quite some time to americans in afghanistan, warning them weeks, months ago, how dicey things were looking, they didn t hear back from a lot of them. i don t remember a solid number. but that could be that maybe the government would collapse so quickly and a sin that the administration shared but now unknown whereabouts? they don t know where these people are? they know the number but don t know where they are? you ll recall august 7, over a week before kabul fell to the taliban, the u.s. embassy sent out a distress call warning all americans to evacuate the country now. not all of them heeded that warning and remained. the latest numbers just last week the white house said over 11,000 americans were still on the ground. that s why for days now here at the pentagon, state department, white house, reporters have been wondering how many americans are left. we finally got closer to that
one in the afternoon. neil: wanted to bring you up to date here on this update. we had general walters. one of the things that stood out and been a back and forth, exactly how many americans are we talking about? how many americans are still in afghanistan? we got closer to a number when we heard that 4,500 americans have already left the country since august 14. there s around 1,500 still in the country. these were the first hard numbers that we got from secretary of state anthony blinken. furthermore, there s indications that some of those 1,500, they might not all want to leave. that many in the past have not responded for response or to the urgency of the moment when the
hans on august 14. there were about 6,000 americans remaining in the country. today about 4,500 of those have been evacuated, which means there s up to 1,500 americans still in afghanistan. not everybody wants to leave. blinken said they have spoken to about 500 americans that still leaves about 1,000 more with the u.s. government. they re trying to reach out. i m wondering what the plan is. neil: i have to wonder and sorry to hit you with all of these questions, but if you re an american in this environment, i want to stay in afghanistan. i can t imagine. but you wouldn t want to south of kabul. neil: exactly. most all of them want out. seems unlikely
presence. so lucas, the numbers, i m trying to get a handle on these numbers. we talk about the 4,500 americans that left or have been evacuated since august 14 and presumably 1,500 remain. we know of close to 90,000 in all that have been evacuated from afghanistan that would appear to me to be overwhelmingly afghan nationals, friends of the u.s. government, friends of the former government. do we have a breakdown of those numbers? not a complete breakdown, kneel. it also includes nato allies. as you have seen on the ramp at kabul airport, there s nato allies flying their flights, not only getting their people home but afghans that helped with the spanish, the french and the british. neil: so when they talk about they ve been reaching out for
these men and women and their children. what we re doing to do when we get them on the bases is make sure that they have safe, security housing, plenty of sustenance, food, water, medical care and the ability to work through the rest of their process. so our focus is on making sure that they re safe and secure and that we ll do that to the maximum capability that we can and we certainly encourage americans to welcome them as well when they relocate from our military bases into american society, when we re that s one of the great things about our country. the way we have welcomed immigrants over the years. these are going to be new immigrants. new americans. maybe a new fighter pilot. so we re grateful for that generosity and i point them to the nongovernmental organizations and humanitarian relief organizations.