people climbing onto planes, flooding the tarmac. the u.s. military has managed to secure its half of the airport and flights are taking off, both military and commercial. according to the pentagon, this is happening but the situation is still tense and very, very desperate. chief foreign correspondent richard engle has the latest from kabul. richard, what are you seeing? reporter: the evacuation flights are coming in frequently now. you can sense there s urgency about them. they land, they re only on the ground a few minutes before they take off again. it is clear the u.s. wants to wrap it up as quickly as possible. kabul airport this morning is back up and running, evacuation flights for u.s. embassy personnel and contractors in full swing. flights were stopped yesterday and tens of thousands of afghans stormed onto the runways desperate to leave, clinging onto aircraft, trying not to be left behind as the americans pull out. u.s. troops found themselves overwhelmed, as t
i m pamela brown in washington. you are in the cnn newsroom on a very busy saturday evening. additional u.s. troops heading to afghanistan this weekend, at the same time taliban militants there appear on track to retake the entire country. president biden is sending 5,000 more forces to afghanistan. he says the added troops are to ensure, quote, an orderly and safe drawdown as they help americans get out. but millions of afghans are desperate to escape the escalation of violence in their country. as the taliban take over more ground at a speed that has jolted officials in the biden administration, five more capital cities fell to the taliban in the last 24 hours. now 22 of the country s 34 provincial capitals are under taliban control. only two major cities, kabul and jalalabad, remain under the afghan government. take a look. this time-lapse shows the speed the taliban gained territory. see the red spread starting in mid-april after the president announced the u.s. withd
finished? if you get my drift. welcome meet the press daily. i m chuck todd. lawmakers quarrelling ober new mask man dates and signaling the day came to a deal with republicans and president biden. dive into the latest on those stories. the most important development in american politics. hence the leadoff for mtp daily. and what this reveals about the limits of donald trump s party. it was not a good day for the former president or republicans who frankly should know better. many do, but have chosen time and again to somehow appease him. look at where that s left them completely sidelined at yesterday s hearing, a powerful indictment of trump s supporters. when you think about that and share with us the vivid memory of the cruelty and violence of the assault that day, and then you hear former president trump say, it was a loving crowd. there was a lot of love in the crowd. how does that make you feel? it s yub setting. upsetting. a pathetic excuse for something ha
welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i m jim acosta, and you re in the situation room. we begin our coverage this hour with cnn chief national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny over at the white house. jeff, the biden administration is trying to get its arms around this growing covid crisis which is hammering up vaccinated americans. the what additional measures are they considering at this hour? el, jim, president biden just a few moments ago taking questions from reporters in the roosevelt room here at the white house and was asked that question exactly, and he said we re still following the science on this, not answering directly if there is going to be some new guidance on masking. of course, that s really the underlying question here. we do know from our reporting that white house officials and top health officials are discussing, you know, the possibility of revising those mask guide lanes for the vaccinated,
but we begin with the battle for voting rights on the country. this hour, stacey abrams and amy klobuchar will discuss how to fight the state s voting laws. last night in washington, d.c. john lieu us was honored with a good trouble vigil. house speaker nancy pelosi calling it a fitting honor for the warrior of civil rights. tomorrow the texas democratic lawmakers will start turning up the heat on congress to pass federal voting legislation. the group of 50-plus lawmakers are planning weeklong events, all while three members remain in isolation after testing positive for covid-19. vaughn hillyard picks up the story. reporter: those those members have put the capitol here in standstill, trying to prolong the timetable in which those election measures they say are voting restrictions laws, are ultimately passed and signed by the governor here. we have new reporting that this week the texas members will holding a virtual conference. they are going to be taking part in a virt