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i don t think it could ve been handled in a way that we re going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there is a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, i don t know how that happens. i don t know how that happened. so for you that was always priced into the decision? yes. always priced into the decision. cnn s kylie atwood is at the state department. we re going to start with cnn s chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins. this doesn t exactly jive with what biden has been saying in recent weeks because he has acknowledged that they did not expect the afghan military to fall as quickly as they did. yeah, jake. i m a little surprised by that last comment there saying that he did not believe there could be a drawdown that would happen without chaos ensuing. because what we have heard from the president and his top national security advisers for the last several months and especially over the last several days is that they hav ....
defiant defense of the operation denying it could have been handled better, insisting, and i m quoting him now, i don t think it was a failure. this as the taliban is now using gunfire and whips to block potential evacuees from reaching the kabul airport. the pentagon is acknowledging security has rapidly degraded, but america s top general insists nothing indicated the country would collapse in only 11 days. our correspondents are standing by in afghanistan, here in the united states. first, let s go to chief national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny over at the white house. first of all, tell us about this new biden interview. what is the president saying? president biden is saying for the first time that he is going to be slightly flexible on that august 31st self-imposed deadline. if all americans are not evacuated from afghanistan. but he was less clear what the time frame would be for the afghan nationals. all of the afghanistan citizens who helped the u.s. for ....
language that we know sparked that violence and the claims he s making to undermine our democracy have made him unfit for option. i don t think he should be leader of the party and it s important for us as republicans to stand for the truth and stand for the constitution. you re not unified i think it s fair to say. i think there s very big issues we need to grapple with and we need to be get back to a position where we can convey to people how important it is to come together around a set of principles. i do think that the policies that president biden and speaker pelosi are proposing is misguised and harmful for the country and for leadership to be in a position to stop the policies, we need to tell people you can trust us and trust us around to ittive principles and dispel the lie. i ve been listening to you since this campaign began and one thing that the media and public are missing, and you said this the other day. this isn t just about the past, this isn t ....
pentagon actually took three hours to approve sending troops. also president biden is slamming moves by texas and mississippi to lift restrictions including mask mandates. and i m quoting now, neanderthal thinking. meanwhile, new york governor andrew cuomo says he will not resign amid multiple accusations from women but is apologizing for actions that, quote, made people feel uncomfortable. let s follow details we re get ing about the capitol siege and threats coming up as early as tomorrow. oren lieberman is working the story for us. the d.c. national guard commander said he was stunned by the slow response as rioters stormed the capitol. reporter: he said he could have gotten national guardsmen much quicker, within 20 minutes, to help capitol police secure the capitol building as the january 6th was unfolding. there are two completely different narratives of how that day unfolded between the pentagon and the national guard. those competing narratives are coming fr ....
the presidency. needless to say, there is absolutely no basis in fact or logic for these claims. that is not going to happen. the claim is frankly nuts, but as we all learned in january, that is not a reason for law enforcement to not take its adherence seriously. today we re learning even more about the failure surrounding that attack. senate hearing revealed there was a three-hour delay in deploying the national guard to assist capitol and d.c. police when the major general in command of the national guard said his troops were ready, armed and could have been there in 20 minutes. he also noted last summer when there was violence the secretary of the army allowed immediate deployment, though on january 6th, the secretary of the army did not. as cnn s jessica schneider now reports. i was frustrated. reporter: the commander of the d.c. national guard taking on top pentagon officials, disputing their contention that the guard was deployed to the cap capitol. the app ....