criticized withdrawal process that has left 13 u.s. service members dead and at least 100 american citizens and thousands of afghan allies who helped the u.s. trapped in afghanistan. president biden called the u.s. evacuation a, quote: extraordinary success. the president took responsibility for the operation during an address this afternoon at the white house. one day after the final u.s. service member left afghanistan. he says he is committed to getting the last americans home in a diplomatic way but one republican congressman a former green beret, says those americans and those afghan allies are now hostages. white house correspondent jacqui heinrich starts us off tonight live from the north lawn. good evening, jackie. good evening, bret. president biden defended the withdrawal saying the august 31st deadline wasn t arbitrary but a decision kept to save american lives after 13 u.s. service members were killed in a suicide attack last week. but, on the first day, without help from
you were in the room for a lot of these conversations, i am disappointed in mark milley. with all due respect to his prior military service, he still a public servant and powerful one at that right now. he s seeming to imply affect the decision to abandon, which is actualizing that he went along with us. you remember him saying anything like that when you are working in the trump administration? no. when he was working for us, he was with the intelligence, he knew the posture al qaeda and isis posed in afghanistan during our withdrawal process and he knew command-and-control, that could not be cut off, cannot cut off the head of our operations if you want to manhunt al qaeda and terrorists and safeguard citizens. he was in the room the secretary of defense and director of national intelligence, the room being the of office and we made the right call based on the intelligence, you cannot or
works. you were in the room for a lot of these conversations, i am disappointed in mark milley. with all due respect to his prior military service, he still a public servant and powerful one at that right now. he s seeming to imply affect the decision to abandon, which is actualizing that he went along with us. you remember him saying anything like that when you are working in the trump administration? no. when he was working for us, he was with the intelligence, he knew the posture al qaeda and isis posed in afghanistan during our withdrawal process and he knew command-and-control, that could not be cut off, cannot cut off the head of our operations if you want to manhunt al qaeda and terrorists and safeguard citizens. he was in the room the secretary of defense and director of national intelligence, the room being the of office and we made the right call based on the intelligence, you cannot or
you were in the room for a lot of these conversations, i am disappointed in mark milley. with all due respect to his prior military service, he still a public servant and powerful one at that right now. he s seeming to imply affect the decision to abandon, which is actualizing that he went along with us. you remember him saying anything like that when you are working in the trump administration? no. when he was working for us, he was with the intelligence, he knew the posture al qaeda and isis posed in afghanistan during our withdrawal process and he knew command-and-control, that could not be cut off, cannot cut off the head of our operations if you want to manhunt al qaeda and terrorists and safeguard citizens. he was in the room the secretary of defense and director of national intelligence, the room being the of office and we made the right call based on the intelligence, you cannot or
the airport? we have begun retrograding. reporter: can you say anything about the number who have left? no, i cannot. that s the pentagon acknowledging that the withdrawal process is starting. 5,400 troops there on the ground in kabul, and they re due to leave by tuesday. so that process is beginning. in the meantime, tens of thousands of afghans desperately trying to get out, including those who worked as interpreters, drivers and other jobs for the u.s. military. a question is looming over all of this, alex. how many more afghans could have been evacuated if the evacuation had started earlier while there were more u.s. forces on the ground? yes, that is an open-ended question. there may even be investigations into figuring out an answer to that. dan de luce, thank you so much from washington d.c.. joining me is massachusetts congressman who is a marine corps veteran and who served in afghanistan. congressman, i m glad to welcome