thanks for being with us tonight. it time for the big show "don lemon tonight" with the big ststar don help mono -- the pictures look bad. no question about it. >> hold on. hold on. this is when i usually tell you happy birthday and joke around and i want to say happy birthday. i can't joke around with you tonight because there is so much serious news going on so happy birthday. great to have you back. you're a partner here and i'm just happy to have you back because nobody bounces off each other between shows like you and i do. go on. >> i love you d. lemon. >> i love you, brother. >> i don't think that it is usually our position to put

pressure on administration to do certain things however. >> right. >> every read from the ground is consistent. if the biden administration does not find a way to fix the problem of abandoning people who put their lives on the line for american fighting men and women, it will be a stain on this administration forever. >> i don't disagree with that. >> there is political push back and people on the trump fringe trying to make it like look at the people he wants to bring here. these are men and women talk to our veterans. listen to our veterans about what they did for this country and for our fighting men and women. >> yeah. >> and now they will be left there and they will be hunted down like dogs. >> i think it's -- i agree with what you said but i think it's too early to judge what is going to happen. we don't know what is going to happen. the exit, yeah, those pictures are horrific. nobody can deny the situation that happened at the airport there and the pictures that

we're seeing and what we're hearing from our folks there happening on the ground but i think let's see it's going to take time to figure out if it was a right move at the right time but no one can deny this has been through four administrations and, you know, he said he didn't want a fifth administration to inherit this. so before this happened, about 70% of americans and even folks who were enlisted, wanted us to get out of afghanistan. i think most people think it was the right move, the execution may be wrong but i think over time we will see what the fallout is and that's, you know we can't do that until we keep moving and living. >> we lived it. we've been there for the whole course of it. i've been there and every place in the region.pletely separate decision. leaving the way we did and leaving those people behind, if we don't find a way to get them out and it should have been done first, he has to fix that part.

it is the only american thing to do. it will last a generation, don. we've made this mistake before. >> yeah. >> we've left that place worse before. >> yeah. >> and we can't do it again. you have to take care of the people that take care of you. >> you play the south bynd byte john mccain and barack obama. it got us in deeper. i got to run. i got a lot of news. good to have you back. i love you. happy birthday, see you later. >> i love you d. lemon. >> this is "don lemon tonight" and you know what? there is no way to put it. the words are harsh and should be. words like chaos, debacle, disaster, even comparisons to the fall of saigon for those of you old enough to remember that. that is the only way to describe what we are seeing right now in afghanistan and what we have seen. gut wrenching. that's the word that president joe biden used today, get

wrenching scenes attica beau -- at kabul's airport, planes going anywhere trying to escape the taliban. look at the pictures. it's undeniable. it's an awful spectacle this fall of kabul and the political firestorm at home as the president defends his decision to end america's longest war. >> i stand squarely behind my decision after 20 years, i've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdrawal u.s. forces. that's why we're still there. we were clear eyed about the risks. we planned for every contingency but i always promised the american people i will be straight with you. the truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated. so what's happened? afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country.

the afghan military collapsed. sometime without trying to fight. if anything, the developments of the past week reinforced at any u.s. military involvement in afghanistan now was the right decision. >> now, the fact is this is a case where multiple things can be true at the same time. the president can be making the right decision about ending the war but executing that decision in the wrong way. >> i will not mislead the american people by claiming that just a little more time in afghanistan will make all the difference. nor will i shrink from my share of responsibility from where we are today and must move forward from here. i'm president of the united states of america. and the buck stops with me. >> the buck stops here. he says the buck stops with him taking responsibility, that's

important except you can't really say the buck stops with me if you don't really take the blame. president biden pointed the finger at afghans themselves. he said didn't want to leave earlier. and that afghan government he said wanted to avoid a crisis of confidence. afghan political leaders who fled the country, the afghan military. >> i know there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating afghans civilians sooner. part of the answer is some of the afghans did not want to leave earlier. still hopeful for their country. and part of it is because the afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from organizing a mass exit to avoid triggering they said a crisis of confidence. >> okay. so let's say all that is true. if all that is true, the big question is now what? now what? what happened now? the president says he's going to

evacuate thousands of people through the kabul airport. he says that he's going to use devastating force against the taliban if necessary. so how is he going to do that without combat? how is he going to save thousands of people? these are real questions. thousands of people like these in images becoming the face of the fall of afghanistan. crowds on the tarmac trying to hold on to a u.s. air force cargo plane trying to take off. and the terrible and disturbing videos of what may be people falling to the ground as a plane takes off. remember those images that we had to stop showing? people said they were too harsh of 9/11 of people falling from buildings. you cannot help be reminded of those images of people falling from the buildings at the world trade center 20 years ago. that's what started all of this. and i just want you to look at

this, okay? it's another image of the death of the chaos in afghanistan and what is driving desperate people, what it's driving people to do. they're desperate this is a photo inside a u.s. air force c 17 from defense one. you can see the cargo plane is absolutely jammed with some 640 men, women, children. even it looks like some of them babies. defense one reports the crew didn't intend to take on so many people but instead of trying to force them off the plane, they decided to take them with them. 640 people on a plane designed to seat only 134 soldiers with their equipment. that's how desperate people in afghanistan are. and like i said, it can be the right decision but executed the wrong way. executed in a way that through the country and its people into chaos. listen what president biden said only a few weeks ago.

>> the likelihood there is going to be the taliban over running everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. >> that was only six weeks ago. that's how fast afghanistan fell. and it was only six weeks ago the president was insisting that this would be nothing like the fall of saigon. >> the taliban is not the north vietnamese army. they're not remotely comparable in terms of capability. there is going to be in circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the ice from afghanistan. it is not comparable. >> so, you need to see see aigoo see the comparison. saigon on the left. ka bbul on the right.

saigon on the left. kabul on the right. last month president joe biden said bringing afghans here who helped the american military is the descent thing to do. >> the one place you heard and i'm talking about more immigrants coming in are those folks from afghanistan who helped the american soldiers who will be, they and their family will be victimized very badly as a consequence of what happens if they're left behind and so we're providing for them to be able to see whether they qualify to come to the united states as a refugee and ultimately earning citizen sship here. it seems to me it's the only descent thing we can do. >> so listen, just to go back to what chris and i were talking about, here is the fact, joe biden isn't the only one. he's not the first american president to be tripped up by

afghanistan. plenty of blame to go arnound i has been 20 years. it is america's longest war that bedevilled four presidents. >> in afghanistan, we'll remove an oppressive regime harbored to terrorist that planned the attacks that killed 3,000 folks on september 11th, 2001. because of our men and women in uniform 25 million afghans are free. and afghan is a democracy and ally on the war in terror and as a result of your courage, the american people are safer. >> this month after more than 13 years, our combat mission in afghanistan will be over. this month america's war in afghanistan will come to a responsible end. that doesn't mean erg is great in afghanistan.

afghanistan is still a very dangerous place but i want you and every american who has served in afghanistan to be proud of what you've accomplished there. >> but we're talking about 19 years we've been there. 19 years. and other presidents tried to do this. the taliban has given a pledge and strong pledge and we'll see how that works out. we hope it will work out well. >> well, the next year joe biden's predecessor signed a peace treaty with the taliban. and his secretary of state met with the taliban leader who is now the face of afghanistan's leaders. funny, some people don't seem to remember that. like the republican national committee slamming president joe biden today for withdrawing from afghanistan when it was the former guy who made the deal to pull american troops out in may. like i said, this is plenty of blame to go around here. the words i said at the beginning, chaos, debacle,

disaster, the exit, those words still apply. we'll see what happens after this. you can make the right decision but you can execute the wrong way. and the question is as we say in the now what? we'll get the latest on the ground in afghanistan from cnn's nick paton walsh in kabul for us. nick? >> reporter: don, the pen gone doubled down on the idea they can get 30,000, 20 thousand afghans who worked with u.s. forces here out of the country in some frankly miraculous evacuation effort. to the scenes i saw today at the airport, i think it will be an incredibly difficult if not impossible thing. the taliban are at the main airport entrance doing crowd control, pushing people back, using vehicles they have taken

off the afghan security forces paid for by america to try and keep people away from the number of gates there are hundreds of afghans surging towards gates, some trying to climb over the wall. utter chaos and not much better inside. videos of people running across the tarmac trying to grab c 17 cargo aircraft in the vein hoping they can cling on altitude long enough to reach the destination. shocking scenes at the place that defined america's billions of investment in kabul, the use so frequently by american staff to be over run by so many afghans desperate just to get a flight out. civilian flights cancelled though the u.s. military are running things at the moment and we hear them in the skies above us but it will be an exceptionally difficult task, don in the weeks ahead for the u.s. to fulfill the promise given the chaos we've seen there unless they get some sort of deal frankly with the taliban who run kabul at this stage and manage to get those afghans who

probably the taliban have a gr grudge against assisting the u.s. presence and get them out of the city to the airport, i can't see how the targets can get met, don. >> thank you very much. appreciate that. president biden is not backing down from his decision to withdrawal american troops from afghanistan despite the chaos of the fall of kabul. what will happen now? >> here is what i believe to my core. it is wrong to order american troops to step up when afghanistan's own armed forces would not. . i want a sugar cookie... wait... i want a bucket of chicken... i want... ♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win.

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so president joe biden addressing the nation about the chaos of afghanistan saying he stands squarely behind his decision to withdrawal u.s. troops but admitting the collapse of the afghan government and taliban easily retaking control of the country. it happened faster than administration anticipated. i want to bring cnn's pentagon correspondent and jeremy diamond. good evening to you. jeremy, let's start with you. you're at the whitet house tonight to give us the latest. he's defiant standing by his decision to withdrawal but what we didn't hear is how his

administration failed to anticipate the fiasco in kabul and breaking tonight, he's now issuing an executive order on resettling afghan refugees. update us on this, please. >> that's right, don. president biden this evening authorizing the use of $500 million in funds for the united states emergency refugee and migration assistance fund and this is to help with the migration of many of those afghans who are desperately trying to leave kabul right now to ultimately resettle here in the united states. we do know that there are tens of thousands of perspective special immigrant visa applicants who are waiting and hoping to try to get to the united states. this includes some of those interpreters who have worked with the united states over those nearly two decades of the u.s.'s war effort in afghanistan and listen, that is what we heard from president biden today is talking about the fact that is going to be the sole focus of the u.s. mission in afghanistan right now where about 6,000 troops are soon to be on the

ground several thousand of those have already arrived in country focused on holding that airport in kabul and getting those afghans to the airport and on to planes off to the united states, some of them potentially to third party countries but you're right, don, in terms of what we did not hear from the president, it was while he acknowledged that we missed -- the united states missed how quickly the taliban would advance, we still have not heard from president biden eye exwhy exactly that is. this was not an intelligence failure. you heard something similar from the pentagon spokesman john ker bee -- kirby today. those are the questions that remain unanswered here and president biden has to answer for that at some point. we certainly will be able to pose those questions to the national security advisor jake sullivan tomorrow as he sets to brief reporters alongside the white house. >> jeremy, perhaps that is his

answer, though, that, you know, the afghan forces just didn't hold up. could that just be the answer for the president? >> the question then becomes why didn't the u.s. realize -- >> anticipate that. >> right and i think there is obviously a lot of experts who didn't see this coming but also some experts who did see this coming. some people that served in the military said of course this was going to happen. of course the will power was going to disappear especially once they lost that critical u.s. air support as well as those u.s. defense contractors helping to maintain the afghan air force once the united states wound down its presence there. >> let's bring oran from the pentagon. you can weigh in on this and i want to bring up the photo of 600 afghans inside a military cargo plane. it an extraordinary event and picture to look at. they represent a fracture of the afghans. what does the pentagon say about the efforts to get people out and this crisis happening in

kabul? >> well, first, let's take a look at the photo because it speaks so much to the panic and utter chaos of afghan civilians trying to flee what is no longer just afghanistan but soon to be the islamic emerit. possibly no longer the flag of the country and that's what these people are fleeing cramming on to an airplane, men, women and children to get the heck out of kabul international airport, which is probably the most valuable piece of real estate in the country baufecaus it's the only way in and out of the airport. as that happened, there were thousands more afghans outside the airplane at the airport itself trying to get out of the country. for the u.s., the primary mission here is to secure the airport. it requires security, a stable situation at the airport to get flights going in and out. although this is certainly an international airport, this isn't newark or atlanta with two

runways and plenty of space on the ground to move airplanes around. there is limited space. it is the key perhaps to the only factor how fast the u.s. can get people in and out at maximum capacity, 5,000 people a day. the problem is the u.s. isn't at that capacity yet and until it gets there, moving people becomes incredibly difficult. first of course, u.s. embassy personnel and then all the afghan interpreters and families desperate to get out of afghanistan right now. >> yeah, much more, not as sophisticated as airports here and not as much space and they can't facilitate as quickly. appreciate your reporting. thank you, gentlemen. scenes of desperation and taliban fighters in control and military equipment. my next guest a former u.s. ambassador to afghanistan says what p happened is an absolute disaster.

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tonight president biden facing heavy criticism how his administration handle the withdrawal. the country enveloped in chaos with the government and taliban reestablishing control. joining me is a former u.s. ambassador to afghanistan. thank you for joining us. important subject and the pivotal time in ouristry here.

you call the excuse of this with dr drawl an absolute disaster. how precarious is this because it feel the like it could go sideways at any moment. >> it's a very bad situation right now. we're not going to reestablish ourself in afghanistan. we have a large commitment to a variety of afghans, interpreters. we also need to focus on the fact there are a lot of embassy people and people that worked for usa id for contractors. they also need to be gotten out. you were talking earlier in the program about the limited capacity of kabul airport. so it's pretty clear that to meet the commitments that president biden has already made, we're going to have to have an operation that extends beyond the end of the month. and we need a clear policy.

we need to be part of getting kabul airport functioning again so commercial aircraft can get in and take off some of the load. so there is some big questions that are still up answered. president biden spent a lot of time in his speech with defense policies which some i agree with and some i don't. he was very short on details about how we were going to implement his policy. he also has not had -- nobody administration said anything about our contacts with the taliban recently lead by the ambassador, what have we agreed to? have we agreed to anything? are we holding our punches because this or not? i think the american people deserve an answer to whether or not we have agreements with the taliban. >> let's talk about practicality. let's be practical. you're saying some you agree

with, some you don't. understandable. the question is, right, how are we going to get the afghan friends out. you've gotten calls trying to get out. what are they saying to you, sir? >> well, their pretty desperate. of course, people are very afraid. we'll see -- i hope we won't see over time that their fears are justified. right now there say huge problem the airport is surrounded by a mixture of crowds and taliban so a lot of people on our list to get out cannot get to the airport. now that we cannot solve by ourselves. we have to work with afghans, maybe with the taliban in order to control that situation i hope the taliban see it in their interest to let a lot of people that don't want to be there go out. we'll find out about that.

in terms of kabul airport, i think there needs to be a u.n. led effort to control the airport. very few people who want out are going to trust the taliban and frankly, we don't want to be the only security force at the airport so that to me says the u.n. will have to have a role. there needs to be an international role in keeping the airport open and getting people out and i hope we will move towards that. >> i think the most obvious question is ambassador newman is the president said they can't anticipate that the afghans ability to sweep the country. if they can't anticipate that to do it in a week, how will we have eyes on any potential terror activity when we have pulled out completely? >> well, i don't think we will. i mean, we'll have some intelligence sources. remember, it was only a couple of years ago that we found that al qaeda base that had been established for six months when

we were there with a lot of people and a lot of intelligence resources, drones and everything. so even when we were there in force, there were limits to our intelligence. the limits will be higher and we had reports from the u.n. and as well as by our own intelligence agencies that alibi da is there. administration is pretty much silent on those reports. >> so americans evacuated the u.s. embassy. russia and china have a presence there. what does that say to you about the future? does that bode for the future? >> i think the first thing it says is our threats that saying if you don't cooperate, you won't have international recognition are going to be seen by the taliban as toothless.

we may not recognize them. the chinese clearly will do so probably the russians, the iranians, variety of other powers so i don't think we have a lot of leverage. we've given up most leverage so it's talking about the strong diplomatic effort after we give way to most of the elements that would make diplomatic effort strong. >> you wrote something last month about how ousted afghan president ghani told you that he had a strategy for supporting and leading the resistance of the taliban and cut and ran. should the u.s. government have seen that coming? >> i think we could have seen some of it coming. you know, this is a long complicated subject problem my more than you got time for. but i think let's step back a second. the bumper stickers the afghan army wouldn't fight. the afghan army is carrying the

burden of the fight for at least the last three years. we have not been engaged on the ground. the afghans have had thousands of casualties. we had 12, 15 the last couple of years, the last year we had none. so the afghan army was fighting. not all of them well. question is why they quit fighting and some of that is clearly the problems of kabul, the end fighting, the corruption but i think there is also a big piece of that which is the collapse of moral and we were a big part of that really over a lengthy period first with the peace agreement where many afghans felt we were already giving up on the country, pushed the afghan government to release 5,000 prisoners, many of whom returned to the battle field excluded them from the agreement and then decided on a troop withdrawal and remember, when president biden gave his speech about the withdrawal, he talked about two other elements.

one of which was really key and that was continuing support for the afghan military. >> right. >> we had no plan for that. and then we proceeded to pull out not the 2500 or 3,000 troops but also about 15,000 contractors who were absolutely key to keeping the afghan air force functioning with supply system functioning so that what the afghans were seeing was abandonment. and i think that's not the only reason for the collapse of moral but it's a big piece of it and i wrote about this in several of my colleague's former ambassadors wrote about this in the last weeks saying that we needed to take a number of actions that we described in order to give credibility to the sense that we would continue to provide the support president biden promised. we did not take any of those actions so the collapse of

afghan moral is an afghan phenomenon but also a res responsibility of the u.s. one which i think administration is continuing to dodge. >> ambassador newman, thank you. you've given us great insight. thank you so much. appreciate it. >> most welcome. happy to be with you. president biden doesn't regret his decision to leave afghanistan but cost this country thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. what we've seen the past few days change how americans feel about how he's handling the conflict? (vo) how do you know when you've found your team? whether you're winning, or just doing your best. when you're on the lanes, they're right behind you. reunite with your team. go bowling.

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afghanistan's civil war? when afghan troops will not? i will not repeat the mistakes we've made in the past. mistake of staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interest of the united states. >> matthew is here. he is the former chief strategists for president george w bush and the author of "revelations on the river." matthew, appreciate you joining me to talk about this. thousands of american lives have been lost and trillions of dollars spent in the conflict. as of a few weeks ago, 55% of americans, 55% said they approved of biden's handling of the withdrawal and after that, getting out, numbers are higher for people who approve getting out of afghanistan. do you think that will still be the case after today? >> i think on whether or not we should have gotten out, it will still be 70% plus and i think it will cross republican democrat

independent. that will stay true because i think the american public is exhausted by this. they were sold a bill of goods as you know from the beginning under bush who i worked for about why we were going in there and 20 years later still in there. i think they still want to see us out of here. i think you'll probably, i mean, not to look at this politically in the midst of this crisis situation in afghanistan. he'll probably drop some because of the pictures and everything they're seeing on his ability to handle this, but do i think this will be an issue in a potential reelection for him or even in the midterms? absolutely not. the american public wanted us out of there and we're getting out of there actually way later than after the american public wanted us. >> the president spoke about the people of afghanistan needing to fight for their country. do you think trying to install democracy top down in that country was ever going to work? was that ever really our mission to restore democracy top down?

>> don, i think that's a great question and if you look at the expansive history, it never works. democracies and building a country up only works from the bottom up. we've seen it in our country and the revolution. we've seen it throughout history in vietnam it didn't work when we went in there and instant after instant -- in iraq it hasn't worked when we went in there thinking we'll put in place a regime or nation and build a nation around democracy. if the people there aren't asking for it and demanding it and actually fighting for it, you're never going to be able to do it from outside. that's why we get in these situations where we force our way of government on another country who is either not ready for it or whose citizens aren't hungry enough and demanding enough, it's not going to work. that's why we are where we are today. >> look, i guess i don't know if you can still call it a budding democracy but afghanistan's budding democracy is in tatters now. january 6th proved ours isn't as

strong as we hoped or thought. house speaker nancy pelosi hinting today two sitting congressmen could be investigated. watch this. >> two of them were outrageous. i mean, they probably -- we'll see who the committee finds out but they won't be on the committee. it would be antics and clowns and not serious about this and still participants in the big lie. >> so look, we know who she's talking about, trump allies jim banks and jim jordan both rejec. what does this say about our democracy? >> that's the point i've been trying to make over the last 48 hours, what is happening in afghanistan is tragic but more tragic is our inability to perceive the democracy. we're trying to install a deck

moc -- da emodemocracy. their leaders weren't willing to stay in the country and fight for it but here we're fighting for our democracy at a fragile point in the country's history and what we need to do to preserve it. people putting up pictures of the taliban in certain meeting rooms or whatever, i still remember and it's still visceral to me the confederate flag being raised at the u.s. capitol. we should keep our eye on the ball and focus on it. if the most tragic thing that could happen to the world, to our country and all of us is not what is happening in afghanistan but losing our democracy here, that will have a much more profound effect on the world than what is happening in afghanistan and that is i think, where we fundamentally need to keep the focus on. >> look, you said the people inside the capitol beat up on the speaker's desk and on and on. listen, also, on this subject of keeping us together, the pandemic is surging again in a

way that seemed unthinkable two months ago. the defendant of homeland security is warning of violence here at home within the next few weeks and much of the president's agenda has been slow going through congress. is president biden better off focused on issues here at home right now? >> well, i think president biden and i actually thought his speech was well done today. i think there was some logistical problems that obviously weren't orchestrated well and i think they have to figure out how to fix those to make sure they can save as many lives as possible on us leaving but i think joe biden understands that what is of most concern to the world, don, is that our democracy here and what is happening here including our public health problem, we have lost more people today, yesterday and the day before because of the pandemic and because of bad decisions by political leaders, almost all exclusively gop than afghanistan over the last year or last year and a half. let us not forget that. the other thing i'll say is

seven presidents have been involved in this afghanistan thing in modern time stating back to ronald reagan. seven presidents. the person least responsible for what is happening today is joe biden. the other six presidents primarily george w. bush is responsible for what we're facing in afghanistan today not joe biden. >> and you were an advisor to? >> president george w. bush. >> matthew, thank you sir. appreciate you joining. >> thank you. i want to make sure you know about we love new york city. it is a homecoming concert so join me, this is a once in a lifetime concert event this saturday starting at 5:00 p.m. exclusively on cnn. we'll be right back.

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take this. coronavirus cases are surging in 40 states. the pandemic now impacting more children than ever before with a dramatic increase in minors hospitalized with covid-19 over the past weeks. texas and florida leading the nation in the number of pediatric coronavirus hospitalizations. that's according to the latest data from the u.s. health and human services. meanwhile the cdc says just 70% of the eligible population has received at least one dose of a evacuation. i'll say that again. only 70% of those eligible have received at least one dose of a vaccine. vaccines have been widely available for months. we are nowhere near herd immunity. the head of the nih is predicting the u.s. could be seeing more than 200,000 new

cases a day. we haven't seen rates like that since before vaccinations became widely available. maybe if more people were vaccinated by now we wouldn't see such a strong delta variant surge or so many kids getting sick or so many icu's reaching capacity again. tonight one nfl team is leading the example. the atlanta falcons announcing in a tweet that they are the first nfl team to be 100% vaccinated. the team says players can now work out and eat together and won't have to test daily for the virus. good for them. and then we have some breaking news on. a third shot. what the white house is saying about it, after this. don't go anywhere.

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so we have got some breaking news on covid booster shots and when you should get one. this is coming tonight just now from the white house so let's get to our white house correspondent. caitlyn joins us by phone. what are you learning about the covid vaccine boosters for most americans? >> reporter: hi, this is something many americans have been waiting to find out what is the administration's position going to be, given so far health officials have said most americans do not need a booster at this time. but we are learning now that as soon as this week, top health officials in the biden administration could announce that they are recommending boosters for most americans. the way this would work and the ideas they're coalescing right now is that americans should get a booster shot eight months after becoming fully vaccinated. and currently, this guidance is revolving around those of us who got two-dose vaccine shots. there are three vaccines, of course, authorized in the u.s. under emergency authorization.