took over got only 2000 or less than 10% of the applicants for the visas out of the country for consideration. meaning that the military if it stuck to its august 31st deadline, would have been gone and left these people to the mercies of the taliban or whoever was in control of kabul and other cities without protection while their visas were being considered. and that timeline just doesn t wash. now the president is going to have to make a case that he s doing everything he can. it looks like the u.s. is in control inside the walls of the airport. but outside the walls, we had no presence. we have no sovereignty. we have no authority, and so the bigger problem which is getting people to the airport, is the one i m going that s the problem i want to hear how he plans to address. jake sullivan, his national
that s been a challenge of the morning. this is just the airport we re talking. never mind the people trying to get to the airport, still trying to go through taliban control. that still needs to be addressed. we re told the president will be delivering remarks this afternoon, talking about the process there and he s also staying here at the white house today. he was planning on going to wilmington, delaware for a three-day weekend for vacation. that s not going to happen. he s staying at the white house to keep managing this situation here. as far as we re told, the flights should be resuming shortly. and if you will, kylie is in qatar nearby and the site of where there are ongoing talks between the state department and taliban. sam, set the scene on what s happening in afghanistan. we saw the images of the baby being handed over barbed wire to military officials. that really does speak to the desperation and the urgency and the panic still there happening on the ground in afghanist
because so far they have been working, of course, with the taliban to facilitate passage to the airport. that s a precarious situation. they re counting on the good will of the taliban to let people through. they re fleeing the taliban. i think a lot of this obviously is a massive logistical undertaking. that is something that white house officials stressed behind the scenes of just how chaotic it is to get everyone on planes and get everyone out. and that has been really obviously the focus of the president s briefings on this and how he s been telling people he doesn t want any of these planes leaving kabul to have empty seats on them. the issue also appears to be not only once the planes take off, which is where they are going. so that is a big issue that the white house is focusing on dealing with at the moment. normally the president s time would be valuable time. as in the president doesn t come out to give you the numbers. the president comes out when the administration has so
but at the same time, there have been allegations against the taliban that they have been trying to hunt people down, associated with the nato involvement there and, indeed, with the government. there are people passing through the taliban check points showing papers that obviously prove their connection to the united states and her allies. and some are getting through. but nowhere near enough. barbara, the pentagon had set this expectation that eventually they d be able to fly out somewhere in the range of 4,000 to 9,000 people a day. it seems like there is still a jam up. what is the biggest challenge as far as what you understand right now for the u.s. to carry out these evacuations? well, it seems after today there s jamups everywhere. and the pentagon not yet speaking plainly, speaking publicly, very candidly about what is going wrong. so let s review for a minute. the gate at the airport were closed for hours earlier today,
that fwgate opened j just a jar and there s just a rush. people pushing, and you re desperately trying to stand up. holding hands where my leagues and some of our local staff who are trying to get out. and everybody screaming and children are screaming. and on the other side of the war, they re screaming to get back. i mean, it s just unconscionable that there are women that are carrying newborn babies, and i just. at some point, i m at a loss of words, honestly. now, ana, organizing an evacuation on this scale for a developed nation who hadn t just had a violent change of government would be one thing. the taliban are insisting they re not standing in the way of people evacuating. they re insisting that they d like to see better organization of the evacuation.