connected, who are not really educated for that matter. the they re in their early 20s, late teens. they re power hungry. all they know is how to fight. they ve been trained for that their entire lives. the way of forcing the rule of law is with muscle. a woman opened her passport and said i m an american citizen and she was beat. they are beating them with whips and their butt of rifles. yes, there may be top communication with the top brass of the taliban. but that means nothing to the foot soldiers on the ground. i appreciate your perspective on this and your reporting on what s been happening there. joining me now is a press coordinator for the former afghanistan president. first off, i know that you have
countries came to our aid in the days after 9/11. certainly a lot of other foreign leaders the president has been speaking to in the last few days have also been speaking publicly to say how displeased they are with the way the u.s. is handling the last week or so in afghanistan. i want to bring you in this here, tia, and reference something that josh brought up. the president addressed as well. the u.s. embassy in kabul did put out a statement today. it says that the gates to the airport may open or close without notice. and the u.s. government cannot ensure safe passage to the airport. the you re talking to people in afghanistan. it seems like the mission there from the embassy. what is happening outside the airport right now? well, what i can tell you is that from inside the airport from the united states of america, there are diplomats, former diplomats, former u.s. service members would are trying to connect to people on the ground. they re talking to their contacts and form
a possible taliban takeover and urged an airlift operation. i made the decision, the buck stops with me. i took the consensus opinion. it would not occur if it occurred until later in the year. it was my decision. as we wait for the pentagon briefing on afghanistan to begin here, i m joined now by nbc news white house reporter josh letterman. wall street journal national security reporter vivian sala many:i want to start with you on this. today was the second time this week we heard from president biden on afghanistan. is he striking different tone today? the tone from the president was similar. very defensive of his administration s handling of this debacle over the last week and a half or so. there did seem to be some good signs of progress in the numbers. in terms of the through put
how to bring the people outside inside to the airport. i think they re trying to organize it. it is a very tough situation. it goes back to what a lot of military sources and diplomat uk sources are telling me is that they feel like their hands are tied behind their back. it s not the same situation as even a few weeks ago and a month ago that the americans had on the ground in afghanistan where they could operate and get things done in ways they are used to. we re taubl about kabul as well. we re talking about evacuating americans and afghans from kabul. but we re not talking breast of talking about the rest of the country. they re cleaning up a messy situation. it s a little too late for that. that included keeping back ram open and some helicopters bringing people in and having afghans and americans meeting them in other places especially to help save those americans who are in other provinces at the
total troops on the ground. our mission to defend kabul airport and evacuate people from afghanistan as quickly and safely as possible continues. we re doing everything we can to maximize safe evacuations. and the past 24 hours, 15 c-17s arrived with several hundred more troops that allowed us to get to that 5,800 number and also some supplies. this morning for the previous 24 hours, 16 c-17s and one c-130 departed kabul. these flights contain nearly 6,000 passengers including a couple hundred passengers. as the president noted earlier today, we have airlifted