>> coming up in 20 minutes, the house transfer -- transportation chair will talk about the infrastructure bill. we have live coverage beginning at 4:00 on c-span. after that, president biden will address the nation on the pandemic, the delta variant, and vaccination efforts. the conference is set for 4 :30. live on c-span. >> good wednesday morning. here is the headline from usa today. how did afghanistan and this way? finger-pointing begins. the taliban. the u.s. intelligence community.

generals and experts pushing the military to stay the course. a deceptively complicated question. who exactly is to blame for the swift collapse of the afghan government, and the taliban's return to power after 20 years of war? from business insider, 1100 americans from august 1617. more americans blame george w. bush for america's failure in afghanistan than any other president. 38% rate bush as the most responsible. 19% said donald trump. 12% said barack obama. this is according to an insider poll on fox news, sean hannity's program.

donald trump wasn't afraid to point the finger back to george w. bush or the united states intervention in the middle east. here's what he had to say on the handy program last night. >> we took this horrible place. a place that we shouldn't have been involved with. it was a horrible decision, going into the middle east. i know the bush family will not be happy, but i believe it was the worst decision in history of our country, but we decided to go into the middle east. it turned out to be quicksand. we have destroyed the middle east, and is a bigger disaster now than it was 20 years ago. it was a horrible decision. it cost trillions of dollars. i like to look at both sides. millions of lives. it's no different than it was. it is much worse. it has been blown to pieces. it is the worst decision ever made.

you could strike as retribution, and it could be a big strike as reservation for the world trade center, but we got stuck in there like quicksand. i have heard as many as 40,000 americans and the taliban -- good fighters. i will give them credit for that. they've been fighting for 1000 years. that is what they do. the taliban has circled the airport, and who knows if they are going to treat us right? former president donald trump on sean hannity's program last night. >> he is asking who is responsible for afghanistan. as we noted, the evacuation effort is still underway this morning. this from one reuters reporter who is covering the evacuation. the general who is the most senior military official in the company in kabul has sent

pictures of the efforts of citizens to get allies to the airport. from the u.s. embassy and its mutations, a note went out yesterday afternoon to american citizens, requesting that they evacuate afghanistan. they are were told to come to the airport in kabul. the united states air -- government cannot guarantee their safety. that is happening on the ground this morning. admits the figure point this morning, we are asking you what you are thinking this point. daniel from buffalo, good morning. >> i think it is mostly the afghani's fall. ultimately, they are responsible for their own country. it is a standard country, as we see most other countries being.

small warlords are controlling different areas. host: eric in georgia. who do you think is responsible for the outcome? caller: i think donald trump and mike pompeo of the administration are. trump went to the taliban and negotiate with terrorists. he did not negotiate with the afghan government. all this was planned and set up. show trump who is talking to the man who runs the taliban. he negotiate with terrorists. all of this is a set up. two months after joe biden got into our office. the taliban had already taken over afghanistan when joe biden took office. this was a set up. host: president joe biden has

pointed his finger back to the trump administration in his conference on monday on the situation in afghanistan. this is what the president said on monday. >> when i came into office, i carried a deal that president trump negotiated. under his agreement, united states forces in afghanistan -- had to be out of afghanistan by may 1, just a little over three months after i took office. united states forces drawn down during the trump administration from roughly 15,500 forces to 5500 troops. it is the smallest number since 2001. the choice i had to make mr. president with to either follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season.

it would've been no cease-fire after may 1. there was no agreement protecting our forces after may 1. there was no status quo after may 1. there was only cold reality. we are following through on the agreement to draw our forces and de-escalate the conflict, sending thousands more troops back and afghans in. we are lurching into the third decade of conflict. host: president biden on monday. donald trump was on sean hannity last night. he was asked about those comments president biden made. this was president trump from last night. >> what we were going to do, very quickly, was to take the

military out last. people were coming out, they were coming out. the agreement was violated, so i held things back because we weren't going to do anything condition based. they were meeting obligated is best obligations and conditions. the people come out first, and we were going to take all of the military equipment. we have billions and billions of military equipment, blackhawks, and russia will be examining and china, and everything else to figure out the greatest the world. we have army tanks and all sorts of equipment. everything. i was going to take it out, because i knew they were not going to fight. this is one thing i have to say, and it is different from everything else. why are they fighting? why are the afghan soldiers fighting against the taliban? i was told very bad information

by a lot of people. the fact is, the highest-paid soldiers in the world, we were doing it for a paycheck. once we stop and left, they stopped fighting. all the people that talk about bravery, i say everyone is brave. the fact is, our country was paying the afghan soldiers of fortune. we were bribing them to fight, and that is not what it is all about. it is a great thing we are getting out. nobody has ever handled a withdrawal work for joe biden. this is the worst present -- president in the history of our country. host: former president on sean hannity last night. some of your comments here on social media. all politicians and presidents included are responsible for the botch taking place. from panama city. he blames art till terry leaders

for the failure. they are using taxpayer money -- it is a waste of money. all government officials and politicians who support the war are responsible for the outcome. barney in florida. what do you think? caller: we produced all these guns and bullets and tanks and stuff. what was post to use them like? [indiscernible] it is ridiculous. mike pompeo is going to cut this deal with the taliban. mike pompeo and donald trump are the two biggest traders.

they need to be looked at. host: in altoona, pennsylvania. every time somebody is in power, other party blames the other party. it started with bush. he went into afghanistan with a purpose and mission to get bin laden. then we got switched to iraq because we didn't want to have his family, and especially cheney not getting hussein right away. i believe part of it on the asking -- i blame part of it on the afghan military. we gave their fighters all this money, and we decided we didn't want to pay them anymore, we want to get out. maybe we botch the whole thing. but this is from bush to biden,

and biden inherited what trump negotiated. if we would stop the blame game and start looking at where the failure was, what the failure was, the people of afghanistan don't want to fight. if you want freedom, you have to fight. they did not want to fight because we were not paying them anymore. we have to stop politicians complaining about whose fault is . it is everybody's fault. from the general to the president to the senate for voting these things. stop complaining about biden. maybe he didn't -- did ms. handle them leaving, blaming somebody, that's ridiculous. we need to look at where the failures are. host: this today from usa today. the senate intelligence

committee is already combing through all of the intelligence gathering in and out of afghanistan. they are working with democrats and republicans, fourth -- foreign relations and armed services to plan investigative hearings into the actions taken by the white house. the staffer is looking into the pentagon and state department. we owe it to the american people and all those who have sacrificed so much. that is from the senator and chairman on the armed services committee. the congressional investigation still the calm. kathy from wisconsin. who is responsible? caller: i think the problem is that people do not understand. it is definitely george bush and cheney who are responsible for this mess. they got us in and i blame

barack obama because he should've taken us out when he in office. the lesson is, you cannot make people stand up for a government if they didn't want it. the afghani soldiers do not want this government. it is ours. they do not want to govern the way we want them to. they walked away. it is not because they are not a courageous bunch of men. they do not want to fight for a government we put there. we should have learned this lesson and vietnam. the same thing happened then. host: kathy on the afghan government. now the former government. it was yesterday that the nato general make comments on the situation in afghanistan. he said the entire political system and the afghan government

-- here. >> the u.s. troops would withdraw by may. after many rounds of consultations, all of our troops agreed to follow that position. ending the military in position was not easy. i believe that seeing the taliban regain control has led to another open-ended combat mission. we were not meant to be in afghanistan forever. the policy for over 100,000 troops that is now going to zero. what we are seeing in the last few weeks is the political

collapse at the speed which had not been anticipated. part of the afghan security forces fought bravely. they were unable to secure the capital of their country. ultimately, the afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the taliban and to achieve a peaceful resolution that the afghan said they wanted. this failure of afghan leadership led to the scene we are witnessing today. host: the secretary-general again. we are taking your phone calls. who is most responsible? mitchell in new jersey. what do you think? caller: good morning. it is a mixed problem there. the trump administration signed

an agreement. why were they negotiating with the taliban in the first place? our intelligence told us it was a completely unreasonable -- unwinnable mass. you would never negotiate with terrorists and you would not do a prisoner swap with your enemies over there. there were about 4500 strikes about a month after the invasion. not like we have today, but there were a number of strikes, and they killed about 900 afghan writers -- fighters. where the failure was and why

the biden administration was cornered so badly to withdrawal, it must be investigated. was it a problem with the intelligence? it is hard to know yet. honestly, even if the united states had gotten out cleanly, this was going to be the net result. it is shocking but at the end of the day, the public is not going to be too focused on this or care about it, which is sad, but true. host: mitchell in new jersey. more voices from the former trump administration. the vice president said in today's wall street journal -- by the time we left office, the

taliban controlled their territory. america had only 2500 troops in the company. with the smallest military presence is the war began. america said the war was coming to a dignified end, and ensured we could conduct counterterrorism missions. the regional resettlement of the thousands of afghan refugees that will seek asylum in the u.s. with no vetting. it seems the president did not want to be seen abiding by the deal negotiated by his predecessor.

if you would like to read more by mike pence, wall street journal. harry, republican. caller: the two people i blame, and i have seen them on tv, general milley. he is talking about white supremacy and secretary austin wants to investigate the same thing. these people kept us in there for 20 years. as far as trump goes, he had a deal made. we did not get attacked by the taliban the last six months in office. the whole world is laughing at biden. our so-called allies, they know what he is. this guy shouldn't even be in office. there is something wrong with him. it looks like he lost his way to the white house. he cannot think. that is what the problem is with

this country. he is the biggest racist at all. if you are black, you can't be a racist is that right? host: steve in florida, independent. caller: good to talk to you. if you look at the problem, there is ignorance on both sides other has been ignorance for over 50 years. we haven't understood from the historical point of view -- like in the crusades. people don't understand the crusades. that was a focus of islam taking over all of europe. we don't understand the degree of what the islam religion means. it means submission and it means submission by force.