the kabul airport gave their lives to save others and no higher calling. general mark milley explained why bagram air base was closed. our task given to us was to protect the embassy. in order for the embassy personnel to continue to function with the consular services and all that. if we were to keep both bagram and embassy going it would be a significant number of military forces that would have exceeded what we had, stayed the same or exceeded what we had. questions about why u.s. forces departed afghanistan forces so rapidly all out of the country in early july and questions why so many afghan interpreters were left behind and those not evacuated helped the u.s. military for two decades. the state department and pentagon are refusing to say how many were more than 100,000 afghan refugees evacuated and it was the generals decided
it s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries. i m reluctant to use the word nation building because it is such a loaded political term these days. but if we leave afghanistan in chaos, it will be another time bomb waiting to explode. yesterday was first day without u.s. troops on the ground and the white house did not say whether anyone else made it out of afghanistan yesterday. we re hoping to get some new answers today, bill. bill: jackie heinrich. we ll be waiting and watching. dana: president biden putting secretary of state blinken in charge of rescuing the 10% of americans he says are still stranded in afghanistan. the state department tasked with resettling more than 100,000 refugees. griff jenkins is live at the state department with more. where will they go? that s a good question, dana. the state department is saddled with a dual mission. many of the same employees right here at the state department who just last week
account specifically for afghanistan and restricting iran from aiding the taliban. now expect a lot of pushback from democrats and how much money will go to defense. the senate armed services committee added $25 billion to president biden s $715 billion proposal. on monday, though, 27 democrats sent a letter to the house armed services chairman requesting the ndaa not exceed the president s offer. they are arguing that right now america s largest national security threat is actually a global pandemic. but ranking member mike rogers told me yesterday he thinks he will get bipartisan support on this. i know there is a large percentage of the democrat members of our committee that vigorously opposed the biden administration s policy to leave afghanistan and even a bigger majority of democrats who opposed doing it the way it was done. so i expect you to see some
it is transitioning to a diplomatic and humanitarian mission. we re committed to getting every american who wants the leave out of afghanistan. the state department has been working with americans for the last several months to assist the vast majority to evacuate and the taliban have committed publicly and privately to allowing egress to all americans who want to leave. dana: do you trust them on that, the taliban? diplomacy is negotiation without trust. of course we do not trust the taliban. we have leverage over the taliban. humanitarian, economic, diplomatic and we ll continue to use all levers available to us. i would also underscore that the counter terrorism mission persists in afghanistan. we are going to hold to account anybody who provides a base of operation to terrorists who can strike the u.s. homeland from afghanistan and we re going to bring to justice the architects of the atrocity of the u.s. service members last week.
98% indicating the president misspoke. the president did not take questions or address the fact he went back on his word to keep troops on the ground until all americans were out. u.s. officials gave more context on these efforts saying some of the reasons americans stayed are individual and nuanced. some didn t want to go to the airport because of the suicide attack and ongoing threats. others didn t want to leave behind extended family. official told me americans left behind had five plus opportunities to leave but the president was defiant yesterday in blaming trump for the taliban deal that released isis fighters that later took over the country and ghani for fleeing amid he took on critics that argued the u.s. should have kept a low grade troop presence to maintain stability. something biden argued for immediately after 9/11. president biden: this decision about afghanistan is not just about afghanistan.