we yes. it s doable. the war on terror has been with me my whole life. i reported on the 9/11 attacks as the editor by middle school paper, joined the marine corps as a platoon commander after college, a few weeks ago as a member of congress i voted to repeal the aumf. i know that s a story shared by many of the veterans who join me in that video with vote vets. we are coming together to make sure america keeps its promise. when i was a platoon commander in afghanistan, i worked with several interpreters who were with me when we hit ieds, you are with me as we talked to village elders and taliban controlled villages. i made promises personally to them, and i want to keep them. in terms of the u.s. government s capability in this regard, there s been some interesting discussion about what it would take to get this done at speed. moving afghan interpreters and their families to third country where they can have their visas process and be vetted before they be cleared to come to the u
did they look up philadelphia before they traveled their? we have a lot to cover tonight. u.s. government is now confirming that the american withdrawal from afghanistan is now 90% over. president biden had said september 11th as the date by which all u.s. forces would be out of afghanistan, now as of july 5th, more than 90% of the entire withdrawal process is done. a great number of members of congress who served in afghanistan are now turning up the heat to try to make sure that afghans who worked at translators, and supports for the u.s. troops can themselves get out of afghanistan ahead of what appears to be a lightning taliban advance across the country, which threatens the lives of those afghans who helped u.s. truth. friends the lives of their family, richard angle has been embedded with a group of afghan
now we need to get it done. we are down two days and weeks to save thousands who served beside us. whatever it takes, we in congress are ready to help. because we leave no one behind. we need to take them. we need to take them to. we need to take them to and give them the freedom they earned. we need to take them to. joining us now is congressman jake, a democrat from massachusetts. he s a retired marine who served in afghanistan. he s one of those 11 members of congress who appeared in the new ad, urging the protection of afghan interpreters and their families. congressman, real pleasure to have you here. thanks for taking the time tonight. thanks for having me on, rachel. it does feel like this is a very short order demand, and a short order task. reference there in the ad is two days and weeks. what do you think the timeframe is here? do you think this is doable?
it is to that point the veterans group vote vets has released powerful new ad that features 11 sitting members of congress, all of whom are veterans, all trying to pressure president biden, basically, into keeping america s promise to protect the afghan interpreters who assisted the u.s. military. watch. as the sun rises on americas independence day. the sun sets on america s longest war. our troops are coming home, at orders of our commander-in-chief. a promise made, a promise kept. our troops aren t the only ones who served the cause of freedom. there are thousands of afghan interpreters who served at our side, as loyal as any one of us. my interpreter is an american hero. we promised to have their backs. they put their lives on the line for us, and they will be in danger once our troops are gone. the president did the honorable thing when he promised to get those who helped us out of harm s way.
potentially moving them to guam, u.s. territory for that purpose. obviously the huge months long back and years long backlog that s become the normal in terms of processing these kinds of visas won t work here. how do you see this logistically coming together? what do you think should be done? president biden said he would get 100 million shots in arms in his first hundred days. you more than doubled that. he said he deliberate big bold infrastructure bill. he s delivering that as we speak he said we are going to withdraw fully by september 11th and secure the futures of the 18,000 interpreters who aided american troops eiffel confidence he will deliver that. we in congress are going to keep the pressure up and keep the oversight up to ensure that it happens. yes in congress we can pass procedures to streamline expedite the program and it s necessary. we know that s still a years-long timeline. there needs to be immediate action to relocate these interpreters from afghanistan