afghanistan who wanted to leave. but there is confusion over how many were initially stranded after the u.s. military withdrawal as opposed to what was said publicly by administration officials at the time. state department correspondent benjamin hall has the story tonight. good evening, benjamin. good evening, bret. so much about that withdrawal in august and september revolved around how many americans were stranded in afghanistan and what was being done to save them? what we now know that the figures we were given at the time they were simply not accurate. i would just reiterate that the united states does not track or put a tracker on american citizens traveling overseas. the white house today was again forced to defend itself against discrepancies in the number of americans left stranded in afghanistan after the state department released figures showing the number was far higher than president biden claimed in august. we believe that about 100 to 200 measures remain in afg
he is happy to sign it they haven t sent him a bill on that yet. it comes as senators chuck schumer, elizabeth warren, and representative ayanna pressley sent a letter to biden with data from the left leaning think tank the roosevelt institute arguing resuming payments would strip more than $85 billion from about 18 million american families over the next year. they say it would undermine the impact of the american rescue plan, slow economic recovery, and hurt the most vulnerable. low income borrowers, borrowers of color who typically take out more loans than white americans and end up paying them back over a much longer period of time. schumer wants to cancel $50,000 per borrower. while the president prefers a much lower 10,000. critics argue either one comes at a cost to you, the taxpayer. the brookings institution suggests it will cost $1.6 trillion to forgive all student debt and about a trillion dollars to wipe out
nobility here. we are all equals and we are all subject to the law. one sixth committee messages by donald trump jr. i immore plord the president to intervene perhaps with a speech from the oval office. meadows said they hope to weaponize the text. they want to talk about the part that fits their narrative the way that some of the democrats are spinning this trying to spin some nefarious purpose i think at the end of the day, they are going to find that not only did the president act but he acted quickly. the house voted earlier this fall to hold steve bannon in contempt. he faces a trial next summer and meadows could also face prosecution. bret? bret: chad, in addition to the text from don jr. texts were red by the 6th myth urging meadows to speak to donald trump getting him to intervene as the capitol riot unfolded texts from
food prices 1.2% jump in december. energy privacies up 2.6%. stocks were down on that news. the dow lost 107, the s&p 500 fell 35. the nasdaq was off 176. the u.s. senate has just narrowly approved a measure to raise the debt ceiling. that is bringing new scrutiny on president biden s overall spending agenda. congressional correspondent chad pergram is live on capitol hill with the latest tonight. good evening, chad. good evening, bret. democrats voted to spend so they can spend on the build back better bill. the senate voted 50 to 49 to lift the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion only democrats voted yes. this is about paying debt accumulated by both parties. so i m pleased republicans and democrats came together to facilitate a process that has made addressing the debt ceiling possible. in exchange for democrats voting yes, the g.o.p. agreed to get out of the way and break a
unclear. would you consider one of the reasons in the range prosecutors were cutting people who are accused of many criminal offenses loose too quickly? again, i am not as i wasn t yesterday, going to give an assessment for every every moat vase investigation or reason for crime in different communities across the country. so the story keeps changing but we are not hearing much from president biden about it at all. in fact they know policy talk no on camera events so far. the first thing on his schedule is about 10 minutes from right now a dnc fundraiser with 400 invited guests. bret? bret: peter doocy live on the north lawn, thanks. prices at the wholesale level surged by a record 9.6% in november from a year earlier. the labor department says its producer price index which measures inflation before it reaches consumers rose eight tenths of a percent. this is the highest.