if closing bagram air base has been a priority for the obama administration and his colleagues for nearly a decade. coming up, two afghanistan veterans on who directed joe biden to shut the very fortified, very expensive and very strategically-located bagram air base on july 5th, tearing the rug out from underneath our military, leading to the death of 13 of our heroes. this morning florida congressman michael walz and brian mast on their tours in afghanistan and whose head should roll over this deadly mistake and this gift to terrorists in the mideast and in china. plus, instead of preaching military readiness, the wrong messages this administration and the democrats have been sending since day one when joe biden took office. >> in the fbi's view, the top domestic violent extremist threat comes from racially or ethnically-motivated violent extremists, specifically whose who advocated for the superior of the white race. >> you know, we had the findings of the fbi previous to january 6th as to what was happening in our country with domestic terrorists, with domestic terrorism in america an

>> john: take lessons from the previous administration, with this administration, obama administration, we show you can go from prison to the palace. previous administration, go from threatening american lives from the frontlines straight to hell. this is the punishment that happenss for people who threaten americans and our lives. i am opposed to war for war's sake, i hate wor. but at the same time, we must protect american interest and let our allies know we can be trusted and our enemies know that we are not to be underestimated. >> harris: joey jones said rather than take prisoners off the battlefield, you have to kill them all, his words. >> john: well, have you to be careful, we don't want to be the enemy we are fighting. we only kill combatants. human rights are never divorced from foreign policy and make sure down to lowest level we enforce that. never can revenge come into the tactics that we deploy. as an officer, i recognize and i've been in those situations and we have to make sure that we give our folks on the ground the ones who are left every resource they need to be suc

i watched you debate a member of the obama administration. you are very critical of obama and what should have happened at that time. can you elaborate on this and what you think needs to happen now as well? of course, biden was vice president, part of the obama administration. >> that's right. i have -- i am just a little bit distressed when the biden team makes out that their involvement with this began sort of now. these are the same people who really were involved in the decisions not to address, as i said either of the questions that matter, which were afghan governnt corruption and our role enabling it and the behavior of the government of pakistan, and i was in those interagency debates. i was doing whatever i could to try to change the vector, to try to change the orientation. admiral mullen quickly came around on the issue of corruption. and he was making that argument in the cabinet, but he is the guy with the uniform on. the problem is, does not only agencies that could have addressed the problem. -- the problem is, he does not onl

but then it is critical of the obama administration it is critical of obama that as you say there is not that much from the left to think about transforming the economy like fdr or obama to his benefit was no intellectual. but then sdr came to office with generations of ideas reforming the economy from populace to progressives and then they were tried out at the state level so it is hard toar characterize it is so overwhelming. it can be difficult to characterize a ideologically. the obama administration was not in that position. not even close. the biden administration, regardless biden himself as a politician , and where he would align on thisis ideological spectrum, it's very different. since 2008 there has been a decade of economic history and a light of new debate and public investment banks and trust and all kinds of different mechanisms and then to mobilize finance and investment to public and. and of course we have to wait for the fine print on the legislation the biden administration is planning or promising. not to mention passing that legislation, executing it. but since w

i different political outlooks on things, became friends after bob left the obama administration. about was teaching a class at nyu law school which i went to and we started discussing our views about the proper role of lawyers and the executive branch. and actually agreed initially to write a book about the white house counsel read which is the office the top lawyer in the white house with fighting as the present on the personal basis representing the government been a very close basis. there's never been a great book about white house counsel bob had strong views about it is a nice predict from different perspectives and make met one day to talk about that book. an outline the book and this is about a year and half ago and in the course this was in january of 2020, and in the course of trying to sketch of that book which kept coming back to the truck presidency. we kept talking about all of the things a trump done to violate the norms and exposed limits and accountability. and we are both students of the presidential reform in 1970, the ones that were famously implemented after

the obama administration was not in the position, not even close. i think with biden, the biden administration regardless of biden himself as a politician where he would align on this spectrum, the biden administration very much, since 2008 there's been a decade of history, economic history, history of capitalism, lots of new debates and thoughts about public investment, public investment trust, regional trust, all kinds of different mechanisms for publicly mobilizing finance investment toward public goals and public and. you have to wait on a lot of the legislation the biden administration is planning, promising not to mention passing legislation, executing it but since we have hit some more depressing notes in our conversation, i think there are reasons at this moment to think of full of possibilities for doing new things, as recently as ten or 12 years ago in the midst of a financial crisis the great depression, i think we are politically and also intellectually unimaginable so that would be my response to that question. >> the only thing i would

with the obama administration when they passed a package? guest: on the concern about oversight, the house to put up a committee to provide oversight specific to the covid-19 aid. you have also had the biden administration dedicate aspects of his administration to oversee the distribution of covid aid. how that a will be distributed and managed. not only for social programs but for transportation programs. when you compare what we see with the infrastructure bill in the senate, what we saw with the recovery act into the first year of the obama administration. we are noticing, more from the biden standpoint, money that has been proposed to specific policies. again, federal railroad administration, federal transit administration, the federal motor carrier safety administration, that money will be geared to manage those agencies. two dedicate to those -- to to dedicated those safety programs. -- competitive grant system to give money to states. so they can proceed with a very specific state project. some of that in the biden bill, that was a bi

so the biden administration it demonstrates just like the previous obama administration biden leaves the gap between what they say and what they do. trump had the same problem but it was opposite. he made us cringe when he spoke to say oh he is great and he is my friend but he actually surrounded himself with people who are really strong the national security. but the biden administration wears like the opposite. like china and russia but then had a policy so even though it continued the policy on china and it was with what happened to be back in march and the chinese diplomats came in our invitation and if you read any reports of what happened with that meeting that basically use the talking points to have no right in a position but dealing with your own failures dealing with racial injustice. and that is not surprising for chinese people with those talking points but what is disappointing is the biden administration could not mount a strong powerful defense of our country because those were the talking points during the campaign and actually talk about america. so when they stole t

a doctor who served in the obama administration. then, the future of afghanistan following the taliban takeover with a member of the brookings institution. watched c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern thursday morning. be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages and tweets. ♪ john: in our final 30 minutes, a conversation on snap food benefits with heather taylor, strategic campaigns director for bread for the world. remind the world what red for the world's mission is. heather: bread for the world is a nonprofit that we represent a collective, christian voice. we work with congregations across the country to mobilize and urge congress to pass legislation to address hunger and poverty here in the united states and abroad. john: joining us ahead of what is a big bump for snap recipients in coming weeks, explain. hunger and poverty both here and in the united states, and abroad. and what is said to be a very big bump for snap recipients, explain. >> these are the kinds of policie

and by the way, the obama administration. you hear a lot of people from the obama administration who are not part of the biden administration criticizing their friends in the biden administration. the obama administration wasn't exactly setting this on a fast track either. this has always been a huge bureaucratic problem. >> jay, stick around. >>> president biden also spoke about the potential security threats with afghanistan back under taliban rule. more on that with jake next. >>> and the big rollout of covid booster shots in the u.s., dr. sanjay gupta explains who they are for and why they're getting them. ♪ ♪ are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks? now they can! downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh way longer than detergent alone. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load and enjoy fresher smelling laundry. with 6 times the freshness ingredients, downy unstopables gives you more o

and the obama administration was not in that position. not even close. i think with biden, the biden administration regardless of biting himself as a politician, and where he would come in on this kind of ideological structure, the biden administration situation is very different in 2008 there's been a decade of history , writing of economic history of the stories that history of capitalism. there's been lots of new debate and thoughts about public investment banks, public investment trusts, regional trusts. all kinds of different mechanisms for publicly mobilizing investment towards public bowls and towards public ends. and of course we will haveto wait for the fine print on a lot of the legislation at the biden administration is planning or promising . not to mention executing it but since we've hit some more depressing notes in our conversation there are reasons to think of this moment as being full of possibility for doing new things. that as recently as 10, 12 years ago in the midst of a financial crisis the worst financial crisis since the great de

the height of spending during the war was during the obama administration, 100,000 u.s. troops sent to afghanistan in 2010, 2011, 20 12. that is when we were spending this enormous amount of money in afghanistan. not just to wage the work, but to try to build up the country. frankly, over go the afghanistan papers" shows far more money than the country could possibly hope to absorb, just the capacity to use this money. a lot of the money was siphoned off i corruption, by afghan warlords, by defense contractors, and by defense contractors, that could be anything from major american contractors who were profiting off the war to local contractors in afghanistan, international ones who provide supplies, munition, food, transport. the war was an expensive war to wage in a landlocked country halfway around the world. the u.s. bitore than a trillion dollars on operations there. there's not a whole lot to show but a lot of people whether it is afghans or defense contractors were frankly warlords and the taliban, profited off that for 20 years. nermeen: lastly, on your book that

the height of spending during the war was during the obama administration, 100,000 u.s. troops sent to afghanistan in 2010, 2011, 20 12. that is when we were spending this enormous amount of money in afghanistan. not just to wage the work, but to try to build up the country. frankly, over go the afghanistan papers" shows far more money than the country could possibly hope to absorb, just the capacity to use this money. a lot of the money was siphoned off i corruption, by afghan warlords, by defense contractors, and by defense contractors, that could be anything from major american contractors who were profiting off the war to local contractors in afghanistan, international ones who provide supplies, munition, food, transport. the war was an expensive war to wage in a landlocked country halfway around the world. the u.s. bit mor than a trillion dollars on operations there. there's not a whole lot to show but a lot of people whether it is afghans or defense contractors were frankly warlords and the taliban, profited off that for 20 years. nermeen: lastly, on your book that

it was a so called group that was in syria, that the obama administration used to justify bombings there turned out. it didn't even exist. and so, i mean obviously someone did this attack and it was either i s k or the taliban, or al qaeda or whoever else did it. but this is just the murky reality of these wars. they need to and nothing is being accomplished here. other than the wasting of lives and money and endless years of effort. ok. spike current, libertarian party beeping candidate in 20. 20. thanks very much for joining us. and i'll see you this weekend. thank you. peter levels cross talk is on the way next here on our say off the which will be here to update you again from the moscow user . and thanks for watching.

and the obama administration was not in that position, not even close . i think with biden administration regardless of biting himself as a politician, and where he would align on this kind of ideological spectrum, the e biden administration carried since 2008 there's been a decade of history, of economic history and there's been lots of new debate that talked about public investment banks, public investment trusts,regional trusts , all kinds of different mechanisms for publicly mobilizing finance and investment towards public goals and towards public ends. and of course will have to wait for the fine print a lot of the legislation that provided administration is planning and promising. not to mention passing that legislation. but since we hit some more depressing notes in our conversation, there are four reasons to think of this moment as being full of possibility for doing new things. as recently as 10, 12 years ago in the midst of a financial crisis, the worst financial crisis since the great depression we're politically and also intellectually unimagi

in fact, what is -- i just think back to the obama administration. what we would have given for the taliban not just to be at the table speaking but speaking with afghan counter parts, that was the goal. guess what? we got there. they've been at the table with the united states and had a lousy deal the taliban violated but talking to the afghans and what under pinned that, what pushed the afghan -- the taliban to the table was u.s. air power, the continued threat of u.s. military strikes and not only did president biden say we're going to pull our ground troops out completely and unconditionally, but he also said no air power and that broke the back of the afghan military because they knew what that meant for their combat power. >> mark, appreciate your time. thank you very much and i appreciate your blunt assessment. >> my pleasure. >>> next, dr. sanjay gupta with a special report on long covid. so who gets it and why? and why you can still get it if you're vaccinated and i'm also joined by the mayor of tapika. 45-year-old runner and mother of three

we welcome to the broadcast, the former femur administrator during the obama administration. he's also chief resilience officer at one concern. a technology firm working to combat natural disasters and climate change. good to see you sir. no one has more expertise than you on these, things although obviously we're always talking to you under the worst of circumstances. and, while rescue efforts in louisiana are going on all day. the governor has warned the death toll mill stay rise considerably. let's talk about the priorities in these first critical days after a storm like ida hits. >> priorities will always be the same. it's always going to be the first focused is life-saving. getting to those that are cut off. getting to those that are injured. checking for people. and as you saw today, a lot of areas are still flooded. they're having to go and buy boat, they're doing overflights. that will continue. the second thing is life-sustaining. when power outages across this region, remember we're still in summertime. this is a very hot and humid area of the country. as temperatur

he was fired in the obama administration. and there was really no concrete reason given, but he was the first war commander relieved since douglas mcarthur in korea. in the documents we obtained, there were military officials that said mckernan knew he was getting into trouble for telling the truth that things weren't going well, and that was the reason. >> woodruff: and, finally, based on what you've learned about the taliban, what is your expectation of what is going to happen now in afghanistan? >> this is really fascinating. we fought this war on the assumption that the taliban was the enemy. right now the taliban has gotten everything they wanted to kick out the foreign forces, but they crazed diplomatic recognition from the united states. they want humanitarian aid and other assistance to flow in. i think the biden administration is going to be slow to give diplomatic recognition to the taliban, but they have already started to do business with them militarily. and you may recall the c.i.a. director, bill burnes, made a

i'm sure he was consistent in the obama administration. he's been consistent since. he absolutely believes that history will judge him well on this. but what about the point that he has left himself and the united states and our allies who are still there exposed? >> well, first of all, chris, there was no good time to get out. okay? there was always going to be issues. and that's one of the reasons we stayed for so long. so i think that the big thing here from the american public standpoint is they wanted this war to be over. and joe biden delivered on a poor commitment from his presidential campaign. there is no question the americans left behind, they have spoken about that today. they will stay with it. i'm sure we have intelligence assets there working with allies. so seeing that through will be important and continuing to help afghans who want to leave do that as well. but let's talk about the politics for a minute. if the republicans who are running for senate and governor and house this week, this time 12 months from now will make this the centerpiece of thei

it is something we didn't do a decade ago when i was working on this within the obama administration. we focused on the higher and, thanks to the crisis iran, we knew the numbers from. if we want to stop worse things from happening before they happen, to try to keep women and men in the military we want to keep in, and to create eventually that workplace where it doesn't have it at all in the first place. thank you to the irc for doing this, to cnas for having the conversation. katherine: thank you. we will open up a moderated panel discussion here and then we will follow on with audience questions. kayla and ky, the irc report, a consistent thread throughout is that the bond between commanders and their subordinates is broken. why do you think that is? how do you think we can go about restoring that? kayla: i think one of the issues, as ky alluded to, there can be some significant gaps in age and other areas. one thing i remember from my time in the service, sometimes that gap is significant enough, junior enlisted folks are engaging in acts of sexual harassment, but if you don't kno

administration comes into office and narrative changes. >> yes. >> what happened. >> president obama wanted to do, how he turned afghanistan from good war to bad war. he fought that u.s. was making a basic problem by protecting our military force. he wanted not only to end the american projection of military force but create a situation where no presidential came after him could project military force. lara: he did it by discrediting the afghans. >> absolutely. lara: then by -- narratives were that al qaeda is decimated, was that true? >> absolutely not. lara: he does his research on the ground. and his office is testament to learn first hand. >> everything my wife will not let me keep at home. lara: helped shape his understanding, when president trump secretary of state pompeo made this announcement. >> i am proud to announce u.s. secured separate commitment from islamic respect of afghanistan and the taliban to hold negotiations for peace. >> for michael ruben it was groundhog day, repeating same mistakes that led to 9/11. >> we had more than 30 ambassador above engagement with the

then later, you know, making moves in iraq and backing moves by the obama administration. when he was vice president that resulted in strengthening i still, we can talk about how, you know, biden was at 1st, a huge supporter of us intervention in libya under the obama administration, but then admit that that resulted in things deteriorating in the country. and now observers are looking at his handling of the situation and afghan us down and saying, this guy may just not really know what he's doing when it comes to foreign policy. so biting did break, his silence seems to blame a lot of other people for the situation in the country. you seem to argue that i guess it was inevitable of the taliban would take power even though that was just the opposite of what he had argued before. that's what we just heard from joe biden, and his critics are not satisfied critics out there, just looking at the headlines, it is actually pretty shocking. what i will say that was created open reporting from your many banks. meanwhile, additional us troops continue to be sent to afghanistan off

this is not seen by the obama administration but almost -- biden administration but almost shocking to say it was not seen by them. trey: given this is happening in afghanistan, starting with blood of our sons and daughters and trillions of dollars, i think the images will force president biden to address the nation, what should his message be. >> i would say, the buck stops with me. this did not go down well. i am sorry for the people that helped us, that we were not able to get out in time. this is what i'm going to do going forward, and less 3 or 4 options. all things he will say may not be popular, they will not poll well, what is your show about? your show is about, what is the right thing to do. if you do the right thing, the popularity of it will come eventually. they should not worry about, that they should not blame president trump, that is unacceptable. they can blame him for everything else but this, they cannot blame president trump. trey: thank you for joining us. >> still ahead reaction to reports that taliban is freeing al qaeda prisoners from afghanistan. >> and afghani

. >> ♪ ♪ >> ♪ ♪ >> a former obama administration official saying unvaccinated americans should be put on a no-fly list like those normally reserved for terrorists. the homeland security secretary could this is an obvious step that the federal government should take. this comes as the vaccinated passports face scrutiny from within the dermic party. -- democratic party. the mayor of boston a democrat said vaccine passports is like people have to show their papers in the days of slavery. after an explosion of negative reactions the mayor apologized for her dopey remarks. you never compare anything to slaver or the holocaust. >> there are so many walk backs it's like michael jackson doing the moon walk. unbelievable. people say something and i don't mean that. dr. collins said wear masks if you are vaccinated in your home if your children are around -- well, actually no, don't have to do this. i think she said what she believed and the blow back was i should not have said that. there is a feeling in urban america that black americans don't want to get the vaccine. i would wish they will r

who the obama/biden administration released from gitmo. >> harris: he should be familiar with them. he has been in office for 50 years. weighs there when it was going on in the white house as well. who we're dealing with outside of the perimeter of that airport today. joey jones is joining me now. fox nation host and retired marine bomb technician and our friend on "the faulkner focus". we were together on "outnumbered" yesterday. now we get the detail some of the men in charge. biden should be so familiar with who he is dealing with here. >> we should have killed every one of them. if we've learned anything take no prisoners on the battlefield. if they have a gun in their hand put a bullet in their chest is what we learned. we won't be allowed to gather human intelligence because that process is considered torture now. what is the point in bringing any of them in? they'll sit there, get fat. become martyrs for everyone on the ground and we lease them back to stir them up and take over afghanistan. that's exactly what's happened. we traded five leaders, five people with tons of bloo

i think the book ends about the great recession and the failure of the obama administration to change that. to redirect investment and redirect thehe american economy on a different path. i guess the last question we most important is what would it mean to transcend that contradiction and to move to a new order long-term investment? i have a number of thoughts about that. maybe i will just limit myself to three and then perhaps we can do that. first it's possible it's certainly possible the age of control the united states economy emerges out in which the state through programs of public investment largely through public corporations like the finance corporation through a mix of public and private means the state forces a long-term and coming out of the war largely becausef of pressures but by organized labor it's complicated certainly a postwarr generation of long-term fixed capitol investment. so it can be done. there are very historical examples that demonstrate that. with that said i think we talk about others. one of the, i guess i will state weaknesses of the book are one of the

that privily served as special envoy to -- other key roles in the obama administration. he is director for partnerships and global engagement at the national security council. he has monitor and comment on it semitism. he fights from endlessly against holocaust nihilism, -- the nihilism -- denial. -- resulting in an overwhelming victory for deborah and all of those fighting holocaust denial. she was a two term member of the holocaust memorial council. we are eager for rashad and debra to get to work. according to the pew center, 56 countries, have high or severe restrictions on religious freedom. here in the united states, as in many parts of the world, we have seen a rise in anti-semitism and anti-muslim hatred. this hits painfully close to home. as you know, there was an anti-semitic incident here in this building last week. that was deeply disturbing. not only because it was a deliberate act of hate towards many of our employees, but because this is the state department. at our best, we lead the fight for the dignity and freedom of people everywhere. we are resolute i

administration. where we dealing with in afghanistan? carlos jimenez on homeland security committee joins us next. ♪♪ jillian: fox news alert, rescue crews working group of tropical storm to find any survivors following the haiti earthquake. 1400 people have died, 6000 are hurt and they are overwhelming hospitals. the coast guard bringing in more medical supplies and personnel and evacuating the injured. tropical storm grace drenching a camp for those left homeless. grace be the second storm to hit florida this week as tropical storm fred slams the panhandle, governor ron this and is declaring a state of emergency a street in mexico beach are submerged in rainwater, some saw 65 miles per hour turning this swimming pool into away full. fred has weakened as it makes its way inland. the national hurricane center says alabama and georgia should be on alert. todd: president biden under 5 refusing to answer questions following a speech on afghanistan. >> president biden needs to be held accountable for

it happened during the obama biden administration as well, joe biden was a part of. we have never had an honest debate, an honest discussion. we're not prepared to look at what's happening. i feel for the afghans, and i think there are questions about the implementation of this policy. we have never given a damn, even the warriors who served who come back to silence without much coverage in the media we're all part of. to see the republicans now trying to exploit the lies, the ignorance, the uncaring just to score political points, well, afghans are truly, you know, in a troubled condition. i want to say i'm surprised but i'm not. >> yeah, surprise is dead along with irony. the rnc had a page error that was touting the withdrawal, right, so it's kind of difficult to see it. i just want to know, what is the over/under on how fast the pivot goes, tom, from we have failed the afghans to you can't bring 20,000 of those people here, they're muslim, right? >> that's a sucker bet because it's already happening. you know, there are republicans already saying can't bring thos

going back to the bush administration, the obama administration, the trump administration, and now biden. this is now, unfortunately, for biden, on his doorstep. but he has to go back and understand in terms of how he moves forward, the deal that was cut in doha, the impact it played in setting this in motion. demoralizing the afghan troops on the ground when it was very clear at that point the u.s. was no longer going to be there for them. the corruption that then ensued and how that played a role in creating the opportunities for the taliban to take hold to the point that afghan troops just laid down their weapons, sold them their weapons. so there's a lot to parse out of this politically. but right now, you have to deal with the humanitarian crisis. and that is air lifting out those men and women who were there for the u.s. over the last 20 years, their families, and the individuals who played a role in sustaining u.s. troop presence there and pursuing the military in civil objectives of the u.s. government with respect to afghanistan. that should be the priority of this administratio

in your reporting did your research what the obama administration had for their pandemic plan that the trump administration either ignored or recommended or and the shorter version is how much time might have been lost if they didn't act on the existing administration. >> that's a great question. a few days before trump was inaugurated there was a meeting in the eisenhower executive office building with essentially all of obama's candidate all trumps incoming cabinets and it took a tradition that had started a couple administrations before they walked through various catastrophic events to try to prepare the new cabinet for how to respond one was to take an active shooter in acollege campus . one was a tornado or hurricane and the third was a pandemic, like a flu. and someone shared with me a photograph of everyone in the room . it was like mike flynn, mattis, all these people and what was striking about it was almost all those people were gone when the pandemic came. the first health secretary lasted like a year. i don't even know if they were paying attention during the briefing but

here's what the former ambassador under the obama administration had to say? >> we basically gave up on afghanistan and what president biden did was to embrace it, embrace the envoy. he owns it >> reporter: domestically what all this means for biden is unclear. polling in the spring indicated the public was behind his decision to pull out troops but that sentiment could change as the scenes of a brutal taliban takeover unfold just weeks ahead of the 20th anniversary of the september 11th attacks tyler. >> shannon, thank you. douglas olifant, served as the director of iraq at the national security council during the bush 43 and obama administrations he's a senior security fellow with the new american foundation you spent a year in afghanistan advising on counter insurgency, sir. how has this gotten so bad so quickly and are you surprised at how quickly the government backed forces have seemed to melt away? >>. >> it play sz into everyone's biases senator lindsey graham, you're saying look at what's happening, i told you so. am i surprised it's happening so quic

. >> when the obama administration was bringing in syrian refugees, there was a lot of pushback from various states about refugees coming into their communities. how do you see that situation this time around? is this going to be different? do you anticipate the same pushback and hard feelings? >> we will see. what we have been working to do is to work closely with governors, with localities, with local leaders to give them detailed briefings on what our vetting process looks like, what the background check process looks like before any individual comes into the united states. that is a background check process that is thorough before they are allowed to come in and step on u.s. soil. we also know that there are some people in this country even something congress who may not want to have people from another country, as refugees to the united states. that is a reality. we can't stop or prevent that on our own. we will continue to communicate our intensive vetting process and we will do that behind the scenes. we will continue to convey clearly that this is part of who we are, part of

>> or set by the obama administration. that's the administration under which the taliban political commission was opened. it was always a pipe dream. it was always giving, you know, a stage to some of the most odious people on earth, terrorists who are i think the enemies of all civilized people, jake. i think the trump administration doubled down on the mistakes of the obama administration after the president abandoned what had been i think really the first reasoned and sustainable approach toward afghanistan in 2017. and then the biden administration doubled down on the flaws of the trump administration. and the self-delusion really. we're seeing an end of that delusion now. but people are still clinging to the same sorts of arguments about the war. >> but you know, we only have a minute left so i just want to just ask you quickly. polls indicate that the american people don't want a u.s. military presence in afghanistan. and they look at people like me in the media and you a retired general and they think you're the num

america's been pulling back from international commitments ever since the obama administration. i think it's too easy to say just the afghan forces and how corrupt they were and how bad the government was and blaming it all on them. i think that's not fair. i think the trump administration, which started the negotiation only with the taliban, cut out the afghan government when they started it. told the taliban, we're just negotiating with you. we're now giving you an agreement on paper that we are going to leave your country. the rest was just a waiting game. the taliban have been strategizing, doing what they do. that's part of the main reason this has happened so fast, so quickly. the people in afghanistan are scared and they don't believe in the taliban and their reassurances. >> colonel, give us the military perspective. what are you watsin waiting to ? >> i'm liking for an acknowledgement of the sacrifice of american men and women. i want to say that it was something that was a worthy cause but that one part of the mission was very successful. that part was the elimination

rachel, as we get all of our work in the obama administration, all of the global issues, international issues, white house counsel and then i also have to say we have been very fortunate in times up to have rachel as an advisor. internationally rachel has been working on the military sexual assault and independent review commission work that was appointed by president biden and secretary alston. meighan and i got to know each other also when i was in the white house, when she was doing amazing work with malala. she and i organized a very complicated [inaudible] malala and her father in the white house in 2017. it was really concentrated on the fact that those of you that are from dc and know your dc history, you will remember october, 2017, we were in a government shutdown for the failure to pass the 2018 budget -- from 2014. and malala and her father came to the white house. there were only few essential staff there. people like me were left to their who didn't know how to do all of the ways and enter. so there was the gate with in pouring rain. there was the first lady and the presid

, the obama administration and put in's russia. there were numerous attempts at normalization between the u.s. and russia, always coming from this. remember this disastrous experience in syria where americans abandoned their own redlines and allowed russia to intervene on the side. -- on the side of the president. many eastern europeans are especially very vulnerable because of their geographical proximity to russia. to come back to the options that ukraine has, there is another option which is improving and getting closer relations with turkey. this is around the black sea, including the military field. don't forget that turkey was quite critical of the crimea annexation by russia because crimea's population is primarily turkish speaking. somehow, ukraine try to negotiate better options about nato membership in terms of -- with germany. germany and france were the main countries blocking succession. the you can't -- the ukrainians tried to negotiate this issue with nato but anna see any serious changes -- i don't see any serious c

. >> ben, take a minute and back up the story as andrea told it about the obama administration. >> this is consistent where joe biden has been since i started working with him in the beginning of the obama administration. you had the military come to obama and ask for a surge of 40,000 troops. the only person at the table in the situation room who opposed that surge was joe biden. his point was nation building is not going to work in afghanistan west should purely have a counter terrorism mission in afghanistan. it requires a much smaller force and we should be planning withdrawal on a much quicker pace. and he obviously lost out on that debate. i think he maintains the consistent view that our capacity for nation building, there is a counter terrorism. she's right that there will continue to be threats in afghanistan but i think what joe biden and his advisers would say, there are terrorist threats in other countries where we don't have u.s. ground forces and we can take military wax a drone strike or an air strike. and we can reserve the right to do that in afghanistan. i think the ve