next. pain and regret. hospitals are running out of beds. plus new era. new york will welcome its first female governor after andrew cuomo resigns in disgrace. no one will ever describe my administration as a toxic work environment. what is her plan to clean up new york politics? new york s lieutenant governor kathy hochul joins me ahead. hello. i m jack tapper in washington with the state of our union watching a tragic foreign policy disaster unfold before our eyes. weeks before the anniversary of 9/11 and the deadline of president biden s complete withdrawal of u.s. troops in afghanistan, the taliban having seized much of that country they re now at the gates of the capital city of kabul. their representatives are meeting with leadership inside the afghan presidential palace. the rapid crumbling of the country has caught the biden white house flat footed. on saturday after pulling out almost all of the 2500 service members there when he took office, president biden
sources tell cnn that president ashraf gone any has fled his country, and in desperation, long lines of afghan citizens are trying to withdraw cash from atms and, if they can, trying to seek flights out of the country. as all of this unfolds, the u.s. is sending more u.s. troops into afghanistan, 5,000 total, to ensure that president biden calls an orderly and safe drawdown. when the president came to office, he had a decision to make. the previous administration negotiated an agreement with the taliban that said that our forces, our remaining forces, only about 2,500, would be out of the country on may 1st. the idea that the status quo could have been maintained by keeping our forces there i think is simply wrong. we have team coverage on the ground in afghanistan and across the globe to bring you all the breaking developments. cnn s nick paton walsh is in kabul. describe what you re seeing as the taliban enters that capital city. reporter: well, again, after hearing t
last stronghold of the afghan government. afghan president ghani has now fled the country. taliban fighters have entered the capital city of kabul where the american flag has been taken down from the u.s. embassy as the u.s. undertakes an urgent evacuation of american personnel. the rapid crumbling of the country shocked the u.s. and u.s. allies and caught the biden white house flat-footed on saturday. after pulling out almost all of the 2,500 troops when he took office, he s deploying troops back to get americans safely out of kabul, warning of a swift u.s. response if the taliban inte interfered. sources tell cnn the majority of the u.s. embassy staff are now out of the embassy compound. that s a sharp tsharound when president biden called it highly unlikely the taliban would overrun the country, at the time striking many experts in his own administration as unrealistic and prompting questions as to whether biden was cherry-picking intelligence or indifferent to it. as amer
of lives, and billions of dollars, the entire u.s. military effort is collapsing over the course of a weekend in embarrassing fashion with the type of scenes we haven t witnessed since the fall of saigon in vietnam in 1975. cnn s nick paton walsh is live in kabul. nick, all of this is so stunning. you ve covered this for so many years. we just learned that the presidential palace was officially handed over to the taliban. did you ever think it would end like this? what can you tell us? reporter: i mean, look, it is utterly breathtaking to see those images of one of president ashraf ghani i should say former president ashraf ghani s main offices inside the presidential office where the taliban sat confidently holding their weapons at his desks. it s just startling to see. briefly in those images filmed by al jazeera, let s just say we have over the last sort of half hour or so heard an uptick in helicopters in the skies. that normally means american activity. that s quite
american blood and treasure in afghanistan, that country has collapsed with stunning speed. it president, ashraf ghaani, today joining fellow citizens and foreigners fleeing the country as taliban fighters have entered the capital. the closing of the airport now means many cannot get out. this just weeks ahead of our country marking 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the start of america s longest war, trey yingst live in jerusalem with the very latest on these fast moving, developing scenarios right now going on in afghanistan. trey the, what is the latest in kabul tonight? reporter: eric, good afternoon. we are hearing tonight from the taliban themselves inside the presidential palace in kabul. al-jazeera actually had access into the compound as taliban fighters walked will through the halls of this palace. as you noted earlier today, afghan president ashraf ghaani fled the country. this opened up the door both literally and figuratively for the group to go int