madison cawthom said that elections were rigged in the united states and there could be quote bloodshed. he made the comments on sunday evening. the paper quotes the freshman congressman as saying, quote, the things that we are wanting to fight for, it doesn t matter if our votes don t count because if our election systems continue to be rigged and stolen it s going to lead to one place and it s bloodshed. he also suggested he s prepared to take up arms against his fellow americans if necessary to combat the imaginary voter fraud he s talking about. quote i will tell you as much as i am willing to defend our liberty at all costs there s
as you talk to people on the ground and across the defense department about how many americans remain in afghanistan today? i don t think there s an exact figure, willie. we believe we got the vast, vast majority of american citizens out. something to the tune of 6,000 of them. and we think it s probably in the low hundreds that are still there. there were also several hundred others that didn t want to leave. i know this is now a diplomatic mission as you all have said and this is for the state department but if those 200 or so americans are going to be extracted from the country, it would make sense there would be some military effort behind it. do you expect you ll have a role in getting those people out of the country? willie, right now i think the tools we have available to us and we ll use as a u.s. government is going to be more in the diplomatic, economic lanes and we don t really see a military role right now. so what does that look like? how does diplomacy get those p
october of 2001, and that is with the country under taliban control. that group stormed back to power this month at a speed that surprised top american generals. as the last plane took off yesterday, taliban fighters could be seen shooting fireworks and artillery in the sky in celebration they say of the defeat of another super power. joining me now is ralph sanchez and mike memoli. good morning to you both. ralph, i begin with you, what is the feeling on the ground in afghanistan? we saw the celebration on the ground by the taliban and by the final americans who lifted off in the c-17 yesterday. reporter: willie, good morning. a taliban official telling nbc news today, afghanistan has its independence. as far as they are concerned, they have outlasted and outfought the world s major super power. they are now fully in control of that country as they were in
veterans and other people who worked in afghanistan over the years just the despair over the last few weeks over how we re exiting and treating those who worked with us bravely for so many years. and it s going to be a huge, ongoing moral stain if the biden administration can t make good on their promise to help extract our afghan allies who stood alongside us. just the psychological impact that it s having on so many men and women who served over the last 20 years in that theatre and then to know that the afghans who worked so closely with them, that are just being a second thought and cast aside is just unconscionable so i really hope the steps are taken that need to be taken to secure our allies and show that americans are good for our word. richard, philosophically, as americans in leadership going
this new, basically, war bounty, the spoils of war that they are going to obtain. now there were this was a rapid evacuation that included a lot of, you know, controlled destructions of various weaponry, things they didn t want the taliban to have. also, at the same time, though, they did leave some equipment that would be necessary for the running of the airport, again, as this in this landlocked country, an absolutely essential aspect of getting americans out and other afghan allies to have an airport there. so that was the very interesting thing we saw there. again, a mix of coordination with the taliban at the same time of departing. leaving some things behind they ll be able to use to have a functioning airport. there was some hand shakes that we saw on the way out. which is just an extraordinary