congressman meijer, thank you for joining us. can you share some of your perspective based on what your seeing interservice? rep. meijer: as you mentioned, when i was in afghanistan, i was in humanitarian aid immunity and performed conflict analysis and safety advisory. sadly, what we are seeing is exactly what my job was. partly was trying to courtney evacuations. nothing on the scale, but i emphasize with the shoulders -- soldiers and marines who are out there trying to get this job done. it was mentioned the c17 that kaiali'i used to fly. there is a silver lining of sadness that i am no longer in the air force anymore. it is a complement to the mission that is ongoing and an essential one. i will set aside forevermore any jokes at their expense. the broader situation is incredibly frustrating. it is concerning. what we have seen over the last week is what we feared. this is what of -- one of the reasons why so many of us got together in the spring to try and expedite this program and get more folks on planes and clear out the

meijer that this starts at the top. this president came into office and made a clear-eyed wrenching decision: it was either go big or go home. he had the integrity to tell the american people that an encounter insurgentcy could not succeed without a withdrawal. a withdrawal from a graveyard of empires is going to be rocky. we have security at the airport. we've got commercial and military evacuations, taking thousands out every day, and we have committed that american personnel are going to be secure. >> woodruff: and what about that, congressman meijer? we've heard from jon finer and others in the administration. we're watching this unfold. we're still in the middle of this evacuation. do you -- have you concluded already that it is going to be a failure? >> i don't think you need to conclude that. i think it is readily apparent. i would respectfully tell my colleague that there is an arguable debate on the merits of withdrawal. the president biden spent the entire focus on monday defending the decision to withdraw. th

meijer: i have a lot of respect for jon. i know he has been involved in special employment visa issues for close to a decade and has been a leader in the space. i think the issue is not some of the hard-working individuals who have been on this, but the fact that the problem starts at the top your this is not an issue that president biden ever prioritized. i was part of eight bipartisan group of lawmakers that were trying to raise the attention. in just the scenario we feared, we make sure we did everything we could as soon as we could get these special visa applicants out. there are a lot of hard-working folks who are trying to make that happen, but frankly, this is an issue that president biden did not want to have to deal with. you can only spin optics f so long. you cannot spin away this reality. judy: congressman, do you see this as a optics and that the president did not want to deal with this question of getting afghan civilians and others out of the country? rep. auchincloss: i agree with mr. meijer that this starts

con congressman meijer, i'll start with you. was the war in afghanistan worth it, worth cost to american lives, afghan lives, the $2 trillion cost? was it worth it? >> i think it's impossible to sit here today and say yes, knowing what we know and what we saw. we've seen the best of american people, especially in the last two weeks, best of our troops on the ground in the heroic way they're carrying out this mission but we've also seen some of the worst american leadership. you draw this over the past two decades any one year you could say what is our mission there and you would get a different answer from the other 19. we should have never -- there needs to be unsparing accountability. we should have never put our american men and women in this position and need to realign our strategic and operational priorities to ensure it never happens again. this was failure upon failure. >> congressman moulton? >> peter is right. it's failure upon failure. the one way i can only imagine this going worse is if it had happened under trump w

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. >>> here in lake tahoe fire has made its way down to the christmas valley area at meijers. it is not impacting structures at this moment. we do have a largbeenushe that eatosess and assist with the rewexpat to con through the night and not justed based on the fire behavior but the weather we will be experiencing in the next 24 to 48 hours. we have beenpre for this fire fight in this area we have been planning and preparing and ordering resources to deal with the impact of the fire in lake tahoe. the orders have been placed and filled and enroute to the incident currently. also we have ordered an additional management team to assist with the command and control of this incident specifically on the eastern portion of the fire and lake tahoe basin. the team will integrate with the current command structure and work together as one team and will not be separated. one team with one fight. >> so we do have very active fire behavior. we have spotting and torching and dry fuels under the drought and expect this fire fight to continue over the next couple of days under this fire con

. >> reporter: congressman peter meijer and south moulton, both veterans, are receiving backlash from both sides of the aisle for taking an unauthorized trip to kabul this week. >> the gates to the airport are unlike anything i've ever seen. >> reporter: meijer told fox knn what he's been told here in the u.s. >> i did not support the decision to end our operations on august 31st before i went. after talking with commanders on the ground, i trusted their judgment. and i believe it. that's what i want to take back to fellow members of congress. >> reporter: president biden says he is confident the withdrawal will be complete by the end of the month. "the new york times" reports that at least 250,000 afghans who worked with the u.s. haven't been evacuated yet. the white house says more than 82,000 people have been airlifted out of afghanistan. but diane, that number includes american citizens who have been the focus of the effort. >> right. our thanks to you. >>> among the americans who are still in afghanistan, five families from the san diego area who are stuck in the country after vi

really, peter meijer? how do you know that? well, you don't know that. you are just making it up. you don't know their names, their backgrounds, you don't know squat, but he claims it anyway. steven law, one of mitch mcconnell's chief political operatives come also wants you to know that every one of those afghans on that plane . no need for vetting. in fact, stephen law once every one of them in his neighborhood immediately. we know that because he said so on social media. right.ed [laughs] but not in his neighborhood, actually. it's pretty easy for people like stephen law to encourage refugees, because they're not going to his neighborhood, they're going to mostly republican states like texas where the democratic party needs help. big picture you have to wonder how long will republican voters tolerate leaders who don't care at all about them? as you may have noticed, we have problems here, we have a housing crisis, by the way, a big one, do you have kids? ask them. available entry-level housing in the united states, homes up to 1400 square feet, is at a five decade low. when the

. >> moulton and meijer say that they secretly flew to kabul to witness the situation for themselves. congressman meijer defending the trip. >> we have not had the information that we need from the administration, we waited for a plane that had open seats to make sure that we didn't take away anything from individuals who needed it. and actually went several hours out of our way -- >> the pentagon though doesn't see it that way. they say they were unaware of the decision by moulton and meijer to visit afghanistan and that their visit took time away from the mission u.s. forces were trying to conduct. >>> prime minister of israel is visiting the white house today and for the first time in 12 years, it will not be benjamin netanyahu. he will be meeting with neftali bennett. and the relationship between netanyahu and the democratic relations in the u.s. has always been tense. will anything change? >> reporter: at its core, the policies between neftali bennett and his predecessor netanyahu are mostly the same, but the approach will be much different. the prime minister saying that he is c

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really, peter meijer? you are just making it up. every one of those afghans on the plane is a hero in my queue. in fact stephen law wants every one of them in that area admittedly. it's pretty easy to encourage unlimited migration of refugees because in the end they are not actually going to his neighborhood. and and we have a housing crisis by the way. a big one, and according to "the wall street journal," the amount of available entry-level housing in the united states, and that's to find the homes up to 14 a good story. is it a five low? that rose above $800,000. the first in history. the growth in median rent out plays the growth in median rental income in every state from 2001 through 2019. that's a terrible deponent for human citizens. we are now living through the biggest influx of american refugees in american history. that's far more than the number of asylum applicants who arrived in europe in 2015 and that was under 1 million. so how many will bring family members with them? the vast majority it turns out, not just the tr

let's bring in michigan republican representative peter meijer who serves on the house foreign affairs committee. congressman meyer is also an iraq war veteran and just returned from afghanistan. congressman, thank you so much for joining us. i want to talk about how this trip came to be. you traveled there with congressman seth moulton from massachusetts. how did it come to pass? >> thank you, bret. both seth and myself have been actively engaged on what's called the special immigrant visa issue. those were visas in a program for individuals who had loyally served the united states in places like iraq and afghanistan. there have been tremendous backlog of these cases and in april, when president biden announced that he was continuing the initial plan for withdrawal, that started under president trump. we urged the administration to address this backlog. we had to know what was going on on the ground in kabul. and we have not had information we need from the administration and realized that we were being lied to up and down and we needed to see for ourselves. >> bret: so, congressman m

kennedy: thank you very much congressman meijer. back in the u.s. politicians are pointing fingers at president biden for the crisis in kabul as you heard president biden is claiming former president trump he released a statement this morning, not on twitter, saying quote the outcome in afghanistan including the withdrawal would have been totally different if the trump administration had been in charge. who or what will joe biden surrender to next? someone should ask him, if they can find him. meanwhile folks online are sharing memes saying george w. bush is enjoying a biden and trump taking the heat for the afghan disaster. who is really to blame for failures in that country? jody may now this man panel christopher bedford he is back along with fox news political analyst juan williams in 2020 libertarian vice president joe candidate spike : comment welcome gentlemen. chris i'm going to ask the same question of all three of you who is to blame here? >> this war was lost almost 20 years ago by george w. bush and his administration will be track of wh

welcome back congressman peter meijer. >> thank you kennedy. kennedy: what did you say when you're there, you went with -- you both emerging there is no way we are going to evacuate all the people who need to get out by august 31. what did you see and how bad did you know it was? >> we saw incredible work of heroism and selfless service on behalf of the soldiers, the marines, the diplomatic personnel who were there, the air force pilots that what is an incredibly complex mission. at the airport they're trying to manage chaos. there's vulnerabilities all around and none are really vulnerabilities that can be protected. the marines on that gate or nearby had to make that determination between shutting down a gate and potentially consigning africans who had helped our country out, american citizens, permanent residents keeping them out in danger, or opening it up exposing themselves to risk, horrific risk as a result today. but saving countless lives for this is an impossible task they have been given and they are all doing their best. and sadly t

reports of spot fires going in the meijer area and christmas valley and getting close to south lake tahoe and the more densely populated parts in the basin. the same conditions tomorrow. strong southwest winds 15 to 25 miles an hour and relative humidity levels low. 10 to 20% and the wind is pushing all of that smoke just dreadful air quality levels around the south end of lake tahoe. everybody out should be wearing a mask to protect themselves from this hazardous air levels. as long as it blows the fire will grow and the smoke will be a major issue. the southwest wind is actually good news for the bay. we will track our air in a few minutes. >>> paul, thank you. cargo ship members are in quarantine aboard a vessel docked in the bay after testing positive for covid-19. others are in the hospital. kpix andria borba has more on the rescue mission. andrea. >> reporter: the calls for help came from 911. the coast guard and the vessel itself and san francisco fire responded with their fire boat number 3. now over the weekend 19 of 21 members of the global striker cargo ship tested positive for

meijer insists their trip didn't interfere in any way with the u.s. mission there. >> we did fly in a military plane on the way out at the k encouragement of individuals that were there. we waited for a plane that had open seats to make sure that we didn't take anything away from individuals who needed it and went several hours out of our way. >> the democratic speaker of the house nancy pelosi and republican house minority leader kevin mccarthy found themselves in rare agreement, the trip wasn't a good idea. let's listen. >> it is not just about them going to afghanistan. even going to the region because there is a call on our resources dip low 459 particularly, militarily and the rest in the region as well. so this is deadly serious. we do not want members to go. >> any member that i've heard that might go, i explain to them that i don't think they should. i think it creates a greater risk. you've got enough americans over there that could be held hostage, they could make a point out of a member of congress. i think that you take military away from

seth moulton and peter meijer saying it's obvious because we started the evacuation so late no matter what we do we won't get everyone out on time, even by september 11th but the trip done without authorizatio from congressional leadership or military brass is sparking a fierce backlash. >> there's a call on our resources diplomatically, militarily, and this is deadly serious. we do not want members to go. >> reporter: a white house official telling nbc news every seat on planes leaving should be for someone trying to get out of afghanistan. meanwhile among those desperate to get out, 24 california students who had gone there to visit their families and tonight are still stuck. an american whose niece in florida told us the taliban is blocking her aunt from getting through their checkpoints. >> she is told you don't have a guardian with you you can't travel without a male she's told your paperwork is incorrect. she's given different excuses. >> peter, what can you tell us about the u.s. and these missions outside the airport to retrieve people? >> reporter: lester, the latest operatio

congressmen peter meijer and seth moulton traveled to kabul tuesday claiming they wanted a closer look at the situation. the trip prompting a letter from speaker nancy pelosi warning lawmakers that traveling to the region would distract from the evacuation process, but in a joint statement, they both fought in iraq, they say they took a military flight into the country and say the flight was not full and that their flight out included some empty seats. as for that august 31st deadline, president biden says contingency plans were being developed to adjust the time line if necessary but the military will soon have to start packing up and moving out if they are going to meet that deadline, mona. >> faith, thank you. >>> we're hearing from an afghan translator now hiding in kabul fearing for his life. he worked as an interpreter for the u.s. military. he is still waiting for his special immigration visa, also known as siv to be approved. he and his family are moving several times a day to avoid the taliban. >> they killed people. they killed women. they killed children -- who work with any

seth moulton and peter meijer saying it's obvious because we started the evacuation so late no matter what we do we won't get everyone out on time, even by september 11th but the trip done without authorizatio from congressional leadership or military brass is sparking a fierce backlash. >> there's a call on our resources diplomatical militarily, and this is deadly serious. we do not want members to go. >> reporter: a white house official telling nbc news every seat on planes leaving should be for someone trying to get out of afghanistan. meanwhile among those desperate to get out, 24 california students who had gone there to visit their families and tonight are still stuck. an american whose niece in florida told us the taliban is blocking her aunt from getting through their checkpoints. >> she is told you don't have a guardian with you you can't travel without a male she's told your paperwork is incorrect. she's given different excuses. >> peter, what can you tell us about the u.s. and these missions outside the airport to retrieve people? >> reporter: lester, the latest operation h

military has maintained gate security at meijer gates and supported our state department colleagues in the processing of individuals to prepare for evacuation flights out of afghanistan. critical to getting americans and afghans at risk out requires additional space at intermediate staging bases and safe havens and other locations. this impacts our throughput. two days ago, the u.s. military airlifted nearly 6000 evacuees in a single day. in the last 24 hours, six u.s. military c-17's and 32 charters departed kabul. the total passenger count for those flights was approximately 3800. also in the past 24 hours, a number of c-17's are moving between qatar and germany providing critical relief that will increase our input to those intermediate staging bases. finally, in the past 24 hours, three flights landed at dulles international airport. there are now afghans, and just one week since beginning the operation, have left afghanistan and will be transitioned to fort bliss today for further processing in this process. as you can see, this is a very complex and multistep operation. we are co

choice words today for two unannounced airport visitors-- democrat seth moulton and republican peter meijer, who flew there yesterday. >> they certainly took time away from what we had been planning to do that day. >> reporter: the two congressmen called it "oversight." some of their colleagues called it a stunt. >> it was not, in my view, a good idea. >> reporter: the secretary of state insisted today that the u.s. will continue to help americans and qualified afghans get out of the country even after the u.s. military departs in six days. but he was intentionally vague, norah, about how the u.s. plans to pull that off once all the troops are gone. >> o'donnell: nancy cordes, thank you. we want to turn now to our exclusive interview with the top u.s. diplomat in afghanistan. earlier today, we spoke with ambassador ross wilson. he's no longer at the embassy in kabul, but instead working out of that airport. we asked him about the americans still in the country. >> we've been working our way through-- through the lists, and through the numbers. we have, through the state department and throu

meantime, there's criticism against congressman seth moulton and peter meijer. both iraq war veterans. they made a secret trip to the airport in kabul to conduct oversight on the evacuation efforts. but a u.s. official told cbs ws irresponsible. bradley blackburn is in new york with the latest on all of this. bradley, good morning. >> reporter: anne-marie, good morning. the clock is ticking on that deadline, and the taliban's grip is tightening. this morning they are refusing to let many afghan civilians head to the airport, accusing the u.s. of trying to take away the country's doctors, engineers, and other professionals. the united states continues to evacuate thousands from afghanistan every day. >> the first hope is god, and the second hope is the united states government to help them to take them out of there. >> reporter: nazar got out just before kabul fell to the taliban and now lives with family in california. >> me, i was working with the u.s. government for five years. i have the documentation i was able to get out of kabul. the people, there are too

choice words today for two unannounced airport visitors, democrat seth moulton and republican peter meijer, who flew there yesterday. >> they certainly took time away from what we had been planning to do that day. >> reporter: the two congressmen called it "oversight." some of their colleagues called it a stunt. >> it was not, in my view, a good idea. >> reporter: the secretary of state insisted today that the u.s. will continue to help americans and qualified afghans get out of the country even after the u.s. military departs in six days. but he was intentionally vague, norah, about how the u.s. plans to pull that off once all the troops are gone. >> o'donnell: nancy cordes, thank you. we want to turn now to tour exclusive interview with the top u.s. diplomat in afghanistan. earlier today, we spoke with ambassador ross wilson. he's no longer at the embassy in kabul, but instead working out of that airport. we asked him about the americans still in the country. >> we've been working our way through the lists, and through the numbers. we have, through the state department and through our co

. >> congressman seth moulton of massachusetts and congressman peter meijer of michigan who made an unannounced trip to afghanistan last week told cnn this outcome was preventable. >> we wouldn't have had to put brands in this position. if we had started the evacuation much earlier and we need to realign our strategic and operational priorities to ensure that it never happens again. and as of now, the white house is sticking with that august 31st withdrawal reporting in washington reshad hudson. >> back to you. >> and back now to the breaking news we're following with the called or fire all of south lake tahoe is under some form of evacuation right now because the fire is inching closer and closer to the area. >> fire officials once again in the last hour have ordered more evacuations around the tahoe basin as crews continue to try to contain the 2 week old fire which has continued to spread. officials say that the fire today was more aggressive than anticipated. we knew that winds were picking up in that area which we're starting to push those flames closer toward the toward the basin in towar

representative seth moulton and peter meijer, said in a statement, we came into this visit wanting, like most veterans, to push the president to extend the august 31st deadline. after talking with commanders on the ground and seeing the situation here, it's obvious that because we started the evacuation so late, that no matter what we do, we won't get everyone out on time. >> we remain committed to getting any and all americans that want to leave, to get them out. >> reporter: pentagon officials insist time will be needed to actually withdraw u.s. forces. >> you need at least several days to get the amount of forces and equipment that we have at the airport, to get that safely and effectively retrograded. >> reporter: as for the controversial congressional trip to kabul, it was unauthorized because they didn't go through the usual process to get approval for a congressional fact-finding mission. representative moulton is a democratic from massachusetts, representative meijer, republican from michigan. they say they kept it secret not to draw attention to themselves and they they rode on

. >> reporter: seth moulton and peter meijer who both served in the middle east have accused the biden administration of dragging its feet on evacuations. now top democrats are blasting their decision. >> so this is deadly serious. we do not want members to go. >> reporter: and, jake, we should note that those numbers that we heard from the secretary of state earlier today do not include legal permanent residents or green card holders. those are the numbers for u.s. citizens that they were talking about, about who was still left and who has gotten out so far. we don't have a specific number on what that includes with those figures. now, of course, jake, remember earlier this week we heard president biden say he had asked the pentagon and the state department for contingency plans if they did not stand by this 31st of august withdrawal. he has now been briefed on those plans. but we are told that you're still sticking with this current time line. >> kaitlan collins, thanks so much. >>> the pentagon reports about 19,000 people have been evacuated from afghanistan in just the past 24 hour

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president joe biden's big plans for the economy are about to pass their first meijer legislative test. the group of democratic and republican senators are prepared to approve the infrastructure program. the vote is set to begin like this morning. democrats will be able to bypass republicans on the next part, a three point $5 trillion positive resolution that would expand health coverage, childcare, and education benefits. u.s. coronavirus waves that started in low vaccination states in the ozarks and deep south has engulfed the country. cases and hospitalizations are at their highest since february. 30 eight states have transmission levels considered high by the cdc. the other 12 states and washington, d.c. have trans mission rates in the second-worst category. the european union has decided not to reinstate restrictions on non-essential travel from the u.s. despite new covid cases in the country exceeding the bloc's threshold. the guidance from the eu's nonbinding. the government of each state can decide whether or not to follow it. amc posted seven quarter revenue -- second-quarter

speaker nancy pelosi clearly condemning the trip that democratic congressman seth moulton and peter meijer took to afghanistan. the two iraq war veterans caught both house leadership and the white house by surprise, raising questions about what resources may have been pulled from the evacuation efforts. here to discuss is brigadier general, former assistant secretary under president george w. bush. there's a lot of controversy and a lot of hand-ringing in the white house and the state department and congress about what these two congressmen did. they point out that this is frantic evacuation effort going on, this is a distraction. what did you think? >> i don't know what the history is all about. the commander on the ground, i'm sure he had a couple of minutes to talk to the congressmen. they were on the military side of hkia. so the security's already taken care of. and i think the troops probably appreciated a couple congressmen walking around patting them on the back and letting them know that america cares. >> and there is an argument it's not the one that's prevalent in the newspapers

congressional leaders have reprimanded congressmembers seth moulton, a democrat from massachusetts, and peter meijer, a republican from michigan, for secretly flying into the kabul airport, draing resources away from the evacuation effort. this is house speaker nancy pelosi. >> this is deadly serious. we do not want members to go. amy: we'll have more on afghanistan after headlines. the united states recorded more than 1100 covid-19 deaths wednesday, with over 170,000 new infections. for the first time since january, more than 100,000 u.s. residents are hospitalized with the disease. florida is having its worst week of the pandemic, with daily cases averaging 30% higher than january's peak. in florida's orange county, children aged five to 14 make up the largest group of new coronavirus cases, with a test positivity rate of around 20%. on tuesday, the orange county school board approved a 60 day mask mandate in defiance of republican governor ron desantis' ban on public health requirements in schools. more than half of florida public school students are now under mask mandates. meanwhile, delta airl

. >> massachusetts democrat seth moulton and peter meijer actually flew into kabul. now, among the critics of their visit, house speaker nancy pelosi who issued this warning. member travel to afghanistan and the surrounding countries would unnecessarily divert needed resources from the priority mission of safely and expeditiously evacuating americans and afghans at risk from afghanistan. now, the two lawmakers said that they flew on empty seats to avoid displacing any evacuees. there is a lot of focus on getting americans out of average, rightly. so but it is increasingly clear that loyal afghans, folks who have helped us for years, some them will be left behind. back to you guys. brian: yeah. thanks, doug. it's so clear even his own aides don't think this time sideline feasible or plausible. he says i want my staff to come up with a contingency plan. real have any you are gradually pulling them out to get them out by 31st and if it doesn't work calling it a contingency plan? you think toy soldiers come in and out wind them up? they're human beings. you are going to

plus, peter meijer, one of the two congressmen to fly to kabul in the middle of the evacuation, sparking outrage among his colleagues. he'll be here to explain to us why he went and what his takeaway was from the ground. u.s. marine veteran and former special forces operator trying to get people out of afghanistan on their own. they will join us live on that as we await the president. he has had to speak at the latest at 1:30 p.m. eastern time. we'll have it for you. join john and me on "america reports" at the top of the hour. >> kayleigh: seven months into his term, president biden facing serious mounting questions about his leadership with a major hurricane slamming the gulf coast and u.s. forces racing to evacuate the remaining americans from afghanistan before tomorrow's withdrawal deadline. critics are asking if the president is in over his head. some are comparing him to jimmy carter. william mcgurn writing in "the wall street journal" "in the history books the stake of our second saigon will hang over mr. biden's legacy but with more than three years left in his presidency, the i