latest. again, we will know better tomorrow what's happening but you must prepare as soon as possible. better safe than sorry. thank you for watching. it's been a hell of a week. the catchup right now with "don lemon tonight," you're lucky, you get the upgrade. laura coats. >> it hasn't let up. a hurricane. we're all watching this. i hope people heed your warning better safe than sorry. scary time. >> in a weird time, the act of nature, the tropical storm is more predictable and more understandable than what is going on afghanistan. i'm torn. i got to see what this storm is going to do because i have to be there for my family. long island is vulnerable. you lose power very quickly. it's hard to restore it. it gets wet. it floods very easily out there.

so i'm going to have to pay attention but if i can do the job, i will on sunday when the storm is there. >> stay safe and keep your family safe. everyone is thinking of everyone out there that needs to do the same. >> we're all in it together, l coats, we're all in it together. >> that's what they say and i'm waiting for humanity to act on it. >> you have to say it. >> thank you, chris. talk to you soon. be safe. this is "don lemon tonight." i'm laura coats in for don lemon and in the past week, we've seen the collapse of the afghan government. the taliban takeover. the chaos at the airport as thousands and thousands of desperate people try to get on planes. their only hope of escape, that as president biden is holding firm today in his view that getting out of afghanistan was not only the right decision but the only decision. committing to do everything he can to evacuate afghan allies and promising that any american

who wants to come home will get ho home. >> we're going to do everything to provide safe evacuation for afterb afghan allies, partners and afghans who might be targeted because of their association with the united states. but let me be clear. any american who wants to come home, we will get you home. make no mistake. >> but this was another day where some of what the president said just didn't match what we're seeing on the ground. >> will you sign off on sending u.s. troops into kabul to evacuate americans who haven't been able to get to the airport safely? >> we have no indication that they haven't been able to get in kabul through the airport. >> there is no question. this is a massive incredibly difficult and dangerous

operation but we've seen what is happening at the airport. cnn is told it's impossible to make it inside and a white house official acknowledged tonight the challenge and chaos at the airport. remember this video? it's a baby being handed to american troops on top of a wall at the airport. the pentagon says the baby was treated at a hospital and returned to the father but we don't know if they were able to leave. the pentagon releasing photos tonight of troops sharing water with an afghan boy. fist bumping another boy. and holding a baby. i want to bring in cnn senior political analyst david ga garrigan. glad to have you both. under these circumstances there is a lot to talk about. david, when you see all the chaos and all the desperation,

literally thousands of people trying to get through dangerous check points on to planes, how do you think that the president is handling this crisis? >> well, i must say, laura that i think you got better this week on the last day. a statement i thought was more confident and more confident i seem to have a lot better grasp or command. he also acknowledged more than he has in the past, the chaos that has unfolded on his watch and very importantly, laura, he gave a firmer commitment to the afghan friends of the united states who are clambering to get out because they may be put to death. the taliban, when they get caught. so i think all of that worked well. i can't help but think about the historical consequence of all of this. i do think this is going to be remembered for a long time but we don't yet know just how much

blame biden will get if this gets worse, which it may well. i think he's going to be -- he's going to pay a tough price in 2022 but in his reputation as president and strength as president. i keep wondering what phappens o these $3.5 trillion bills. does he have the same power and authority before? i'm not sure we know. one thing we do know is there are two sets of reality being asked to watch. one is joe biden's reality. he thinks the world is orderly. things are getting better. we're working well are nato allies and there is more of a sense of reality, things are desperate on the ground unbelievable. so, so hard breaking to see it. the child being thrown over the top of the wire fence and i think they deserve all sorts of credit. it's our eyes and ears as

citizens figuring out what is happening and a very compelling story to tell. >> you're right. i want to bring in douglas and we can't say enough about the excellent reporting and the valiant reporting of clarissa ward. we'll hear from her later. i want to play what we heard from president biden during his interview and what we heard today. i want you to take a listen. watch. >> we've all seen the pictures. we've seen the hundreds of people packed into a c-17. we've seen afghans falling -- >> that was four days ago, five days ago. >> what did you think when you first saw the pictures? >> what i thought is we have to gain control of this. we have to move this more quickly. we have to move in a way in which we can take control of the airport and we did. the past week has been heartbreaking. we've seen gut wrenching images of panicked people acting out of sheer desperation. it's completely understandable. they're frightened. they're sad.

uncertain what happens next. i don't think anyone, i don't think any one of us can see these pictures and not feel that pain on a human level. >> you know, it's interesting, douglas, because he was someone who in many ways was thought of as going to be a consoler in chief as much as he would be the commander in chief. but i wonder why hadn't we seen president biden's trademark empathy until today? what do you think of this shift? >> i approve of the shift and agree with david. i thought president biden did a better job today communicating emotion and concern. i think he's doubling down as we -- everybody in america is in agreement we must bring the americans back but talking about bringing on the afghan visa applicants, people that have helped us in the 20-year war back in i think ramped up way. but early in the week, this was a disaster. this is the biden boondoggle. it was america with no strategy

whatsoever. everything seems to be helter-skelter and hurley b burley. we're witnessing one of the most momentous airlifts in world history going on and we can only pray that it's going to, you know, bring people back but the divide in the country is, you know, i think donald trump is getting off very easily for four years, he tried to disassociate from afghanistan's helpers, the people that worked with us trying to sabotage visa applicants and biden should have been more aware of that instead tony blinken i thought has been very weak and president biden got off to a very bad start this week. let's hope next week there will be more images of the airlift that's successful not people falling off of airplanes. >> those images are gut wrenching to think about. you're saying you're talking about the idea this of course was the withdrawal successive presidents were thinking about

the withdrawal. the question is the execution of this plan and david, you have worked with so many different presidents over the course of your history and career and today, really, president biden was talking about the mission and troops. >> we're performing to the highest standards under difficult dynamic circumstances. our nato allies are strongly standing with us. their troops keeping entered alongside ours in kabul as is the case whenever i deploy our troops into arm's way, i take that responsibility seriously. i carry that burden every day. just as i did when i was vice president and my son was deployed to iraq for a year. >> i mean, the president is talking about his late son beau. how important is it right now that he is reminding people that when he makes these sorts of decisions, they're not made with

the lack of awareness of what it means for our troops. i mean, really four presidents presided at this point and he's the only one to have had somebody who was a child who actually served in the military. what do you make of that, david? >> well, listen, i think it genuinely would make it very much grief about his son. i don't think that's at stake in the afghan situation. i think it's more about afghan about these people in these terrible, terrible conditions that clarissa is bringing to our attention. what we know and doug can speak to this really well, what we know is that presidents in crisis, often crisis of their own making, they do best with a country and do best in history when they tell the truth about what is happened and they take responsibility for the truth. you know, we've been talking

this week about the bay of pigs just put on president a complete debacle of cuba. the county recognized disaster and he went public and staid it was a disaster and even said i take responsibility. it was my fault. >> let me break down -- let me bring douglas in on that point. i want to hold your thought. i want to hear about the context lizing of the history of this because that comparison you draw and responsibility we've heard president biden talk about the buck stopping there, douglas, four presidents have presided over america's longest war. as i mentioned, president biden was the first now to actually end it. it's all significant as i mentioned. he's the only commander in chief out of the four who has had a child serve here and as douglas stated to your point, david, this is not necessarily about the personal family of joe biden. speak to the significance of this moment now. give us the idea of what the legacy of this might actually mean given what david has just

spoken about. >> you know, with george w. bush used to say i'm the decider and he operated with a certainty and the buck stops here attitude. harry truman was a great hero to george w. bush. the problem is if you're on a wrong policy, the buck doesn't just stop there. i'm the decider. and biden just got completely unspooled off his game. it's really been shocking to see but history will show george w. bush misled america after n9/11. we went into afghanistan and chased the afghan insurgents of alibi -qaeda and had a battle o bora bora but we went into iraq and we shouldn't have gone into iraq because bush wanted saddam hus hussein's head on a platter and saw there were weapons of mass destruction and there weren't. george w. bush gets low marks

for handling of iraq and afghanistan. barack obama did better using drones, operation neptune spear that got osama bin laden and donald trump spent four years trying to get out unable to but not wanting to bring afgtghan knees to the united states as part of his anti immigration type of rhetoric. and biden came in and kind of stumbled into this this summer sped up the time of pullout. it was done in the middle of the summer when we just had the surge of covid and his poll numbers are sinking right now. let hope by, say, september 15th, there will be a success story this airlift has really brought not just the americans home but our afghan friends and allies, at least 30, 40,000 of them into the united states if not many more. hopefully, other countries will take these evacuees, also. >> i got to end it there. back to your point, huh, david, about the idea of the novelty of

telling the truth from the presidency. >> let me add one thing. >> real quick. i got to go. real quick. >> all right. i got to go, hun i can't talk to you anymore. cross fire there. thank you. take a look at this, everyone. this scene on board an air force c-17. cnn's team and root from kabul to qatar with a crowd of some 400 afghan nationals desperate to flee afghanistan. but, the journey began at the airport in kabul where as david was mentioning, clarissa ward filed this report. >> reporter: after three weeks in afghanistan, we joined the crowds at kabul airport, now the only way out of the country. there is a huge block here. lots of cars. hundreds of people wait in the blistering heat hoping for a flight out. so we just managed to get into

the airport compound and i have to say, it was pretty intense. just like this crush of desperate people and screaming children and women and babies and, yeah, it's not every day you see desperation like that. >> reporter: the few people that do make it are exhausted and scared but they're the lucky ones. they made it past the taliban check points afghan security guards and finally, the airport gate. but they can't forget those who they left behind. >> we're getting out. we're happy for that but we're heart broken for our country, especially those who can't get out and are stuck here, we're really heart broken. our heart bleeds for them. >> reporter: what do you feel for the young mothers with young daughters who will be growing up under taliban rule?

the back of pretty long line now. transportation is under strain they said and obviously, priority is getting children and babies out as soon as possible but i think we'll probably be here for awhile. you work for the u.s. military or? >> not military but the -- we are working with the department. >> of defense afghanistan. >> we have to work with the prior people, too. >> reporter: and so you have visa? >> yeah, yeah. >> reporter: as we interview this couple, suddenly shouts behind us. a vehicle speeds through. that's a newborn baby that just flew past in that vehicle. that was a newborn. did you see the baby?

this big. the baby we find out has heat stroke and needs treatment. a reminder for these families that they're close to safety but not there yet. we stand in the blazing hot sun for hours. everyone seeking what shelter they can. patience wearing thin. it's an agonizingly slow process but finally, we're allowed inside. out on the tarmac now safe but the chaos continues. >> i've been waiting for two days, yesterday since 3:00 a.m. >> reporter: yesterday since 3:00 a.m.? >> yes. >> reporter: tell me what the situation was like trying to get into the airport. >> it was really busy and a lot of people were just fighting and trying to make way for themselves but we pushed through. >> reporter: we're certainly some of the very lucky ones. others as you heard from that young man have been waiting for two days.

others we saw getting turned around sent back told you don't have the appropriate paperwork and there is no question everybody here is doing their best, but it's not clear if it's fast enough, if enough people can get out, and how much longer they have to finish this massive operation. clarissa ward, cnn, charissa. president biden is saying what we're seeing in afghanistan is an example of american power and precision. i'll ask former nato supreme ally commander general wesley clark if that is how it looks to him.

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♪ after we make grilled cheese, ♪ ♪ then we're eating grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ because it's time. ♪ ♪ yeah. ♪ ♪ time for grilled cheese. ♪ president biden calling the evacuation in afghanistan an example of american power and precision. >> this is one of the largest most difficult airlifts in history and the only country in the world capable of projecting this much power on the far side of the world with this degree of precision is the united states of america. >> but the images on the ground,

well, they show something different. chaos and desperation at the kabul airport. the video you're about to see was shot early today local time. there is tear gas, people screaming, gunshots. and i must warn you, it's hard to watch. [crying] [ gunshots ]. >> unfortunately, we don't know what happened to the woman and two children on the ground. joining me now, cnn military analyst general wesley clark. he's the former nato supreme ally commander. very difficult and disturbing to watch not knowing what is happening. general clark, does that look like precision to you? >> i'll tell ya, laura, our

military did a good job get tlg and president biden is right, there is no other military in the world that could take 6,000 troops to take control of that airport like we did. that's only half the problem. the other half is getting people out. now what we haven't heard yet is where are the americans? are they all in hotels in kabul or scattered in other capitals out in little villages? who is doing inventory? who has the list of americans? i'm getting calls, friends getting calls from people they know saying please help me get so and so out. i'm hearing stories of c-17s being hired commercially and there is a lot going on that we're not seeing here. but in the end when the president made the pledge that we're going to get you out, what that means is every american wants to come out so let's start by figuring out where the americans are and the issue is

can we get them to an assembly point? various assembly points around the country and pick them up by helicopter and will it be resisted? and if we can't do that are we going to have to make a deal with the taliban and they're going to say well, we'll get you your americans but you'll have to pay. that's not the way we want this to work. you know, the analogy here really is vietnam and i don't mean the scenes of the helicopters taking off the roof of people hanging on the skids, i mean the fact after the communists came in, more than a million vietnamese fled vietnam to get away from communist rule. 200, 400,000 lost at sea. something like 800,000 made it safely elsewhere. we got many of them in the united states. they're wonderful citizens. some of them serving in armed forces. some west point graduates.

but it was an incredibly tragic tale. so when we look at this where are the americans? think about the people outside the airport. there is 40,000 there. if you ask how many people want to get out from under the taliban and are going to try to do it at the cost of their own life, it may be a million. 2 million. they will be there. when we look at this in a very narrow sense, we got to realize what the implications of this are. these people ahave seen the taliban before. it been ugly and the taliban are much different today, well, that has to be proven. >> it does. in fact, it was the old saying trust but verify. we get to see any verification of that and general clark, you talked about the strategy, right? we're learning that the u.s. military used helicopters to evacuate 169 americans from a hotel near the kabul airport. so are u.s. forces going to need

to carry out more missions just like this to get people to the airport to have the idea of the one foot in front of the other, the really methodical approach that you just laid out? >> i can't imagine we wouldn't be doing that. i can't imagine there are american there is that don't have access to a cell phone. that there is someone in the states who knows where they are. the information has to be being collected. someone on the ground has to have an inventory, map, roster who are the americans? where are they? what are their telephone numbers? it's inevitable given the chaos and taliban resistance and the taliban's obvious effort to seek out and eliminate people who served the previous administration -- previous government there that yes, we're probably going to have to do many missions like that and probably the risks. >> general clark, thank you. there is so much more to

discuss. i wish we had more time with you. something tells me, we'll have m many more of these conversations. many people stuck in afghanistan desperately trying to escape the taliban takeover. next, the story of one afghan student, a 17-year-old girl. i strip on public transit. i strip with the guys. i strip all by myself. breathe right strips open your nose for relief you can feel right away, helping you take in air more easily, day or night. hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this... your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee... yeah i should've just led with that... with at&t business... you can pick the best plan for each employee

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thousands of afghans are desperately trying to make it to the kabul airport. their only hope to escape the taliban but millions more are faced with no way out. the cofounder of afghanistan's only all girls' boarding school tells cnn she's burning her students' records to protect them. there is a whole generation of women and girls getting their first glimpse of what life under the taliban is like. 17-year-old ferkunda is one of them and joins me from inside kabul. i'm really, really happy to speak with you and really want to hear from you. we all do. thank you for joining us. appreciate it. >> i thank you for hearing our words and i'm happy to talk to you. >> ferkunda i know you had to

move from where you were living because it wasn't safe. are you safe right now? >> the question is hard. i have left my home and i'm in my brother's house. it is really hard to live here with my best friends, some of family members and also, sorry, it is hard for me to leave my house and yes, i -- now i'm okay because i don't go out and we have to be safe but if you go out, there are talibans, group of taliban walking on the street and if we go out, they'll.

[ inaudible ] >> you're concerned if you go out, the taliban will harm you, will beat you as a girl, a woman and you're 17 years old, and the u.s. had been in afghanistan your entire life and you've never faced life under the taliban before. did you think that this day would ever come, that this would ever happen, that you would be in this position? >> yes. because being a woman in afghanistan is really hard. we're under the control of taliban if you leave under the control of taliban, it is like a dead by today. being a woman here is waiting to get killed, raped or taken first getting married to someone if you can, if you can call it a marriage because it has happened

in the past and being that a woman in afghanistan is like making yourself ready to commit young women and girls already took their own lives so they don't live a life with no hope and no future and for me as a girl, that is really hard for me to bear this situation because i have lots of goals and dreams these dreams and goals make me work hard and deal with many problems and challenges to build a future for myself. and my parents always had a dream to see their children's future is bright and safeguard it but unfortunately, they're los

losing those dreams and when i see them hopeless, it makes me cry and crushes me. it is really painful when i look at my parents, now that i see and look at their eyes, i see no hope in their eyes. it is -- every day i cry and it is really painful. >> ferkunda, i think i heard you say that you know women, girls who have taken their own lives now because of the prospects of being ruled or governed by the taliban and to hear you talk about not seeing any hope in your parents' eyes, you were their hope for the future. what were your own? i know you've taught other young girls english. what are, i hate to say were, what are your plans for the fut future? >> i have lots of plans and

goals in the future, especially as a woman and girl and children and i want to be a leader for them, for those children who are on the street, for those girls who can't raise their voice. there are girls as i said before which committed suicide in afghanistan and i want to be a leader but now i don't know who i'm helping, who would be my leader if i am in a bad situation. >> ferkunda, what message do you want to send to the people in the united states? is there any way anyone can help you? you talked aboutsend to the peod states? is there any way anyone can help you? you talked about you don't know how to be the leader you want to be. what is your message for people

here in the united states, how anyone can possibly help? >> my message to not only american or you but all the world, please hear our voice. please be our voice and save afghan girls because they're really in a bad situation and they have lost their hope as it is really hard to bear this situation and at the end, i want to say that i'm calling to all international societies, human rights as well as rights do not leave us and watch us burn. please help afghan girls and women and save our lives international society does not help afghan girls, this situation i doubt with human rights voice and this is not only my voice, this is every

single woman voice. >> thank you so much. i'm glad to know that you feel safe right now and we will all hope and dream for you and together please don't be hopeless. we hear you. thank you for raising your voice. i appreciate it. stay safe. >> thank you for hearing our words and glad to talk to you. >> thank you. stay safe. we're all thinking of you. for more information about how you can help, go to cnn.com/impact. top republicans in several southern states fueling the mask wars as covid rapidly spreads and you won't believe who the texas lieutenant governor is now trying to blame or maybe you will. [sfx: radio being tuned] welcome to allstate. ♪ [band plays] ♪ a place where everyone lives life well-protected.

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not a single child under the age of 12 is yet eligible to get vaccinated. that means the majority of school aged children cannot and have not be vaccinated. they have no choice in the matter. they are the at the mercy of the choices of adults and those choices must be responsible. strangely, there is this maddening debate even playing out at school board meetings across the country over whether children should have to wear masks this schools. florida's republican governor ron desantis turning it into a political issue picking a fight with the bidden administration. >> you have this obsession that a little 5-year-old, you know, should not be able to go to school without wearing a mask for eight hours a day and as a parent, i'm offended that the federal government thinks they know better than we do as

parents. >> the federal government simply is trying to protect children going back to school this fall. you remember schools, those places. they're the ones that many cases were shuttered for the better part ofntire year but because masks don't provide a 100% guarantee against infection, mask mandates are political theater. but i ask you, when it comes to our children's safety, where else would we require 100% guarantee before taking precautions to keep them safe. car seats don't provide 100% protection against injury in the event of a crash. is it political theater to require those? how about seat belts? is that about making a political statement? helmets don't provide 100% protection against head injury. political strategy then, too? i mean, all of these measures are directed with an eye towards

protecting children from the behavior of risk of others, not risk guarantees mind you. but risk mitigation. and yet, in an undecprecedented global pandemic that claimed the lives of 600,000 americans alone with record hospitalizations of children with covid, this is the time we require 100% guarantees before we take precautions and it's not just about getting children back into the classroom for the sake of learning or even for perhaps parental reprieve. it's also about what school means. it means breakfast and lunch to hungry children. it means mandatory reporters who can detect abuse and get a child to safety. it means mental health support. it means support for those with disabilities. it means social and mental development. when school is closed, it cut

off lifelines for some of the most vulnerable. the same ones at the mercy of us. adults with a choice to make. is it really still up for debate? covid cases are spiking in many states including texas and that state's republican lieutenant governor dan patrick is falsely implying that it's black people's fault. >> the covid is spreading particularly most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated and democrats like to blame republicans. the biggest group in most states are african-americans who have not been vaccinated. the last time i checked, over 90% of them vote for democrats in the major cities and counties. >> let's set the record straight. i want to bring in dr. cedric dark assistant profession sore of medicine in houston. dr. dark, welcome to the show. i'm glad to have you here. let me read this from our cnn

fact check. okay? it says facts first. just on raw numbers, black people at about 13% of the total population are not the biggest group of unvaccinated people either in texas or across the u.s. analysis by the kaiser family foundation found that white adults account for the largest share of unvaccinated adults. so lieutenant governor is wrong but what is your reaction? >> well, first reaction is don't blame black people for your failure to implement mitigation mechanisms like masking and, you know, vaccinating in the people who you employ. as you said, there are 3.7 million unvaccinated white people in texas, which is vastly more than black people in texas that are unvaccinated. 5.6 million versus 1.9 million.

last time i checked, i'm a minority still in the population and there may be half trues that were told in terms of percentages of people vaccinated when you divide that by race. 40% of white people in texas have as you said, it's a numbers game. the more people you have, the more people that are unvaccinated, the more likely we are to spread this virus. >> and, you know, you've been talking along with other doctors in texas since really day one about vaccine hesitancy and also about misinformation. and what were you hearing from those folks about these issues? >> i mean, you really speak to that point. what black men and women in medicine did from the beginning of this pandemic, from day one, is reach out to our communities so that we could get past the vaccine hesitancy that we knew was going to be there because of systemic injustices due to things like the tuskegee

experiment. we were the ones out there showing our arms and band-aids from getting vaccinated early on because we wanted to set an example for our communities and i'm happy to say that any time i get an opportunity to talk to somebody else about getting vaccinated, to go through whatever questions they have, i'm going to take that time to do so. i did so for people in my church, i did so the other day, a group of friends of mine, we were out eating at a restaurant. we were all vaccinated. our waiter leaned over us with no mask on. we asked him, are you vaccinated? he said, no. and i gave him my information so i could talk to him about why he's not vaccinated and what his issues were. i could try to get that one kid vaccinated, i could help to end this pandemic one person at a time. but people that have power, people that really have power need to stop putting politics into public health. i don't bring politics and put it in the exam room. they need to stop putting politics into public health and

let us do our jobs. >> thank you so much for your time. i hope you gave the waiter a tip, in addition to the tip you gave him about vaccination. we'll be right back. ♪ even if you had to miss your quince. there's always your quince plus one. ♪ it's an important time to save. with priceline, you can get up to 60% off amazing hotels. and when you get a big deal... you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal.

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