americans were given every chance to leave the country since march. they were given warning after warning, and in fact, their argument goes, the people who remain, the americans who remain in afghanistan are there by choice. we know that s not entirely true. there are passport holders who still want to get out, duel citizenship, but they say by and large, most of the americans who are there want to be there. . reporter: we were getting receipts, e-mails sent over the course of months to those based in afghanistan describing an incredible operation over the last two and a half weeks to do everything they can to find americans in afghanistan, identify them, ask three simple questions, where are you, do you want to leave and do you need help getting to the airport. a white house official said of the 6,000 safely evacuated, the hundred to 200 that remain are the most complicated cases,
whether it was at a bagram air force base or kabul airport was going to be dangerous, for the military trying to process that because they became sitting ducks for suicide bombers and that s exactly what happened. i thought it was very interesting that he made clear to america that we re not done with isis, and i want to remind everyone that our military has been fighting isis and al qaeda and other terrorists across the globe effectively since 9/11, and i think our country will continue to do that. sam, if you look at the polling and i know you ve got new numbers to show us, the american people, a majority of them are with the president on the decision to withdraw from afghanistan. he has made no secret, this is something he wanted. he talked about it as a candidate for president. he talked about it since he got into office, and now he says, i have delivered on the promise. it s the execution of the
here, there are many many many cases that we have heard about and that we are aware of where the taliban did not help, particularly afghans get to the airport safely, but what we have been learning about over the last week or so is that there was this agreement between the u.s. military there on the ground with who are essentially their military counter parts in the taliban to help americans get safe passage to the airport and so what the state department would do is they would identify these americans who were ready to come to the airport. they had evacuation flights ready. they would send them a text message with a pass, essentially, and tell them where to go. there were two locations that they would go, and they would basically meet taliban fighters who were there. the taliban then had a copy of this pass, and they had a list, a manifest, essentially, of who would be coming through, and the americans would come. the taliban would basically process them at these locations,
angry and defensive, standing by his decision to end the mission with up to 200 american citizens still stranded. 90% of americans in afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave and for those remaining americans, there is no deadline. we remain committed to get them out if they want to come out. reporter: that move breaks this promise president biden made less than two weeks ago. if there s american citizens left, we re going to stay until we get them all out. reporter: the last soldier out, major general chris donahue, seen here boarding the final c 17 cargo plane monday at kabul s airport. the president touting the safe evacuation of more than 124,000 people as a quote extraordinary success. extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery, and selfless courage of the united states military and our diplomats. reporter: while insisting despite the frantic final days
in the loss of 13 u.s. service members, there was no way to carry out america s exit without chaos. there is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenge and threats we faced. none. reporter: but republicans are accusing the president of betraying americans. you don t leave your people behind, man. and i m afraid they re going to kill these people and hurt them the entire time. reporter: the u.s. says it foiled another isis-k attack at the airport. president biden delivered this warning. isis-k, we are not done with you yet. joining us now msnbc white house correspondent mike memoli at the white house. good to see you.