Were going to take you now to the Pentagon Briefing which underway. Before he ask your question, identify yourselves and your outlet. So The General has an idea who have is talking to you. And just reminder, we have 30 minutes we have haired stop at 3 3 so with that, General Mckenzie . John, thanks. Its a hard day to day. As you know, two Suicide Bombers assessed to have been isis fighters detonated into the vicinity of the Abbey Gate at Karzai Internationality airport and the Baron Hotel. It was followed by a number of isis gunmen that opened fire on civilians and military forces. At this time we know that 12 u. S. Service members have been killed in the attack. In 15 more Service Members have been injured. A number of afghans to day were killed in the attack. Were treating some of them aboard and others have been taken to hospitals in town. Were still working to calculate the total losses. Ill talk more about that as we go through my prepared remarks. We continue to focus on the protection of our forces in the evacuees as the evacuation continues. Let me be clear, while were saddened by the loss of life both u. S. And afghan, were continuing to execute the mission. Our mission is to evacuate u. S. Citizens, third country nationals, special Immigrant Visa holders, u. S. Embassy staff and afghans at risk. Despite this attack, were continuing the mission. The evacuation and as to have day we have approximately 5,000 evacuees on the ramp awaiting evacuation. We evacuated more than 104,000 civilians, 66,000 you about the united states and 37,000 by our allies and partners. And that includes bringing out about 5,000 americans. At the Secretary Of State said yesterday, we believe that there are about 1,000, probably more than 1,000 american citizens who have been in afghanistan at this point. Were doing everything we can. If they want to leave and, remember, not everybody wants to leave. Yesterday we brought in over 500 american citizens. It would be difficult to overestimate the number of unusual challenges and competing demands that our Force Tez Ground faced. The threat to our forces particularly from isisk is very real as weve seen today. I would like to express the sense of pride i have in the creative, determine, and professional way that our forces have overcome those challenges and to deliver the results that we talked about in my Opening Portion of remarks, the number of people weve been able to extract from afghanistan. It would be remiss not to mention the tremendous contributions off our coalition part. Announcer they stood on the ground with us today. Many soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and Coast Guardsman that support this operation across the Central Command, European Command and Area Command is our responsibility. This evacuation could simply not have been done without the amazing flexibility of u. S. Transportation command in the Air Lust provided you about the u. S. Air force. No other military in the world is anything like it. I also like to thank the Host Nation thats provided access to their facilities for the processing, the care, and the feeding of our evacuees. I also need to acknowledge the suffering that some of our evacuees have had to endure. Please know we continue to execute our number one mission which is to get as many american citizens and other evacuees as possible out of afghanistan. We also continue to expand the capacity at our immediate facilities to ensure safe, sanitary and humane conditions. While continuing to look for ultimate ways to expedite the Processing And Transfer to the united states or other destinations. Id like to close out my Remarks Today by just taking a moment to describe the heroism that our marines, soldiers and sailors are exhibiting as they screen the people coming on to the airfield. This is closeup work. The breadth of the person youre searching is upon you. While we have overwatch in place, we still have to touch the clothes of the person coming in. I think you all can appreciate the courage and the dedication that is necessary to do this job. And to do it time after time. Of please remember that we have screened over 104,000 people. Finally, id like to offer my profound condolences to the families of our servicemen and women and afghan civilian whos lost their lives today. We have put more than 5,000 u. S. Service members at risk to save as many civilians as we can. Its a noble mission. Today we have seen firsthand how dangerous that mission is. Isis will not deter us from accomplishing the mission, i can assure you of. That all americans can and should be proud of the men and women of the Arms Force whos are facing these Dangers Head on with their international partners and all of our other friends that are with us. And we appreciate your thoughts and prayers for all our Service Members who are carrying on this mission today. John, im now ready to take questions. Thank you, general. Well start here. Thank you. General, Thank You for taking the time to do this. Can you give us your assessment of the Isis Threat going forward . What are you seeing on the ground now . Does this cut the evacuation short, do you believe . And are people able to get on to the airport now and then finally, the president has warned that any attacks against the u. S. Would be answered. Will this attack be answered militarily by the u. S. . A number of questions there. The let me try to take them in order. First of all, the threat from isis is extremely real. Weve been talking about this. We saw it manifest itself here the last few hours. We believe that it is their desire to continue the attacks and we expect the attacks to continue. And were doing Everything Question to be prepared for those attacks. That includes reaching out to the taliban who are actually providing the outer Security Cordon around the airfield to make sure they know what we expect them to do to protect us. And well continue to coordinate with them as they go forward. Were continuing to bring people on to the airfield. We just brought a number of buses the last couple three hours. We continue to process. Well continue to fly people out. The plan is designed to operate while under stress. Well continue to do that. Well coordinate very carefully to make sure that its safe for american citizens to come to the airfield. If not, with he tell them to hold. Well work other ways to try to get them to the airfield. I think our mission remains. Were still committed and flying people out until we terminate operations at some point towards the end of the month. But i think we have the ability actually to do all of those things as we go forward. Let me come back one moment. You talked about going after isis. Yes. If we can find who is associated with this, we will go after them. We have been clear all along that were going to retain the right to operate against isis in afghanistan. And were working very hard right now to determine at bugs and determine who is associated with this cowardly attack and were prepared to take action against them. 24 7. Were looking for them. David . General, Dave Martin with cbs. 27 casualties is a terrible number. 12 dead. Could you explain the circumstances of these attacks which resulted in such high casualties for the u. S. . Sure. So first of all, you understand that were still investigating exact circumstances. But what i can tell you is this. The attack occurred athe a gate. Gate we have to check people before they get on to the airfield. The we have to ensure theyre not carrying a bomb or any kind of weapon that can make its way on to an aircraft. That requires physical screening. You cant do that. You have to get very close to that person. So while the Air Base itself is surrounded with T Walls or well bunkered in, weve done a number of things to protect ourselves. At the interFace Points, The Gates where people actually come on the airfield, there is no substitute for a young Man Or Woman, young united states Man Or Woman standing up there conducting a search of that person before you let them on. The Taliban Conducted Searches before they get to that point. And sometimes the searches are good and sometimes not. Ill note that before this attack we passed 104,000 people through. Well evaluate what happened. But the key thing is you dont want to let somebody on an airplane carrying a bomb because that could result in massive loss of life. If an airplane were to be destroyed. You have to do the searches. We work with our afghan partners on the ground. We conduct the searches. But ultimately, americans have to be in danger to do the searches. There is really no other way to do it. And again, i cannot tell you how impressed i am with the daily heroism of the men and women that are out there doing this work. Theyre right up close to thousands of people on the airfield. You have seen the images. And to do it day after day is remarkable. And this time looks like somebody got close to us. Well find out why. Well try to improve our procedures. It is 12 Service Members dying. Nobody feels that more closely directly than me. And everyone else in the Chain Of Command will recognize that we need to continue to evaluate our procedures as we go forward. Same time there is a tension there. We have to continue to let on the airfield. The that is why were there. Were not to defend ourselves. Were there to defend ourselves while we process american citizens first but also the other categories of people that i mentioned. Get them to a place where we can fly them out to a safer, better future. So just to be clear, this Suicide Bomber was going through the gate being searched, checked by u. S. Service members when he detonated his vest . David, thats that would be my working assumption. I know. This he did not get inside. He did not get on the installation. It was the unt Face Point where they try to come in where this attack occurred. We dont know more right now. Were gathering that information. As you understand, were investigating that. But right now our focus really, we have other active threats. Extremely active threats against the airfield. We want to make sure that we take the steps we need to take to protect ourselves there. Our focus is on that. Over the next few hours, day or two, well learn more about what happened here. Im sure well be able to share that with you. Right now, our focus is actually going forward and ensuring that another attack of this nature does not occur because as you know, typically the pattern is multiple attacks. We want to be prepared and ready to defend against that. Courtney . Will you take on this is courtney kube. Can you tell us more about the extremely real additional threats from isis . Is there concern about more Suicide Attacks . And also about some of the steps you may be taking to mitigate future attacks . I mean would it include putting u. S. Troops or marines outside The Gates, outside of the airport for additional Perimeter Security . Finally, with all of this, is there any discussion about sending any additional u. S. Troops to Kabul Airport for additional Security Measures . Im always in a constant dialogue with the secretary. If i need anything else, ill be talking to him immediately. I think we have what we need to protect ourselves. Lets talk about the threats. So very, very real threats. Very tactical. That means imminent, could occur at any moment. They range from Rocket Attacks. They like to lob a rocket in there if they could. We have good protection against that. We have our Antilocket And Mortar system, the Gun Systems that have been out there are very familiar with. Theyre effective against the kinds of attacks. The were well positioned. And we feel well be in good shape should that kind of attack occur. We also know that they to get a Sue Sued Vehicle Born Suicide Attack in if they can. From a small stroke a large vehicle. Theyre working all those options. Then we just seen their ability to deliver a walk in, a vest wearing Suicide Attacker. We share this with the taliban so they can do searching out this for us. We believe that some attacks have been thwarted by them. Again, weve been doing this for a long time. Weve been doing this since the 14th. This is an attack thats been carried out. We believe its possible that others have been thwarted. St We Cut down the information we give the taliban. They dont get full range of information we have. We give them enough to act in time and space to prevent these attacks. The other thing we try do is push out the boundary even further. Clearly, at abbey today, we had a larger crowd than we would like. That shows that the system is not perfect. We gained large elements of standoff and other gates and we want to keep that kind of scannedoff in place. Standoff for attacks like this is always the best defense. Unfortunately, we dont have the opportunity given the geography of the ground that were on to always gain that standoff. So we take let me close up the question by saying we take the threat of these attacks very seriously. But were working very hard. Were doing a variety of things. We got, as you know, we have ah 64 Attack Helicopters on the ground that will fly and Take A Look. They have very good thermal and imaging systems. We have aircraft overhead. We have Unmanned Aircraft that have the ability to look. All of these systems are being applied in defense of the airfield. Im going to go to the phone. Alex horton, Washington Post . Alex, are you there . Thank you for doing this. Can you give us a sense of where you are in Casualty Notification for the focus on the ground, you know, how long you expect them to take given the large number . And also, can you tell us a little bit about, you know, how the forces reacted . You said you introduced a little probably more standoff at this point. Bought are other measures youre taking to increase security after the attack . [ inaudible ] i believe that process is on going. I you dont have visibility. The my visibility is forward to the day to day practical threat we place. And there are other people that can answer that question for you. Im just not that person, alex. So in terms of practical things were doing, again, we reached out to the taliban. We told them, you need to continue to push out the security per umter. We ouded roads that we would like for them to close. They identified that they will be willing to close those roads. We assess the threat of suicide born Vehicle Threat is high right now. We want to reduce the possibility of one of the vehicle getting close. We talked about the overwatch we have in place. We have the unmanned Aircraft And O other Unmanned Drone Systems that have very good optical and other means of looking down. So we look what the is happening around the gate. We troo Toy Identify Patterns and we have highly trained people to Take A Look at. That we also have our aircraft that we fly locally. I mentioned them a few moments ago and other manned aircraft that come off the uss off the carrier that we have off the coast as well as u. S. Air Force Aircraft that we bring up from if out of afghanistan. And we know from long experience that visible demonstration of this tends to dissuade the attacker. They know if we can see them do it, well strike them immediately. Were prepared to do that. Were looking very hard. We assess. We are in a period of tightened warning right now. And were working through that as aggressively as we can. Gordon . Can you tell us if if you think that your recommendation for staying potentially after August 31st who change because of the Threat Stream . Or are you concerned about the Threat Stream . And also, you know, the Military And Taliban are coordinating closely on various things. Do you still trust the taliban . It is possible that they let this happen . So whether or not they let it happen, i dont know. I dont think there is anything that convince me that they let it happen. Whether or not i trust them, that is not a word i use carefully. You heard me say before, its not what they say, its what they do. They have a practical reason for wanting us to get out of here by the 31st of august. They want to reclaim the airfield. We want to get out by that day too if possible to do so. We share a common purpose. As long as we have that common purpose aligned, they have been useful to work with. They cut some of our Security Concerns down. Theyve been useful to work with going forward. Long term, in ti time you build an Evacuation Plan like this you bring in forces, you expect to be attacked. So we expect we thought this would happen sooner or later. It is tragic it happened this today. Were prepared to continue the mission. I had a great opportunity to have dialogue with my Chain Of Command. I cannot share my advice. But we can continue to conduct the mission even while were receiving attacks like this. Even before Todays Attack, you were just four days or so from leaving. How soon will you have to start diminishing the evacuation if it does continue to make space and time to the military Retro Grade . So without getting into specifics, i tell you the plan is designed to max evacuees even as we begin to prepare to draw down the force on the ground. So we recognize there is a need to balance the two. We wont get to a point where we turn off the hose. It draw down as we get closer to the end date. It is not useful to share that date with you right now. But well do it at some point. At the same time, i want to emphasize again the plan is designed to maximize pushing people out even as we reconfigure the force and continue to defend ourselves and bring out our own equipment and ultimately our own military personnel. General, will you have to also develop alt earn tough routes beyond those that you already have to get remaining americans in kabul that want to leave safely to the airport . I would tell you that we worked over the last week, we have brought in Hundreds Of Americans By Working Alternate Routes to get them in. By establishing contact with them, by directing them down steady different way to get to the airport. Our Task Force and our element does that on the ground. Very effectively in coordination with admiral basely. Weve done that all along. And well continue to do that up until the last moment. General, jennifer griffin, fox news. Can you say was there one or two Suicide Bombers at the Abbey Gate . Can you say if it was a male bomber . And can you give us any more details about the Baron Hotel . Was that a Car Bomb or also a sue sued bomber . Finally, State Department Employees Side by side with u. S. Marines at that gate. Were there any other u. S. Citizens killed in the attack and why were the marines so close together that so many were killed in one strike . So we think one Suicide Bomb at Abbey Gate, dont know fit was i just dont have that information. Dont know much about the second bomb except one went off the vicinity of the Baron Hotel. And as far as i know, no there were no uk Military Casualties as a result of that. There may have been afghan casualties. Im sure there were. It will take time to actually learn how many afghan tank casualties. We took some onboard the installation. So what i see is what i get on open source reporting. About the naught of the casualties. But were trying to gather more information about it. I dont know the sues of the bomb. The size of the bomb is directly related to how many people are going to be affected by the Blast Radius of the weapon. Were going to investigate that. As i noted before, youre at the unt Face Point at The Gates. Somebody has to look someone else in the eyes and decide theyre ready to come in. And so well find out exactly what happened. The i would not want to speculate at this time, jennifer. Thank you. Any other american citizens from the State Department who were killed . None that im aware of now. Okay. I need to go back to the phones. Laura sullivan . Hi, general. Thank you so much for doing this. A couple questions. First of all, can you tell me we heard reports of a third and possibly a fourth attack in kabul today. Can you confirm those . How exactly are you stul conducting the evacuations . You are concerned about other threats to the aircraft . We have not been able to run that information down. So we see it. You know, we have done reporting on it. I Cant Confirm there are other attacks in kabul away from the base today. We continue to Take A Look at that very hard. Ill tell you this the safety of our aircraft coming in and out is of paramount importance. Obviously, you have the opportunity there to for 450 or more people to die if you have a significant mishap of the aircraft. We know that isis would like to get after those aircraft if they can. We dont know we dont believe they have a man capable of doing it. They have taken shots at our aircraft on occasion. We think thats going to continue. Military aircraft have a variety of selfdefense systems which are the charter Aircraft And Other aircraft coming in that do not have those systems. So we, with our isr, we look carefully approach, Pattern And Departure off that runway to see if we see sunshine of something that might pose a threat to aircraft. Thats onest things that we look at religiously. We conduct operations. The so were keenly sensitive to our aircraft. One more question. If i can guys, we have to keep moving. One more question and then give The General a chance to close out. General, i know its been early. At this moment in time, how do you believe the Suicide Bombers made it through several checkpoints. Were they able to make it to the marines . Clearly, if they were able to get up and the Entry Point of is base is a failure somewhere. A failure you about taliban with varying degrees of confidence. I dont know the answer to that question. You can be assured were going to continue to Take A Look at it and mach our practitions better as we go forward. General, sir, were going to let The General close out. John, thanks. I would just like to say, today is a hard day. I the thing i come back to is remarkable professionalism that the force on the ground is showing. As i noted before, ultimately the Screening Points in particular you got to get very up close and personal to the people that youre bringing out. There is no way to do that saufly from a distance. We bear in mind that weve been doing it for well over a week. We brought 104,000 people out. That is a tremendous number of contacts that every individual marine, Soldier Or Sailor has had to have as we bring people aboard the aur field. Its a very heavy heart that i do this conversation with you today. Nobody feels it more than me or the other members of the Chain Of Command. Well do everything we can to improve our practices there, to make sure its a safe as possible for our folks on the ground that are doing this dirty dangerous work. John, thanks very much. Thank you, general. Thank you all, appreciate it. Aaron gilchrest here at the Nbc Studios in new york. Youve been watching a Pentagon Press Briefing on the situation thats unfolding in afghanistan today. General mckenzie, the commander of Central Command telling us officially that there were 12 u. S. Military Service Members who were killed in the attacks earlier today. There were two separate bombings that The General described. Believed to be the work of isisk in afghanistan. There were 15 Service Members injured as a result of those. Weve been watching and listening to the reports about injuries. We heard from The General that there were certainly civilian injuries in this incident as well. The general also said that he expects that the attacks will continue and that the plan right now is designed to operate under attack. Thats an interesting bit of information we received today that sort of speaks to the posture that will continue. The general saying that mission will continue noting that there were 5,000 people on the ramp. They are waiting to get out of afghanistan today. Joining me now to talk a little bit more about what we just learned, our Nbc News white House Correspondent Kelly Odonnell and a journalist and retired four star u. S. Army general Barry Mccaffrey. He also served under the national Security Council and now an msnbc analyst. Courtney kube will join us as shes able to get in front of a camera. General, if i may, id like to start with you on this. First, just your thoughts, your reaction to what we heard today about what happened to our Service Members and also about how this mission will continue under a continuing threat from potentially isisk in afghanistan . Its a lot of loss of servicemen and women on the ground. 12 killed in action. I guess as many as another 13 wounded. There are potential outcomes as we draw down and extract our forces by tuesday at midnight. This is dangerous work. As General Mckenzie says, there are no two ways about it. These are 20yearold marines. Physically having to people at the entrance point. So continuing the evacuation is something that president has to decide whether or not hes going to shut that off now or in two days. The americans are not supposed to be going to the airport. Sensitive afghans who surge in high positions and intelligence or whatever would be nuts to go to that airport and get screened by the taliban. So this mission is running out of time. Time to close it down. Obviously, were all waiting to hear potentially from the president today. Do we expect that well hear from President Biden Today . And if so, when might that happen . There is expectation of those covering us and the nature of this situation. Also just to change there is a Thunderstorm Rolling through washington. Changing the mood. And certainly adding to the sense of sorrow on a day like this. So we dont have an update from the president at this point. We know he is meeting with national security advisors. We had been given guidance that we would hear from the commander on the ground first. So that now happened with the Pentagon Briefing. I think at in point now it is possible that we will get an update that would reflect changes to the president s schedule. Dont know how soon. We dont know what more the president can say other than xbekt him to acknowledge the depth of the loss. And the Big Question is what steps did he plan to take next . So this could be if you look at the array of president ial activity at this level, it could be a brief set of remarks acknowledging this really terrible loss of 27 Service Members, another 15 injured. A number of afghan civilians and others. We dont have all. That the on going threat which The General would very clear about and how that remains to be grave concern and the moral obligation he feels to extract from Afghanistan American Citizens and afghan allies. What options does he have to continue that . Those missions have been continuing. The size of the Kabul Airport has allowed that. And yet, the risk remains great. So as we learn more from the White House well share that with you. But the situation here is dshg the weather is reflecting the drama of this day. And certainly the sorrow of this day as we wait for more. You do have to leave us as a result of the storms, i understand. I know how we need to keep you in a safe situation there in washington. I want to get the real perspective on this. What does this attack mean for mesh citizens and the thousands of afghans who are scrambling to get to the airport to be able to get out of that country. I think all in all is a very tragic day. Service members im hearing possibly even 60 afghans who lost their lives, desperate people trying to desperately leave and the military desperately trying to help them make that happen. Its unpredictable. I think we have to wait to see what the president says. I think many afghans feel this is over, like the chance of leaving on one of these planes has ended. Some have kept the hope alive. That is possibly The Gates will open. But many dont think that might happen. I want to touch on something else. I think this has opened the eyes of many people of the fact that this isnt just the taliban that are in afghanistan. We use this Umbrella Term of the taliban. And there will be a power struggle. There are reports right now that isisk is going after the taliban themselves. They want the power as well. Isisk does not believe that taliban are devout enough. And they are also considered to be extremely more militant if can you believe that. General, you want to give you the last word. If if you were in the oval advising the president , what would be the advice you would give, given the deaths of 1 12 Service Members and continuing threats of Suicide Bombers or vehicles being used in that way . What is the advice you would offer the president now in terms of how we move forward today and potentially in the days ahead . The troops are there to defend the airfield, not themselves. These are hard soldiers mane reenz. Theres a lot of them on the ground. So i dont think that will be a factor going forward. The problem is right now, what is the likelihood of the continued evacuation getting americans, many as 1500, mostly all over afghanistan and their families to the airport and out . Pretty minimal. Its time to focus on a professional, logical extraction of the forces. This war is over. General Barry Mccaffrey and Kelly Odonnell, we Thank You al joining us now jason crow, an afghanistan War Veteran that sits on the intelligence and arms services committees. Congressman, i appreciate you being here today. You come out in favor of extending the deadline for the u. S. Withdraw from afghanistan. Given whats happened today and the intel that suggests more attacks are possible, do you stand by that thinking in light of those Events Today . Yeah. Our Combat Mission in afghanistan is over for 20 years. I agree with the president s decision to withdraw and to end that mission. But we now have a new mission. En that new mission is not over. We do not leave american citizens behind in a war zone. We do not leave our friends and partners behind in a war zone. Were the united states of america. We stand by our people. We stand by our citizens. We have the strongest military in the world. Over 2400 of our troops have been killed over last 20 years including when i was doing Combat Missions as an army ranger. And never once did we allow a terrorist or people tacking us to stop one off our missions. We decide when we stop one of our missions. And we stop when we get the job done. I know you received a classified briefing. I know you Cant Talk about the specifics. But what can you say about whether there were warnings or degree to which the warnings were given about the possibility of an attack or attacks like the ones we saw today . Our minds are grieving with the Service Members. I have a very, very close friend of mine. Ive known for many years. Actually sitting at that gate right now. Were having this conversation. Ive been thinking about him constantly. This is dangerous stuff. Its been dangerous for 20 years and dangerous today. We have incredible military and Men And Women Doing Courageous Work to save peoples lives. We cannot emphasize that enough and we cannot stand behind them enough. Thats what we have this filt more and thats why were going to get the job done. Aside from the Evacuation Effort, how should President Biden respond to Todays Attack . Should that response include sending more u. S. Troops into afghanistan . Reopening bagram potentially to help with the Evacuation Effort and respond militarily if necessary . I think the Ush U is certainly sailed. I dont see logistically how we can make that happen. I cant sit here today as a member of arms services and Intelligence Committee and think i have the most Up To date operational information to make a recommendation about whether or not there should be more troops. We need to not be hesitant to send in the troops and soldiers and marines anticipate resources necessary to get the evacuation done and to secure that airport and to expand that perimeter sufficiently so that we can do it in a sauf and effective way. And i will tun to call on that. And just tell you, you know, ask the president no the to falter if thats what the mission requires. It requires us to send more troops in then thats what we need to do. The mission is not done. It wont be done until we bring our people home. Lastly, ill ask you as a veteran, what do you want to hear from President Bud Enwhen he speaks today . Biden when he speaks today . The first thing we need to hear from the commander in chief, i guarantee were going to hear. This i know President Biden to be a man of Heart And Integrity and compassion. And he is a commander in chief. First and foremost. We have to understand that we just lost some of our best americans today. So expressing sympathy for that Tragedy And Support for their families who are going through terrible grief right now first and foremost. And then secondly, i hope that we hear what youve been pushing for for many months actually. That were going to get this job done. Were going to evacuate our american citizens and our afghan partners. Were going to get it done quickly. All right. Congressman jason crow, Thank You for your time today. Thank you. Now for more on this i want to bring in Mark Jacobson from 20092011, he served in cab as the Deputy Nato Representative and deputy political adviser at the international Security Assistance Force there. He has more two decades of experience working on national security challenges facing the u. S. We spoke a bit earlier. Youve been working to evacuate afghans out of kabul. Based on your relationships in afghanistan right now, what can you tell us about what the reaction has been like, the atmosphere on the ground now particularly for people who are still trying to get out of afghanistan . I mean, people have been scared all along and worried. The theyre worried about having to leave without their families, theyre worried about what is going to happen to them. Where are they going to be . Now some are truly terrified. After that, desperation as well. Pretty much today over two dozen calls ive had with families, its been what do we do now . Do we go to the airport . Do we not go to the airport . I know the embassy has put out information. But, you know, information will go out even to american citizens. Come to the airport now. Theyre on the way. Its just a difficult decision. I dont even understand what must be going through their minds. But what were trying to do is give a little bit of hope. Can you help us understand the responsibility now on the taliban to assist in the effort to secure the perimeter around the airport . A perimeter still crowded with civilians at this point . I go back and forth on this. I dont like the idea of Outsourcing Security to the taliban. What that means is that they zud who gets through The Gates. So right now, or who gets to The Gates. So right now theyre not letting any afghans through even if its the afghan spouse and in some cases afghan children or parents when you have others of u. S. Passports. However, i made a point earlier, you may need more troops. I think there is middle ground with this. We have the Firepower Pt we have the troops. I think we have to figure out a way to more quickly, to get people into the airport more quickly. There need to be more gates. St there needs to be less triage. Lets move them to qatar and germany and italy and albania and then lets figure it out there. I think this something that administration failed on. Instead, theyre trying to tiage and figure out who is what status. That means a lot of the special Immigrant Visa families are not going to get through The Gates. There are been reports that there are potentially many thousands of afghans still yet to get out of afghanistan. But we do have these attacks today. We have the continuing threat on the ground there that General Mckenzie talked about. Should all of these things influence the Time Line that the biden administration is working on to get this Evacuation Mission finished . These will influence the Time Line. And what i think is going to be more important than anything is how does the Administration Respond . This balance there. If we just pull up and leave, what is at stake . We want to be americans want to lead the world when it comes to Human Rights and womens rights. What does it say if were going to band on them in the face of threats . I mean this is, again, its tragic what happens. But again this is what our military is there to help the department of state evacuate these people. Lets get the mission done. So again, i know there is a tradeoff there. I think there some ways to create balance. Im so worried about the hundreds of applicants and i guess probably thousands standing outside The Gates. Im worried about those individuals who helped us who know if they stay. Their families are likely to face severe consequences. If i can give a quick example. I just found out a couple minutes ago a 2 1 2yearold girl and her parents are on a flight. And this girl, the other day, she was suffered some Tear Gas burns when the taliban tried to killed her father who was an interpreter for u. S. Special forces. They were going to burn the house to the ground with them in it until the villager blocked it. Was a huge effort by people from the united states and counsellors on the ground to get that family into the airport and out. And thats what americans do. Pt this needs to happen until we get those people who swerve us, who put their lives at risk to save americans, we need to get them out. We appreciate your perspective on things today. Thank you. We should note that we just learned that President Biden will speak at 5 00 this evening. Of course, you can see that live when it happens on msnbc. Were going to take a quick break. Well be back with the Breaking News out of afghanistan where 12 u. S. Service members were killed in deadly bombings to day near the Kabul Airport. Deadly bombir the Kabul Airport. Im still wowed by whats next. Even with higher Stroke Risk due to afib not caused by a Heart Valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin,. I want that. Eliquis. Eliquis reduces Stroke Risk better than warfarin. And has less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis has both. Dont Stop Taking Eliquis without talking to your doctor as this may increase your risk of stroke. 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Those Service Members who died were at a gate right outside the airport, a checkpoint to enter that space as we understand it from The General of the commander of Central Command that they may have been the expt killed and injured several others. We understand there were potentially others of afghans who were also injured or killed in those explosions in afghanistan today. I want to turn to our Pentagon Correspondent who has been monitoring the situation. She was in the Briefing Room as General Mckenzie updated us. Bring us Up To speed on what stood out in the briefing today. Reporter there were several things and this has been a continuing Continuation Weve been having here on msnbc is the coordination between the United States Military and the taliban there on the ground we learned today from General Mckenzie. We know the taliban has this large perimeter around the Airport And Theyve been providing security essentially. They have checkpoints thats stopping people from going through to the airport. The general today made it clear that as part of those checkpoints the taliban have thwarted potential attacks. Its a new level. We knew they were communicating and the taliban were helping to get americans safely to the airport. The fact they potentially stopped some attacks was a new piece of information. We also heard a little bit more about this threat from isisk. And, of course we knew about this persistent threat thats existed for about a week, worried about Suicide Attacks, Suicide Bombers, frankly, exactly what we saw happen today outside the airport. General mckenzie saying the threat continues. It is very real and he expects these threats to continue. In addition to the Suicide Attacks theyre worried about people with Suicide Vests like potentially we saw today, vehicleborne ieds, explosive devices, people trying to drive a vehicle onto the airport with explosives in them. He also said theyre worried about Rocket Attacks on the airport this is something weve seen at airfields, military airfields, around afghanistan for years now. Rocket attacks from the likes of isis and Al Qaeda and, particularly, from the taliban. So another threat that he laid out. He also, one number that really stuck out to me, aaron, he said the u. S. Military as part of this Evacuation Effort has screened more than 104,000 people to get on that airfield. Thats a remarkable number. The numbers have been a big issue for the past week or so, how many americans, how many afghans have been getting out. The fact theyve screened 104,000 people to get on the airfield is a remarkable number in a little over a week. And, courtney, were getting reports as you were talking i understand that isis has claimed responsibility for the attack there in afghanistan, which is what all the Military Thinkers and even The General suggested was the belief that isis may have been behind these attacks today. Given that fact, given The General said in his briefing we will go after those responsible 24 7, we are looking for them, is what he said. Does this change the trajectory of whats happening on the ground there in afghanistan in terms of the military operation, in terms of the Evacuation Effort over the next few days . Reporter so it definitely slowed down. It will have an impact of slowing down some of the operations at the airport at least temporarily, these evacuation operations. But, as General Mckenzie made it clear today, they are going to continue. They will keep moving forward and they have 5,000 people, he said, there at the Airfield Waiting to be evacuated and flights are still coming and going. On the threat from isis, though, its important to point out the u. S. Has the capability to strike back at isis. Particularly they have some strongholds in the eastern part of the Country Kind of near towards the pakistani border, but do they have the intelligence available to carry out strikes like that . Since the u. S. Military has left and cia and other agencies have left as part of this drawdown for this year, the u. S. Has lost a lot of their visibility about whats going on on the ground there. Particularly they dont have as strong intelligence about potential threats from groups like Al Qaeda and isis. So in just the neverending sort of circle of how this is one decision, the decision to withdraw, is having all of these other impacts there on the ground, the decision to withdraw all u. S. Military does mean that its more difficult for them to know where potential isis fighters could be to strike back on something like this. Thats why General Mckenzie made it very clear if they have the intelligence they do have the capability to hit. The Big Question is would they have the intelligence . Courtney kube for us at the Pentagon Today covering the briefing from General Mckenzie who is making the calls on whats happening on the ground there in a Momentbymoment Situation in afghanistan. Courtney, we appreciate you. Thank you. Joining us now is illinois congressman who sits on the house Intelligence Committee. Congressman, i want to begin by getting your thoughts about Todays Attack and what more youre hearing about what happened today. Well, first of all, our hearts go out to the troops at the airport, especially the families of the fallen. They were doing their duty as they knew that they were targets, potential targets of an attack. We cant assume these attacks are over. Going to the point of intelligence i think at this point we are going to have to work with the taliban to go after our common enemy and the third Thing Work on ways to evacuate people, americans, from the country. Because, quite frankly, our troops arent designed to be guarding such an airport in such an Urbanized Environment where they are basically sitting targets at this point. You make a good point. The attack on troops was the main reason President Biden decided to stick with the August 31st deadline. Whats your view on that deadline . Should that now be extended in the wake of Todays Attacks . I think the Security Situation is rapidly deteriorating, and so at this point i do i would probably defer to what the military on the ground is telling the president. And if they believe that the 31st is really the time for them to leave in light of whats going on, perhaps we should abide by their judgment. On the other hand, we have to get all americans out of there and others. And so thats why were going to have to be very practical at this point working with the taliban and finding other avenues to get people out. So, for instance, bagram Air Base i wish we had not evacuated it in the order in which we did, is a much more secure facility to take americans out of the country. It would obviously require the taliban to work with us on getting people out of there. But that might be another avenue in addition to the airport at this point. We have to be very practical. One of the big criticisms President Bidens plan to withdraw from afghanistan the country would once again become a Safe Haven for Terror Groups like Al Qaeda, like isis. Are the attacks an indication that that will be the case, that this will become a Breeding Ground for terrorism again . I am very concerned about this and we know that Al Qaeda has been significantly degraded and of course Al Qaeda was the source of the attacks on 9 11 and why we originally went to afghanistan. However, Isis Or Isisk in this particular instance, could use afghanistan as a base to launch attacks. And so we have to continue our Counterterrorism Mission there and work with our regional partners to make that happen. And, also, probably work with the taliban potentially although obviously thats an unusual arrangement but one where we would be going after a common enemy. Some of your republican colleagues have said these attacks were completely avoidable and a sign that President Bidens Withdrawal Plan has failed, theyve said. What do you say to that . Well, i think its a little bit opportunistic for some of my colleagues to criticize the withdrawal by President Biden when they were silent when Donald Trump initiated this withdrawal deal. At this point there will be a lot of time after August 31st to criticize the way in which we are evacuating. Right now i think all of us, especially myself, are trying about those troops at the airport, those brave men and women who have to guard and evacuate americans and others. We have to do everything we can to support them. And so thats kind of where i believe our energy has to be directed right now. All right, congressman raja krishnamoorthi, Thank You, sir. That wraps it up for me this hour. Ill see you tomorrow back here at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. Deadline White House starts right now. Hi, everyone. It is 4 00 in the east. We are following Breaking News out of kabul where a pair of devastating bombings killed 12 u. S. Service members and injured 15 others. At least 60 people were injured, one blast took place at a crowded Airport Entrance where thousands have been waiting for days for a chance to escape afghanistan after it fell to the taliban. The other taking place at a hotel nearby that was a Safe House for evacuees including americans. Video shows the two sites connected by a path with a Drainage Canal and fortified blasT Walls which may have contained the damage