cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. we begin this hour with the escalating crisis in sudan and the emergency evacuation of u. s government personnel and their families about 100. us special operations forces carried out the overnight mission today. the u. s embassy in khartoum is closed. the decision to evacuate personnel comes after a week of heavy fighting between sudan s military and a rival paramilitary group more than 400. people have been killed, including one american state department estimates estimates there are about 16,000 americans in sudan. most are dual nationals, our correspondents, our position here and around the world to bring you all the angles of this developing story. let s begin with cnn s am kylie live from djibouti. sam djibouti s international airport is struggling to keep up with the sudden increase in flight volume. do this mass exodus from sudan. what more can you tell us about that? well, jim, it s not only the pressure, they say local off
But i feel that the large venue is just its a very exciting night, and when you dont have that, it takes a lot of it takes a lot of energy out. Thats donald trump pushing for a crowd at the president ial debates, which is not currently part of the terms he agreed to yesterday. Well go through all the debate drama in just a moment. Also ahead well bring in expert legal analysis on the former president s criminal trial in new york as his former fixer, Michael Cohen, is expected to return to the stand later this morning. Plus, the latest out of china on russian president Vladimir Putins state visit to beijing, which comes amid his arms escalating offensive in North Eastern ukraine. Good morning and welcome to Way Too Early on this thursday, may 16th. Im jonathan lemire. Thanks for starting your day with us. And well begin today with some major, major news on the 2024 campaign. After uncertainty about whether the two leading candidates would ever debate each other this year, President Joe
dangerous situation. and so i m glad that the official diplomatic personnel and their families were evacuated by the biden administration. and i believe that the united states government will, in the end be helpful to any individuals or family members that need to get out of sudan. we ve seen that in other countries. and uh, you know, because there is a recommendation that americans get out anybody that s got family member any americans that are here that have family members there that are trying to get out should contact the state department and seek assistance on that. and that leads me to this question in the state department estimates that there are roughly 16,000 us citizens in sudan are are same kylie was saying could be higher than than that could be 19,000. does the us need to keep some options on the table for assisting those americans? just in case things really spiral out of control? oh, no, we absolutely should. i think when americans are in danger somewhere around the worl
, the armed forces and the rsf they both committed to a 72 hour ceasefire around the eagle federal holiday this weekend, but there have been violations of the ceasefire. and it s unclear how much faith us leaders d o d state department, the white house all watching this believed in that ceasefire , and whether it would hold but they ve been monitoring the situation very carefully, and eventually, the decision and the authorization coming from president joe biden that it was time to carry out this operation to get the diplomatic staff out of khartoum as well as their family members. and as sam mentioned some staff some members of other nationalities. to get them out. so all of that makes it very difficult again. these helicopters would have been in sudanese airspace for a long time, and in that time the situation itself can change. now we did hear from us officials who say the helicopters didn t come under fire on their way in or on their way out. but that certainly wasn t a guarantee.
last week that there is no grand scale military operation that would be used to evacuate private citizens from the country. but certainly these steps of the u. s wants to do what it can to help about potentially get them out as this situation evolves as the violence worsens, president biden will certainly want to keep a very close eye on that as this week proceeds, jim all right, kevin liptak. very important operation over at the white house. thank you very much with me now to discuss this and more is walking castro democratic congressman from texas. he serves on the house intelligence committee and the house foreign affairs committee , congressman. thanks for sharing your sunday with us. let s jump right into this. the white house says it has no plans to evacuate these other. private us citizens from sudan. the state department says. it s been in contact with several 100 of them. what are your thoughts on not evacuating them, given that the situation seems to be getting worse? well ji