chaotic scenes like this one playing out over and over again as taliban fighters clash with crowds desperate to escape right now, an estimated 14,000 people were at the airport in kabul waiting to board evacuation flights to whatever will take them. they re fighting time and space with this operation. cnn s clarissa ward and her crew captured these remarkable images aboard a c-17 cargo plane as they prepare to take off for d doha, qatar. 2500 americans have gotten out in the last week. some taken to this u.s. air base in germany. they are among the lucky ones. thousands still outside the airport in kabul are braving 90 degree heat, sleeping on gravel, their cries for help drowned out at times by the gunfire of taliban fighters. an update on the piece of video with the infant who passed through the crowd and hoisted above barbed wire to u.s. troops. reunited with the father and is safe. warren lieberman at the pentagon. president biden cancelled a trip to delaware to get updat
now, we don t know who the soldiers are or who is doing the shooting here but we do know this is apparently happening multiple times a day outside the airport. you see children in the area as well. president biden says as many as 65,000 afghan allies and families are still stuck in the country, along with up to 15,000 americans. the big problem, of course, is while the u.s. controls kabul airport, the taliban controls all the roads leading into the area, leading to scenes like this with crowds gathered just beyond the walls. on wednesday, defense secretary lloyd austin said there are no plans to use american soldiers to open a path to the airport. that left many afghans at the mercy of taliban fighters that control the roads, beating and whipping people trying to get in. some cases, people managed to access the airport by climbing walls. you can see american soldiers helping a woman over the top, onto the airport grounds. as for evacuations themselves, the u.s. says it is run
saying he wouldn t trust them just a few weeks ago. watch. we re in contact with the taliban to insure the safe passage of people to the airport. we are monitoring for any potential terrorist threats. we intend to continue these operations over the coming days before completing our drawdown. do you trust the taliban, sir? president biden: is that a serious question? absolutely. do you trust the taliban? president biden: no, i do not. harris: however, reports on the ground are pointing to increased extreme violence in and around that airport where so many of our americans are trying to get to. this as we get horrific new images of militants reportedly beating people along the way to the airport. what we are about to show you taken by los angeles times photographers. it is disturbing, an early part of the day. i want to give you a chance to pull away. despite assurances of a kinder and gentler taliban, or one that could even be a little different, it looks the sam
purchased by americans for the afghan army, the one that collapsed into recent days. today the white house is responding to those painful images of human suffering, here is national security adviser jake sullivan at this afternoon s white house briefing. president biden and all of us as i said in my opening comments are heartbroken by the human consequences that have unfolded and could continue to unfold in afghanistan. we believe passionately in human rights and human dignity and we want to work with the international community to advance that wherever we can, but president biden was not prepared to have american men and women continue to fight and die in the civil war of another country in order to achieve that. we will use every other tool at our disposal to achieve that and we will do so day after day, month after month, in the period ahead on behalf of the people of afghanistan. we gave 20 years of american blood, treasure, sweat and tears in afghanistan, we gave them
it. and our colleague mehdi hasan had an incredible guest on lost hour, i don t know if you saw it. i did, yes. he had the woman who was the first female fixed wing pilot from the afghan air force who eventually had to apply for asylum in our country because of the taliban hunting her. her talking about seeing what s happening to her country, her fear for her family still in afghanistan right now, i mean, there s no word for it other than dire. i share your view that when mehdi finished his interview, it was remarkable to watch. may this have a better ending. rachel, you have a good weekend and we ll see you monday. thanks, ali. it is friday, friday the 13th. it may seem silly to say this but joe biden is still president of the united states. perhaps you didn t know, but for months the foam pillow guy was telling every poor, sad soul who would listen that joe biden and kamala harris would resign after the fraud of the 2020 election was exposed. it didn t happen. the