days i m jonathan lemire on this tuesday, august 17th. we ll start with the news. we begin with the chaotic scenes coming out of kabul s international airport where tens of thousands of afghans surrounded planes in an desperate attempt to escape taliban control. richard engel has the latest from kabul. reporter: tens of thousands of afghans swarmed into kabul airport, desperate to leave at any price. they burst through security. climbed over walls. and spilled onto the tarmac. searching for any airplane that would take them far away from afghanistan. away from the taliban. so many managed to cram into one plane, the pilot refused to take off. people on board refused to disembark. but it was across a barb wire divide where it turned really ugly. on the military side of the airport, american troops trying to evacuate u.s. embassy staff
sustained military mission in afghanistan is over. we ll be joined this morning by a top voice at the defense department when pentagon spokesman john kirby joins us as chaos grips a country now ruled by the taliban. plus new developments in the fight against covid. the biden administration has decided that most americans should get a booster vaccination eight months after they received their second shot. we ll have the details on that just ahead. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it is tuesday, august 17th. and we re going to begin this morning with the chaotic scenes from kabul s international airport. with thousands of afghans surrounding planes in a desperate attempt to escape taliban control. richard engel has the latest from kabul. reporter: tens of thousands of afghans swarmed into kabul
bit later on in this broadcast. tonight, though, on another front, far from home, the president is under intense criticism after the sudden collapse of the afghan government and military and the chaos that erupted over the weekend as the taliban took over the capital of kabul. this came in the wake of the president s decision to pull u.s. troops out of the country after two decades and $2 trillion spent. today, biden spoke to the nation and defended his decision. our mission in afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building. i m president of the united states of america. and the buck stops with me. i m deeply saddened by the facts we now face. but i do not regret my decision to end america s war-fighting in afghanistan. it is now tuesday morning in kabul. airport has reopened for military flights to evacuate american citizens and afghan
and allied civilians richard engel leads our team on the ground in kabul reporter: tens of thousands of afghans swarmed into kabul airport, desperate to leave at any price they burst through security, climbed over walls and spilled on to the tarmac, searching for any airplane that would take them far away from afghanistan, away from the taliban so many managed to cram into one plane, the pilot refused to take off people on board refused to disembark but it was across a barbed wire divide where it turned really ugly on the military side of the airport, american troops trying to evacuate u.s. embassy staff found themselves overwhelmed, suddenly battling crowds, firing warning shots this was not the mission they came for. the pentagon says u.s. troops shot dead two armed afghans.
much to the taliban s consternation, one of the great victories of the past two decades has been the education and the limited advance in freedom for afghan women and girls. that era appears to be over. andrea, this may be unanswerable. what s the best we can hope for on the humanitarian front? the very best that we could wish for is enormous capacity of air lift. cutting a deal with the taliban for the perimeter and keeping the flights going, that s not going to happen. there s no way for people to get to the airport. the state department said we would be notifying people. and and then there s that second category of people who work for american corporations, including news companies, and those people will be in the second priority.