steph ruhle. tuesday, december 28th. big news from the cdc. new guidelines shortening the recommended isolation and quarantine times for those who test positive or exposed to the coronavirus. here's how it breaks down -- people who test positive but have no symptoms should, in fact, isolate five days instead of ten. and then wear a mask for those five days following. the if you guidelines apply to everybody, by the way, including the unvaccinated. we'll dig into that. all of this announced after the president met virtually with some of the nation's governors monday conceding that not enough has been done to expand covid testing capacity saying, there's a lot more work to be done, but making a pledge. >> just have to stay focused and continue to work together. my message to the governors is simple. if you need something, say something. and we, we're going to have your back, in any way we can. >> and then omicron forcing more closures across the board. apple temporarily shutting down about 20 of its retail stores after a wave of covid-19 hitting their employees. we have got a stellar team following all of the late ef developments. mime memoli. in delaware traveling with the president. sam brock at miami international airport. shaq brewster in indianapolis for us. drmt william schaftenaar, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at university of virginia and a cdc adviser, by the way. and dr. ebony hilton a professor of preventative medicine and infectious diseases at vanderbilt university medical center. welcome, all. thanks for joining us on this. mike, start with you. walk us through the guidelines that i just laid out for folks there as we are trying to grapple with what this means moving forward. >> reporter: yeah, yasmin. obviously, cdc took an initial step last week with new guidelines for health care workers as the concern was about shortages. in that workforce. we see cases rise. now the cdc extending them to the general public. start with isolation, you yourself test positive. at that point obviously, after five days you no longer are showing symptoms, then end the isolation and the cdc recommends five days of testing -- masking, moving forward. again, it's important the cdc explaining that the new data on the omicron variant finds that the transmission is largely occurred either one to two days before or two to three days after you begin showing symptoms. second category of quarantine is interesting and signals potential shift coming down the road. unvaccinated, or you have not gotten your booster, it's didn't six months since your previous dose, you have to obviously quarantine for five days, if you've been in close contact with somebody who has tested positive, and then extend that with five additional days of masking after that. it is significant now they're saying if you are boosted there's no quarantine at all. the first time we're seeing really any distinction between somebody who may have had two shots, but not a booster. asking white house officials with the cdc what it means to be fully vaccinated and include the booster. not yet but this appears to be a step in that direction, yasmin. >> doctor, walk us through some of this. i think folks are confused. especially because of the fact that many people who are both vaccinated and unvaccinated are being put in the same group. right? having to isolate just five days and why it is that folks unvaccinated don't have to isolate for ten days consequently. what do you make of it? >> well, a think the cdc is darned in they do and darned if they don't. they've been asked to make things simpler, easier, soar the economy can be restored, and get people and health care workers back to work in airlines, in sports and the like, and here they are doing this, but at the same time, they're being criticized, because it's still too confusing for an awful lot of people. so they're doing a balancing act here. right? and i think the implementation, when you have vaccinated and unvaccinated people in the same environment, that will be confusing to try to implement. yes. >> okay. so balancing act here, dr. hilton, but is it safe? unvaccinated, test positive for covid after five days you then venture out into the world. are they positive? you are no longer contagious, if, by the way, wearing a mask? >> right. it is one of those things where the cdc, based in science or just based on economics? because the pandemic does not care about our economic stability in our country. it cares about being able to pass from person to person to person, and talk about even saying wear a mask, should have been specific. wear an n95 mask. even those with a booster. studies show if you have waning efficacy within ten days from actually having -- ten weeks after having your booster shot, vaxen efficacy is as low add 30% to 50% effective. not seen with delta but is with omicron. to have these statements roll out really helps to say to cdc, do we make these decisions equickly, the most infected at this point are now children. in fact, in new york city increase in hospitalization of kids upwards of 400%. we have to redefine how we're approaching this pandemic. get people vaccinated and get people wearing n95 masks. >> yeah. and we're going to get into what's happening with children as well. a little later on. i appreciate you bringing that up dr. hilton. you bring up kn95s and n95s. incredibly hard to get your hands on one of those. can't just walk into a drug store and buy them. i can't find n95 anywhere, especially getting on a plane. over to sam brock. seen in a couple of days flights delayed, canceled. hundreds of flights canceled across the board. how are things looking this morning? >> reporter: deja vu all over again, yasmin. at this very moment, 750 canceled, 800-plus delayed. united states and delta, big picture, 3% to 5% of all flights canceled so far. the bigger issue, delays. 7,700 of them yesterday. what that means for united, for example, more than half of all of their passengers yesterday did not arrive to their expected destination time within four hours of what that was supposed to be because of delays. reinforcement are on the way. talking about the new cdc guidelines, the doctor a second ago describing economic repercussions, thread the needle, was safe and good for the economy. both asked for short window for quarantine, those asymptomatic and vaccinated. got broader diedlines now from the cdc. notable, the flight attendants association, folks doing the most interaction with passengers, are much opposed. some cases, ten days to five might be okay, but not true across the board. some returning to work maybe vaccinated but sick exposing the virus to people traveling. >> dr. schaftenaar, talk through this again, once again as a cdc adviser specifically. you said "damned if you do, damned if you don't" if you're in the cdc. want to simplify things, talking economic ramifications, health care ramifications as well. what about the idea, simplifying thing, mandating vaccines when it comes to air travel? has that been talked about? something in the pipe line going forward? >> i don't know whether it's in the pipeline, but mandating, requiring obliging people to be vaccinated in public circumstances is certainly something they're doing in europe, and what i've thought we ought to think about more seriously here in the united states. because the people we're most concerned about regarding hospitalizations continue to be unvaccinated persons. they are the ones that are stressing the health care system. and if we could oblige people to be vaccinated under certain public circumstances to go to restaurants, to get on airplanes and the like, we might improve our control of not only omicron but covid generally. >> so is that something, dr. schaftenaar, get you on the record as a cdc adviser talked about withined cdc to mandate vaccines for air travel to get more folks vaccinated to simplify things? >> i advise the cdc on vaccine-related issues but not mandates. so i'm sure that's the sort of thing that is under discussion. i'm not part of those discussions. and i have no idea whether they are in the pipeline or have been put aside. >> do you know how quickly, dr. schaftenaar, they decided to reduce the isolation period from ten to five days? how those meetings went? >> again, those are not meetings i'm part of, but i think those have been ongoing daily meetings with discussions going on for several weeks. >> got it. dr. hilton, talk about air travel here? talking about folks still wanting to get on an airplane amidst outbreak's omicron across the board. vaccines not mandated for air travel. flights canceled, hundreds of thousands of people stranded across the country right now. is it even safe to fly? especially if you don't have access to kn95 and n95 masks? >> one of those things, i'm literally in belize right now. for the flight literally had on on n95 mask. because of that, issues not only being in the plane but in airports. socially distancing in tiny airports of our countries? it is important nome we're thinking about that but also testing leading up to it. should you have to present tests even if you're doing domestic flights in the united states of america before you can get on a plane? at this time that is not the law. even with the cdc guideline of changes when we have to isolate from ten to five days, if they say after five days you test negative, then you can go back to work, that would make me feel a little better. at this point, not of you to par with our testing or our n95 mask wearing and any mandates in that regard. at this point even with vaccination, it looks like we won't even hit 75% of americans vaccinated until october of next year. we have a real problem in the united states of america. >> so talking a lot about here also the crunch in the health care system. with that, shaq, talk what's happening where you are in indianapolis. u.s. navy lending a hand because of the health care crunch in the system there. specifically one hospital amid the surge of omicron. talk me through what's going on there. >> reporter: yeah. this is an example of what we heard from president biden yesterday when he said, yes, states should take the lead in response to this but there will be federal assistance. here you're not just talking about a regular surge but doctors saying they have more covid patients than they have ever seen. you have the u.s. navy involved sending a 20-member team here. talking about doctors, nurses. medical technicians, from the navy assisting to ecing folks h. the situation is dire, a doctor says that. listen to this. >> last christmas was -- intense from the standpoint of treating coronavirus patients. this christmas, despite the vaccine, is far more intense. we have many more patients in the hospital. it's -- it's not been the chris tmas i wanted. >> a big source of concern, based on sequencing they're doing. most cases are still delta related and bracing for what this new variant has to offer and when already suffering and getting help from the military as it is. >> that, shaq, there is a huge distinction. the fact they're still dealing with the delta variant and likely see in the pipeline omicron variant creeping closer and closer to them and then what do they do? get more beds, get more folks to help treat people and save lives subsequently and then get more vaccines in people's arms. dr. schaftenaar, talk to me about the elephant in the room. testing. the exact same conversation we're having today as we had beginning of this pandemic. you have to wait in long lines. 10, 12 days waiting for results at that point doesn't even matter. the president yesterday meeting with govern otheors admitting t country has not done enough in testing capacity. what's your reaction? >> focused certainly on vaccination. right? vaccinating the unvaccinated, getting boosters into people and enhancing the vaccination of our children. and in so doing, our public health focus has not paid nearly enough attention to testing, and we recognize this now. and i think people were really surprised at how enthusiastically testing was embraced by people in many, many different circumstances. personal as well as related to their employment. be and so it is acknowledged. we're going to have to make testing much more widely available, and freely available going forward. testing adds another intervention we can use astutely to try to get ahead of this virus along with vaccination and all of our other social mitigation efforts together. >> doctor, how long will it take to get to where we need to be when it comes to testing? this is incredibly important. we can't wait until march or april to get up to the testing capacity we need in this country, considering the outbreak. >> yeah. we don't have a magic want. right? that can provide as many tests as we would like this afternoon. everything we've heard from the manufacturers and from the administration is that testing materials, those tests, will become more widely available week by week as we get into the spring, but it will be into the first quarter of 2022 before they'll be available just in great abundance. so at the moment, we're all going to have to cope. >> as we all are. mike memoli thank you, sam brock, shaq brewster, dr. william schaftenaar, dr. ebony hilton thank you all as well. coming up a shooting spree across seven locations in denver. leaving at least four people dead. the question this morning -- why? plus, going to a new york city courthouse where the jury deciding the fate of ghislaine maxwell is just getting back to deliberate. we'll be right back. be rig. ♪ ♪ ♪ want to save on your home internet? xfinity is proud to support ♪ the emergency broadband benefit program. for a limited time, you may be eligible to qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service through this program. that's right! you could qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service and equipment. for even more value, switch to xfinity mobile, and you could pay as little as $15 a month for wireless. click, call, or visit a store to learn more. what does a foster kid need from you? to be brave. to show up. for staying connected. the questions they weren't able to ask. show up for the first day of school, the last day at their current address. for the mornings when everything's wrong. for the manicure that makes everything right, for right now. show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com welcome back, everybody. we are following breaking news from colorado this morning. police saying four people were killed, three others including a police officer wounded in a shooting spree in the denver area. nbc's gadi schwartz joins us with the latest. >> reporter: good morning. hour after hour of terror in which a gunman appeared to be killing people at random around denver, getting into shoot-outs with police and escaping at least twice before all came to a very chaotic end. this morning, a search for a motive following a shooting spree in colorado that left four people dead. >> shots, 1201 williams. possible shooting. >> reporter: started sunday evening at several locations. first in denver killing two women in one area and a man in another. den vir police quickly identifying the suspect's vehicle which led to a wild chase when they tried to take him into custody. >> an exchange of gunfire. we believe the individual after disabling the police car fled into lakewood. >> reporter: police say the suspect shot and killed another person in that denver suburb. >> the driver then fled on foot in the area behind us in the belmar shopping area and fell and menaced another business with a firearm. >> reporter: authorities say the gunman ran into a hyatt hotel shooting a clerk inside before getting into a violent gun battle with police. >> there was probably maybe like seven, eight gunshots and like another set of maybe five more. >> reporter: one officer shot in the exchange and recovering this morning following surgery for unspecified injuries. >> it's a tough day for the lakewood police family. obviously when this happens to one of our own. >> reporter: the gun battle quickly coming to an end. though police say it's unclear if an officer took down a suspect or if he took hit own life. >> the holiday season's to have this type of spree take place is not normal for our community. >> reporter: so far police have not publicly identified the gunman nor said whether the more than seven different scenes are somehow linked and, yasmin, still no word on a possible motive. back to you. >> all right. gadi schwartz, thank you. we are also back on verdict watch today. jurors are just beginning day four of deliberation in the sex trafficking case against former jeffrey epstein associate ghislaine maxwell here in new york. maxwell facing six charges for allegedly luring girls for her late boss to abuse and pled not guilty to each one of those. joining me now with more from new york city is nbc's ron allen. ron good to see you this morning. what do we know about when we're going to get a decision on this? >> reporter: well, we don't know, and we're into some 25 hours now of deliberations, and the jury has made a lot of requests. asked for all of the testimony of the four women accusers. they've asked for things like sticky notes and a whiteboard. asked for other testimony to be reread. asked for a clarification of the definition of the word "enticement" central to one of the counts. so they're trying to in many ways put this whole thing back together again. remember, they had a -- they deliberated a short period then a four-day break during the holiday and now they're back. unusual. also not sequestered. for a lot of different variables this could go on for a long sometime and ven, of course, could walk out and say we have a verdict. for the most part boils down to whether the jury believes the four yun women making accusations against maxwell or whether they believe the defense attorneys, saying they are making up the stories and out for money. that's what this all boils down to. again, about 25 hours or so now and will see the jury has more questions or perhaps a verdict today. >> we'll keep our eyes certainly on their deliberations throughout the days day. ron allen, for now, thank you. coming up, covid hospitalizations among kids up nearly 400% here in new york city. we are going to talk to a pediatrician about what they're seeing and then what parents need to know. we'll be right back. so he can enjoy the game. super poligrip. man, i slept. we gave new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep to people who were tired of being tired. i've never slept like this before. i've never woken up like this before. i feel like doing things... and then doing other things after those things. it's hard to explain, i'm just back. crafted with clinically studied plant-based ingredients that work naturally with your body. i feel really good. for restorative herbal sleep, like never before. it's your home. and there's no place like wayfair to make your reach-in closet, feel like a walk-in closet now that's more your style. make the morning chaos, organized chaos. and make sure everything's in it's place. so nothing is out of place. however you make it, make your home a place like no other. ♪ ♪ wow, we're crunching tons of polygons here! what's going on? where's regina? hi, i'm ladonna. i invest in invesco qqq, a fund that gives me access to the nasdaq-100 innovations, like real time cgi. okay... yeah... oh. don't worry i got it! become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq welcome back this morning, everybody. following an alarming rise in covid hospitalizations amongst children. it is sparking new worries about school closures as the omicron variant sweeps across this country and especially bad here in new york state. health officials warning what they wall a "striking increase" in child hospitalizations. in new york city, they have quintupled, by the way, since december 5th. ellison barber all over the story and dr. klein physician in chief at children's hospital in new orleans. let me start with you on this one and talks through the situation seems day by day is getting worse. how bad is it? >> reporter: so in new york state officials felt it was serious enough, significant enough, they put out press release christmas eve to warn parents what they described as a striking increase in pediatric hospitalizations. look at the numbers in new york city, children hospitalized with covid-19, it is increased by 395% compared to about three weeks ago. in hospitals, in the state. they say none of the children hospitalized in the 5 to 11-year-old patient range was fully vaccinated. half of the children that are hospitalized are patients who are less than 5 years old. that would mean not eligible to be vaccinated just yet. one of the things with these numbers to keep in mind is, we don't have a specific breakdown. we've asked for it from new york's department of health but haven't got it just yet whether or not these cases are specifically and solely because of covid-19 or if it's children who are admitted to the hospital, the e.r., for something like a broken bone and then tested and had a positive covid-19 test, even if not experiencing symptoms or dealing with something like a post-covid illness, multiinflammatory syndrome in children, we know can happen four to six weeks after a child has covid-19, but speaking with doctors here in new york city, they tell us when it comes to that first category of children who are being admitted with acute covid-19 are there because of covid-19, that they have seen those numbers increase dramatically in recent days, in recent weeks and they believe it is tied to the omicron variant. one doctor told us noticing in adolescents in an age eligible to be vaccinated but were not, saw them particularly if they had other comorbidities or dealing with obesity. saw them exhibiting symptoms similar to what they're seeing in adults. yasmin? >> got it. so let's get some of those questions answered. fill in the gap. alison with that we talk to dr. mark klein what he's seeing. appreciate you joining us on this. as many questions answered as we can. a lot of parents worried when it come to the omicron variant. fill in the gaps. what are you seeing in new orleans when it comes to hospitalizations of children and covid? solely because of covid? this uptick? or other issues as well? >> thanks for having me on, yasmin. certainly there is a tremendous amount of community transmission of omicron going on. our covid test positivity rate at children's hospital in new orleans has increased from about 5% to almost 16% over the past week. so we know that a tremendous amount of transmission is occurring. we are seeing an increase in hospitalizations, although we haven'titude of that seen in new york. and the kids we're seeing admitted to the hospital with acute covid infection, they are not just sort of circumstantially found to have covid. respiratory problems receiving oxygen and other simple toms related to covid itself. many of too young. too young to be vaccinated. we have 11 children with acute covid infection in the hospital today. 7 of those 11 less than 2 years of age. >> oh. >> not eligible for vaccination. among those hospitalizing, over age 5, virtually none of fully vaccinated. so, you know, i think it's a twofold issue. one, got to do a better job of vaccinating kids 5 years of age and older eligible for the vaccine, but for the young kids, we've got to surround them with vaccinated adults. we can't be exposing them to unvaccinated adults likely to transmit the virus to them. >> okay. dr. klein, talk through some of this, because a lot of what you just said is pretty troubling i think for parents of young children. me being one of them. i have a 3-year-old obviously not eligible. my 5-year-old is, in fact, vaccinated. talk about protecting the kids under 5 surrounding them by vaccinated adults. how bad is it for the children that you're seeing in the hospital right now? is it comparable to what you were seeing with delta? the symptoms they are experiencing, and are they recovering? how quickly are they recovering? >> well, yasmin, the good news about covid in children is that the vast majority of children will have mild illness, and those who do require hospitalization will typically recover uneventfully over a period of time, but some kids do get quite ill, may end up in the intensive care unit on mechanical venation and sadly in the united states so far we've had about 1,000 deaths from covid in children. so this is not a benign disease for all children. many of the children who suffer severe illness or die do have underlying medical problems, but we've seen perfectly healthy children come down with acute covid infection, and then end up in the icu and we have seen some deaths among otherwise healthy children. so it's quite variable. it's like any other infectious disease. we see a spectrum of illness, but most children will recover, thankfully. >> dr. klein sshs that what you're seeing amongst the young patients that you are treating right now? many of them under the age of 5? are they fairly healthy or are there certain comorbidities involve and the reason they're getting covid more severely, or is it a mix? >> the children we have in the hospital right now is a pretty healthy group. these are not kids with major underlying medical conditions. and so far, at least, the children that we're seeing are not quite as ill as the children we saw during the delta surge. of the 11 children that we have in the hospital at the moment, only 1 is in the intensive care unit. so that's a bit of good news. we'll have to see if this bears out over time, you know, it has been speculated that omicron may be a milder illness than delta. but even if that is the case, just the sheer numbers of cases that are being produced in the community will mean that even if the hospitalization rate is only, let's say, 1/10 what it was with delta, that still means hospitalizations and some quite ill. we're worried. keeping a close eye on anybodies but so far so good. >> thank you both. for all the work you do and comfort you provide the parents in your community as well. we're going to stay on this, by the way, folks. speaking with the acting new york health commissioner in the next hour. so you want to stick around for that conversation as well. coming up, it's the january 6th committee planning for the public phase of its investigation. but what exactly is that going to look like? 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>> definitely the fear. we know the committee is working up against that mid-term clock this entire time trying to work quickly as they possibly can to get all the information from all the witnesses they want to talk to here. we know, though, even though working largely behind the scenes, that they are going to take a much more public posture in the upcoming year, doing more public hearings. also letting us hear from some witnesses they have heard from and giving us a sense of their final findings here. the challenge that the committee has had, though, is that january 6th is a day we have seen a lot of footage from. almost every american knows what happened and they already have an opinion on it. the challenge for the committee is to show people that there's still more to be learned. they said this repeatedly. we still don't know what was happening inside the white house, who was talking to the president, what the former president was even doing, especially in those critical hours while the capitol was actually under siege. that's something we know that they are looking at. something we know that they have been probing, and if the mark meadows text messages showed anything and really did illuminate a lot, the text messages the committee released now in public view do show as much as we know there's definitely still more to learn. >> all right. peter baker, talk us through the strategy here. right? the public phase of this investigation as we walk closer and closer to the november elections, that being the midterms. right? as ali mentioned, rightfully so, a lot of us know what took place january 6th, seen the footage. just learned about text messages and learning more about the phone calls placed to the willard hotel, likely to learn even more. are democrats relying only be this public phase to get more votes come midterms? >> they would tell you this is an investigation, a serious threat to our constitutional and democracy and not about partisan politics but of course would like to set the stage for midterm elections focusing blame on former president trump and republicans for what happened on january 6th, where this whole thing gets, know, tied up between a legitimate investigation and a partisan effort to gain political points. by bringing the hearings out in public in the spring as they're talking about it will focus national attention in a way that hasn't been done in the investigation so far. there's nothing comparing to having people sitting in a witness chair testifying before congress telling their story on-camera live and in a very human way and something they think could shift dynamics in terms how the public receives this event. possibly a final report or another interim report before the november election. that, of course, then gets it right into the thrust of this campaign season, and that will be -- that will be, know, a jump ball, too. >> just can't help but wonder what will resonate with voters. quickly talk about what you know, peter baker whshs it comes to the calls to the willard hotel by the former president to his lieutenants including rudy giuliani, boris epstein and trump strategies steve bannon and this, of course, is coming from "the guardian". >> we know willard was a head were fathers, war room for organizers of the rally that day on january 6th and the more the committee can tie the president in directly to that with conversations like a reporter phone call, you know, the more they put him in the middle of the action. goes beyond just the speech he gave on the ellipse saying you have to fight for your country. the issue, of course, always has been more than a speech. the real buildup to this event on january 6th, the weeks in advance, not just days in advance that the president is out there spinning a false version of what happened to get people riled up telling them their election was stolen, they had to fight to save his presidency. so this phone call and any communications you have between him and the willard simply will add to the picture of a president president who was orchestrating events more than simply a passive observer as people around him were organizing this, you know, this rally that eventually turned into a riot on capitol hill. >> all right. ali vitali, peter baker. thank you both. appreciate it for now. months ar the withdrawal, how are those left behind in afghanistan faring? a then how about the families who made it here? and looking at america's longer war and then where do we go from here. be right back. here be right back. g behind in scho o. but together, we can change that. with your help, local communities can get the food and resources they need to keep children well fed and ready for school, and if there were ever a time for you to help, it's now. sponsor a child with save the children and help give that child and so many others a chance for a better future. - you're doing more. you're giving them the opportunity, the hope, the ability to succeed. - [announcer] please call this number or go online to savesponsor.org and sponsor a child right here in america. for only $19 a month, you'll help give your sponsored child and other kids in their community access to: nutritious food, educational opportunities, safety and protection. when you call or go online and sponsor a child now, we'll send you this exclusive t-shirt to show you're changing lives as a child sponsor, and if you act now, your first month's gift will be matched thanks to a generous donor. - [woman] we try to make a safe haven with our programs and give them a chance to be kids. - [announcer] you can give them that chance when you call or go online to become a save the children child sponsor. when you do, you'll receive a photo and information about your sponsored child, and you'll get special progress reports on how your gifts combined with those of other caring sponsors are changing children's lives. - we've had probably the toughest year we've ever had, and save the children has been there every step of the way. - [announcer] in these difficult times, america's children are facing more hunger than ever before. they urgently need someone like you to care, so please call or go online to savesponsor.org right now. thank you. 2021 remembered as the year the war in afghanistan came to an end after merely 20 years. but the u.s. departure was mired in chaos, and marred by violence and the taliban who were in charge before the u.s. invaded the country after the september 11th attacks are in control once again. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel takes a look back at the biggest foreign story of this past year. >> reporter: 20 years, 2,461 american soldiers killed. tens of thousands of afghans, killed. 2 trillion dollars spent. so much blood and treasure only for it all to end in as the troops were pulling out, the afghan military, which the u.s. spent $88 billion to train and equip, collapsed. the u.s.-backed president fled the country. and the taliban swept into kabul. afghans rushed to the airport. escape seemed like the safest option. the withdrawal only got more chaotic and violent. isis decided to take a parting shot, dispatching a suicide bomber, who killed some 200 afghans and 13 american service members. >> these american service members who gave their lives, it's an overused word, but it's totally appropriate here, were heroes. >> reporter: the signs it would all go down badly were impossible to miss, yet were seemingly ignored. in may, months before the withdrawal, the taliban went on the offensive. they faced little resistance from the afghan army. and rapidly advanced across the country. still, the u.s. seemed unphased. in july, the united states pulled out of the bagram air base, the biggest base in the country. leaving bagram pulled the rug out from under the afghan army and helped guarantee a taliban victory. the americans say that they handed over this base to the afghans in an orderly way so that they could continue the fight against extremists. they left them a base that the americans, it looks like, they looted themselves. how do you feel about the way that the americans left this base? i don't want to talk about it, he says. after the united states abandoned bagram, the afghan army further splintered and the taliban had an open door to enter kabul. now, the taliban are the government. it is still absolutely shocking and mind boggling. a few months ago, only, it would have been absolutely impossible for me to ride in a car like this with these men, who are still part of an organization that is internationally designated as a terrorist group. now, there's not even hostility and they are glad to show me around, glad to show that they are in charge. and afghans, especially women, must accept whatever rites the islamists give them. even though the u.s. effectively handed afghanistan over to the taliban, the united states' government has sanctioned the group and refuses to release about $10 billion in government funds, further aiding afghanistan's economic collapse. the united nations warns afghanistan's economic meltdown could become the worst humanitarian crisis it's ever seen. ending the war may or may not have been the right decision, but the way it was done seems to have set the country up for failure. and may embolden our enemies and adversaries, showing when pushed, the united states doesn't always stick with its allies. and whatever happens to their people will likely be their problem. >> all right. let's take a closer look at this. with me is matt zeller. he is an afghanistan combat veteran and a former cia analyst. he is also an adviser to iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, an advisory board chair for the association of wartime allies, which helped evacuate afghans who worked for the united states. matt, it's great to see you. thanks for joining us on these happy holidays, by the way. let's talk through some of what is happening in afghanistan and the aftermath now. of course, the president signing the defense authorization act just yesterday. that means a commission looking at the legacy of the 20-year war and the withdrawal, as well. what are you hoping to see come out of that commission? >> well, thanks for having me on and happy holidays to you, as well. this commission has been the priority of veterans since the end of august. since we understood that there were going to be at least 200,000 of our afghan wartime allies still left behind in country with little means of actually being able to get them out. we hope that this commission will keep afghanistan in the news for at least the next four years, and that through that pressure, through that media attention, the government will be obligated, will feel the pressure to continue trying to do everything that it possibly can to get those left behind out. but more importantly, this commission is modeled after the 9/11 commission. so it's nonpartisan. we had watched the political hearings that had taken place back in september with congress investigating just the aftermath of the withdrawal, and it was very clear that both sides were just retreating into their political narratives and they were going to use this war as a political cudgel. that's not acceptable to veterans. we want accountability. we want to learn from this. we want to make sure that this never happens again. and to do that, we needed something that was nonpartisan, that was going to take a holistic look at the entirety of the war, not just the evacuation, and actually try to figure out how we can prevent the united states from ever makingiasco or calamity happen ever again. >> hey, matt, i want to get to two more questions while i have you. first and foremost, the president continuing to vowing to get afghans out. i spoke to the father of a family whose brothers are still stuck in afghanistan. are they still able to get out? are folks still getting out of afghanistan at this point? >> it's very difficult. there's one airline that the state department allows people to fly out of afghanistan and onward to the united states. it's qatar airlines. the taliban charged an exit visa of $1,000 a person, and they also have to approve letting you go. so if you're not somebody that they're looking for, and you can pay them money and we can get you on this one chartered flight and this is the big holdup, the u.s. government will issue you some type of visa, then, yeah, we might be able to get you out after weeks of trying, but the reality is is that the vast majority of the people who need to get out can't afford that exit visa, have not been issued the proper documentation by the united states government to leave, and they're on the taliban's hit list. they're in hiding right now. what we're hoping for -- >> matt, let's -- >> sure. go ahead. >> let me just get one more question into you while i have you. how worried are you about the threat coming out of afghanistan in the years to come? >> i'm really buried about the winter. more people are going to die because of starvation and exposure, because the taliban have no means to take care of the afghan people, than they would be able kill with their bombs and bullets. and this is what i would fear. that collapse, that destabilization is likely going to lead to a civil war coming in the next year. we also happened to afghanistan in the 80s and 90s when a civil war broke out. that's what gave us the taliban and eventually a base of operation from which al qaeda could attack us. so, yeah, i'm very concerned about what happens in the region. >> yeah. you've just got to look at the historical cycle that's taken place in that region. matt zeller, as always, was thank you for your voice on this. stick around, everybody. we have got another hour ahead. we'll be right back. y. have got another hour ahead we'll be right back. 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