Transcripts For MSNBC Stephanie Ruhle Reports 20240710

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One Uk Minister describing it as imminent and lethal. In just Minutes President biden will meet with his national Security Team about this rapidly escalating situation. So far the u. S. Has evacuated more than 101,000 people including 13,000 over just the last 24 hours. As for american citizens, the State Department says 1500 are still in the country, including a third who have been in contact with our government. The White House says they are on track to wrap this up by the president s August 31 deadline. And the taliban is speeding things up, keeping crowds away from the airport. Their spokesman telling Nbc News that they will stay out of the way for now. Translator we dont want our countrymen To Go to america. Whatever they have done in the past, we have given them amnesty. We need young educated professionals for our nation. But if they want to leave, it is their choice. Keep in mind an Isis Affiliate still poses an immediate threat to people in and around the airport. And with the evacuation possibly winding down this weekend, the threat of violence is growing by the minute. Weve got reporters covering every angle of this story. And i have to start with Courtney Kube at The Pentagon. What do we know about this warning last night, what is the Security Threat for real on the ground . Reporter it is very real and this is a persistent 24re9 But Threat but there is a new element to it. The concern for the isis khorasan, that is the overall name for the larger group that operates there in afghanistan. The big concern remains around the gates to the airport. There have been as weve seen for days now crowds gathering around those gates trying to get in, most of those if not all are evacuees trying to get on the flights out of the country. The enduring concern has been that some Isis Member would be able to infiltrate into that crowd unknown and they might have a threat from a Suicide Bomber or a big concern is what they call a vehicleborn ied, somebody is able to get a vehicle into those crowds and blow it up there potentially injuring civilians, potentially injuring American Military who are there at some of those gates and u. S. Consular officers. As you mentioned, a new warning telling americans not To Go to those gates. Also you mentioned the taliban working with the u. S. , coordinating with the u. S. That has been ongoing now also for about a week now. And what they are doing is the u. S. Is talking to the the u. S. Military is talking to essentially their military dont counterparts there in kabul, coordinating there to bring americans safely to the airport. We heard yesterday there John Kirby who shed a little more light on it, they are actually providing the kinds of documents that the u. S. Would have, these americans would have, to get through the gates and the taliban are looking at these documents and helping give Safe Passage. So they are bringing these gates or these crowds around the gates, the taliban are helping to push back those crowds to provide Safe Passage for the americans. So all that being said, that has been working for the past several days. But with the gates shut down, there is a very real issue for any americans to try to get to those gates and get safely through them. And again, the larger issue here is this Isis Threat that is persistent, it is very real. Weve heard from a number of u. S. Allies about their warnings about it as well. Yeah, more than a complication. So geoff, the administration did to be fair get more than 100,000 people out pretty quickly, but the danger grows as we heard from courtney, unlikely that everyone will get out on time by that 31st dead line. How does the Administration Plan to pull this off . It is a key question that the administration has yet to answer definitively because so much of it depends on events on the ground. So here is what we know. We know this Evacuation Window is closing quickly. The pentagon has acknowledged that as this operation nears its end, Space On Military Aircraft will have to be reserved for u. S. Troops. Not necessarily civilians, but troops to make sure that they are out of country by August 31. As you mentioned we heard from the State Department yesterday that there are roughly 1500 americans believed to be remaining in afghanistan. The State Department sayscontac those americans that they are working to evacuate and they are trying to reach the balance of that number believed to be there. There are outside estimates that there are roughly 250,000 afghans who have assisted the u. S. Effort over the last 20 years, folks who would qualify for these special visas to be evacuated. Now, we heard from the Secretary Of State Antony Blinken Yesterday that for those afghans and even for those americans who might remain in country beyond the end of the month, that the u. S. Will spare no resource economic or diplomatic, including resources among u. S. Allies, to make sure that those folks that want to get out after the deadline would be granted Safe Passage. Here is a bit more of what he had to say. There is no deadline on our work to help any remaining american citizens who decide they want to leave to do so along with the many afghans who have stood by us over these many years and want to leave and have been unable to do so. Reporter but it is clear u. S. Options for doing just that shrink dramatically as the operation nears i end. Rhetoric is one thing, but putting it into practice is entirely different. Geoff, thanks. And as we watch on the Screen Scores of people on that plane that just took off from Kabul Airport, destination unknown. But we do have about a dozen places where those planes are eventually going to. One of those places is ramstein Air Base in germany which brings me to Matt Bradley who has been talking to refugees there. What are you hearing on the ground . Reporter yeah, im not far from ramstein Air Base, one of the largest in the world. And it is one of the major hubs for afghans who are leaving afghanistan and headed to the states or other third countries. And we heard just this morning that so far 14,500 have been processed. 55 flights have come in so far, but only 16 have left. And the main barrier at ramstein is actually bureaucratic, it is processing people. Weve spent the past couple of days visiting the base and talking to afghan evacuees and for the most Part Everybody is satisfied with the conditions there. There is a Tent City of about 323 tents set up in a very short period of time. And for all of those people living there, they have almost all of their needs have been met. They are living in these tents a hangars that would normally house airplanes. They have all the access they need to food, water, medical care. What they dont have is information. A lot said that they were distressed because they dont know when they will be leaving or where they will be heading. It is supposed to take no longer than ten days. If you are at ramstein Air Base for longer than ten days, that might be a violation of protocol. But weve heard that they are trying to get everybody processed in 24 to 72 hours. And that is why there has been this bottleneck. It does seem as though over the last day or two that the numbers have been picking up, the number of flights that are taking off as evened out more with the flights that are landing. But in these last couple days before that final withdrawal from kabul, well start to see a lot more action here at ramstein Air Base. Matt bradley, Thank You. Gabe, you are outside and Expo Center in virginia where some afghan refugees are already being housed. How are things looking there . Reporter just within the past few minutes actually, few moments, this bus that was parked right behind me rolled out of here. Weve been seeing that throughout the day. And Virginia Governor says that they have at least 6,000 afghans that have already arrived in virginia over the last several days. Some of them are being housed here at the dulles Expo Center. They just now closed the gate. It is hard to see what is going on behind there. But throughout the morning we have been seeing Afghans Loading into these buses and being transported to Military Bases across the country. Some are expected to be sent to Military Bases in texas, wisconsin, were told One Bus was driving to New Jersey this morning. So this is an ongoing process here. And yesterday, we actually spoke though with a man who has been desperately trying to get Family Members out of afghanistan. And he has also been helping other people, other u. S. Families that have been trying to get some of the relatives out of the country. And i sat down with him and i asked how this process was going and he told me it was a matter of life and death. Take a listen. Speaking to the taliban, the security guards, im speaking to everyone. I do not even know these people but i want to make sure these people get into the base. How many Family Members have you gotten out . My immediate family, 17. 17 immediate Family Members . Yes. And how many people total . 68. In just a few days. In just a few days. Reporter so again, he told us 68 people he has helped guide out of afghanistan either by offering advice, directions. Hes getting calls at all hours of the day and night. And of course some of these are american citizens, others are afghans who helped the u. S. During this war the last two decades, this desperate struggle to get them out. Right now hundreds of afghans here at the dulles Expo Center outside of washington, d. C. Where throughout the morning, we continue to see them loaded up on to buses and transferred across the country. Thanks so much for that. Now of Course Key to this depends on the taliban. Richard engel spoke to the taliban spokesman yesterday, this is a very rare tv interview. Watch part of it. Translator Osama Bin Laden became an issue for the americans, he was in afghanistan. Although there was no proof that he was involved now we have given promises that afghan Soil Wont be used against anyone. You still dont think that Osama Bin Laden carried out 9 11 . There is no evidence even after 20 years of war, we have no proof that he was involved. So it sounds like even now after all of this, you are accepting no responsibility. Translator there was no justification for this war. It was excuse for war. So courtney, the taliban wants us to think that they have changed, that they are cooperating, but obviously then you have them not even willing to admit to what happened on 9 11, which speaks to this sort of tightrope that The Pentagon is walking, that they need the taliban but you cant necessarily believe what they say. Reporter yeah, thats right. So there is a tactical agreement, a coordination or even cooperation on the ground right now between the u. S. Military and the taliban and that is for one reason, both sides have the same aim and that is getting americans out of the country. So right now the taliban are cooperating in very real ways to help americans get safely to Kabul Airport and get out of the country. But the reality is this is the taliban. No matter what they are saying about changing their ways and they will allow afghans to live safely and they will allow women with more rights, whatever it is they are saying, well have to see what they actually do. Defense officials who im speaking to do not have a lot of confidence that they have changed their ways and this will be some new version of the taliban. But right now one reason were not hearing a lot of criticism for them and we probably wont hear any criticism of the taliban specifically from the Defense Department before the u. S. Is completely out and that is because they are helping them and the military, The Pentagon, they dont want to do anything to tip that balance so that the taliban would no longer help americans. As geoff mentioned, there are still a lot of americans trying to get out and they are also trying to help afghans if they can to get out. So in the meantime, they are working with the Taliban And Hope that it continues. Courtney, geoff, thanks to you both. Appreciate it. Coming up this morning, a shocking new reality, 100,000 americans in the hospital with covid. The highest number since january. When we didnt even really have the vaccine yet. Many hospitals are reaching their breaking point, including this icu in portland, oregon. Our physicians are just being called at every opportunity can you take this patient, can you help us consult on this patient, this patient is 26 and dying, this patient is 21 and dying, this patient is a father of four and dying. F four and dying. I always wanted to learn more about him. I discovered some very interesting documents on ancestry. This is the uh Registration Card for the draft for World War two. And this is his signature which blew me away. Being able to. Make my grandfather real. Not just a memory. Is priceless. His Legacy. Lives on. Is struggling to manage your Type 2 Diabetes is priceless. Knocking you out of your zone . Lowering your a1c with onceweekly ozempic® can help you get back in it. Oh, oh, oh, ozempic® my zone. Lowering my a1c, cv risk, and losing some weight. Now, back to the game ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. 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And speaking of florida, the state reported an alltime Daily Record high for new covid cases wednesday, more than 26,000. As covid cases climb, were getting a revealing look inside one icu completely overwhelmed with coronavirus patients. This is portland, oregon. This patient is 26 and dying. This patient is 21 and dying. This patient is a father of four and dying. Is it is full. Reporter Health Care workers are exhausted and straining to keep up with the surge of Covid Patients. You see these people, you know it is preventable, what goes through your mind . Heartbreaking knowing people are fighting for their lives. And it could have been prevented. I dont think people have an inkling of the amount of suffering that you will experience being sick with covid. It is extremely painful. It could have been prevented. Joining us nous he willus, elli Kerry Sanders and also a global Health Policy Expert to help us with all of this. Dr. Gupta, 100,000 hospitalized with covid across the country. What does that tell us about where we are and where things might be headed . Good morning. Good to see you. We are in a place right now that in some way reminds us of 12 months ago, but where were headed is continued stress across hospitals in certain parts of the country that have low vaccine rates. So were expecting anywhere from 1200 to 1500 Deaths Day over day well through the middle of the october. And then the concerning part there is were entering Cold And Flu season. So noncovid ailments like influenza, rsv for all the parents out there who have kids already coming down with this respiratory virus, that is the great unknown. The combination of those viruses combined with the stress of covid. What were seeing in portland is what were seeing across the country in icus. Rationing of care. Dialysis machines, nurses and Respiratory Therapists and even advanced therapies like ecmo. So ellison, i honestly thought that this was a typo. You are at a rural mississippi hospital. It is 185 overcapacity . How do you even deal with that . Reporter it is really challenging. Dr. Gupta just mentioned rationing care. Barely a week ago at this hospital they were having discussions about who to let go and who to give ventilators to because they did not have enough. We were inside the Emergency Room at this hospital yesterday, we were also on the floor of their covid icu. That icu is entirely full. Typically they have eight Icu Beds that the hospital. This is a small rural hospital. Right now they have 15 Covid Patients needing Icu Care. So what does that look like . When we were on the floor of the Emergency Room, we saw two different rooms where they had Covid Patients intubated, doubled up in the rooms that they need to be. But there is no room for them upstairs. There are three icu nurses working to take care of eight Icu Covid patients in the icu here, all of them on ventilators. They have three nurses in their Emergency Room working to take care typically five to six Covid Patients that again need Icu Care but they have nowhere else for them To Go in addition to all of their normal e. R. Visits, all their normal e. R. Patients. It is taking an enormous toll here. Resources, they dont have many of them and emotionally, it is beyond draining. Listen to what one of the e. R. Nurses told us just yesterday. It has been a nightmare. Were seeing very sick patients. We dont have enough staff to take care of these patients. Were having to double them up in rooms, were running out of supplies, things that we need. Reporter Mississippis Emergency Management agency announced that they awarded four different multimilliondollar contracts to outside vendors to try to hopefully help with the Staffing Shortages happening at hospitals all across this state. Governor Tate Reeves says that they will deploy over 11,000 Health Care personnel within the next week or so. There are 61 hospitals in this state that have requested additional help. This hospital is number 17 on the list. They expect to get at least 20 icu nurses in the coming days. And that help, it cannot come fast enough. So kerry, you are in florida, the state just hit a new Daily Record for covid cases. Kind of an obvious question, but just how bad is it there . Reporter when you Take A Look at the state of florida, i think the number that says it most is that nationwide one in five people who are dying in hospitals are dying from covid here in florida. And so you get the sense of how bad it is. We Take A Look at some numbers here. As you look at the numbers, i think youll get an idea, this is just florida. Wednesday 26,203 new cases, today that is more than 3 Million total cases. And getting back to the deaths, even though medicine has moved beyond where it was at the beginning where people were accepted into a hospital almost certainly were dying, now we see so many more people surviving. But even at that, total deaths in the state, more than 42,000. So as with Take A Look at what government has been trying to do, requiring face masks, trying to encourage or in many Cases Government having employees have to get their vaccines, there is now sort of a reflection of what happens in private industry. This is capitalism. Free market determining how things will go forward. You can see delta over my shoulder, im here at the airport because Delta Air lines has announced that i was 74,000 employees will be enticed To Go ahead and get the vaccine. So for those who choose not to, they will actually be assessed a fee, 200 a month. The ceo of Delta Air lines saying that the cost for somebody to be hospitalized with coronavirus is about 50,000. And that is the sort of expense that the Airline Cannot absorb with its insurance. And so they will charge 200 a month. It may be that that 200 a month hitting Somebodys Wallet is enough to get people to get the vaccine. Or they will just have to pay. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, well, is that penalty. I actually spoke to a legal expert to say is this a penalty or how would you describe it. This is what she had to say. It is a fee. So a financial Penalty Kind of is designed to punish something. Deltas explan nation was you are imposing more costs on us, you should bear some of them. So they are basically saying were not punishing you, but if you are going to make us pay, we want you to pay part of the cost. A little bit like a deductible. Reporter so this is akin to the programs that exist at many companies across the country that if you are a smoker, if you are smoker you pay an additional fee in your insurance to cover the expected healthrelated events that happen because you are a smoker. Delta air lines doing this. Weve already seen deloitte, disney and other companies doing this. Again, not a Government Mandate here, not a company mandate, but something that is being encouraged here by the free market. A money push. Thanks so much for that, kerry. So stephanie, doctors are sounding a pretty loud alarm because there is this troubling surge in pregnant women who are becoming severely ill with covid and im assuming were talking about unvaccinated women. Yeah, we are. And it is of particular concern in the south. Nbc news spoke to a number of doctors in the south who say that they are seeing more pregnant women in their icus than ever before. It is an alarming trend putting expectant parents on notice. Nbc news spoke to doctors in several states who reported a spike In Covid hospitalizations among pregnant women. Seeing double and in some cases triple the number. Nearly all of the patients are unvaccinated. Last few weeks of your pregnancy, it is very hard to breathe. Your bodys immunity also changes during pregnancy. So combining these two things, it makes it very difficult to deal with a situation like covid. He leads the icu at Broward Health medical center in florida and his unit usually sees four to five pregnant women a year. Now he says they see that many in a week. And although it is unclear if unborn babies can contract covid in the womb, whons they once th delivered, they are separated from mothers often too sick to hold them. How tough is that conversation that she cant hold her baby because she is too sick with covid . It is hard, extremely hard. Reporter cdc data shows that one in four pregnant women have been vaccinated during their pregnancy. It was only this summer that major Health Organizations and federal agencies issued full throated recommendations that pregnant women get vaccinated. Previously just saying it was encouraged because pregnant women didnt take part in the early trials. But now there is data showing the vaccine is safe. It is very, very clear that it is safe in pregnant women. Reporter the cdc says 131 pregnant women have died of covid complications and more than 200 have lost their pregnancies. Haley richardson was a nurse from alabama who was pregnant with her second child. She and her unborn daughter passed away last week, less than a month after she tested positive for covid. Her Best Friend says richardson had not gotten vaccinated because of the lack of research at the time regarding the impact on pregnancies. Doctors report pregnant women are more likely to be put on ventilators and other machines to support critical organs like the heart and lungs. A recent study found pregnant women who get covid are 40 more likely to deliver prematurely. So there may be some women who are pregnant and vaccinated and wondering what it means for them with the delta variant. And the doctor who we spoke to said while they have the vaccine now and they are much better protected against the delta variant, they should consider taking those extra precautions that some people are taking right now, avoiding inside spaces that are crowded, wearing masks, social distancing, that kind of thing because they are more vulnerable being pregnant. I can just tell in you new york, a lot more people wearing masks outdoors. Dr. Gupta, i want to talk about pregnant women. It speaks to the very real concern that there was that maybe there wasnt research into women who were pregnant and vaccinated, but does it also speak to the gross amount of misinformation out there, that it was dangerous for pregnant women to get the vaccine and a lot of that as we know took hold early on in this pandemic. You are absolutely right. This is a question that was not studied in 2020 when the vaccine was being developed because we needed to develop Effectiveness And State in folks first that were not pregnant. So that is why the first six months of 2021, reams of data, Tens Of Thousands of individuals, pregnant, not pregnant, have been studied to seestephanie just raised which that these studies show that the vaccines are safe and effective. But youre right, there was that information vacuum. Weve filled it but were Playing Catchup to address those conspiracy theories. Thanks to you all. Much appreciated. And coming up, the Terror Threat looming over the afghanistan evacuation effort. We just got Breaking News from The Pentagon about that. Plus, how will chaotic Exit Affect President biden and democrats in 2022 . That is next. Allstate. You already pay for car insurance, why not take your home along for the ride . Allstate. Here, better protection costs a whole lot less. Youre in good hands with allstate. vo this is more than glass and steel. Youre in good hands with allstate. And stone. Its awe. Beauty. The measure of progress. Its where people meet people. Where cultures and bonds are made between us. Where we create things together. Open each others minds. Raise each others ambitions. And do together, what we cant do apart. This is space for dreams. Loopnet. The most popular place to find a space. Dont settle for products that give you a sort of white smile. Try new Crest Whitening emulsions for 100 whiter teeth. Its highly active Peroxide Droplets swipe on in seconds. Better. 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It comes as we see more political fallout from the withdrawal after the taliban took control quicker than most were expecting. While a majority of americans agree with president Bidens Decision to pull troops, nearly twothirds disapprove of how he has handled it. As the evacuation continues, republicans and members of his own Party Arent pleased either. Joining me now, politico white House Reporter and Playbook Coauthor Eugene daniels and also with us correspondent peter baker. Good to see you. Eugene, first and foremost, we know lives are at stake in kabul. But as a political issue, how big a challenge, how important are these next five days for the president . It is huge, right . Because is this a president who one of the reasons that he is pulling out of afghanistan is because he wants to focus on domestic issues, he wants to focus on china, on russia. And so what this does political capital is basically everything in washington, d. C. So the less he has, the less he is able to get done here at home. Were already seeing some democratic lawmakers saying kind of going against the president heres needs them to pass the rest of his agenda. Were seeing him take a hit in the polls because you also have an entire pandemic that is starting to ramp up in a lot of places like you covered in your last block there. And i think those are the things that were watching, right . Covid and afghanistan are the reason that the president s Poll Numbers have been pulled down, but to be honest, his aides though they are concerned about it, they remain focused and convinced that history will prove them right here and that this is going to be more of a bump as they continue to pull people out, more than 100,000 people they said. Now, at this point they feel good about that and they feel like at the end of the day that will be the Legacy of the pullout of afghanistan, not what we saw at the very beginning. Whether that is actually true, well have to see, but that is how they are feeling at the White House about it. And so peter, obviously the president s numbers have been going down and i was looking at this new florida poll, a State Biden lost by three points, now there is a 13 point gap. A majority of florida voters disapprove of his job performance. I understand what eugene says that the president believes history will prove him right, im sure a lot of folks around him believe that as well, but politically how worried are the folks at the White House whose job it is to worry about these kinds of numbers given the fact that 2022 May come sooner than the judgment of history . Yeah, that is exactly right. Look, the most important thing as a matter of politics as long as we make it about politics rather than the Human Story is they get out every american that they can in the next five days and that there arent any americans who are taken hostage or killed as part of it. If that happens the political dynamics are scrambled. Their calculation at the White House, cold as it may be, that as long as americans arent hurt in the way we exit, that americans at Home Wont ultimately care too much about what happens to the afghans and Wont Care too much about the sort of messy withdrawal. Now, that may be. Polls definitely show that most americans want us out. Are tired of this war and approve the president s decision to withdraw. But assuming americans do get out safely, these pictures reinforce a narrative that wont be helpful to the president of not being as confident as he said that he would be. He came to office promising that he was going to be the competent president after a president who didnt know what he was doing, was bombastic and self absorbed and that biden would be the grown up in the room who would make things smooth and order early. So his own words will be held against him. So while most approve getting out, but it will have damage to him politically. And i thought it was the interview with the two congressmen who were widely criticized for going to kabul. Congressman Seth Moulton had this to say about the taliban. Quote, there is no way we can get everyone out even by september 11. So we need to have a Working Relationship with the taliban after our departure and the only way to achieve that is to leave by August 31. So although democratic and republican leadership may have been critical and they have been widely criticized by their colleagues, it sounds like they are landing on the side of joe biden. Yeah, it is a surprising comment that they made, they have changed their minds about that and they do support August 31 as a deadline. No doubt that August 31 is being imposed out of our desire to have a relationship of some sort with the taliban. President biden sent the Cia Director Bill burns to negotiate with the taliban, didnt get an extension of the August 31 deadline which is the deadline that biden set in the first praise. But they seem to believe that if they extend beyond that, they will risk a rupture with the taliban that could impact americans who are still going to be left behind because not everybody will probably choose to leave. And i think that that seems to be foremost in their mind, they seem to have convinced these two critics who went to visit the scene. Peter, eugene, Thank You both so much. Coming up, the new reporting about the Warning Capitol Police got gist one day before the January 6 attack. As the committee investigating the insurrection narrows in on former President Trump and his allies. To make my vision a reality my varilux progressive lenses provide seamlessly transition from near to far. With every detail in sharp focus. Thats seeing no limits. Varilux lenses by essilor. At pnc bank, we believe in the power of the watch out. Thats why we created low Cash Mode, the financial watch out that gives you the options and extra time needed to help you avoid an overdraft fee. Its one way were making a difference. Low Cash Mode on virtual wallet from pnc bank. Were following a new Bombshell Development this morning in the investigation into the January 6 insurrection. Politico reporting that it has reviewed new developments revealing that just a day before the riot, the Secret Service warned u. S. Capitol police that their officers could face violence at the hands of President Trump supporters. The latest now from scott mcfarland. And with each week come more revelations of the warning flags before the insurrection. The Secret Service warned Capitol Police their officers could be targeted. There is also the new Nbc 4 Washington Investigation showing a sudden spike in Web Traffic to this obscure d. C. Website that had underground tunnel maps. The fbi, Capitol Hill Police was warned about that. Capitol Hill Police say at no point prior to January 6 was there actionable intelligence of a large scale attack. They acknowledge getting warnings about the tunnel website, they acknowledge getting an Fbi Alert from the norfolk field office, but this is what the skran 6 committee will add, extending Congress Review to prevent future horrors from happening. And my reporting last night, new court filings from the Justice Department Show in the Body Camera Video they reviewed, so far they have seen images of at least 1,000 assaults on federal Law Enforcement officers. Wow. And they just released a sweeping Document Request to federal agencies targeting the Trump Family and senior aides. What sort of information are they looking for . This is very aggressive, they are requesting documents related in any way to the events of January 6, the demonstration and otherwise. And they are targeting dozens of members dozens of individuals close to the former president , including administration staff, outside allies, it includes Family Members of donald trump. Some of the names mentioned in that letter will be familiar to observers of the White House, rudy giuliani, pat cipollone, mark meadows, all of trumps adult children except tiffany as well as roger stone. They are going back to december 1, more than a month before the events of January 6, to try to trace the steps to create a version of events leading up to that attack and broadly speaking this is an aggressive at the same time on the part of the committee in terms of what they believe the scope of their investigative powers are in that pe believe this is a fire had been kindling for quite a long time and someone threw a match on it. They want to know who talked to who and get information such as schedules, calls, they want logs, they want information about the meetings people had. They are going for broke, they want all the information that they can possibly get that could paint a picture, paint a narrative of what really happened and what caused that attack on this capitol. Thank you so much. We need to turn away now for Breaking News out of afghanistan because we have just heard from The Pentagon press secretary, there has been some sort of explosion outside the Kabul Airport. We have known that there were reports of a high threat of a Terror Attack there. There were concerns about this Isis Group called isisk. We have Courtney Kube at The Pentagon, is that right . Okay. She is on the phone. Shes working the phones trying to get some information information. But lets just remind you exactly what we knew earlier this morning as we see yet another plane that takes off from the Kabul Airport. We didnt see any signs of that explosion. But again, an explosion outside the airport. Countries besides the u. S. Have been scrambling to get people out because of this threat. In fact the united states, some other governments including the uk, have been urging people to stay away. There were reports that this Group Isisk posed an imminent threat, and in fact some European Countries had already begun to halt flights from Hamid Karzai international airport. All these other countries with the massive evacuations have karzai international airport. The united states and other western countries with these massive evacuations have been urging people to stay away from the airport amid these growing concerns. In fact the twae it was phrased by the uk government, they called thissy the possibility of an imminent, lethal attack. Its important to say, we just learned of this. We just got this tweet from The Pentagon. We dont know exactly whats happened. Im sorry. My producer is telling me something. What . Number of casualty, or if there are even any casualties are unclear. What we do know is that they have been looking at intelligence over the course of the last week, as they have been ramping up efforts in advance of this August 31st deadline to make sure that they are certain about the credibility. And, again, they now call this a credible, imminent possibility of a lethal attack. John kirby, there you are again, we can confirm an explosion outside Kabul Airport. As we said, casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we have them. The kind of intelligence they say they have of an ongoing, highlevel threat. Courtney, this is very early. Tell us what you have been able to find out. Very little, chris. Basically, we can say there are reports, we dont know if theyre accurate or not. There are reports on Social Media of some sort of Potential Explosion outside one of the gates at Kabul Airport. Basically i can provide you a little bit of a Scene Setter of whats been going on at Kabul Airport. The first thing is this threat. This has been theres been a perfect Sicht Threat since late last week. And it is specific to isis, that isis had interest, was planning to, was trying to attack Kabul Airport and specifically attack westerners, americans and potentially afghan civilians who were trying to get to the airport to get on these evacuation flights. You have seen over the last week these crowds outside many of these gates, and the concern was that among those crowds and evacuees that someone from an Isis Fighter could infiltrate those groups and potentially act as a suicide attacker, sicide bomber, or that they might be able to get a vehicle up close enough to the gate for a vehicleborn improve ied Explosive Device that could potentially kill people waiting at the gate. That has been one of the big concerns and big threats of the u. S. Military, and u. S. Allies have been worried about at Kabul Airport. It is continuing. And there is the threat has even not just persisted but accelerated in the last 24 hours, the concerns about it. Because of that, we saw the u. S. Embassy Warning Americans not To Go to the gate because they were worried about the potential threat and they were worried about americans being targeted. So, again, we dont know. We dont have good visibility at this point about what may be going on. But the reports are that something may have happened at the Abby Gate. For perspective, the Abby Gate is on the far southeast side of the airport. It is one where there have been americans and westerners and some afghan sivs who have been going through, over the last several days. Theres also actually what used to be a small u. S. Installation over there on that side. Theres a western hotel. So it was an area that was known to americans and to westerners who worked and lived and worked in kabul. But its also one of the locations where there have been a large crowd growing. The crowd actually had been so big that just a week ago today, last thursday, there was a group of 159 americans who were planning To Go from that hotel through the Abby Gate to get into the airport for evacuation. And the crowd got so big that the u. S. Military commander made the decision to actually take several chinook helicopters, land them at the hotel and get americans safely over the crowd so that they wouldnt face the Poe Tepgs threats of that crowd in there. Again, chris, this is all developing. Thats what we know about the overall situation right now. Give us more background, if i can ask, when they put out that warning and telling americans basically stay away from the airport. One of the things they said out of the u. S. Embassy was, we have Contingency Plans in place, however, for emergencies, and they asked them to monitor local media. Do we know anything about Contingency Plans, how prepared they were at the airport if something like this should happen . Yes. Absolutely. So, they were this is the military. They always have they have contingencies for everything. There has been a real concern. Because of that, they have stepped up security around those gates. Thats actually we heard about these bottlenecks and people having such a hard time getting through. Part of that is due to the fact that theyre trying to limit the crowds outside the gate and inside the airport. But a big part of that is because of the security concern. They have been very worried about an isis attack. And this is afghanistan. This is kabul. There are frequently threats all over. But this one was very specific. And it was very tailored to the airport and to people who were trying to get through there with a real concern, according to Defense Officials i spoke with, that they were going to target americans. Remember, there are u. S. Military and u. S. Consular officer at some of these gates meeting people as theyre coming through. Its not just people on the outside who will potentially be targeted, impacted by this, but military and american civilians on the inside who could also be targeted by one of these potential attacks. How specific do they have this down to . In other words a group of americans at a hotel, they made the decision not safe for them to come by more traditional means. They get the helicopters in there, bring them directly inside of Kabuls Airport where they have the security there, but in terms of every american who they have contacted, who they know want to get out, are there very specific instructions, timing . Do they have any sort of folks who are taking them from where they are to where theyre going . I dont want to get into things were not supposed to talk about, but what exactly do we know in terms of the Confidence Level of folks at the airport that they know when and who in terms of the american citizens are coming to the airport and where theyre coming from . Reporter so you hit the nail on the head. This is highly coordinated when they are telling americans to come to the airport. They get information from the State Department. They get very specific instructions about what to do, where To Go, who will meet them and very specific instructions on timing. A lot of that information is being held closely. Even though there are a lot of reporters and americans, there are people who know whats happening. Because there is one big element of this is the taliban has been helping with this coordination. So because of that, theres a lot of reticents that if it gets out there the taliban will not continue to cooperate and get these americans through these checkpoints and safely to the gates. Youre absolutely right. This is a very highly coordinated process for americans. I need to stress that part. Its for americans. There are still a lot of there are american citizens there who need help, who are hiding in kabul, who are trying to get out. The u. S. Military knows of cases where there are americans who cannot get safely to the airport. We know of at least three instances in addition to the one last thursday, there were at least two others where they sent helicopters out to pick people up. I can only imagine there have been more cases than that that they just arent telling us about, that theyll tell us about later when this overall Evacuation Mission is over. Again the Threat Environment there has only gotten worse and worse every single day since this mission began. And today is one of those days where there is a very real threat at the airport. Americans are being told to stay away. Yeah. This is only going to work to slow down this effort to get people out that really have ramped up over the last several days. Courtney, you want work the phone. Lets get over to the White House where i understand the president has been briefed. Reporter i was just going to share that detail with you, chris, yes. I got a text from a white House Official saying President Biden has been briefed on this explosion outside the Kabul Airport. White House Officials, our team was up in what we call the upper Press Area and white House Officials there are huddling and learning of this information as we are learning of it in real time. Theyre reporting to this 10 30 Pentagon Press Briefing that was previously scheduled. Well have to see if the timing on that flies. When you heard President Biden deliver those remarks early this week, he said every day that u. S. Troops remain in this region, in afghanistan, they face a grave and growing threat posed by Terror Groups in the area. He pointed directly to isisk, the Isis Affiliate in afghanistan. We dont yet know who is responsible for this attack. But i will also say that in coming out to speak with you, we saw at least one airplane take off as the White House, the administration tries to continue this evacuation effort, tries to ramp it up, in fact, as we near this August 31st deadline. Chris . Geoff bennett, Thank You so much. The president has been briefed. Folks are huddling there. Theres been an explosion of some type outside the Kabul Airport. You see the planes on the tarmac at the hamid Karzai Airport there in afghanistan. We continue our coverage right now. Lets toss it over to garrett haake. Garrett . Chris jansing, Thank You. Im garrett haake. There has been an explosion outside the Kabul Airport. Youre looking at live pictures of the airport. Its 6 30 in the evening tonight. Pentagon says casualties are still unclear at this point. We know that the president has been briefed on the explosion. He was in a preplanned national Security Meeting this morning. White House Officials are huddling as we speak. We hope to learn more from them soon. The airport has been under a Terror Threat all morning. This was going to our top story even before this attack. So, americans have been told to leave the Airport Gates and to stay away. All of this is happening as The Pentagon is set to give an update in the next 30 minutes. Well see if that remains on schedule and well bring it to you live when it happens. Meantime w

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