i asked him how could you get that so wrong? and he said, he stood by every word. he said that was the best assessment at the time and of course our viewers and americans wondering how much can people trust the intelligence community with these assessments because, you know, people had whiplash hearing about it's going to be 90 days, 30 days, the whole country ended up falling in six days. john kirby said he stood by every word. he also said right now that the data to update people. 17,000 people have been evacuated in the past week from afghanistan, but out of those 17,000, charles, only 2500 are americans. and in earlier we received estimates there's between 5 and 10,000 americans. jen psaki at the white house at least 11,000 americans and on capitol hill, more than that. there's a little confusion how many americans are on the ground

joining me now is pentagon press secretary john kirby. thanks so much for being with us. you know, i'm cognizant of the fact that you spent your life in public service, a big chunk of it in the military. what's it like for you to wake up this morning and after 20 years, for the first time in 20 years, to have no u.s. troops in afghanistan? >> yeah, i think we're all still processing that, john, to be honest with you. it is something that for two decades we've all been connected to, without question. and i think it's going to take time for every veteran to sort of process this on their own. what i can tell you is here at the pentagon there's a mixture of relief we were able to get everybody out safely in those last few hours, all the last remaining 800 troops, and we were able to evacuate 600 americans, 123,000 total people out. there's concern, obviously, over the ones we couldn't get out. that time and space and the security threat simply wouldn't allow us to reach. although we don't think the numbers are large, we are obviously concerned about our friends, allies and am

john kirby taking the microphone. we'll listen in. >> give you an update this morning on our operations in afghanistan at the hamid karzai international airport. i'll ask the general to come back up here. i think i botched his title, deputy director of the joint staff for regional operations j35. i got that wrong yesterday. i apologize for that. before i ask the general to give you an update, there is a couple other things i want to get out there first on haiti in support of the u.s. agency for international development, bureau of humanitarian assistance. u.s. southern command develop common operational pictures and provide life-saving support for the people of haiti. they stood up a joint task force haiti led by rear admiral keith davids, special operations commander there at southcom, currently operating from homestead fair base. jtf will be moving to haiti today we are flying eight helicopters to haiti later this morning to help with providing a picture overhead, the "uss arlington navy amphibious shape will get un

you heard the pentagon briefers, john kirby, retired u.s. admiral major general start, assume the >> if they don't continue after we withdraw, we don't win. i guarantee you everybody in my world is not asking about withdrawal, they're asking how do you maintain an intelligence picture to conduct lethal strikes. i would lay any money that you will see, i don't care what the taliban says or what happens with the taliban after the withdrawal, i don't care what the conversation the u.s. government has with them and i don't care what they ask, there will be lethal strikes after september 1st, bet on it. we have to take out isis-k. it is going to happen. >> and i suspect you're 100% right. general wesley clark, let's talk about what you heard. you listened closely to the pentagon briefing. what jumped out at you? >> most important thing is we are continuing with the evacuation. now, obviously we have choked down access, so we're trading off the flow for the security of the marines and soldiers there. that's the command tradeoff. we've obviously go

that's a -- as john kirby said, the military wants to make clear is defined as bringing u.s. civilians, particularly the ♪ people out. that's about 1,400 americans and they're not apparently all leaving. that is a huge number of u.s. military who will be pozed for this mission there. >> courtney let's stay on that nor a moment. in the language of the pentagon, and you know this better than i do. he was asked repeatedly, is this going to be a combat mission. are these soldiers going to the ground part of a combat mission? he refused to use that terminology, despite the fact they are in harm's way. he was also clear on saying this is not an n.e.o., which is as i understand it. a noncombatant evacuation operation, which means they are not there to evacuate other american who is may be working for other private contractors or agencies. they're there to focus on the airport, the american personnel, and the special immigrant visa applications. >> exactly. as you know, today the embassy in kabul told americans that they need to get out. they recommended that americans leave. so de

that is something that john kirby did not necessarily answer. he toldous barbara starr there is still time to get americans out. a few hundred americans are thought to still be in afghanistan. but he would not say if planes will fly tomorrow. so the next several hours in the white house, across washington, when the state department, to the pentagon, very tense as america's longest war is closing they hope in a quiet and peaceful way but they're certainly standing by prepared for the opposite of that, kate. >> let's get over to barbara starr at the pentagon for us. who was in the briefing. this is a particularly dangerous time, something that i wrote down of what john kirby as well as general taylor were saying about the tail end of this evacuation operation. what did you hear that stuck out to you? >> well i think they are going minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour until this is over. because of the dangerous situation they -- john kirby also talked about an active threat presumably from isis-k still ongoing. i want to endorse what jeff zeleny just sa

later, john kirby and hank taylor briefed on the u.s. evacuation efforts and -- in afghanistan for u.s. citizens and afghans who are applying for a special immigrant visa or siv. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including media,. >> mediacom is ready, and we never slow down. schools and businesses went virtual and be powered into reality, because we are built to keep you ahead. >> mediacom supports c-span as a public service, along with these other providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. continues. host: he served as a sport -- spl assistant to rogers of dunford from 2015 to

so john kirby was asked, so how are you going to get them to the airport? and he really deflected the question, so that's a question for the state department. they'll have procedures to notify them. but if they can't get through the taliban checkpoints is unlikely, there wouldn't be able to get to the airport. this is being seen in the united states as it absolutely catastrophe. a tragedy humiliating joe biden is going to speak to the nation, but he is being hammered from both sides of the aisle. because the pentagon said the african military could survive at least 18 months. they protest this wouldn't look like saigon this looks worse than saigon. so they're going to be questions about exactly how the pentagon got the intelligence so wrong and how the situation that they're in right now was even allowed to happen. so good, the big question, the days ahead, right now the focus is on keeping the airport safe keeping it contained would you notice the general in charge of central man met with a child in doha? and he did tell them that if they try to interfere

he was pressing john kirby on a number of issues including is this a combat mission? what do you do when you get these folks out if the airport, if the designated 600 or so people to keep the airport security is not enough? how much backup will you provide? lucas, your thoughts. >> mark that, there's some questions that john kirby would not call this a combat mission when i pressed him. just to go over what is happening here. 3,000 troops are going to kabul, going to karzai international airport to help evacuate hundreds and thousands of americans and almost afghan interpreters. three infantry battalions, two from the marine corps on warships right now steaming to the area and also an army infantry battalion. there's the alert battalion from fort bragg flying to kuwait. that will be a stand-by force being deployed to kuwait just in case more assets are needed. and then enablers, electricians, different folks going to qatar to be able to help evacuate the interpreters. certainly as brett mentioned, 24 hours ago, there were no plans to deploy this many people. now today

john kirby did say that. they have the right to self-defend. that means the situation could change very quickly. our reporting is that the taliban is trying to lock in kabul. they are growing around them, growing around kabul rapidly. they are not necessarily going to try and over run kabul. we don't know what their plans are. sending u.s. troops there could have to change. >> we also know the big headline from that briefing is that u.s. forces are in route, as we speak. thank you. >>> new guidance from the cdc means some americans should get a third vaccine shot. what you need to know. we have those for you, next. [zippers fasten] [engine revs] woo-hoo! it's time for your extracurriculars. ¡vámanos, amigos! if you have this... and you get this... you could end up with this... unexpected out-of-pocket costs. which for those on medicare, or soon to be, is a good reason to take charge of your health care. so consider this. an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. why? because medicare alone doesn't pay for everything. a

for the latest on the situation in afghanistan let's bring in pentagon press secretary john kirby. admiral kirby, thanks for joining us. >> you bet. thank you, bret. >> the president said the administration had planned for every contingency in the interview with george stephanopoulos yesterday. are you aware of any plans that involved several thousand americans left to fend for themselves out of security zones through the taliban to get to the airport in the contingency? >> well, we certainly did plan for a noncombatant evacuation, bret. in fact, planning began for that as far back as early may. now, we didn't know exactly what the conditions were going to be like. and as you heard the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff say yesterday, there was nothing that we had seen that would indicate a total collapse of the government in 11 days. and as fast as it was. but, even two weeks ago, bret, we did a table top exercise at the pentagon to further refine what ended up us executing noncombatant out of harmid karzai airport. >> we have fluid situation. things happened faster than we ant

. >> john kirby of the pentagon there. so, cnn senior international correspondent, ivan watson, joins me now from hong kong. and white house reporter jasmine wright is in washington. ivan, hi. i'm going to come to you, first. of course, here these warnings about another attack at the kabul airport. already, amplifying an already-dangerous security situation on the ground. what else do we know about this? >> well, i mean, look at the warnings that preceded thursday's devastating suicide bomb attack. they sounded similar. they were urging those crowds to stay away from the airport gates. and then, the suicide bomber struck with such devastating consequences. more than 160 afghan civilians killed. many more, maimed. and of course, 13 u.s. service personnel. and so, when these fresh warnings are coming out not only from president biden, himself, but the u.s. embassy, echoed by the australian department of foreign affairs. there is reason, most likely, for this. and -- and part of it is the timeline. if you are a suicidal jihad

then john kirby again on the situation in afghanistan. after that, rnc chairwoman mcdaniel speaking at the rnc summit meeting in nashville. later, mississippi governor tate reeves gives an update on the states response to the pandemic cash on the state's response -- on the state's response to the pandemic. announcer: other topics included the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan, threats from china, russia, and iran, and the military's response to sexual assault allegations among service members. this is just over three hours. >> he's going on to do three more of these.

and the department of defense secretary john kirby. thank you for spending some time with us. >> thank you. >> tell us what is happening on ground right now. what do you know that we don't? >> well, i mean, clearly and i've been watching, nicolle, you have been covering the advances that the taliban continue to make here. the situation in afghanistan continues to deteriorate from a security perspective which is one of the reasons why mindful of that and in prudent planning we're going to hear the defense department help our state department colleagues as they now begin to draw down some of their civilian personnel in kabul. so we're watching this very, very closely. and we continue to have the authorities and we continue to have the capabilities to assist the afghan forces in the field through air strikes where and when feasible. so that is also continuing. >> will they be used though just to help get everybody down what is been described as the longest road to the airport or will they be used to help them retake some of the provinces

moments ago i spoke to pentagon press secretary john kirby on the latest assessment from the pentagon. >> there are certainly thousands of americans. we don't have an exact count. i would say somewhere -- best guess between 5 and 10,000 that are near kabul. there was a message put out by the secretary -- sorry, the state department today advising those americans about how to queue up and how to get to the airport so that now security is better, they don't need to necessarily shelter-in-place and they can begin movement to the airport for processing flights out. >> so this does come as the blame game is starting between different factions in the biden administration as to why they didn't act sooner to get the 5 to 10,000 americans out of afghanistan. let's bring in cnn national correspondent kylie atwood and barbara starr. kylie, the finger pointing, what are you learning? >> reporter: john, what we're learning is the biden administration officials have stayed far away from how this all went down. but behind the scenes you're already starting to see officials point the finger at other

in moments i'll speak to pentagon spokesman john kirby. but first cnn chief international correspondent clarissa ward is on the ground in kabul for us tonight. what is the latest intelligence in how quickly kabul may fall? it is very worrying right now. >> reporter: the situation is definitely highly distressing for people who are living here. it is still calm in the capital of kabul. but the prognosis is not good. nobody expects necessarily for the taliban to imminently enter the city. but the real fear at the moment, jim, is that they could quite easily surround the city. they could isolate the city. we have seen now the taliban continue this extraordinary offensive, gobbling up territory across the country, more than half of the provincial capitals including most significantly kandahar, the second largest city in the country. this is the spiritual heartland of the taliban. this is the very place where they first declared their islamic emirate. and it was in fact the capital of their original islamic emirate. we have spent a couple of da

at the top of the show we heard lucas tomlinson talking about john kirby said. the taliban is our enemy, they hate us what you have here is a total disconnect, a political agenda by the white house and the democrat to leave afghanistan regardless. all the individuals who gave blood helping us from we are deserted them. what is that say about america's credibility? integrity overseas. we have an joe biden does not care. >> joey, i want to ask you because one of the things this man said his video, he said i feel like what we are all thinking, we are the united states of america, we do not ask permission of the taliban anything yet it feels like that's what has happened every single step of the way. how do we get to this race? when did the rules change on this? did we start accepting the taliban is this legitimate organization? >> desperate people do desperate things in our government is desperately right now. they know they are responsible and it fire breathing, it was a clear i. what happened so far from losing 13 names i've read, i do not leave that it had to be

>> martha, the first is that john kirby said the first marines have arrived in kabul. they are securing hamid karzai international airport right now and already helping evacuate americans as the u.s. embassy presence in kabul down sizes greatly. kirby also said the remaining 3,000 u.s. troops, the two infantry battalions of the marines, and one infantry battalion of the army will be in place by the end of the weekend, and as peter alluded to a few minutes ago, frankly, just a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. when pressed, is kabul surrounded right now, john kirby said the taliban are trying to surround it. but you don't need a top-secret clearance to realize that's exactly what happened. over ten days ago the taliban-controlled zero provincial capitals, now they control more than half the country's provincial capitals. you see the map of afghanistan that we've been showing throughout the day, the taliban essentially taking a vast majority of the country already, martha. >> martha: lucas, you are pressing him on whether or not the head of our department of def

it seems evident from how john kirby and general taylor were talking that they seem even more careful with their word choice today and as nick is getting to, in order to do everything possible to not further compromise this security and further endanger the troops on the ground. one question, general, that was not answered, that i found really interesting, is when john kirby was asked if they're believe -- about the belief and the understanding right now about if the taliban intentionally let the suicide attackers through their checkpoint or if it was unintentional and a massive security failure. they still don't know. they say. >> yeah, kate, i'll push back a little bit and say the suicide bombers are the hardest enemy to deal with. because i'm sure john and john taylor were both saying that because they just don't know yet. but i would really find it hard to believe that this was an intentional action to let a suicide bomber through the taliban check point. because i know that the taliban and isis-k have been fighting each other and are at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of w

. >> and let's listen in, because the pentagon briefing is beginning with john kirby. let's listen in. >> and to rekt as quickly as we have within the day or so, because we had plenty of contingency planning in the works, and in fact, a lot of it complete. because we were and as i have said many times from the podium watching consistently the security situation on the ground. >> so, i can give you a few brief updated details from yesterday. now, as i do this, i think that you can understand that i am not going to have every detail that you might want. there is operational security that is still a concern, and we will observe that here just like we have in the entire drawdown process, but i can tell you a couple of things. the first u.s. forces will provide security at the kabul airport, and these are the existing security forces already in kabul, and that is the infantry, and security personnel and some intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance at the airport. they will stay there, and do their jobs in terms of the internal security there at hamid karzai airport. th

pentagon spokesperson john kirby says a number of u.s. and civilian casualties were cost by one blast outside the gates used by people looking to flee afghanistan a telegram pokes person says more than 50 other people were injured, and a statement from the taliban condemns the bombing outside kabul airport, saying it happened in an area controlled by u.s. forces. also at a news conference, german chancellor angela merkel called the attack "malicious." here is what we know confirmed by the pentagon. the first explosion occurred in a large crowd near the airport. the second glass was confirmed to have happened at or near the baron hotel, not are from the airport. president biden has been briefed in the white house situation room. the white house has released a statement, saying the president has met with his national security team including secretary of state antony blinken, secretary of defense lloyd austin, general mark milley, and commanders on the ground, and that he will continue to be briefed throughout the day. concerning the twin ex

we didn't hear john -- john kirby didn't take questions but we heard from general mckenzie. he made it clear the mission continues as does the very real threat that something like this could happen again and soon. >> i wrote that down myself. major active threat streams, active he said again, tactical. anything from rocket attacks to car bombs to more suicide bombers like we saw today. this is two suicide bombers and two different locations. one at the gate, the abbey gate and the direct contact is what happens there with u.s. service members, marines in particular in this case and a large number of them in that bombing killed. i think what was eye opening, may jaw-dropping listening to that briefing was the part where he said that they are working with the taliban telling them some of the intelligence that they're getting about possible attacks or suicide bombers or vehicle bombs so that the taliban can help them screen them on the outer ring before they get to the airport. put that in perspective for a second. just a few weeks ago, we were bombing the taliban. in afghanist

asked again today, john kirby said he will leave it at several thousand and he didn't want to go into more details on it. do you think this don't have that level of specificity and i'm getting to the place, general, is there a strategic or security reason for them not to be more specific with that number? >> well, i'm not sure why they wouldn't be more specific on american citizens that have been evacuated. what should be held close is number of american citizens to yet be evacuated. they're outside of the kabul airport for security reasons. so i do understand that. >> and that is a really fluid number as they've described many times. as jeremy diamond was laying out, we are going to hear from president biden and he really does have a huge decision, this is a huge decision moment for him in terms of the deadline. he's getting a lot of pressure from g7 allies, he met with virtually today to extend the deadline to get more people out. what do you think he should do about this deadline, general? >> well i think he should ask his advisers and assess whether or not the mission has been acc

general, what we heard from the general as well as john kirby, what sticks out to you from the update today? >> well, truthfully, kate, it's what i've been saying since last monday, that all look and are extremely chaotic from the very beginning due to a variety of factors. everyone is in a desperate rush to get out of afghanistan. that includes those not authorized to leave. the adjustments made to this mission in my view having had to plan and almost conduct in another country once before had been magnificent. the atmospherics and the messaging early on were not good. it has changed over the last couple days. remember, we've only been doing this now for seven weeks. and in listening to the john kirby explain some of the things going on, you have to almost have a military mind to understand the nuance of what is happening. and a lot more is going on behind the scenes than anyone could probably guess. we're focussed on this approach because it's a fluid situation with a very dynamic set of circumstances, a government that has fallen, a military that's not supportive and a requirement

there's new urgency that we heard earlier from pentagon press secretary john kirby the u.s. needs to get all americans and all vulnerable afghans out even quicker. a new race against time. >> we are fighting against time and space, that's the race that we are in right now and -- and we are trying to do this as quickly and as safely as possible. i'm not going to speculate about whether windows are closing or opening, but we are focused on accomplishing the mission as fast as we can. lucas: telling americans not to go@airport. officials say the warning is due to a new threat from the islamic state and other terrorist groups but declined to give details, quote, because of potential security threats outside of the kabul airport, we are advising u.s. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and avoid airport gates at the same time unless you received individual instructions from the u.s. government representative to do so. just yesterday president biden said americans were having no problems to get to the airports to escape. and biden secretary lloyd austin, some of them have b

yesterday john kirby, the pentagon spokesperson, he condemned what he called the unlawful leak of classified information at such a sensitive time as the operations are wrapping up. of course, politico is aware of this activity and there was certainly information that we withheld, knowing we didn't want to put any troops in harm's way and didn't want to jeopardize the operation either. i think that while the pentagon was not happy, politico and myself, we handled it as responsible journalists should. host: thanks for being with us this morning. guest: thank you so much. host: opening caller: good morning, this is the first time calling. i think the legacy of afghanistan is american ignorance. first of all, they should've learned the lesson to dwight eisenhower and harry s truman, who said that korea was a mistake. an endless war. we go through vietnam, kennedy said, in a press conference in 1962. i do not intend to get bogged down in vietnam. he knew we shouldn't do it. and then we go to afghanistan, 2001. america should've read "the new york times," back of the first section. osama bin laden

secretary blinken followed by john kirby and army major general hank taylor. later representatives michael mccaul and andy kim hold a bipartisan press conference with their views of the withdrawal. ♪ >> sees manager unfiltered view of government, funded by these television companies and more, including buckeye broadband. ♪ -- announcer: c-span is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies and more, including buckeye broadband. ♪ buckeye broadband supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. ♪ >> secretary of state antony blinken briefed reporters on evacuation efforts in afghanistan. he gave estimates on the number of americans who have been flown out of kabul as well as those who remain in the country. he spoke for about 30 minutes. partisan lame game -- blame game. >> good afternoon. i would like to go and update on the situation in afghanistan and ongoing efforts there. particularly as they relate to u.s. citizens and i am happy to take weste

john kirby: ok. it looks like you are on the phone. >> thanks, john. for either you or the general. obviously, there are fewer people getting out of afghanistan in the last 24 hours. the embassy has issued a give us a clearer picture of what is going on outside the airport. mr. kirby: the first part of the question is, we talked about guardians going out to not commit -- we are continuing to process people throughout the last 24 hours. the commanders are metering how many people come in and out of the gate to ensure the ability to screen applicants as they come onto each kia. gen. taylor: there has been no reported change to the current enemy situation in and around the airport. >> it was a security where that came out of the embassy this morning talking about security threats outside the gate and they are advising to stay away from the airports. can you explain what is this threat? is it taliban? is it isis or an al qaeda angle to this? mr. kirby: you can understand why we are not going to get into specific details about the threat environment or what our intelligence has given us.

i think john kirby did a really good god in his response. it was heart felt, compassionate. sympathetic it still doesn't will leave many answers how these women and girls are going to be protected. >> you know, i don't think that there is a good answer and i think that the united states as well as the world is looking at what is going on in afghanistan right now and really everyone is dumbfounded as to what is going to happen to that failed state, what's going to happen with taliban rule. i would also like to point out that the women of afghanistan and the women of the middle east at large, they actually experienced true oppression. they actually experienced what happens when your nation doesn't protect and defend freedom. but, meanwhile, here in the united states, the greatest country on the face of the earth, we just watched a female olympic athletes representing our country who felt that we had an oppressive nation, who received nike and subway endorsement deals for are ragging on our great country that does ensure freedom and the protection of that freedom it goes to sho

before i go to john kirby, another development that you heard in the last hour, this notion that we might have all of 4500 americans left there. that's hard to quantify and seems like a guess. but if that is correct, it does sort of dispute the other numbers that we've seen. furthermore, records that there's 1,500 that might remain and many that might not want to go we'll explore that in more detail and try to understand how that could possibly be. meantime, let's go to the briefing. >> we'll make the right plans to do that. by and large, most of these installations, they're using organic capabilities. i'll let northcom take your question about that. i don't have that information readily available. i'll be getting the general in the briefing room later this week. >> what about aircraft? >> we don't plan to extend beyond level 1 which the secretary authorized. >> could it be done on getting air evacuations outside of kabul and extractions. why haven't they been done yet? we know of american citizens outside kabul. >> it's a capability question. i'm not suggesting that would be well-outside

you just heard the exchange with clarissa and the pentagon spokesperson john kirby. do you trust the assurances of the pentagon to get these people out and to safety? >> i do. i know that the pentagon and the biden administration is doing everything they can to get people out. i and many others in congress continue to urge them to do as much as possible and to not let these paperwork and processes get in the way of getting people out. and we stand ready to do what we need to do from congress to help facilitate that. >> and if they're not all out by august 31st which is the deadline that the president put in place, should the president extend that deadline to deal with the conditions on ground in order to allow all of these people to get out safely? >> i believe that we have an obligation to get our afghan allies and partners, women leaders, politicians, people who really bought into the american mission in afghanistan out and i think we have to stay and get as many out as possible. recognizing that this is not about redeploying and getting back into a fight with the

interesting, john kirby, reiterated what the president said, every afghan interpreter, siv applicant who is at the airport will be able to get on the plane. he made that commitment. that's something we'll have to watch. kirby also said that 4,400 americans have been evacuated so far. we're waiting to hear from secretary of state anthony blinker next hour who is expected to give a projection of how many americans still remain to be withdrawn. that certainly is an important figure as we watch the final days of this mission. kate. >> absolutely. jeremy, thank you very much. joining me is republican congressman adam kinzinger who served in afghanistan, also a member of the house foreign affairs committee. congressman, you listened to that. thank you for sticking around. biden sticking with his deadline. you hear the latest amazing, heroic effort of the military on the ground, 19,000 people evacuated in the last 24 hours, bringing the total up to 88,000 people since the beginning of this. you do not like what the president has committed to in terms of the deadline. what do you want to see

some reports are suggesting it was inside, some are suggesting outside john kirby. he's a spokes person for the pentagon in the us says, and we quote, we can confirm an explosion outside carville airport casualties or unclear. at this time, we will provide additional details when we can well for most of the day, we've been talking to our correspondence about the warnings being given by the us and nato allies. as the evacuation continues as a trying to get the staff and associates out of the country, there were strong indications, even according to the taliban, that such an imminent attack was pending. some were pointing the fingers ice sullen. we've been discussing whether eiffel had the capability of performing such an and it's so when and where it seems that over several days, the taliban have also been concerned about i so infiltration into the capital car. but of course, it might say, has been a prime target for anybody that might want to disrupt those operations. thousands of people have been trying to leave the port as the 31st of august. the deadline continue

we heard from the president from the price, from john kirby. basically the message is look, and this is not a failure. this is we didn't anticipated, flaming the afghans for not fighting. they're not talking about the fact that this is obviously a failure of intelligence. the intelligence community and even the president himself so that he expected the afghan forces would be able to defend their country for months if not more than a year, a year and a half, at least. so they're not talking about the fact that what you have here is a very small contingent of the us military facing much stronger taliban just hoping that the taliban let them do their operations and was american still trapped in the grown? they're not focusing on the fact that they didn't get all of these special immigrant visas dollars in afghans who helped us forces all across the country. they didn't get them to cobble in time. and now thousands of them we believe can actually safely make it to the airport. and when they were asked earlier today at the pentagon, so what are you

well maybe you will notice if you listen carefully to the pentagon press secretary john kirby. while he described the 2 individuals who were killed by this drones dragon one who was injured as high profile members of ice or k. he would not commit to saying that they were in any way behind the planning of the deadly attack on the cobble air, air base. cobble airport that killed 13 us service members, and many, many africans over a $170.00 afghans. he would not say that you would not go that far. so we don't know at this point officially whether these individuals were involved in planning that or whether they were more or less targets of opportunity, that the u. s. was able to identify through intelligence of various types and then on least the drone strike against them. some other items that we learned from this, kirby saying that there is an active and dynamic threat at the, at the airport in cobble of that. the u. s. forces there are aware of this and are taking every step they can to prevent any further attack to prevent loss of life. he also said that the the, the us will co

i also have some comments from john kirby, the state farm, or we can time to just briefly here have a listen to this. we can confirm that the explosion at the abbey gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in the number of us and civilian casualties. we can also confirm, at least one of the explosion at near the baron hotel saw distance from abbey gate will continue to update. the update i keep coming in here at auto international are roughly video agency, a capture on camera crowds of people outside combo lamp, or just a few hours before the deadline. afghans hoping to leave the country have been gathering in large numbers at the airport since the taliban came to power. earlier this month of the us and its allies controlled part of the transport hub civilians, including children, to a queueing around the security perimeter. hoping to get on board any number of possible evacuation planes. well, let's learn a little bit more now in crossing live. 2 political analysts, chris barry, who's coming on during this breaking news here on the international. chris, a great pleasure

i think it's prudent, to use john kirby's term, that the u.s. would do this, to prevent the potential for the taliban that might enter kabul. if that happens, it's going to push to the extreme the ability of the u.s. government to get their embassy officials out. there's the desire not to have another fall of saigon that occurred in 1975. when you're talking about three infantry battalions, that's a relatively small force to have the contingency mission of defending the airfield and ensuring the embassy personnel gets out. right now this is not a n.e.o. operation, a noncombatant evacuation operation. it may not be one now, but that force that is going to both the airfield as well as the ready brigade from the 82nd airborne, i would bet they have a be prepared to conduct n.e.o. operation in case of dire circumstances. the taliban has been moving so fast that they want to ensure that the capital of kabul is defended and the american presence there is also defended. you not only have the noncombatants of the state department that are part of the em

i see john kirby there. >> the general will have some brief opening remarks. we'll obviously address the events in kabul today as well as the evacuation mission and where we are and where we're going. we'll take questions. i will moderate the

john kirby, press secretary, as well as general taylor spoke to that. qatar filled up, the first place to take evacuees. they needed time to get people out of qatar to ramstein, to other places, dulles, so they could be moved to fort bliss, texas, to fly more people out of afghanistan and more people into qatar and out of the country. we see that in the lower numbers. in a 24-hour span, there were six 17s with 1,600 people on board. 24 hours previous, the numbers were more than triple that. 15 or 16 c-17s with some 6,000 people. that's a result of the bottleneck in processing. he said it at the end there, general taylor. they're trying to get to the higher numbers, but it is a scramble now to find more places, not only to take these passengers, both americans and others, but also to get those places ready so quickly. that's why we're seeing these delays. that's why the general said they are -- the word he used was metering. there are closure of the gates at kabul international airport to limit the number of people that can get in. there's only so many p

john kirby is reluctant to give information. what do you hear from your source ands why is there so much confusion about what has fallen and when? do you want to comment as to whether or not kabul itself was completely encircled cutting off access to people in and out of the city? >> think don't want to talk about the battleground assessment. there aren't americans in these places anymore. so when you talk about that capital in the southwest and helman province, it's a trans it area. hate as you long history for the u.s. military and the british military of serving there over the last 20 years. but right now there are no americans there. so the u.s. doesn't have a really about picture of what's going on on the ground there. they don't know moment to moment. it's been remarkable to watch this unfold so quickly. >> but besides this area as you said, ayman, there are reports that it has fallen and helman province has fallen unconfirmed by the u.s. there are other areas that are under very serious threat from the taliban right now.

spokesperson john kirby. >> -- this morning on our operations in afghanistan at the hamid karzai international airport and i'll ask general taylor to come back up here. think i botched his title yesterday. j 35, so i got that wrong yesterday and i apologize for that. but before i ask the general to give you an update, there is a couple of other things that i do want to get out there. first on haiti. in support of the u.s. agency for international development, their bureau of humanitarian assistance, u.s. south command is working to assess damage, and develop common occupational pictures and provide life saving support for the people of haiti. they set up a joint task force haiti led by keem davids who is a special operations commander there at south com. he's operating or currently operating from homestead air reserve base. the jtf is now the forward elements of it, the headquarters element of the joints task force will move to haiti today. we're flying eight helicopters to haiti this morning with help again providing a picture overhead. the uss arlington, a navy am fip fibus ship is underway

here is how john kirby described the mission. >> this is a temporary mission with a narrow focus. as with all deployments of our troops into harm's way our commanders have the right to self-defense any attack on them can't will be met with a forceful and appropriate response. >> 8,000 u.s. troops total will be deploying thought tonal afghanistan but to the middle east as well. in addition to the 3,000 3,000 soldiers and marines going to kabul. fort bragg deploying to kuwait to be held in reserve in case they are needed in afghanistan. they arrive next week. 1,000 additional soldiers will be deployed to qatar interpreters helped the u.s. military along with their families, refugees fleeing the war torn country this as the taliban has been on lightning offense in the last week. tonight they control 12. the latest kandahar city the second largest city in afghanistan the spiritual home taliban fell today. state department ordering out of the country. remain open for now with essential personnel only. deployment of troops. >> are you telling me that the marines and soldiers strapping o

john kirby, there you are again, we can confirm an explosion outside kabul airport. as we said, casualties are unclear at this time. we will provide additional details when we have them. the kind of intelligence they say they have of an ongoing, high-level threat. courtney, this is very early. tell us what you have been able to find out. >> very little, chris. basically, we can say there are reports, we don't know if they're accurate or not. there are reports on social media of some sort of potential explosion outside one of the gates at kabul airport. basically i can provide you a little bit of a scene setter of what's been going on at kabul airport. the first thing is this threat. this has been -- there's been a perfect sicht threat since late last week. and it is specific to isis, that isis had interest, was planning to, was trying to attack kabul airport and specifically attack westerners, americans and potentially afghan civilians who were trying to get to the airport to get on these evacuation flights. you have seen over the last week these crowds outside many

john kirby now says we can confirm a number of u.s. service members were killed in today's complex attack at kabul airport. a number of others are being treated for wounds. we also know that a number of afghans fell victim to this heinous attack. our thoughts and prayers go out to the loved ones and teammates of all those killed and injured. the worst news. americans among the dead. we have not heard from the president yet. this is a statement from john kirby, spokesman at the pentagon. chuck? >> kelly, thank you for alerting us to kirby's tweet. american service members are among those that died in the attack. andrea mitchell, what is the plan c, d, and e that the state department is thinking trying to get the remaining americans out, trying to get afghan allies out. obviously the gates are sitting targets. it is something clearly our own folks were concerned about, warnings were out there. there's not, are they going to have to helicopter people onto the runway? >> exactly. i think first, let me just say, the fact that we first heard