that is what tony blinken said. you mentioned with the taliban have said. they will no longer let afghans get to the airport and especially not let afghans leave the country. it seems there are two different things. one is what is going on with americans. tony blinken confirmed a number of americans who were according to their estimates still in afghanistan. that is 1500 americans. of those, there are 500 with him the u.s. state department has had contact, has told how to get to the airport and to be evacuated. there are 1000 so-called probable americans, possibly still in the country. some may have already left. some may not want to leave. those are people of the state department has yet to be able to contact directly. we are talking about a thousand americans. those americans possibly if there are still some of them after the august 31 deadline, it seems the united states may have an agreement with the taliban to lead those americans out. when it comes to afghan nationals, it gets much more complicated because we heard the words of the taliban and jen psa

of course we did, tony blinken liked him. people like tony blinken liked him. so the personal behavior reportedly raised red flags with u.s. officials including frank mckenzie, head of central command.ls mckenzie was mystified by ghani's behavior. did anyone in the pentagon do anything about it? of course they didn't. nothing. they presented everything was fine. they're dumb. the state department didn't reach out to see what he was doing. instead they worked to get other countries to sign a statement to send to the taliban urging them to let americans out of the country. ultimately the statement was signed by militaryas power houss like haiti, democratic of conga. that's what they feel is significant. a stupid document that means nothing. these are children. no one is apologizing for it. they won't even acknowledge screwing up. they're not having a moment of self reflection. why wereav they on the phone wih haiti while citizens were trapped in afghanistan ran by the taliban. they won't explain why they put the safety of american citizens in the hands of a presi

of course we did, tony blinken liked him. people like tony blinken liked him. so the personal behavior reportedly raised red flags with u.s. officials including frank mckenzie, head of central command. mckenzie was mystified by ghani's behavior. did anyone in the pentagon do anything about it? of course they didn't. nothing. they presented everything was fine. they're dumb. the state department didn't reach out to see what he was doing. instead they worked to get other countries to sign a statement to send to the taliban urging them to let americans out of the country. ultimately the statement was signed by military power houses like haiti, democratic of conga. that's what they feel is significant. a stupid document that means nothing. these are children. no one is apologizing for it. they won't even acknowledge screwing up. they're not having a moment of self reflection. why were they on the phone with haiti while citizens were trapped in afghanistan ran by the taliban. they won't explain why they put the safety of american citizens in the hands of a president

. >> reporter: secretary of state tony blinken said it was difficult to track in realtime every american in afghanistan when asked who shoulders the blame for this frantic effort up to the deadline, he said this. >> i take responsibility. i know the president has said he takes responsibility. there will be plenty of time to look back at the last six or seven months, to look back at the last 20 years and to look to see what we might have done differently. >> reporter: the taliban imposing tighter restrictions on afghanistan, one day after warning it wouldn't allow afghans to reach the airport. in this video shared on social media, this man says he was beaten by the taliban. his face bloodied. he said they hit me bad and this happened when i was crossing to the airport. the taliban telling working women to stay home until security is in place. they say their fighters don't know how to treat women yet. >> we want to make sure women are not treated in a disrespectful way or, god forbid, hurt. we would like them to stay at home until security is in place for them in the offices. >> reporter:

secretary of state tony blinken joins us this morning. the response from congresswoman liz cheney, the analysis from martha raddatz and ian pannell is live from kabul. >>> the delta variant surging. hospitals pushed to the brink. >> in dallas we have zero icu beds left for children. >> as the cdc forecasts it will only get worse. dr. richard besser weighs in. >>> devastation in haiti. a 7.2 magnitude earthquake killing hundreds. the very latest this morning. >> announcer: from abc news it's "this week." here now co-anchor jonathan karl. >>> good morning and welcome to "this week." 20 years of war. 2,312 american service members killed. many, many more left with life-changing injuries. they fought to keep afghanistan from becoming a safe haven from the kind of rrstckseptembe11, 2001. they also fought to try to make afghanistan a stable democracy, capable of defending itself. now, before the eyes of the world, much of whatever was gained on the ground in afghanistan has unravelled. the taliban seized jalalabad, leaving kabul the only major

secretary of state tony blinken joins us this morning. the response from congresswoman liz cheney, the analysis from martha raddatz and ian pannell is live from kabul. >>> the delta variant surging. hospitals pushed to the brink. >> in dallas we have zero icu beds left for children. >> as the cdc forecasts it will only get worse. dr. richard besser weighs in. >>> devastation in haiti. a 7.2 magnitude earthquake killing hundreds. the very latest this morning. >> announcer: from abc news it's "this week." here now co-anchor jonathan karl. >>> good morning and welcome to "this week." 20 years of war. 2,312 american service members killed. many, many more left with life-changing injuries. they fought to keep afghanistan from becoming a safe haven from the kind of terror attack that struck america on september 11, 2001. they also fought to try to make afghanistan a stable democracy, capable of defending itself. now, before the eyes of the world, much of whatever was gained on the ground in afghanistan has unravelled. the taliban seized jalalab

we are awaiting remarks from secretary of state tony blinken. this white house is engaged in meetings at a cabinet level with veterans groups. i wonder what you make of what is a herculian effort to communicate. every step of what you said is a very, very challenging sort of end to what's been a challenging war. i know firsthand that the public was weary of this war. >> sure. >> shortly after it began. this president very much in line with public opinion about ending the war but very much still getting criticism from national security establishment figures. what do you make of how they're doing and communicating? >> well, i think they are learning lessons from earlier cases in which we did not do this so well. as you know, nicolle, it is harder to end a war than get into one. lyndon johnson in 1965 faced the prospect of sending ground troops to vietnam. he knew in private it might lead to a half million americans in vietnam, maybe 50 or 60,000 americans killed. he knew that in 1965, but in the end he did not want to bury the in cue bus of saying

secretary of state tony blinken is postponing his remarks on the afghanistan mission. his remarks previously expected this hour now expected at 2:30 eastern. we will bring that to you the moment it begins. >>> let's turn to president biden's ambitious domestic agenda. house democrats passed the $3.5 trillion budget resolution and also agreed to vote next month on the trillion dollar infrastructure bill. this was after intense fighting and negotiating amongst democrats. is the path ahead now clear? ryan nobles is joining me from capitol hill. a lot of it didn't make sense, though it kind of all made sense. it was a major step forward yesterday. what's next? >> reporter: you spent a lot of time here on capitol hill. you know how confusing and often difficult these budget negotiations can be. when you say all clear, i don't think anybody thinks the path forward is all clear by any stretch of the imagination. democrats punted these big choices they have to make about the bipartisan infrastructure plan and that big $3.5 trillion budget plan for later down the road. the real

>> reporter: that's one of the big questions, and certainly as tony blinken was pressed on that yesterday. overnight we got a statement from a state department spokesperson he says he can confirm the evacuation of all u.s. embassy personnel are now complete the airport perimeter is secured by the u.s. military apparently, they are working out of the airport while those e evacuations are ongoing. exactly who qualifies, translator, people who worked tat embassy is not clear and who mae stay behind for a couple of days or weeks, w don't know >> it is heartbreaking to think how these live also be changed talk more about the people of afghan women and girls now >> reporter: yeah, and that, of course, has been making headlines, that's one of the big questions. we may learn the answer to their fate in the next couple of days. 21 years ago, of course, life under the taliban was very different. they couldn't go to school, they wouldn't become politicians. i want to play a quick bite from my colleague take a listen. >> women in afghanistan are the most at danger or at risk population of the country

. >>> just in, secretary of state tony blinken says the u.s. is quote, falling behind. here what he says americans need to do at home to boost diplomatic strength with rivals like china, next. >>> the new cnn series, being, congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez joins dana bash. the congresswoman shares what it's like to be both adored and reviled. being aoc airs tonight at 9:00. d sighs of relief and of a company watching out for you. this is the sound of low cash mode from pnc bank, giving you multiple options and at least 24 hours to help you avoid an overdraft fee. because we believe how you handle overdrafts should be in your control, not just your bank's. low cash mode on virtual wallet from pnc bank. one way we're making a difference. ♪ ♪ oh, son of a poppyseed! ah, there's no place like panera. enjoy the cool, refreshing strawberry poppyseed salad. panera. order on the app today. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resu

blinken said today. my sources are telling me they know that they are going to leave them behind. my sources have told me that if they were warned by our intelligence community, our defense department and no uncertain terms early, may, june, july, what was happening and they did nothing. what are you hearing? >> we received a series of briefings the last several days, sean, and it is very clear that this white house is not being honest with the american people. we are hearing very different things behind closed doors from these breakers. the defense department in no uncertain terms told biden and his white house to leave a residual force behind and to not do this. the intelligence community was clear that al qaeda 3.0 will roar back with the taliban that they are married at the hip and fully intend to attack the united states again. and we have americans right now not just behind enemy lines in kabul, but outside of kabul, and there is a capability to go get them, but the white house isn't authorizing it

blinken said today. my sources are telling me they know that they are going to leave them behind. my sources have told me that if they were warned by our intelligence community, our defense department and no uncertain terms early, may, june, july, what was happening and they did nothing. what are you hearing? >> we received a series of briefings the last several days, sean, and it is very clear that this white house is not being honest with the american people. we are hearing very different things behind closed doors from these breakers. the defense department in no uncertain terms told biden and his white house to leave a residual force behind and to not do this.nms the intelligence community was clear that al qaeda 3.0 will roar back with the taliban that they are married at the hip and fully intend to attack the united states again. and we have americans right now not just behind enemy lines in kabul, but outside of kabul, and there is a capability to go get them, but the white house isn't authorizing

secretary of state tony blinken today defended how this has all gone down calling it orderly. saying there was a plan in place. u.s. troops have come in and they have supported this effort. as far as we know, no u.s. personnel have been harmed in any way as they're getting safely out of the country. but the secretary of state also made it very clear that the situation as it's unfolded, the taliban gains have happened at a much more rapid pace than the biden administration expected. we should, you know, assume, therefore, that that is one of the reasons that a lot of the statements that they made in the last few weeks are not coming to fruition. their promise to keep diplomats in the country, that is now a promise that is broken to the afghan people. >> jeremy at the white house, calls are growing louder to hear something from the president. yes, he put out a statement yesterday, but that was preceding what we're seeing now, which is kabul seized by the taliban. what is the white house saying? what is it preparing for? >> reporter: yeah, there's no question this is a historic m

we heard a similar message this morning from secretary of state tony blinken, that if u.s. forces were attacked, there would be a response. listen to him from earlier today. >> let me ask you, is the biden administration right now offering the taliban anything in exchange for a promise of safe passage for americans and others out of afghanistan? >> no. we haven't asked the taliban for anything. we've told the taliban that, if they interfere with our personnel, with our operations as we're proceed being this drawdown, there will be a swift and decisive response. >> reporter: so you can hear there, a swift and decisive response as the secretary of state is saying there. that was echoed in briefings this morning delivered by the secretary of state and secretary of defense to members of both the house of representatives and the senate this morning as those lawmakers were seeking updates on the situation in afghanistan. because you mentioned that statement from the president yesterday, i should mention that it is notable to see the extent to which this administration, we heard i

. >> you heard tony blinken say, look. it's just like an embassy. not like an embassy. >> not like an embassy. it's like a stampede of people trying to be controlled by various armed groups. >> president biden promised retribution. he promised if strike on isis-k would not be the last. leon panetta said he thinks the u.s. will have to go back into afghanistan. to jon's point that over horizon is not the same as being on the ground. >> no. it's not, and one of the things we've seen sort of in conjunction with the deterioration of security in the last two months is the fact that we have had less and less intel collection on the ground, you know, troops not being able to secure the premises there. isis being able to embed itself in mountains and homes to be able to operate in the way they were. remember, 20 years ago when the attacks of 9/11 happened, technology was far less fist -- sophisticated than it is now. it really raises concerns about what is happening on the ground in the potential for another terrorist strike down the line which is why so ma

but tony blinken will be on that call. and as andrea mitchell reported, he will, of course, be expressing more details on "meet the press" and to the lawmakers on this briefing about the u.s.'s plan to close that embassy, and will look forward to that reaction, of course, speaker pelosi yesterday releasing a statement, careful not to blame president biden, but still expressing concern for the humanitarian damage that is being done in that region, especially to women and girls as the taliban continues to take over there. but other than that, not much from democrats here who are, of course, careful not to criticize president biden. but if they were here in these halls and not on recess, we would be able to get them on the record on that. >> okay, julie joining us from capitol hill, shannon pettypiece at the white house. thank you for joining us. it will be a busy day ahead. >>> want to bring in evelyn farkas on these developments. madam secretary, you tweeted before coming on the air with us that this whole situation is disa

they will hear from officials including secretary of state tony blinken. nancy pelosi saying she hopes to have some kind of deal with gottheimer by noon, when she plans to bring this rule, this procedural vote, to the floor. she is hoping they have something in hand with timer -- in hand to move this forward. host: what can the speaker give to these centrists? guest: they want to the infrastructure bill to go first and soon rather than wait around for a process for the democrats to shape this social safety net plan that joe biden has proposed that is extremely them bishops. the concern from gottheimer's he believes the longer the infrastructure -- the senate passed infrastructure bill sits out there, the longer it can get beat up by republicans, by former president trump, who has been really against republicans and his party for supporting this i partisan bill. he is a leader of the bipartisan problem solvers caucus. he wants republicans to join the effort to help democrats pass this bipartisan bill. he thinks the longer it sits out there, the longer repub

we expect in the next hour that secretary of state tony blinken will be making remarks where he has been asked to provide more information about americans. one of the big questions is how many americans remain in afghanistan who want to leave? there may be some circumstances where there are americans that do not wish to leave. they have been telling us that all along. they have not registered, they have not connected. so what is the picture? also notable, john kirby who is a retired general now. they are looking for government approval, typically when they travel and they have oversight to perform, they are nearly there providing security for the two members of congress. the white house said that no one should be trying to go to afghanistan elected or not, to try to see for themselves what is happening. that can drain resources away from the evacuation mission. those are some of the highlights. they have left the kabul perimeter, the airport, to travel outside of that within kabul to rescue americans using aircraft. so when they identify that they are out, they bring them safely back to

not long ago in june, tony blinken assured america that afghanistan would definitely not fall in just a matter of days. >> i don't think it's going toni be something that happens from a friday to monday, so i wouldn't necessarily equate the departure of our forces in july, august or by early september with some kind of immediate deterioration in the situation.it >> tucker: of course as we just learned, that's exactly what happened. the country collapses fromke friday to monday. how did this happen? it's worth knowing. the president of the quincy institute for responsible for craft and the author of age of illusions, how america squandered its victory and joins us now. thank you so much for coming on. you just heard doug mcgregor accuse pentagon leadership of lying to the country and to the men they lead about the state of afghanistan. do you think that's true? >> largely yes. i think the key point is the media is understandably obsessed with what is going on today, the catastrophe that has unfolded but i think that focus distracts attention from the previous 20 years and so the story

this is now a top priority for secretary of state tony blinken who says the u.s. has gotten assurances from the taliban that people will be able to leave the country. don? >> thank you very much for that, alex, appreciate it. >>> joining me now, cnn's john harwood and general mark hertling. general, i appreciate your remarks and the way you handled the coverage of the remains of the servicemen returning here. >> thanks, don, that's kind. >> it was riveting, and a great way that you paid tribute to those service members. john, i'm going to start with you. the u.s. is officially out of afghanistan. we're told there are still between 100 and 200 americans who needed to be evacuated. what are you hearing from the white house? is there a plan to get all of these people out of the country? >> don, it mostly involves exerting diplomatic pressure by the united states and its allies on the taliban to live up to the commitments that alex mentioned in that piece, to allow for safe passage for people with proper documentation to least country through the kabul airport. the un

not long ago in june, tony blinken assured america that afghanistan would definitely not fall in just a matter of days. >> i don't think it's going to be something that happens from a friday to monday, so i wouldn't necessarily equate the departure of our forces in july, august, or by early september with some kind of immediate deterioration in the situation. >> tucker: of course as we just learned, that's exactly what happened. the country collapses from friday to monday. how did this happen? it's worth knowing. the president of the quincy institute for responsible for craft and the author of age of illusions, how america squandered its victory and joins us now. thank you so much for coming on. you just heard doug mcgregor accused pentagon leadership of lying to the country and to the men they lead about the state of afghanistan. do you think that's true? >> largely yes. i think the key point is the media is understandably obsessed with what is going on today, the catastrophe that has unfolded, but i think that focus distracts attention from the previous 20 years and so the story of

he said more quickly than we anticipated were the words of tony blinken. as for the president, plans are under way for him to address the nation at some point in the coming days, but it's not clear yet exactly when. the president on sunday was at the presidential retreat at camp david but on the screen in front of him you can see the secretary of defense, the secretary of state as well as the national security advisor and dozens of other national security officials in washington and around the world. certainly the white house's effort to show he's on top of this situation even as we were seeing this pretty chaotic scene unfolding in the streets of kabul and certainly at the airport where foreigners as well as afghanis were trying to flee the country as the taliban entered this country. of course this question of a miscalculation is something the president will have to address. here's president biden just over a month ago talking about the fact he believes taliban taking over afghanistan was highly unlikely. >> the afghan troops have 300,000 well equipped,

he said more quickly than we anticipated were the words of tony blinken. as for the president, plans are underway for him to address the nation at some point in the coming days. but it's not clear yet exactly when the president on sunday is at the presidential retreat at camp david where you can see in this picture the president on sunday morning is alone at camp david at this big conference table. but on the screen in front of him you can see the secretary of defense, the secretary of state as well as the national security adviser, and dozens of other national security officials in washington and around the world, certainly the white house's effort to show that he is on top of the situation even as we were seeing this pretty chaotic scene unfolding in the streets of kabul and certainly at the airport where foreigners as well as afghanis were trying to flee the country as the taliban entered the country. of course, this question of a miscalculation is something that the president will have to address. here's president biden just over a month ago talking ab

you hear tony blinken saying it is up to to afghan— tony blinken saying it is up to to afghan people to look after themselves, well, yes, but only because — themselves, well, yes, but only because everything else has failed. is there _ because everything else has failed. is there a _ because everything else has failed. is there a sense of responsibility to get more afghans out, those who helped the us and its allies? yes. helped the us and its allies? yes, there will be _ helped the us and its allies? yes, there will be pressure _ helped the us and its allies? yes, there will be pressure in - helped the us and its allies? yes, there will be pressure in that direction _ there will be pressure in that direction. that is why it could be toxic— direction. that is why it could be toxic for— direction. that is why it could be toxic forjoe biden. the policy enjoyed — toxic forjoe biden. the policy enjoyed support that american should pull enjoyed support that american should putt forces _ enjoyed support that american should pull forces out. but the manner in which _ pull forces out

we heard from secretary of state tony blinken acknowledging that quite candidly, saying the u.s. believes that the afghan security forces would hold out longer against this taliban offensive. instead, they crumbled very fast, much quicker than the u.s. had estimated. that is one of the reasons we're waiting to see what president biden will say, because he just a month ago was talking about it being highly unlikely for the taliban to take over kabul and certainly that is what is happening today. that is something the president will have to answer for. >> the state department said kabul was not an imminent threat of falling to the taliban. now 48 hours later, it has fallen to the taliban. joining me is james clapper, the former director of national intelligence in the obama administration. first question to you, do you view this as an intelligence failure? >> not surprisingly, pamela, no, i don't. i think whether the kabul collapsed immediately or in 30 days, the outcome was the same. so we can argue about whether the number of days was predicted or not. that in itself is not just

secretary of state tony blinken, an tony blinken says there could be as many as 1,500 americans still in afghanistan. and he says efforts to evacuate americans and afghan allies will continue past the troop withdrawal on august 31st. >> there is no deadline on our work to help any remaining citizens who decide they want to leave to do so along with the many afghans who have stood by us over these years and want to leave and have been unable to do so. that effort will continue every day past august 31st. >> so the white house is saying that they are looking at options to make sure americans can still leave afghanistan after the end of the month. the story is coming out of kabul tell you just how chaotic the situation at the airport still is. one woman and her two children tried nearly a dozen times to get in for a flight to join her husband, a u.s. citizen, finally making it through when she dressed her baby daughter in yellow and held her over her head so that she could be seen after sending a photo of her to marines in a whatsapp group. and we're learning tonight about 20 san diego s

tony blinken is secretary of state and john mccain is right. >> martha: in question of accountability, we heard dan crenshaw's tweet saying he thought an tony blinken should be fired for the handling of this. decades ago, that happened routinely. if someone messed up or if something went horribly wrong or the advice that they gave turned out to be really not good, there would be consequences. that's something that americans feel so frustrated by over the past decades at least. there don't seem to be consequences for messing up in your job. >> yeah, you know what? blinken should go. joe biden should go quite frankly. this is disqualifying. the reality is that joe biden has surrounded himself instead of a team ofry -- of rivals, they're enablers. look at that interview that biden did with george stephanopoulos. he said nobody pushed back. if that is true, then that is an indictment of his entire national security team. jim mattis put his starring on the table and resigned when donald trump wanted to pull troops out of afghanistan. where is lloyd austin, general milley? how come nobody s

i think we've learned a lot in the past couple hours because we also listened to tony blinken give a press conference. we know that there are now 1,500 u.s. citizens still in afghanistan. and they are u.s. officials say they are working aggressively to try to get them out in the next six days. >> still reaching out through text messages, phone calls to those who may want to leave. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. >>> does the biden administration know how many americans including legal residents need to be rescued? >>> "the lead" starts right now. crowds are still gathered at the kabul airport racing to get out and only a few days left. and now there's a new fear that isis-k might attack. >>> the number of people in the hospital for covid has tripled over the past month in the united states, reaching a level not seen since last deadly winter. >>> plus, california's governor gavin newsom facing a tough recall battle. why even? democrats who voted for him are now telling cnn they're fed up. ♪ >>> welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we begin today with our world lead.

you've been listening to secretary of state tony blinken bring us updated numbers which i think we have all been waiting for to know exactly how many americans, roughly, how many americans are still in afghanistan and how many have gotten out. i found that helpful. he said on august 14th, their analysis was 6,000 u.s. citizens were still there who wanted to leave. since then 4500 have evacuated and are working aggressively to be in contact with the remaining 1500. >> 500 of those 4500 had been evacuated in the last 24 hours. of the 1500 still in the country, still trying to get in contact with those thousands they had of meamericans seekingo leave lafg. he said multiple times a day through multiple channels of communication. >> let's bring in our panel to help us understand everything you just heard. i watched you all listening to secretary of state blinken. it does seem like he was pressed to answer a lot of questions and he provided a lot of answers. >> this main question as to how many americans are still in the country who want to leave was key here. what we have learned is that the

and i was just sitting here gob-smacked by tony blinken making that comment that universally across the board people are really with the u.s. and how they've handled this. i'm thinking who across the board? north korea? iran? cuba? the russians? china? nobody else is. i'm sure he has access to better insight and information than i do but if he's honestly got people who are with us, why doesn't he tell us who they are because everything we see, those of us who can access the internet or television, or even a newspaper, what we're seeing is we're being universally condemned for the manner in which this has happened. i don't know where they're getting their information. couple of paper cups and a piece of of string. good gosh. this is embarrassing. alicia: and we're seeing reports that france and germany, other countries are getting outside of that airport, going to find their people and bringing them to safety and senator lindsey graham was asked about that this morning on fox news. take a listen. >> you pay now or you pay letter and here's what i hear, pete. our military members are dyin

secretary of state tony blinken is expected to provide some clarity on that question in a few hours. while the biden administration says more than 82,000 people have been evacuated in the past 11 days, again, a stunning achievement, a senior administration official does tell cnn that a lot of deserving afghans will be left behind. >>> overnight a source told cnn the taliban appears to be letting some people pass through checkpoints despite their claim no more afghan civilians will be allowed to leave the country. in small numbers is what we are hearing from our correspondent on the ground, though. this morning two u.s. congressmen are facing sharp criticism for making a surprise visit to kabul to witness the evacuation effort themselves an evacuation effort they have been pressing for for months. cnn's sam kiley joining us on the phone from the airport in kabul. sam, give us a sense of what's happening on the ground. >> reporter: well, brianna, the numbers are down. they are way down. this is partly a success of the evacuation. i'm not exactly sure of the figures, but it must be well

this is now a top priority for secretary of state tony blinken, who says the u.s. has gotten assurances from the taliban that people will be able to leave the country. don? >> thank you very much for that, alex. joining me now, cnn white house correspondent john harwood and retired general mark hertling. thank you, gentlemen. i appreciate you being here. general, i just want to tell you i appreciate your remarks and the way you handle the coverage of the remains of the service members returning here. >> thanks, don. that's kind. >> thank you very much for that. riveted and just -- it was just a great way you've paid tribute to those service members. so, john, i'm going to start with you, though. the u.s. is officially out of afghanistan, but we're told that there are still between 100 and 200 americans who needed to be evacuated. what are you hearing from the white house? is there a plan to get all of these people out of the country? >> don, it mostly involves exerting diplomatic pressure by the united states and its allies on the taliban to live up to the commitme

secretary of state tony blinken healed press conference today clarifying how many americans were stranded saying the numbers started at 6,000 and now down to an estimated 1500 americans still in the country. >> let me be crystal clear about this. there is no deadline on our work to help any remaining american citizens who decide they want to leave to do so along with the many afghans who have stood by us over these many years and want to leave and have been unable to do so. >> you heard the secretary of state there talking about how the united states will continue to assist those who stay in afghanistan well beyond the august 31st deadline. he did not lay out specifics of a plan to do so. bret? >> bret: trey yingst live in doha, qatar. thanks. president biden criticism today after speaking first about a spending bill on capitol hill and then afghanistan during his speech we brought you yesterday. today, the president had a new focus and it wasn't the u.s. withdrawal as the race to meet his self-imposed august 31st deadline quickly approaches. white house correspondent peter doocy joins us

tony blinken met in alaska in march with a chinese official and they were -- he was lecturing america about our sins and then tony blinken, the secretary of state, then approaches the un about having the human rights council lecture us on systemic racism. that's what they are. they are ashamed of america. rather than being proud, rather than words, may god bless america and may god have mercy on the souls of our enemy because we will not. joe biden is on the run, 'cause he's ashamed. >> you know, i wonder, dana, did general milley's take on white rage, is that going to help with the taliban. >> it will not. >> i didn't think so. >> i can answer that. general keane said something on air about a week ago. he said his entire career president biden has been relentlessly stubborn so that's one of the reasons why he would never say what jack 0 was suggesting but there is one president who, very hard thing to do and to bring to the american people and is extremely unpopular and eventually it worked and that was when president bush did the surge. talk about unpopular to say actually, we had p

but the state department, secretary of state tony blinken is defending how this is going down, saying that it is orderly, and that this has been planned. you hear biden officials today saying that they got the u.s. troops in place to help american diplomats safely get out. that process is under way. but you also heard secretary of state tony blinken this morning admitting that this happened, the taliban takeover of afghanistan happened much more rapidly than biden administration officials expected it to. and there are going to be questions in the coming days, in the coming months, in the coming years about the conduct in which the biden administration went forth with this drawdown. obviously we knew biden was going to get u.s. troops out, but how this went down, how misorderly it appears right now, there are going to be questions about that. now, we should also note that just as recently as last week, biden administration officials were talking with taliban officials. and so there are going to be questions about that too because the taliban are the ones who have taken over the country

he said more quickly than we anticipated were the words of tony blinken. as for the president, plans are under way for him to address the nation at some point in the coming days. but it's not clear yet exactly when. the president on sunday was at the presidential retreat at camp david, where you can see in this picture the president on sunday morning alone at camp david at this big conference table. but on the screen in front of him, you can see the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, as well as the national security adviser and dozens of other national security officials in washington and around the world. certainly the white house's effort to show that he is on top of the situation even as we were seeing this pretty chaotic scene unfolding in the streets of kabul and certainly at the airport where foreigners as well as afghanis were trying to flee the country as the taliban entered the country. of course this question of a miscalculation is something that the president will have to address. here's president biden just over a month ago talking a

according to the secretary of state, tony blinken. >> for the remaining roughly 1,000 contacts that we had who may be americans seeking to leave afghanistan, we're aggressively reaching out to them multiple times a day through multiple channels of communication. phone, e-mail, text messaging. to determine whether they still want to leave. >> the "wall street journal's" reporting that the cia has been launching covert rescue missions with helicopters and ground troops in an effort to rescue stranded americans in kabul and outside that city where heavily armed taliban fighters are np control. meanwhile, there are tens of thousands of afghans who do qualify for special visas, and they're still hoping and waiting to evacuate. that includes the translators and other allies who helped and fought alongside the u.s. military over those two decades of war but the biden administration insists they will not be forgotten and the effort to get them out of the country will continue past august 31st. how they'll do than in the taliban-controlled islamic emirate of afghanistan is a question left large

>> welcome to prime time everyone that was secretary of state tony blinken after u.s. troops exited afghanistan i'm tammy bruce and this is fox news. joining me here tonight our g.o.p. congressman and afghanistan war veteran brian mast and jim banks. i was listening to that, gentlemen. and was shocked it was like i was sitting in a boring seminar at stanford with someone spouting things that were rather bizarre. one of my -- one of the remarkable things i made a note of was his comment that we were going to continue with diplomacy now that's the shift but we all all run over from qatar it's going to be from doha. congressman mast your thoughts. number one what you said they are going to continue diplomacy when they couldn't even conduct diplomacy when they had military on the ground. that's number one. number two, probably the most dire thing that i heard him say was this that the taliban made a commitment to not allow afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven. let's break that down. the terrorists said they won't allow that country to become a terrorist safe haven.

so that is secretary of state tony blinken. that is back on june 7th. it's a stark contrast from the rapid hour by hour offensive that we're seeing from the taliban now. deputy national security adviser under iraq and afghanistan under president bush also joining me he is matt zeller, a former cia analyst and the author of watches without time and american soldier in afghanistan. gentlemen, great to have you both of you with us. you heard there secretary of state tony blinken say it won't be a friday to monday type of situation. really, it's a monday through friday type of situation. where we are now is very different. it is totally in taliban control. what do you make of the assessment back then and what that reveals about the mindset of this administration in terms of how surprised they are about what is actually happening right now object ground? >> well, i think like many others, there is surprise. but the pace of the afghan-taliban progress on the ground is very dissatisfying to see the large scale collapse of the afghan forces which we said 20 yea

it's real emotional time for the americans on the outlines of that taliban ring. >> tony blinken says emotional being on chris wallace's show try hanging on to the wheel of an airplane that's taken off. but, you know what, bret? the only thing that's been worse than the policy, the execution of the policy has been the explanation from the biden administration they can't agree with al-qaeda is still there or not or the airport is safe or whether biden was given different military advice. they are feckless and the best debates in washington right now are the ones taking place within the biden administration. bret: it is quite something to see, harold they change with peter doocy today about stranded americans also raised some eyebrows. take a listen. >> most of the criticism is not of leaving afghanistan. it's way that he has ordered it to happen. by pulling the troops before getting these americans who are now stranded. does he have a sense of that? >> first of all, i think it's irresponsible to say americans are stranded. they are not. we are committed to bringing americans who want t

again we are waiting for the secretary of state tony blinken at the state department and we'll bring that to you live. president biden met yesterday with the families of the 13 u.s. marines and troops killed in the suicide attack near the kabul airport. first lady jill biden joined the president at dover air force base to grieve with the loved ones as the dignified transfer of remains unfolded. 11 marines, one army soldier, one navy corpsman paid the ultimate sacrifice there the oldest was just 31 years old. five were just 20. as old as the war itself. all of the fallen heroes have now been identified. they are marine corps lance corporal david lee espinoza of rio bravo, texas. marine corps sergeant nicole gee of sacramento, california. marine corps staff sergeant darin hoover of salt lake city, utah. marine corps lance corporal kareem nikoui of norco, california. army staff sergeant ryan knauss of corrington, tennessee. maureen corps corporal hunter lopez of i understandio, california. marine corps lance corporal rylee mccollum of jackson, wyoming. marine corps lance corporal dylan

secretary of state tony blinken saying in a statement moments ago that upon review of the available information, we are confident iran conducted this attack, which killed two innocent people, using one-way explosive, unarm -- unmanned aerial vehicles. they say a lethal capabilities that increasingly being deployed throughout the region. secretary blinken also going on to suggest that will be some type of a u.s. response to that, saying the response to that will be appropriate and will be forthcoming. we know this is taking place amid a tit for tat escalation of tensions at sea between iran and israel with a growing number of these kinds of incidents in recent weeks. but it also comes as the u.s. is in stalled nuclear negotiations with iran about getting back to the iran nuclear deal that trump pulled out of. both the u.s. and iran want to get towards reuniting under that agreement but have not been able to do so. now, with these escalating tensions we have been seeing, there is increasing pessimism that the u.s. and iran will be able to actually broker some deal to get back to that agreement, p

you heard tony blinken say yesterday even after the u.s. pulls out on august 31st and after, there is no no more a u.s. military presence, the state department will work with allied partners to try and get anyone who legitimately has paperwork or are american citizens to get them out of the country, but it will be very difficult once the u.s. military leaves. spew any act, because technically, jennifer, the entire country will be behind enemy lines. we won't hold anything not even the airport. jennifer, thank you. we will bring you back as the news warrants. waiting on the white house to give the press briefing and hear from the pentagon as well, great reporting by our team today. jennifer griffin, lucas tomlinson, trey yingst, jacqui heinrich supporting us behind the scenes was so much good information on email. so thanks to all of them. i want to bring in cash for tall, former pentagon chief of staff under president trump and to also serve for a counterterrorism on the national security council. you are our guy at the center on "outnumber

secretary of state tony blinken is also opening a new visa program for afghans who worked for u.s. contractors and human rights group. they have to get past checkpoints and wait to up to 14 months for approval. blinken also says they have proof iran carried off a drone attack last week. a coordinated response from the u.s. and israel and great britain, which with romania lost two sailors. iran is denying all responsibility. lester? >> all right, andrea, thank you. >>> up next is struggling to manage your type 2 diabetes knocking you out of your zone? lowering your a1c with once-weekly ozempic® can help you get back in it. oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! my zone... lowering my a1c, cv risk, and losing some weight... now, back to the game! ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. in adults also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. ozempic® helped me get back in my type 2 diabet

dagen: in a country now run by terrorists that we're hearing from tony blinken one of the things that he had to say was the taliban has promised to provide a haven, not to provide a haven to islamic terrorist groups and now we're dependent on this terrorist group, the taliban running this country, to essentially broker with them getting americans out of the country. it's just unfathomable what this administration has done. >> it's a complete disgrace. it's humiliating, as somebody who served and i think i can speak for a lot of veterans who really feel humiliated by the actions of this administration. it takes so much work to gain influence around the world, to be respected. i served in nato, served in multiple countries, fought alongside other countries, and now i think that's in question. our allies right now are going to question our resolve. if we can't even stay there to get every american out, then what do you think our allies think about us having their backs. i mean, it's at a position where you're right, it is unfathomable to wake up this morning and know that we've left amer

diplomats at the embassy in kabul warned secretary of state tony blinken in mid-july that the afghan government was in danger of collapse and urged the biden administration to begin airlift operations immediately for those afghans at risk. department would not say how the secretary responded to the classified cable, but they said he did read it and respond. >> all right, there are going to be a lot of major questions on this moving forward. in the meantime, there are also questions tonight about whether the president's military advisers had actually urged him to leave a small number of american troops in afghanistan. george and i were talking about this on the air last night here. and here was the moment that george pressed the president on this. >> your top military advisers warned against withdrawing on this timeline. they wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops. >> no, they didn't. it was split. that wasn't true. >> they didn't tell you that they wanted troops to stay? >> no. not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a timeframe all troops. they didn't argue against that.

diplomats at the embassy in kabul warned secretary of state tony blinken in mid-july that the afghan government was in danger of collapse and urged the biden administration to begin airlift operations immediately for those afghans at risk. the state department would not say how the secretary responded to the classified cable, but they said he did read it and respond. >> in the meantime, there are also questions tonight about whether the president's military advisers had actually urged him to leave a small number of american troops in afghanistan. george and i were talking about this on the air last night here. and here was the moment that george pressed the president on this. >> your top military advisers warned against drawing against this timeline. they wanted you to keep 2,500 p toos. >> no, they didn't. that wasn't true. >> they didn't tell you that they wanted troops to stay? >> no. not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a timeframe all troops. they didn't argue against that. >> so, no one told you -- your military advisers did not tell you, no, we should just keep