I hope you will reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. As the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face. Donald trump is taking the stage next hour. He will field questions in an unusual appearance at the national association for black journalists convention in chicago. A hamas leader, the negotiator in the ceasefire talks, killed in a targeted assassination in tehran hours after meeting with iran s supreme leader. He was there for the inauguration of iran s new president. Qatar, where he has lived for years, blaming israel, saying how can negotiations take place in which one party kills the negotiator at the same time? this 24 hours after israel does acknowledge killing a top hezbollah commander near beirut. In paris, the gold medals are stacking up. Simone biles and her teammates take a redemption victory lap, making the 27yearold biles the most decorated u. S. Olympic ghim fast ever. Katie ledecky untouchable in the 1500 free goes for gold today. Good day, ever
This is cnn breaking news. Top of the new hour, thanks for staying with us. I m victor blackwell. And i m alisyn camerota. Democrats announcing moments ago they will tie an increase in the debt limit to the government spending bill. This move sets up a looming show down with republicans. For more, let s bring in manu raju and lauren fox on capitol hill. Lauren, i want to start with you. Walk us through what this decision means and how it will work. Essentially democrats are daring republicans to vote against an increase in the debt ceiling. There of course is a looming deadline coming sometime in mid october to raise the country s debt limit for what democrats say is money that they have already borrowed. With republicans, given all of the spending for coronavirus over the last year and a half, now, republicans have been saying over and over again that they are not going to join with democrats to actually increase that debt limit. Here democrats are saying if you want to keep the gover
I m kim brunhuber. This is cnn newsroom. President biden is tripling down on his decision to withdraw american forces from afghanistan by month s end despite the mayhem that has ensued after the taliban took over the country. During a tense interview with abc news, job said he doesn t believe the pullout has failed so far and when asked if it could have been handled better, he said no. Biden then suggested the chaos in kabul was inevitable, but that goes against what he said last month. Listen here. Back in july you said a taliban takeover was highly unlikely. Was the intelligence wrong or did you downplay it? i think there was no consensus. You go back and look at the intelligence reports, they said that it was more likely to be sometime by the end of the year. You didn t put a time line out, you just said flat out it is highly unlikely the taliban would take over. Yeah. Well, the question was whether or not the idea that the taliban would take over was premised on the notion that som
We have brand new video just in that shows gunfire at the kabul airport. We re monitoring the situation and keep you updated throughout the morning. These dramatic videos appearing to show afghans desperate to flee the country jamming the tarmac, hoping to fill any seats on remaining planes out of the country. Cnn cannot independently verify these images, but the u. S. Embassy is warning americans this morning do not travel to kabul s airport due to the security situation. This as stunning video shows heavily armed taliban fighters in the abandoned presidential palace hours after former afghanistan s president fled the country, panic setting in. U. S. Military helicopters scrambling to evacuate diplomats an personnel from the american embassy in kabul, embassy staff racing to destroy sensitive documents. The american flag no longer flying overhead. French embassy officials as well leaving their posts, forced to relocate. At home here, president biden was briefed at camp david over the
Attention on board the aircraft. The presidentelect has departed with a 20minute drive time. We were having the opportunity to have our first african american president come on board the aircraft. As an african american man, to have the opportunity to be one of the first to greet him aboard the airplane meant a lot to me. You re the pilot? yes, sir. It will be my privilege to serve you. You know, i have to say you are out of central casting. You are exactly what i wanted. He is very excited to be on the airplane and he is having a very jovial conversation with the aircraft commander. You look like you know how to fly. You look like sam shepherd in the right stuff. Thank you very much, sir. They re standing there having a laughing moment. So for me, i m trying to say, okay, do i just fall right into the humor or do i just keep it as professional as i can. Welcome you aboard. Thank you. And introduce you to reggie dixon, the senior flight attendant. Good to see you, sir. My pleasure to m