0 evacuating more people from the country over the coming days and completing the mission to the 31st, and what it means to move to retrograde phase is that there is a rereduction of numbers through the coming days and we will tell you twice a day to show you how we are evacuating the people over the country and the numbers will be going down in the next couple of days and you should anticipate that as part of the retrograde process that needs to take place and the force protection is front and center and vital to the mission. >> one more, president biden told reporters in oval office when meeting with the prime minister about booster shots, and can you tell us about the information of what is the information about that projection -- >> well, let me be clear, the president would rely on guidance of the cdc and the health and experts, and that guidance continues to be eight months. that has not changed, so i want to be clear on that. if they were to change their guidance based on the data for any particular group, he would of course abide by that, and for the people watching at home and you are all reporting this, there is nothing changing about the eight-month time line as relates to the boosters. >> why did they have the conversation happen that sort of triggered from eight to five? >> well, i would say that i can't, and obviously i was not sitting in the meeting and having the discussion with them on this, but as is israel has taken the step of doing six-month boosters and it is the president referenced advice that he had been given information from the prime minister, and obviously, we make our own assessments based on our own experts based here in the united states, and nothing has been changed on that, and maybe a reference to that, and we have ongoing communication with our own health experts. trevor. >> i want to get an update on the president's plans on to leaving the troops and remains in coming to the united states. >> there is no timing there, but i can reiterate to what i said yesterday, the president will continue to honor the servicemen and women who lost their lives yesterday, but vi nothing more to add to that. >> and there is reporting to the taliban requesting ongoing diplomatic presence of the united states, and can you tell us more about what that is about the white house about whether that is appropriate and how or if that would happen after the end of august? >> well, i would say first, we are looking at ways and i will refer to the secretary of the state and the state department here to continue to engage, and i know that this is not your question, but i will get it in here, and the president did say for third-world nationals to evacuate, because in order to evacuate any american to leave third country citizens we will have to coordinate with the taliban and it does not mean or translate into a presence on the ground as we have noted that we are pulling our presence out by the 31st and that has not changed. >> so, the foreign relations has said that we cannot trust the taliban with the attack yesterday, and i don't want to get into the semantics with trust, but are we at the best of the bad options or is the military saying that is the only option given the dynamics on the ground? >> maybe both, and i won't get into the semantic debate, but it is worth repeating as often as i can, and we don't trust the taliban, and there is a reality on the ground. the taliban control large swathes of afghanistan including the area surrounding the perimeter of the airport, and so by necessity, that is the cooperation to get the americans out, and our afghan partners out, and individuals who are eligible for the range of programs the united states has out, and we have evacuated over 105,000 people out, and as a large part of coordinated efforts to get people out, but as the department of defense noted today, clearly something went wrong here in the process that we saw the isis-k attack occur yesterday. we don't have additional information to suggest that it was, you know, intentional or al anything along those lines which is a question that was asked yesterday, but clearly a break in the security process here, and there is no question about that. >> and with the threats around the world, is there a tangible difference in what you are seeing or have seen over the course of the last several days that makes this moment different than what the president was saying a week ago or over 10 days ago? >> i know that you are asking me, too, but i can't clearly get into the specific details from here, but what i think that the reason that we put this out publicly and the way that we did is that yesterday there was an attack yesterday by terrorists that killed 13 members of the u.s. military and it is important for us as the government to be clear about what threat our u.s. forces are facing on the ground as they continue to implement the mission. that threat is acute. it is ongoing. our troops are still in danger, and they are taking the steps they are taking to save lives and evacuate people because of the mission and we felt it is important for people to understand that. go ahead. >> thank, jen. i wanted to ask you about the statement that you pout, and you said that in light of yesterday's attacks the troop there are taking maximum force measures at kabul airport, and what resources are available to them that they didn't have yesterday, because they have the same number of troops and the same amount of equipment. >> any resources they need or request from the president, they will be granted, but i won't get into additional details. >> and i am wondering if the president has any plans to speak to the families of the fallen service members? >> yes, so how this process works is that the next of kin notifications of course happen by the department of defense typically in person to next of kin. i believe they give an update on that and convey that the process is ongoing. the president wouldn't then make a call or reach out until that process is completed. it would be up to the next of kin in the families to determine if they are prepared to receive a call from the president of the united states. i think it is important to note that this may be the worst day of their lives, and they may or may not feel that they are ready to talk to the united states or talk to the president of the united states. that is their choice. but i expect once any calls are completed, we will provide you an update. >> finally, i want to know if the white house has any reaction to these republican lawmakers now calling on the president to resign over this? >> well, nancy, i have to say that seeing some of this occur or be called for or out on twitter the backdrop is that the u.s. men and women from the military deployed on the ground are bravely implementing the mission to save men and women on the ground and afghan people on the ground, and the mission calls to evacuate, and yesterday they lost 13 of their own, and the president made it clear that we will hunt down and go after and kill the terrorists responsible, and everyone should be supportive of that. >> now is not the time for politics. >> correct. >> thank you. thank you, jen, and when the president says that we will hunt you down and make you pay. what does that look like? is he ordering a mission to kill the people responsible or satisfied they are captured and brought to trial? >> i think that he made clear yesterday that he does not want them to live on the earth anymore. >> okay. and as the u.s. is coordinating with the taliban about security for the next couple of days, some of the people running security for the taliban in kabul are terrorists with millions of dollars worth of bounties on their heads, are we going to try to bring those known terrorists to justice before we leave the country? >> peter, the focus right now is to get the remaining americans out of the country, the afghan partners out of the country, and as i said in response to phil's question, this is not a preferred relationship, or a situation that we would have designed if we had started from scratch. that is very clear. but right now, we need to continue to coordinate and that is the focus for the next couple of days. >> the last one, you said that we will have a great deal of leverage over the taliban after we leave, and you think that we will have more leverage with no troops on the ground than we do with thousands of troops on the ground? >> to be clear, one of the steps that the president directed the secretary of state this morning was to engage with the international partners to determine what the path forward looks like, and there are key components here. the taliban wants a functioning airport, and so do we. they want a leveraging community, and there is more to update you on, we will update. >> and the president's commitment to make those responsible for yesterday's attack to pay, is the president committed that after the americans leave afghanistan, he is willing to send in americans in some covert form to complete that mission to kill those who are responsible? >> i won't get into details on here after what "hunting down and going after the terrorists" of killing 13 service members will entail or detail, but that commitment will remain until it is done. >> so the potential does exist for troops to go back to afghanistan. >> again, i won't go back into the detail of what that requires, but his commitment remains until it is done. >> just so it is clear for americans here four-plus days until the august 31st deadline, that all americans who want to leave afghanistan will be able to leave before that date? >> that is what we are focused on and working towards and committed to. >> it is friday and the deadline is tuesday, and what more can you tell us about the talks that the president has directed the secretary to undertake and how close are we going to have diplomatic agreements to the 31st? >> that is not what we are predicting, and we are not predicting a diplomatic presence on the ground in afghanistan. what we are talking about is coordinating with the international partners to find a path forward to continue to evacuate third-country nationals and afghans with visas and others who are not departed because they are not prepared to depart, and that is going to require continued engagement with our international partners and the taliban. >> you are saying there is not a diplomatic presence there in afghanistan? >> we are clear to pull our personnel out of afghanistan by the 31st. i will let the state department speak to any other plans other than that. >> you said that the president has all of the legal authority when it comes to isis-k. >> and so is there any other power that was passed since 9/11? >> the president has all of the authority he needs to attack isis-k. >> and now, there is a special meeting with india and others for a special g-20 meeting. >> well, it is a great question and it would be coordinated through the state department, jennifer, so i direct you to them, and the planned meetings with the partners in the coming days. >> and in the oval office they talked about if the diplomacy fails with iran, he would be willing to look at other option, and can you share what other options might mean? >> well, any president maintains a full range of options, but the first objective is to have a diplomatic path forward and this is where we are putting the energies now. >> i know that there are a lot of questions here about this, and i want to get clarity past august 31st, and for the people in afghanistan and want to get out. does the u.s. right now have a vision of a process that they will use to get people out after august 31st, like and what is the commitment after august 31st? absolute that if you helped the u.s. military and you want to get out, you can get out or a green card holder and you want to get out -- so, is the u.s. guaranteeing that you are going to get out? >> we are not guaranteeing, but we can work toward, and this is what the president directed the secretary of state to continue diplomatic efforts with third-country partners to help those with visas, and any american citizen to leave the country after the u.s. military presence ends. there is a mechanism for that, and that is the objective and the commitment does not change on august 31st. obviously, we have to figure tout operational mechanisms which is the conversation under way. >> i have a question about the green card holders in afghanistan, u.s. green holders, and are they prioritized right now or only u.s. citizens? are green card holders prioritized now? >> you can note from the numbers looking at the last 24 hours, and we have more than 10,000, and a little bit higher than that people out, and just over 300 of them were american citizens, and passport holders i should say, and the rest of the people were afghan and greencard holders and others, so they are still getting out of the country, yes. >> and the administration, and the biden administration is filled with people who have had a long experience with afghanistan, and many of them dating back years if not, you know, decades -- >> including the president. >> including the president, and most of the time, the taliban was the sworn enemy, and it was the enemy against whom we fought, and so is there recognition inside of the administrations of the irony, and the grim irony of having the dependence on and having to rely on them to rely on them to get americans out? >> irony is too light, because they control the swath of land, and in order to get the citizens out and the afghan citizens out, and the green card holders out, we have to work with them. this is not the only place in the world where we work, and we have to work with adversaries or people who have been enemies at times in order to further u.s. national security objectives and that is part of what you have to be flexible to do when you are running the united states or when national security teams are looking to achieve the objectives around the world. >> but it is a little bit -- have you had a sense from the meetings that you are in a kind of resignation or frustration from what you want to call it of the certain situation that they find themselves in? >> okay. i understand the question. okay. having sat in these meetings, there is no time for self-reflection, and we are looking at the incoming and what steps to take to get the people out over the coming days and the remaining days, so i would not say that there is a lot of focus on the self-reflection at this point in time. >> thank you, jen. what is the white house's reaction of the supreme court overturning the eviction moratorium, and do they want congress to act to issue a new moratorium, and what do they do now with the eviction crisis for many renters out there? >> well, first, president biden would support congressional action to support the moratorium, and now there is a outline for how that could continue. now the objective is to keep as many people around the country in their homes as possible. federal legislation is one way to do that. obviously the moratorium we have had in place is one way to do it. and obviously, the place we have had in place around the states is encouraged to do it around the nation, and seven states have done it, and it is the same impact, because it is preventing people from getting kicked out of their homes and the states have the funding thanks to the american rescue fund to get that done, and the other place that is our responsibility to focus on is to work to eliminate any red tape that exists. we made announcements earlier in the week that allows the renters to attest to the economic circumstances to make it easier that is what we have made an impact in some states, but looking for ways to ease the burden and access to the funding. >> you said that biden would support another moratorium, but is he is going to actively urge congress to take out the vote, and pass one? >> he has conveyed that, but it is important to go back to not to beat a dead horse here, but not to miss the forest for the trees here, but it is to prevent people from getting vikted from the homes, and if there were enough votes in congress to pass a eviction moratorium, it would happen, but we don't, so we want to achieve the objective that everyone shares and not everyone, but the extension on this to keep people in their home, and there is a means to do this and seven states have done this, and more states can do this with the funding they need, because it is there. >> and now, jen, we have some refugees landing at dulles airport, and sitting there for hours with no access to food or drink, and so what does the white house think about these conditions? we are working to improve the conditions of the people coming into the country, and the vetting process is so thorough, and the people are vetted before they come, and they go through a background check before they come, and we implement multiple layers of checks and including a confirmation upon landing, and that is to check the manifest, and in a limited number of cases we have vetting processes that may be unresolved and limited, but it may lead to at times a delay in and individuals being held on the plane so that we can have that process seen through, and now, of course, ensuring that people are treated humanely as they are coming to the united states, and they have access to food and water is something that we are committed to and we will continue to improve any of these conditions, but i think that reason why these planes are waiting is also an important part of the context as well. >> and to follow up, you addressed the republican criticism of the president, but what is the message, and the white house's message to democrats who have expressed substantive concerns about the withdrawal from afghanistan and any message to them or withdrawal? >> a specific piece? >> congresswoman susan wild to say that we cannot continue to put service people in danger because of an unwinnable war, but we cannot be in this egregious withdrawal. >> well, it is easy to be throwing stones and be critical from the outside. but in the arena, the decisions from inside are difficult options. all right. these are the options, send thousands of more troops to afghanistan to potentially lose their lives that is an option. some support that. that is their prerogative. you pull out and you don't put anyone at risk and you don't put troops at risk and you don't evacuate more than 105,000 people, and that is another option. the option that he has chosen in coordination and based on the recommendations with his military commanders and advisers on the ground is to implement an evacuation that has saved the lives of more than 105,000 people and certainly at the risk of the lives of the men and women as we saw yesterday -- >> jen, like you have said repeatedly that there were only two choices. what evidence do you have that there weren't other choices that couldn't have been made? i mean -- >> well, what is the other choice that anyone is offering. >> well, for example -- >> go ahead. >> and the ghani government in may, that we will start a massive evacuation, and put out the memo that we will start to evacuate, and have a show of no confidence in the ghani government, and that is one option and ten others that i have not thought of it, and so why only two. >> well, there are other options, but there are consequences to every option. so, take your option, and evacuate and moved in the c-17s and 6,000 troops and that is what you are suggesting and implemented the evacuation in may, you know what would have happened in all likelihood, the threat on u.s. forces would have increased at this time, and isis-k. >> and you would have been operating in a capital that was not overrun by the taliban? >> how do you know that? >> it was not near kabul at that point. >> look, mike, i think it is easy to play the look at the back seat of what could have happened on four months ago and we have been clear on a couple of things, and no one anticipate and including on the outside that the afghan government would have fallen at the pace they fell, and the president of the national security team have spoken to that as well, we did not anticipate the afghan national security forces folded as they did, and we did not anticipate that, and as a result of that all happening, we saw a chaotic situation just two weeks ago, and so you can always -- and my point in response to the question is that there are consequences to any of the difficult choices and decisions. that is what faces you as commander in chief. that was the larger point i was trying to make. go ahead. >> thank you, jen. >> and can you tell us anything about the gender or the age without compromising -- >> i would not be in a position to share any information, and this is up to the department of defense, and the notifications are happening. >> and can you tell us about what remains in trying to see of looking at the safety, and the president biden and with the booster shot in a few week, and are you concerned that the president will be giving booster shots that has no scientific -- >> no, it was approved by the fda and that is the gold standard of this type of data. go ahead. >> we understand that approximately 12,000 people have been evacuated out of afghanistan. >> yes. >> and we know that for security reasons that you can't be specific for what plans are in place, but generally speaking, can you say that any of the protocols or the plans on the ground change to enable these evacuations safely despite the threats that are currently there. >> sure. i understand the question, and certainly they adjust and make adjustments on the ground, and the commanders on the ground do in order to keep the troops safe and in order to successfully evacuate more people on the country, and as you noted, we won't get into details from here, and it is important to note and to reiterate as i said earlier, you will be seeing a reduction in the numbers in the next couple of days, because they are beginning the retrograde process over the next couple off days and mindful of the troop posturing in keeping the men and women of the military safe to the degree they can. >> over the last few days we have been seeing the images of the service members with this human chain and this human barrier of holding people back in kabul, and do you know if it is still happening, because it is putting them in a vulnerable spot? >> the service -- just so i understand? >> the images of them blocking groups from getting to a certain area. do you know if that is still happening or one of the changes that has been implemented? >> i would point you to the department of defense for any operational changes that they can speak to, and i would predict that they are not going to be speak to many, many detail, but whatly note and something that general mackenzie stuck with me in terms of illustrating what is happening here, in order to do the security screenings necessary, people have to get quite close. the members of the military have to get quite close to screening, and they have screened tens of thousands of people, and some images may reflect that, but what you are talking about is something different from that, but i would point you to that. >> and on the fake vaccine cards that are going around, the health and human services told us that they are receiving increasing reports of people using fake vaccine cards. how concerned is the white house that this could threaten the nation's progress against the virus. >> i would not state that as our level of concern. of course, we are concerned about fake vaccine cards. i don't have an assessment of how widespread it is, and i would have to check with the team to get an assessment of that. >> a question about the president's commitment to give it to you straight as he often says. the democratic congressmen told journalists hunter walker, a former white house colleague, quote, even if you completely agree with the biden administration's withdrawal the way this has happened has been a f-u-c-k-i-n-g disaster, and he has not agreed to evacuate anybody last night and we can't guarantee that and -- >> i believe that the question was about individuals who are still there, because they don't, and they are not prepared to leave or other afghans or others who may want to depart for clarity and i know that you care about context. >> so there is an attempt to evacuate all americans and is there a deal with the taliban? >> i don't understand the question. >> the departure of the evacuation was unorganized and so how are you going to evacuate those people who are going to be left? >> i know that the number that the state department is going to give or about to give and those evacuated since august 14th, we have evacuated 5,100 citizens and confirmation within the last day 300 additional americans, and based on the outreach, we have 500 more americans who want to leave, and we are in direct contact with them, and that is speaking to our commitment. >> the question is on the topic that yesterday the conservative transparency group received the records of the first dog bites and one email said that the secret service agents were released and at a march briefing you said only one fighting incident on a trip to family and friends, and that is not the world's most fighting story, but it is because we expect transparency, and can you tell us why there was a misleading account to us, and if we can't get honest information for minor story, and why should we trust you for those bigger numbers? >> well, i know that we have told you that story about the dog of where major is located, and you keep that biting incident, and thank you for the ongoing interest in the dog. >> in the ongoing information on the vaccine, and the quarantine, and the majority of the afghans are less than 5% vaccinated. >> yes, let me give you an update on this, and there was a story out today and i can give you a bit more detail on it, and let me find the details, and i can tell you that the individuals who come into the united states are offered a vaccine. for those who are coming in on the condition, on parole, as parolees, it is required, a condition of their parole to the united states. but we have made this available at dulles, and we are continuing to look for expand access to the other places where the individuals are landing to provide it as quickly as possible on landing. in terms of what steps are taken, everyone is tested upon arrival, and steps are take even if they are positive to quarantine them, and american citizens are asked to quarantine, and like any other american citizen, that is something they would do on their own. go ahead. >> the american has pledged to seek revenge for that attack, and how do you do that in afghanistan? >> well, the president has enormous capabilities and sur suing a range of possibilities at the same time. the one in afghanistan is front and center in the news right now, but we are consistently looking and tracking terrorists in the world where they are, and this is part of the effort. that is unfortunately ongoing and one of the reasons that i will remind you that the president made the decision to bring our men and women home is because the terrorist threat has metastasize and there are other parts of the world which goes to the earlier question where we don't have a military presence on the ground or diplomatic presence on the ground, but we are still tracking counter terrorism threats, libya, yemen are two examples of that, and so that is going to continue. >> and do you believe that isis-k has the capability to attack domestically the united states or only in afghanistan? >> that not an assessment that we have made. is today your last day? >> yes. >> well, thank you for your service to the media. >> thank you. >> there are a lot of steves. i will look into that. >> and president biden told the israeli prime minister today that we are putting diplomacy first the and looking to see where that takes us, but if diplomacy fails, we are going to be looking to other option, and can you detail what are the other options? >> well, as i said earlier, any president has a range of options at their disposal and i won't outline them from here, but the first presence and priority is on the diplomatic path, and pursuing the diplomatic path forward and this is where the energies lie at this time. go ahead. >> and do you have any other path to deal with the eviction issue? >> the president would be happy to sign or will sign any legislation into law, but there are other ways to achieve the same objective and we have the powers to implement from federal government. >> and friday, you give us a week ahead, and do you have details of what the president is doing the week ahead. >> thank you, karen. i did not mean to do that. yes, okay. apologies. thank you for the prompt. i did not mean to do that e. everyday and some of the details will be finalized over the coming days as you can expect it is a bit fluid, but everyday this weekend and the next week, the president will meet with the national security team to discuss security and diplomaticm developments in the evolving situation in afghanistan and at the top, i said that he is going to be receiving updates for the hurricane and we will provide those updates to you as they happen, and next week, the president is going to welcome president of ukraine, and also look at the pressures from russia, and also look at the backing for the president walensky's presidential election. friday, he is going to deliver remarks on the july jobs report, and the efforts to build the economy back better. details over the weekend, we will provide them all to you. >> and also, who is behind you, jen? >> it is our friday guest. we will get to him in a moment. >> and the binary of the continuing the forever war, and both republican and democratic administrations show that the majority of the country oppose, and then the withdrawal, and on the idea that no matter what, it is going to be messy, and in the events tof last two weeks, does the president feel that u.s. military personnel will be in the best position to carry out the mission on the ground? >> i would say first that first, anything that the u.s. military has asked for as they are working to implement this mission, they have been granted. they would confirm that as well, and the president has asked them that at the end of every meeting. i would also note something that was said yesterday at the department of defense briefing which is that they know they are, the men and women of the military are so amazing and incredible, because they know they are putting themselves in harm's way when they are implementing the missions like these, and implement the plans and put together plans that have forced posture protection front and center, but when we are dealing with a real threat from isis-k, and events like yesterday unfortunately happen. >> yesterday, the president said that he made the assessment that bagram air force base was not that much of an asset added, and general milley said that if they kept bagram, it would have been what we had or exceeded what we had, and so was that decision about leaving the air base because it was not a value-add or because it would have required sending more troops there. >> bagram was not an enormous base that required an enormous presence, because it has a significance distance from kabul. and significant is relevant, but farther away from kabul, and it was not located in a place as effective in evacuating people who are located in kabul. >> one more. >> yes. >> the president said yesterday, quote, we have greater threats coming out of other countries a heck of a lot closer to the united states, and can you tell us what countries he was referring to in particular as opposed to afghanistan, because that was an alarming statement. >> i think that he was contending to convey what he has many times about the metastasizing threat of a range of terrorist organizations that have greater capacities around the world and how we need to keep our eye focused on those as being one of the root reasons why he brought our men and women home. go ahead. >> how can we have any guarantee that the taliban will not harm americans after august 31st. >> that is certainly our expectation, yes. and we are working through. go ahead. >> jen, what is the involvement of very quickly while we have been sitting here, a source told me that the taliban is preparing to take over the airport by as early as saturday, and maybe some infiltration into the control by the military, hkia and has the president moved up the withdrawal unofficially? >> no, and the department of defense gave an update on the retrograde, and i have not seen that reporting. >> and also, to follow up on that question, and you say it is easy to be a critic from the outside as we have heard from the lawmakers, but some members of the marine corps have taken to the social media to criticize not the president, but generals for cost lives and talking about the closing of bagram and not the high trauma areas to deal with the horrific injuries and the airport was not equipped for the medevac to germany, and was this a miscalculation on the part of the generals and we are guard to the president, he said that he was listening to the generals, and two questions quickly on that. >> sure. >> does he believe that he was given bad advice, and will he ask for any resignation of the generals given the high cost of american and afghan lives? >> no to both of the questions. what the president is looking at the events of yesterday as is a tragedy and one that was felt viscerally by the leaders of the military as well. losing members of your men and women working for you from the service branchs is devastating. it is devastating for the president, the leaders of the military as many times as it has happened, and it is a reflection on all of them and the people on the ground that they are continuing to implement this mission even under difficult and risky circumstances. go ahead. >> a follow-up to the question, the lawmakers went as far to introduce impeachment articles today, and does the president still have any response to the impeachment articles? >> no, not on a day we are honoring the people who lost their lives. >> i have a question about the americans that you are saying that you are still trying to contact and figuring out where they are, and any progress on that front? >> so i gave a little bit of the update earlier, and we have received that just over the last day, we have evacuated more than 300 additional americans, and those were a number of people that we were working with and to engage with and contact with, and there are approximately 500 american citizens who want to leave and we are communicating with directly to facilitate the evacuation, and that is the update from the state department and they may have more details given the constant contact that we went to do another round via email and other forms. >> and is the president looking at the iran nuclear deal, and how long is he going to fight for that diplomatic path, and when is he going to feel it is done and moving to other options? >> i am not giving an end date given that it is by far and away the best option, and that they have pull pd out of the deal, and that is the best deal that we to see iran's capabilities, and that is why i won't pursue it and that why i don't have a end date or end line. >> and looking in "the new york times" today, the and i know it is a lot of sensitivities, but i am wondering if the white house has made any preparations for the supreme court justices? >> it is up to the sitting supreme court justices as to how long they will stay? >> and any plans for the federal aid to the states, and has the president reached out to urge them to release aid. >> we have had a number of senior cabinet officials to talk to governors of how to get the aid out, and cut the red tape, and the part of the federal government has been a result and part of the discussions of what can make it easier to get the aid out. >> go ahead. >> about the relation of the taliban, looking forward. the u.s. offices have some long going asks for the taliban and some cooperation of getting future people out. >> yes. >> and looking at the islamic state folks. what are the taliban asking in return? recognition by asking for embassy to be put back there or what is the big ask? >> i think it should be clear, there is no rush to recognition of any sort by the united states or any international partners that we have talked to. as vi said in the past, and blissfully not a spokesman for the taliban, so you should ask them that. >> and can you talk about the screenings of the afghans coming in, and can you tell us how many times they are being tested in kabul and then again once they arrive? >> they are tested when they arrive here. >> do you know what the positivity rate is? >> i don't know what that is and i will see if the department of homeland has it. and i will reiterate, individuals tested positive are quarantined and separated and that is how it is handled. >> can i ask you that the u.s. has donated over 3 million vaccines to afghanistan, and the number out has said that there is a significant drop since the taliban has taken over, and does the white house or the u.n. have any idea where the vaccines are, and are they in the hands of the taliban and still being distributed or any indication that they would try to sell those doses? >> well, we have not worked with the taliban as the government, right. so this is often distributed through humanitarian efforts such as covax, so i would have to see what the implementation is, and we are focused on vaccines not getting into the right hands and for the countries that we work with, and remember, this is an issue with cuba, right. we need to have mechanisms to make sure that they are getting out to the populations that need access to the vaccines. go ahead. >> i would like to ask you, there is a link between taliban and isis, because the taliban released the president from the jail based on the u.s./taliban agreement, and now the afghan people are more worried of the taliban and the isis-k and al qaeda, too, because they did not keep the commitment, and do you think that it is going to be started again, another civil war in afghanistan? i don't understand taliban and isis, are they friend or enemy? >> i think that there is clear historic evidence that they have been enemies in the past. i don't have any assessment beyond what we have said over the last few days about the fact that we have no information to suggest that the taliban had knowledge of or engagement in the isis-k attack. all i have available is or to speak to is the historic. hello, okay. what we have and we have not done this in a while is blake patterson from "the advocate" in baton rouge, louisiana. >> thank you for having me. tropical storm ida is on the doorstep of louisiana and president biden promised back in may that the help was on the way, but the region has not received a penny in disaster relief, and what can you tell to the people of louisiana about how much longer to act, and with the latest storm coming, and why should the people of louisiana believe that president biden is going to back them up? >> the president is incredibly focused on hurricane ida and that it is approaching your community and state, and we will announce this shorter, but we are sending a search and response team, and 50 paramedics and providing care, and 50 state ambulances operated by 50 fema medical providers and supporting the patient movement and helping the state to help with the hospital load, and 250 personnel across the state, and 20 v.a. hospital beds, and we have been working to provide direct assistance and even get ahead of the storm. we are prepositioning the generators and food and water ahead of the storm to prepare for the storm to hit in the next day. and also, the fema administration was down in the region and will speak with the president in the afternoon. in terms of the supplementary funding from last year, i will have to check on the status of that and see what the holdups are, and thank you for joining us and your patience. appreciate it. okay. thank you, everyone. we will see you monday. >> how can you be sure that we will be able to get the -- >> you should have the capabilities of our military. it is good to be with you. geoff bennett with you, and we have been viewing the press briefing and in the time remaining, i want to go to our press panel, courtney kube and mike memoli, and former defense adviser ash carter, and mark jacobson who is an assistant dean at syracuse university and also army colonel christopher colenda and the first american to have fought the taliban and engage them in high level diplomacy. welcome to the four of you. courtney, we know now that president's national security team is warning that another terror attack in kabul is likely. so how is the pentagon preparing right now? >> they're using the language not just that it's possible but that they expect more attempts. and they expect another potential attack here. so it is very strongly -- candidly, stronger than we usually hear in it these situations. the so what they're looking for here, jeff, is the potential for another suicide attack. and that could be in the form of someone with a suicide vest, attempting to get access to one of the gates like we saw in the devastating attack yesterday. they're also very worried about the potential for a vehicle born explosive device. someone packing a vehicle with some kind of explosive and then worst case scenario, actually being able to drive it on to kabul airport. the third thing is the potential for rocket attacks. in this case, it's someone launching a rocket attack on to the airport grounds whether it's packing up the runway or in a worst case scenario, being able to attack and take out one of these aircraft, these c-17 aircraft carrying hundreds of evacuees. so this threat is continuing. >> what more have you learned about yesterday's attack? we know now that 13 u.s. service members were tragically killed in that terror attack. >> that's right. we know a little more about the breakdown. there were 11 u.s. marines, one sailor, a navy corpsman and one soldier killed in this attack. and we also learned a little bit more today despite the fact that yesterday we were getting reporting that there were two separate attacks. it was actually one suicide attack followed by some gunfire, a gun bat that will broke out that was all at the abbey gate. there was not an explosion at the baron hotel which was report ford 24 hours yesterday. the reason behind this is in sort of the fog of the aftermath of these sorts of attacks, there is often a lot of bad reporting and in the hours after we get more and more clarity on what actually happened. again, one explosion and then a gun battle that ensued all at the abbey gate. >> courtney kube, thank you. and mike, given ever present threat and attack, what is the white house saying about what this means for the evacuation process as this operation winds down right now? >> jeff, you hear the swhous preparing for the end of one phase here, the military drawdown ahead of that august 31st deadline. and then eventual transition to much more uncertainty on many levels what happens without the u.s. military presence when trying to get out any americans and afghan partners that remain. in terms of the former, the drawdown of the military presence, this is a very sensitive period. you heard that from a number of officials both at the white house and the pentagon. you heard the white house press secretary last night i asked her about the potential of exploding some of the equipment that remains here from the americans. she would not confirm. that you heard from the pentagon press secretary early her that as they get closer into the critical period over the weekend, they're going to be giving less details, frankly, because of the sensitivity of the operations at this point. but psaki did come with new numbers about the efforts to get americans out. we're over 5,100 americans that have been evacuated since august 14th. 6,000 was the estimate that secretary of state tony blinken offered early her. then the question is what happens after august 31st? the president indicated that efforts to get people out would continue. but without the military there, what does that look like? the taliban, you heard psaki say this several times, this is not a matter of trusting them. they believe they have leverage over the taliban to facilitate an on going effort. does that include state department personnel? something of make shift embassy there at the airport? what other efforts are going on including with the turks to secure the airport? this is very interesting period that we're heading into. once they engage in the very sensitive and very dangerous as they endlessly been repeating over the last few days period that we're in the next few days. then jeff, just to underscore what a perilous moment there is with the white house, you had a significant focus on afghanistan. you heard at the end there the preparation that's are underway for a potentially major hurricane bearing down on louisiana here. and then the on going fight against covid-19. this is a white house that is battling many battles on many fronts. >> yeah. absolutely. colonel christopher, i want to bring new on a point that mike memoli is making. what does this evacuation process look like after the end of the month? can the taliban be counted on to help facilitate that process? how would this work? >> i think first of all my heart goes out to the people who lost their lives and their loved ones yesterday. both american and afghan. in addition to the 13 service members, 98 plus afghans who lost their lives. i know what it is like to be a commander and have your soldiers killed in action. and you're grieving. you're adapting and driving on with your mission all at the same time. in terms of the taliban, it's difficult for americans to wrap our minds around the idea of working together with a group of people that we've been fighting for the last 20 years. i found when i negotiated with insurgents that it's important to create some space between emotion and actions. so acknowledge the emotions that you're feeling, frustration, outrage. i hope the administration acknowledges those things that americans are feeling. you can hear it in the questions in the last press conference. and then second, we need to keep our eye on the ball in terms of actions. we three main actions, first, get the evacuees out. american citizens, siv, et cetera, continue that process. the second is to address and work with afghans to address humanitarian crisis. an on going economic collapse. and then the human rights concerns. and, of course, number three is the counter-terrorism. so we're going to take one of two options. one is turn our backs on afghanistan. the second option is to stay engaged in afghanistan. the second one is where we achieve our interests. thank you for that. we have to go now to the state department briefing. i'm sorry we didn't have time to get to you colonel jacobson. >> as you heard from the president, that mission will not be deterred. precisely because of the bravery, the skill, the determination of all of those on the ground and, of course in no small part due to our u.s. military partners. i'll now turn to today and to our on going evacuation efforts. as you heard from 3:00 a.m. eastern on august 26th until 3:00 a.m. eastern on august 27th, a total of approximately 12,500 people were evacuated from kabul. this is the result of 35 u.s. military flights which carried approximately 8500 evacuees and 54 coalition flights which carried approximately 4,000 people. since august 14th, the u.s. evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 105,000 people. since the end of july, we have relocated approximately 110,600 people. of those evacuated since august 14th, we have brought to safety at least 5100 u.s. citizens and likely more. within the last day, more than 300 additional americans were evacuated. there are approximately 500 american citizens we are currently working with. thanks to an on going aggressive campaign that consists of multiple outbound messages per day by phone, text message, e-mail, and other tools, we are communicating with several hundred american citizens who have not yet determined whether they want to leave for various reasons. last night alone, we reached out to every american whom we believe may be in afghanistan and attempting to leave. and in many cases, we did this again multiple times by phone, by e-mail, by text. we continue to reach out to anyone who makes contact with us through multiple means who over the last week included tens of thousands of calls e-mails and text messages. let me give you an update on the locally employed staff. we absolutely as we have said have a responsibility to these individuals who have worked with