biden administration foreign policy challenges. be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, text messages and tweets. "washington journal" is next. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap.org] ♪ host: good morning, everyone. we are less than 72 hours away from president biden's -- to withdraw from afghanistan and the president is warning of new specific incredible threats at the kabul airport. more from -- we'll get more on the situation on the ground coming up on today's program. we're going to begin our conversation with all of you on your view of the president's handling of afghanistan. if you're a republican, dialing in at 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000.

and inns -- indents, 202-748-8002. you can text at that same number, 80303 with your first name, city and state, go to facebook.com/cspan or end us a tweet with the handle at spann wj. president biden: let me begin by once again, acknowledging the bravery and the sacrifice that our military makes every single day and the loss of those americans and marines and sailor and army personnel. it's tragic, as i've said yesterday.

losing a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, is like being sucked into a big black hole in the middle of your chest and you don't think there's any way out. i wonder what's happening. so my heart goes out to all those who we've lost. but the mission they performed is dangerous and it's now come with a significant loss to american personnel. but it's a worthy mission. they continue to evacuate more than 12,000 additional people out of the airport in the last 24 hours. i met with my commanders this morning, first thing in the morning. got a detailed briefing about yesterday's attacks and the measure they're taking to protect our forces and complete the mission. and we will complete the

mission. host: president biden mentioning the lives of those 13 u.s. service members that were lost at the kabul airport attack. the pentagon has released the names and pictures of those 13 servicemen. here they are. staff sergeant darren hoover, 31 years old of utah. sergeant johnny, 25, sergeant nicole ghee, 23 of california, corporal hunter lopez, 22, also of california, corporal dagen paige, 23 of nebraska, and corporal humberto sanchez, 22, from the state of indiana. lance corporal david espinoza, 20 years old from the state of texas, and lance corporal jaret

schmidt, also, 20 years old from the state of missouri. lance corporal riley mccollum, 20 years old, wyoming, lance corporal dillon murillo, 20 years old, california, lance corporal kareem, 20 years old, california, and navy medic max piston, 22 years old from the state of ohio and our main staff segment, ryan, 23 years old from the state of tennessee. your views this morning of the biden administration's handling of afghanistan. carl in hedgeville, west virginia, republican. carl, we'll go to you first. caller: good morning. you know, first, i want to say rest in peace, my brother marines. i served in the marine corps during the vietnam era and i think i feel somewhat qualified to speak on this.

number one, we got what we voted for. when joe biden picked his cabinet, he said we've got to have one asian, one gay, one straight, not who's qualified to do the job, who has the expertise in that field. it's got to look like america, ok? well, we got what we asked for. as far as i'm concerned, a second lieutenant right out of the academy can devries a better plan than what joe biden executed in this situation. it just breaks my heart to see those marines die and when it's not necessary. if he had executed a plan that was acceptable, this wouldn't have happened. if he had huntington the air

base until the last minute and set up a perimeter with the marines to get everything out and used navy seals if necessary to go out and get our american citizens, wherever they might be. but this is a catastrophe. and believe me, joe biden is not up to the task. i say it with a heavy heart. but that's just the situation right now. host: all right. we will leave it there. we'll get more voices in and i just want to show you another from "the hill" newspaper. a majority say biden is guilty of mismanaging the u.s. withdraw from afghanistan. 58% of registered voters in august 20-23 say they believe biden when he said all americans will be evacuated while 42% say they do not believe him.

the majority of them believe that president biden's promise to evacuate all americans currently afghanistan, but they say he is guilty of mismanaging the u.s. troop withdraw from the country. what do you say? don in philadelphia, republican. morning to you. caller: good morning. thank you. god bless the marines over there. god bless them all. there's some weird stuff going on. this should have been not set to the media to broadcast over there to, you know, we're leaving here, this, that. and that's not really the way we should do it. we're wasting too much money. all this money has been wasted that could have gone into our country, instead of -- we could

have brought our marines home, surrounded the country, rebuilt our own country and had it $2 trillion invested in -- thank you. host: all right, john. for john and others, you've got to turn down that division television when you call in. just listen and talk through your phone. kathy in deltona, florida. democratic call. hi, kathy. caller: hi. i think he is doing a great job. and i'll tell you, old people that like to call in and, you know, armchair quarterback. people just think that they know what's going on when they're not there and this was never going to be an easy withdraw. that's why we're there for 20 years. but i think he's doing a great job. thank you. host: all right, kathy. we'll take a look at this poll. "cbs news."

biden approval falls, handling for troop withdraw is negative but support for the withdraw remains. milton in philadelphia, democratic caller. milton, what do you think? caller: yeah, thank you for taking my call. look, i approve of president biden pulling ups out of afghanistan. people forget. we've been there for over 20 years. whether we pull out now or 20 years from now, there still will be chaotic and it wasn't president biden that came up with this withdraw strategy, it was the trump administration. they put this strategy out there. they're the ones that negotiated the withdraw strategy with the taliban. it wasn't president biden. but my point that they would like for you to bring -- give, i notice that c-span always broadcasting republican events. but you had a major marge on washington yesterday about voting rights and it was not aired on c-span. host: that's not true, milton.

you weren't watching we aired it. we were there. caller: i didn't see it up there. host: well, we were there. cue the picture on "the washington post." protect your power. and marge on washington for voting rights yesterday. we covered it. go to our website. c-span.org. milton mentions the taliban. this is what president biden had to say a week ago on his view of that group. >> do you trust them now? president biden: i don't trust anybody including you, i love you. but there's not a lot of people i trust. look, the taliban has a -- the taliban has to make a fundamental decision. is the taliban going to attempt to be able to unite and provide for the well-being of the people

of afghanistan, which no one group has ever done since before for hundreds of years and if it does, it's going to need everything from additional help in terms of economic assistance, trades and a whole range of things. the taliban had said we'll see whether they mean it or not. they're seeking legitimacy. they're seeking legitimacy to determine whether or not they will be recognized by other countries. they have told other countries as well as us they don't want to us move our diplomatic presence completely. so all this is -- all this talk now, all this talk now. and so so far, the taliban has not taken action against u.s. forces. so far, they have by and large, followed through on what they said in terms of allowing americans to pass through and the like. and i'm sure they don't control all of the forces. it's a ragtag force.

and so we'll see. we'll see whether or not what they say turns out to be true. but the bottom line is this, folks. look, at the end of the day, if we didn't leave afghanistan now, when do we leave? another 10 years? another five years? another year? i'm not about to send your son or your daughter to fight in afghanistan. i don't see where that is in our overall administration and the talk that our interest is going to be impacted. let me tell you. you're sitting in beijing and you're sitting in moscow. they love nothing better for to us be continued to be bog down there totally preup a occupied with what's going on there. i think that history is going to record. this is the logical and rational and right decision to make. host: president biden on the

decision to withdraw from afghanistan. now look at his approval numbers. these are the latest from 538.com with 47.2% approving of the. 46.9% disapproving. we're asking your view of the president's handling of afghanistan. mike from pennsylvania, republican. we'll go to you next, mike. caller: yes. am i on the air now? host: you are. go ahead. caller: first, i like to just make some comments. i don't think they handled this well. i've been watching the tv for the last two weeks and surfing different channels and i don't think the media has covered it well. some channels have done a great job, other channels have barely touched it. secondary, the amount of tax money that we're leaving behind, we can't make that up in 10 years. we can work for 10 years and the taxpayers of the united states are leaving that up behind. that was a particularly planned

mission. our tax money is being eaten up horribly that way. ok, next. trump had conditions for his removal. the media is not covering that at all. very little and few of them are. trump's conditions were different for removal. and so, they're doing a playing game. i support democrats who support their, you know, his decisions and everything. they voted for him. they want him to do well. but to be very honest, i think mr. biden, president biden, is diminished mentally. i know as i've gotten older, it has affected me. and i can tell you now there's

no way in the world that i should run the country. and i feel the same about him. and he should step down and we should be looking at other places. thank you. host: all right, mike. here's a text from a viewer. biden should be impeached. totally mismanaged the evacuation is what this viewer has to say. this is from sam in georgia. president biden is doing the best he can with what he was handed. the whole country needs to be behind him, not coming down on him. more of your thoughts coming up. joining us is gordon who is the white house national security reporter with "the wall street journal" to give us more information about the evacuation efforts. gordon, we're less than 72 hours away here. how many americans are left? guest: good morning. i think there's several hundred.

the u.s. has been a little bit vague about the actual numbers over the last several days as they try to get the last ones out. several days ago, there were about 1,500 and it went down to 400 or 500 of the people who wanted to get out is the way the state department termed it. host: what do we know about the specific incredible threat to the airport? americans have been told yesterday to leave again, the airport perimeter? guest: a few things probably going on there. you know, there was a specific threat that they were concerned about in the middle of last week and that sadly turned out to be true. they have, i believe, more information about other attacks, the islamic state barrage in afghanistan wanted to -- before

the u.s. completely rolls out. we are getting into the final windows here and if we haven't already closed the gates to almost anybody else, here very soon except for american passport holders and some afghans. but they're all but finished here and when they do close things down, that will not eliminate the threat to american forces, but mitigate it substantial hi, i would think. host: what can you tell us about the drone attack? guest: there's a lot of caveats on the attack. they got some planners and what they call planners and

facilitators, probably two, maybe injured a third in the province in eastern afghanistan. it's not clear that that was any kind of central commander or anything like that. they had initially described these individuals as senior leaders or high profile militants. i think that's not as clear if that's really who they were. they were islamic state planners but it's not clear that this is like the head of the state or something that they've been able to eliminate. they have probably -- they're worried about -- as we said, and likely, planning other strikes, you know, there or in other parts of afghanistan. we reported yesterday that they used a special weapon that in

combination with the conventional hellfire weapon that can be used with more precision and used to eliminate the possibility of or mitigate the possibility of civilian casualties. host: what more do you know about that? was it a drone strike? guest: yeah, it was a drone strike from a base in the gulf. and so, as you may know you know, because they've closed all the bases down, they have not been able to fly from around the region. and so they have to fly from several hundred miles from the gulf region because that's where their bases are. but it does minimize the amount of time in the air and make it harder to fly over the country to potentially get more targets.

so this is kind of the -- this is what they call over the horizon and this is kind of the name of the game going forward because there are no other bases there. afghanistan or in the region like central asia which would have been more convenient for the gulf military. host: what are you watching for today in these closing hours in afghanistan? guest: i think the remains of the 13 service members are going to be arriving at dover today. that's kind of a significant, obviously sad event in terms of the airport. i think we will see them take some more significant steps toward closing it up and starting to not only evacuate the very last people who were on the airport, i think most of the people who were on the airport will get out and maybe let a few more in. but they as of yesterday had about 5,000 american troops who

had been there for this emergency evacuation, who now themselves need to get out over the next couple, few days. tuesday's the deadline. it's going to be a very concerning period for the military because as they reduce the number of troops, they have less and less as charity and ultimately, they will be relying on the taliban provide them the security they need around the airport. and so at some point, you're going to have just only a few hundred american troops who are trying to leave and they will be rely on the taliban to make sure that the airport stays secure, that it doesn't get mobbed by a number more afghans. it's going to be a pretty perilous period over the next few days. host: gordon lubold, follow his reporting on wsj.com, and on

twitter, twitter.com/cspanwj and follow his twitter. thank you very much, as always, for the update. guest: thank you. host: let's go to mac in ohio, independent. mac, your view of the president's handling of afghanistan. caller: good morning, greta. host: good morning. caller: for the past seven months, joe biden has proven that he is not competent. he's opened up the borders to covid-19 deaths. illegal immigrants coming in, keeps spreading it. and they've also become a partnership of the cartels. host: mac, let's stoic afghanistan. your view of that. caller: ok. this is going to be more of a tragedy in the long run than we can comprehend.

host: why do you say that? caller: you can't trust biden. why would somebody like him give control over americans to a terrorist organization that doesn't make any sense at all. anything he does doesn't make any sense concerning this. he's a threat more of a danger to the american people and he cowers down to them. and that's all i got to say. thank you. host: all right, mac. an update for you on hurricane ida that is making landfall in louisiana today. storms, the winds are picking up. national hurricane center headline. ida is now an extremely dangerous candidate 4 storm. 16-foot storm surge is possible in louisiana. we'll give you update as we

continue here as "washington journal" continues. your thoughts on the president's handling of afghanistan. james from new jersey, democratic caller. hi, james. caller: yeah, hi, greta. hi, c-span. inn inn i'm -- i'm kind of tired republican -- let me think about this -- host: all right, james, we'll try to call back when you get your thoughts together. danny in laurel, maryland, republican. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: last month, i was an expert on covid and this month i'm an expert on afghanistan

policy. we kind of got clues about how he worked his afghanistan policy out. he mentioned earlier that he listened to the former president of afghanistan about, you know, how to get everybody out without scaring the country and then kind of listened to a little bit of the taliban, about the time line. and then i'm kind of thinking he had all of his experts around him at the table and the things that he chose, the words he planninged to do. so that's my expert opinion. thank you. host: jim, from wilson, north carolina, independent. hi, jim. caller: good morning, c-span. host: good morning. caller: the calls are obvious.

and if you notice trump withdrew all the way down to 2500 troops and said they will be outlet by may 1. that was the withdraw right there. 2500 troops is nothing. so he had already withdrawn but he left it for biden to complete. and they're not saying that. and you know, everybody is saying that oh, well these terrorists are going to do all this and kill all these people. we said the same thing about vietnam. oh, the communists are going to take over. as long as america take out, these people will settle their problems on their own. they did it on vietnam. why don't you have a show on that? and it's happening again now. i think trump is really using the media, including c-span to push his garbage and it seemed like we follow into it. that's how he got elected. host: robert, lynch berg, virginia, independent. your view of the president's handling of afghanistan.

caller: good morning, greta. i hope you will give me a chance to complete my sentence. i think he's doing a b-plus job because the other president had informed him when he burn uh -- turned it over to him, he got on the plane and he didn't brief biden for what was happening in the world like an average president do. and trump now, he left the troops over there in syria and didn't do anything for that. and i think biden is doing the best he can and i think he went against his military planners and pulled the people out too early. also, the people have a responsibility there themselves to get out. he told them to get out on may 1 and that was under the trump

administration. and therefore, those people should have prepared to get out for themselves at that particular time. thank you. host: all right. well listen to peter baker's reporting for the "new york times." unlike his predecessor, president biden saw no middle ground in afghanistan and to that caller's point about his military advisors. it says that in his reporting, he said critics consider that mr. biden's all in, all out framing is disingenuous r at the very at least unimaginative. even if not especially satisfying ones that may have ever led to outright victory. instead, some including the current military leadership --

at her briefing on friday, the white house press secretary said the only real choice was sending tens of thousands of americans to potentially lose their lives or getting out. mason in rochester, new york. mason, when did you serve in afghanistan? caller: i served off and on when the war first began, i was there in the military. but i served off and on since 2003 with my current company, harris corporation at rochester, new york. training afghan military in communication systems and i've worked hand in hand and trained some of our afghan national people that helped us throughout

i don't know how many years and they're just getting left behind. there's no -- there are no plan to recover them and try to get them out of there. host: so are you hearing from some of those afghans that you worked with? caller: i'm in contact every day. one of my best personnel that became an instructor there to help us and he's now in hiding with his entire family. the taliban have been to his house multiple times and told him he could turn himself over and have punishment would be small or he could wait for them to come and his punishment will be greater. he's in milding now.

i work right there at next to the airport in kabul for many years. again, off and on. and we were in constant danger of rocket attacks. i was there several times when rocket attacks were happening. so it was a constant vigilancey status there. you had to be very careful where you went, had to go with security personnel if you had to leave and go to another base for training. so, it was very tense the entire time. host: so you would be there for how long? what were your -- caller: oh, anywhere from three months to five months at a time. then i'd come home and then another two or three months back home in rochester and i would go back again for the next

evolution of training. -- with these people. host: what are your thoughts on the president's withdraw? caller: he moved too fast and he didn't prepare enough. i know his advisors said oh, it wouldn't be too bad. it wouldn't be so fast but there were still, if he had a contingency plan to get people out, he should have had one as a plan b for this kind of contingency that happened now. host: nathan's thoughts there, who's worked in afghanistan in rochester, new york. carol in elgin, texas, democratic caller. caller: hi. good morning. good morning, c-span. thank you for taking my call. just a brief -- i'm in texas and have a lot of friends in louisiana.

so i'm hoping and praying for them today because they're in for some tough times over there with this storm. so i hope they do well. i hope they get out of harm's way. what i wanted to say is we have a climate in america. it's devolved into kind of political camps in america and americans seem to have a difficulty dealing with truth. and i wish i had a nickel for every time i heard a reporter or somebody write these words which were when they talk about afghanistan, america's longest war. america's longest war. i'm an old man now. my kids, my kids went to iraq and now i'm looking at my grandkids are all in their 20's. and i'm looking at them going into the service. and now, we're talking about send our grandkids to fight. and that's fine. i don't mind as long as we are dealing with truth.

but the truth is i'm old. i was born when i go to my grave, we will still have troops in guerrero. -- germy. we will still -- jeremy. we will we were in the philippines for 100 years. we still have a base in cuba left over from 1898 from the spanish-american war. and, you know, the foreign policy americans need to understand that comes down to one word. if you want to exercise some kind of control in the outcome of people's lives in a foreign country, that one word is stay. you either stay and if you're not prepared, if the american people aren't prepared to stay, then you have no choice but to go because you can't sit there and have a middle ground. if we had stayed in vietnam, if jerod ford who was the president when we left vietnam, jerod ford

had left vietnam in 1975, we would still be in vietnam, today. today. we still have to be in vietnam. and the country would be something like korea. it would be partitioned, like south and north korea are. so we would still be there. and we -- you know, you think about it they say we spend over $2 trillion in 20 years in afghanistan. that's doctor 10 billion a month. a month. the budget, i live outside austin. the budget for the city of austin is about $2 billion a year. and we spend $10 billion a month for 20 years basically on average, to let, you know, like your previous caller, to let guys like that go over there and train the afghanis and try and put them together and try and hold them together.

the truth needs to be told. either you tell people the truth like it's not going to hold together unless we stay. if you think it's horrible now, we're fixing to have a basically another civil war breakout in the taliban's not strong enough to hold everything together over there. you're going to have more images of a civil war in afghanistan, on terrorism and all kinds of things. host: all right, terrell, i've got to get some more other choices in. carol from georgetown, delaware, republican. caller: yes. i have a concern with the kind of lack days -- lack daisy attitude that this administration had with the taliban. if the taliban felt comfortable enough to release 2,000 isis prisoners from the jail, then they have some type of diplomatic understanding in doing so. and i would like to know what

are congress, not what the president, what are congress is going to -- what our congress is going to do about what happened there at the kabul airport. i don't think president biden and kamla harris have any sense to deal with it. host: listen to kevin mccarthy on friday he held a briefing on capitol hill and he was critical of the president's decision to afghanistan. listen to what he had to say. >> to this new 13 gold star families, my message to you is this. your loved ones died as heroes. we will always honor their memories and we pray that you will know peace. those who died knew there was a threat of an attack and they carried out their mission anyway. heroic. the only way to describe their actions and their work each and every day. to the brave troops and stranded

americans in afghanistan, we pray for you to return home, safely. our enemies have taken advantage of this chaotic nature of a withdraw and yesterday, they crossed the red line. like many of you, i listened close throw what president biden had to say last night. the president dodged tough questions about the execution of the withdraw. he presented a false choice between exiting, evacuating and escalating. i heard him say the mission will continue but the taliban dictated deadline will remain in place. i heard him say leaving bass rum was not much value added in getting every single person out to not be guaranteed. i heard him say he can't remember where servitude. if his administration gave american names to taliban terrorists, never in the history of this nation would we have

ever thought that our own government would give the names of americans to the taliban. and i heard him say what america says matters. as he gets ready to break our word to our allies and afghan partners who fought alongside us for more than 20 years, what i didn't hear from the president was his decisive leadership for our troops, our citizens and our allies of what they deserve. host: republican leader in the house, kevin mccarthy. now your view of the biden administration's handling in afghanistan. donna in st. louis, missouri, independence. we'll go to you next. good morning. caller: we've been there over 20 years in afghanistan. if we couldn't train an afghan military force by now to take over for theirselves, it will never happen. and we've spent billions and

billions on this floor while our own country has a huge debt and millions can't even afford to buy medical insurance because they ship most our jobs to china or eliminate them with robotics, but secondary, decides -- i believe the warhawks and that's some democrats and republicans, they'll probably find another war to justify it spending trillions on the military and their equipment. so, you know, all you warhawks, just wait a while. we'll have another war for you. but this war has to end. you just can't keep a war going forever. and as far as germany and japan, they can afford to pay more of their military, thank you very much. host: all right, donna. joe in new york, democratic caller. caller: good morning, greta. host: good morning. caller: i'm a democrat.

host: joe, turn down your television, please. caller: ok. let me see if i can do that. ok. ok. host: you got to mute it. caller: is that better? host: nope. mute it, please. all right, joe, you still there? all right, joe? got to mute your television, people. otherwise, very confusing for you and a bit annoying for everybody else trying to watch the program. charles in jersey city, new jersey. democratic caller. hi, charles. caller: hello. host: good morning. caller: good morning. yes. host: we're listening, charles. caller: oh. ok. i would like to say everyone should stand up and support our president. he's a very good man and he need the support of the people.

our democracy is at stake and it's time out for the nonsense we need to get behind him and support him in every way. the president and our vice president. you know, it's time-out for the nonsense. today, it's a serious thing, and the devil has been busy out there trying to mess with our democracy and it's time-out for the silly games. it's time for us to stand behind in the name of god, behind our president and support him, and not go along with the naysayers and the ones that's trying to destroy our democracy. host: all right, charles. you may be interested? this. the republican national committee released an ad featuring former president obama. officials in the obama administration criticizing the biden administration on

afghanistan. take a look at this ad. >> was going to collapse, rapidly because of the way in which we got out. >> i think if john kennedy and the by a of pigs has unfolded quickly and the president thought everything would be fine and that was not the case. >> it has created a global crisis, quite frankly. >> you cannot -- this has been a disaster. >> we were clearly caught off guard. how his decision was made to withdraw, but then his execution, which has been so far, catastrophic. >> the national security is threatened. >> this is a dunkirk moment or perhaps a saigon moment. >> this tragedy was completely preventible. >> nobody wants the saigon image and we ended up with another saigon image. >> it's like the dunkirk evacuation. >> with have to regard the events with creating a real risk

of another terrific organization, trying to re-establish the foothold in afghanistan. >> it's a really rough time. >> the fact that there was little to know real -- no real planning done. >> i'm left with some grave questions speaking about the president to lead our question as commander-in-chief to have read this so wrong or even worst, to have understood what was likely to have happened and not care. >> admit the mistakes that were made. >> they were behind the curve. >> the situation is heartbreaking. it is tragic. it's disastrous. >> and the execution in particular does not speak to competency. >> they will provide a safe haven for al qaeda. >> it's a failure and he needs to own that failure. he's the commander-in-chief. >> it has embolden violence islamic radicals. they might be doing a little bit of high fiving. host: the latest ad from the

national republican committee on the president's handling of afghanistan. we're getting your views on that this morning. vincent in new rochelle, new york, independent. we'll go to you. caller: hi. good morning. thank you for taking my call. i'm in my 70's and i've watched this stuff going on for years. but i must say as a person who's been involved in the political scene on a low level that what i see happening with the biden administration, to me, is very frightening. and i voted for biden with the hope that as he and others said, his massive years of experience, his so-called level hand of being trusted in foreign countries, his experience in foreign policy. even though trump did some really remarkablebly good

things, i went with biden, only to find and this is what scares me the most with this afghanistan situation. when he's asked several questions, he either displace that he does not -- displays that he does not know the answer or perhaps nobody's told him the information. for example, when he does take questions, which of course the competency and decline is another issue, but he was asked about the al qaeda situation. and he said no, they're gone. they're not there. and then his pentagon spokesperson an hour later had to come up and clean it up. he says no, no, they're really there but he was talking about something else. and this has been going on for a lot of his so-called hands-on involvement with afghanistan. he announced in april that he

was going to have all troops out by 9/11, kind of like a stunt, 9/11, we'll all be -- i don't know what the rationale was. that's fine. so we had four months to make sure the billions of dollars of equipment was destroyed, our computers in our embassy were secured, that our troops got american citizens out, and that we get our afghan allies out. we had four months. and now, we see this incredibly incompetent manner in which this was rolled out with people standing in a sewer ditch outside of the airport waiting knee-deep in sewage, praying for their lives, and americans being blown up, god rest their souls.

i just have to tell you, in my 50-odd years of paying some attention and accounting taught history for nearly 40 years, i don't think, you know, and i don't want to say it. i do not believe that the president of the united states is actually in charge of his own administration. on military leaders and everybody else, nancy pelosi, and all of these folks, are distracted with idiotic things like white rage, general milly says, and things like you can't use the word mother and father on the floor of the house of representatives. they have distracted us with this -- of insanity. host: ron, bran ten -- brandon 10, florida. democratic.

your point, ron. caller: boy, that was a real long one, greta. the point is is that after 20 years and all that money, that equipment wasn't being left behind. it was being left to be used by 300,000 afghans. 20 years, i'm a marine. i bleed marine blood. i pray for those 13 marines they knew their duty. they did their duty. they're sentenced in harm's way to take and help people and that's what they did. they're helping people. all right? and if you want to talk about competency about our president, you know, putting chlorine or whatever into my veins instead of actual shot that i need is

two different types of presidents. one who let 600,000 people die and the other one hasn't gotten all of our people out but he's doing a hell of a job after a whole army just fell in front of us. just fell. i mean, he had no control over 300,000 men. that wasn't his army. his army listens to him. competency, we can do it one-on-one. but this man's done more for the united states than the last president ever did. host: ok, ron. there have been those critical of the president for and we heard it from our viewers. trusting the taliban, secure the perimeter. listen to president biden's response to that very question. president biden: the fact is that we're in a situation.

we inherited the situation particularly since as we all know that the afghan military collapse 11 days -- for in 11 days, that it is in the interest of as mckenzie said, in the interest of the taliban, that in fact, isis is not met it is a sized beyond what it is, number one. and number two, it's in our interest that we are able to leave on time, on target as a consequence of that, the major things we've asked them moving back to perimeter, give me more space between the wall, stopping vehicles from coming through,

etc. searching people coming through. it is not what you call a tightly commanded regimented operation like the u.s. is, military is. but they're acting in their interest. their interest. and so, by and large, and i've asked the senator the same question, to military on the ground, whether or not it's useful exercise. no one trusts them. we're just counting on their self-interest to continue to generate their activities. it's in their self-interest that we leave when we said and that we get as many people out as we can. like i said, even in the midst of everything happening today,

over 7,000 people have gotten out. over 5,000 americans. so, it's not a matter of trust, it's a matter of mutual self-interest. host: president biden from earlier this week. a caller from michigan, independent. caller: hi, greta. host: good morning to you. caller: thanks for the opportunity. good morning. looking at the scene unfolded in afghanistan and the comments of mr. biden, i hate to even call him. all in all, it's a disgrace. he -- his administration has proven to be so incompetent in every facet of the decision they've been making since taking power. it's really shameful. i don't know what else to say. i mean, he should -- he has been an utter failure.

host: ok. antawn, in new york, a republican. antawn, your view of president biden's handling of afghanistan. caller: hi, greta. good morning. how are you? host: good morning. caller: good. good. long time no hear. i'll try bo be as quick as possible. first of all, i would like to say my love and my prayers go all the people in the family that have lost all their children, to them and to america and to the american people. i'm devastated and i'll start off with this. september 11 ruined the legacy is ruined now. so a lot of people called in, they don't know. they call it 9/11 now. i was there. i experienced that. and now the legacy is ruined because of joe biden. operation warp speed. i want to say thank you to president donald j. trump. he's a fantastic president and i miss him so much.

it breaks my heart and i do think the election was stolennen. taliban activities are now controlling the operation. isn't this special? and not only that, the workers were left behind. the one that really worked with american were left behind and allowed these people who did work with america are over here now. now, not only that, all these people, his entire intelligence, administration is ridiculous. and why would you close the airport? why? why would you do that? why would you do that? the blood is on his hands. and he gave away over $80 billion worth of weapons? you can't tell me to the former caller, that they were working with the americans. we didn't need them then and we don't need them now. they stole our weapons. and they're going to use them against us. critical race theory. racism and defund the police and

voter suppression, they've been pushing this stuff to the media. they didn't say anything about hunter biden. host: all right, antawn, we're going to stick to afghanistan this morning you mentioned president trump. several callers and the deal that he made with the taliban. listen to what the former president told fox news in an telephone interview that he did eventually and his criticism of this administration. >> it is so sad is probably from the sad point of military tactics and just an embarrassment. it is the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to our country we look like fools all over the world. we're weak. we're pathetic. we're being led by people that have no idea what they're doing. they take the military out and then they say now we'll bring out the people and all of a sudden, the taliban walks in. we have the taliban so under control they wouldn't have moved without getting our approval.

we had an incredible agreement. they weren't killing our soldiers. you know that. and it was part of their -- in fact, biden said that today he said they weren't killing them because of the agreement that we had, that we did and they hadn't killed one of our soldiers in many, many, many months. and they weren't going to because they're afraid to. and we had them totally in control. all of a sudden, biden administration takes over and they say we're taking the military out. they didn't say they're taking the people out first you take the people out and then you take the equipment out we left $80 billion worth of equipment. and i want to tell you. i think our soldiers, even civilians, i think our soldiers are in tremendous danger. i think airplanes flying in and out of the airport are in tremendous danger. they have the best equipment, best rockets, the best tanks and helicopters, apache helicopters, a lot of them, that are immensely valuable. and by the way, russia wants

them because they want to examine them because we have far superior technology and china wants them. this is the dumbest thing -- i think it was the dumbest move anybody's ever made perhaps in the history of our country, allowing this to happen. taking the mill -- host: former president trump in a telephone interview. henry in virginia. democratic caller. caller: yes. good morning, greta. if a fan saying that this country is going this way, even though all of this stuff is happening in afghanistan now, i agree with president biden in his shutting it down and taking the troops out. you know, the military -- president trump took the military. you left a few soldiers there and then the head training --

president biden, i think, got caught in trump in the perfect storm. i feel for the guy because there's nothing that he could do with his hands is tied. he's getting shot alt from every country, every person, and everybody in the country and in this country, instead of pulling together with him and helping him out. we putting -- getting the people back home that want to come home and as far as the military equipment, this government, this could bring all the people back home. go back and bring all the equipment. you can't get it, don't let them use it. host: ok. joe in dayton, ohio, republican. what do you say, joe? caller: good morning, greta. how are you good morning, greta. how are you doing.

i just want to say god bless the souls of 13 of our soldiers and the men and women -- the women and children of afghanistan. president biden is the worst president in history. he has done nothing for this country. it is sad what went on over there. your callers on the conspiracy theories that it is donald trump's fault is totally wrong. if joe biden has -- joe biden has repealed everything trump has done and he could have done this to. i am so sick of the all the conspiracy. just like russia, russia, russia, all lies. joe biden has done nothing at all with covid. it is running rampant again.

thank god we have operation warp speed. have a great day. host: when we come back, we will continue with this conversation and get two different views on the president's handling. we will talk to american enterprise institute senior fellow danielle pletka and atlanta council president frederick kempe. we will be right back. ♪ >> tonight on q&a, a conversation on the book the triumph of nancy reagan, on the strength and tenacity of the former first lady lady who helped shape the reagan presidency. >> she had one agenda which is

ronald reagan's well-being and success. she had better instincts about people that he did and a better nose for trouble then heated. -- then he did -- than he did. james baker understood she was a crucial ally to have if you were trying to get ronald reagan on board. >> the biography tonight at 8:00 eastern on q&a or you can find all q&a interviews wherever you get your podcasts area -- podcasts. >> weekends on c-span two are an intellectual feast. every saturday you will find

events on american history tv. on sunday, book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. it is television for serious readers. learn, discover, explore, we guns c-span two. ♪ -- weekends on c-span two. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back continuing our

conversation on afghanistan. joining us on two different perspective is danielle pletka. she is the senior fellow with the american enterprise institute. and also frederick kempe from the atlantic council. your take on the president's withdrawal from afghanistan? guest: it was a debacle, unfortunately. something not of us wanted to see. whatever your perspective, nobody is happy about how this happened. also the loss of life and the unbelievable botched execution are all not just bad for us in afghanistan, on counterterrorism, but bad for us globally because of the message

it sends about how we conduct our business. others are watching us and laughing. host: you wrote in a pc yesterday, president biden has a chance to salvage his legacy and credibility, but it won't be easy what do you mean? guest: let me put that in context from the piece i wrote the week before. i said president biden's entire narrative was that america is back and part of that perspective was that allies could trust us. allies who were upset about the rhetoric of the trump administration were ready to embrace president biden and his rhetoric that he is going to work with allies and democracies and his speech about withdrawal was not consulted with allies. so i would start with that.

i always look for a silver lining and even in the afghanistan squall you can see a silver lining. the biden administration is in its early years. they can address this situation and at least course correct. if they are ruthless in assessing their mistakes and lessons learned and three mistakes were to consult closely with allies now and be seen doing it. not in afghanistan or on counterterrorism, but particularly on china and they also feel we are not consulting close enough. the second is to get ready for copter terrorism because you cannot believe the taliban will take over and other terrorists won't return. he saw that with the attack on thursday. and finally, you can contain and

can tell them to a certain extent. they need money and recognition and skills for development. you can work with regional allies and partners to contain and restrain the taliban to the extent possible. the taliban is saying we are different and we are going to work with you. we have no option but to test that right now. i don't think this particular animal is going to change its stripes. but on the other hand, what else do we have? host: should the administration work with the taliban? guest: when he says what option do we have, and i agree with him on the problems with our allies, what option do we have? look, our approval, our

recognition is like a good housekeeping seal of approval in the world, no matter what you think of different presidents of the united states or our foreign policy on a day-to-day basis, but we remain the most powerful country in the world and our good housekeeping seal of approval is important. what that means is that if we are going to do any business at all with the taliban, we need to withhold that recognition and test their behavior. when we see that isis is operating with impunity, when we hear that the taliban has been using our equipment to go door to door to hunt down those who they accuse of collaborating with the enemy, when we hear about door knocks looking for women to marry for a few minutes and rape, those are not things that encourage me to think that

recognition is going to be important. fred is also right that they need money. the taliban took over the country quickly and in talking to people on the ground that are more familiar with their operations that i am, they say that the taliban is then stretched and will not be able -- thin stretched and will not be able to control everything, especially with the absence of foreign troops, support, intelligence. a reign of terror is not going to work extraordinarily well for them. we are going to be able to see in the coming days what is their hallmark? are they a new telephone? i have such strong doubts and find it hard to ask the question, but we will certainly have an opportunity to see. as much as we rushed into this unbelievable mistaken withdraw,

we should watch and wait and do our best to support and secure those who are not just americans but those who worked with us and made that mission a success over the years. host: while you are talking, we were showing viewers the president and first lady on air force one making their way to delaware where the bodies of the u.s. -- 13 u.s. service members will be flown to and the president will be there when they touched down on american soil. fred kempe, your thoughts. guest: i picked up the washington post this morning and the faces of the 13 are on the front page. they are age 20, 22, 23, marines . so they were children of 9/11.

they went into this for the right reasons they cared about their country. very moving stories about their aspirations for their lives after this. they were killed by cynics and just buy a whole different those. -- ethos. we talk about the third team americans but we don't talk enough about the afghans. we just don't recognize the numbers of afghans that have died in service. these are afghans who were still worried about the taliban and danielle is right that you have to be skeptical about how they ruled last time. but the people who are leaving our afghanistan's best and brightest and people looking for freedom and a different way of

life and liked what happened to civil society. a lot had advanced, not with just women and girls but freedom of speech and ability to live in a more humane way. those were the 200 afghans outside the gate. they were looking for a better life. it is a tragedy when you look at the human loss and you have president biden saying yesterday that he does expect in the next 24 to 36 hours another attack. host: let's go to lee in georgia, a democratic caller. caller: good morning. greta, i am a 100% disabled veteran. i was in two wars. i must say of all the presidents , this one is the most incompetent president i have ever seen.

when i was in the military we had general orders. we were standing duty and standing watch. you have to stand on your post until properly. this president is so incompetent. it has caused chaos all over the country. this president is so incompetent that he don't know the history of these people. these people north of afghanistan is a country called uzbekistan. is pakistan -- uzbekistan, host: what is your point? caller: my point is the incompetence of this president.

there should be a trial for him. you cannot go into the country and do as much damage as he has. host: danielle pletka, your view of the ramifications of this withdrawal in the way it was done for this region. guest: i want to thank the caller for his service. it sounds like he sacrificed a great deal. the one thing i can say one thing all americans great about, is that we are enormously grateful for our service men and women who support our freedoms every day. in terms of the ramifications of this, i think they are yet to come. the only thing we know is it won't be good. they won't be good anywhere.

what we saw when isis took over and created a caliphate in syria and in iraq was that it was a magnet for islamist extremists all over the world. they came because they liked having a territory from which to operate. they wanted to be in the fight. and tens of thousands came from all over the world. what we are going to see likely in afghanistan is not just a shot in the arm to those extremists everywhere, whether they are isis, al qaeda, or any number of those extremists, we will see threat to our allies, threats to india. we are going to see increased instability in pakistan. even in just that small not of the woods we don't think about, we are going to see threats. i don't like the invocation of

the attacks of 9/11 to make every single point. but sometimes the analogy is too strong and the lesson of history is too obvious to ignore it. before nine/11/2001, we ignored the rise of the taliban, the fact that they were hosting al qaeda, the fact that al qaeda was able to operate attacks from that territory. we shrugged our shoulders because afghanistan is far away, and who cares. these are lessons we should not have to learn twice. when i look at the national security implications of this, i am simply god smacked with people who are -- were there that day and knew the mistakes we made.

host: john in southhampton, salina, republican. good morning, john. caller: thanks for taking my call. -- john in southhampton, republican. good morning, john. caller: thanks for taking my call. the neocons is just insanity. some point i would like to make. it wasn't the taliban or the afghans who attacked us on 9/11, it was the sunni muslims and osama bin laden. it wasn't the taliban. the taliban never came to the united states to attack us, even though we were occupying their country.

we never should have occupied afghanistan. it made no sense. we could have delivered a punishment to the afghans, to the taliban. another point, the taliban had effectively eliminated the opium and trade in 2001. as consequent of our occupation, it exploded. millions of people have probably died as a result of the occupation and the drugs that have killed americans, russians, afghans, iranians. all the adjacent countries who lost hundreds of thousands of people. we could have gotten the same deal we got currently right now from the taliban after 9/11 and after punishing them.

we were promising to make -- they were promising to make sure that no one attacked us from their soil. thank you. host: fred kempe. caller: with your permission going to say something about the previous caller, a marine. i suggest anyone listening, and this is why i like to call -- come on and hear those colors. read a new piece -- those callers. read a new piece about an author who writes about the costs of the very long wars and he differentiates between as the current caller, on the war on terror and the war on afghanistan and asks the question, is it possible we

could have won the one war and loss the others. -- and lost the others. we have seen russia take crimea and parts of eastern ukraine. you have seen iran step up if -- it's roxy warfare in the middle east. it is a very fragile situation and that is what he writes about. my own view in terms of your current caller is that we had more or less withdrawn from afghanistan. we were down to 2500 troops. we had had a military service casualty since february of 2020. this week was our biggest day of casualties for the american military since 2011.

here henry kissinger wrote this week that sometimes we are in a political domestic situation where we either want complete victory are complete withdraw. and sometimes your insurance policy of being in with no casualties but being able to train and still fight a war on terror is a good way to go. now we have to think about what's next. i do think we were in a position where this longest war was over from the standpoint of combat casualties. i do agree with danielle that perhaps how it was executed wasn't appropriate to the situation, starting with the top administration negotiating with the taliban but not with the afghan democratic government,

leaving them out and then resident biden pick that up and continued. host: rob, independent. caller: i am a vietnam veteran and i am crying this morning. what i think about this country in the last 95 years, every country in the middle east, the same thing, 1890 to 1993, the same thing. now in afghanistan with the taliban. as a vietnam veteran --

[crying] host: thank you for your service. danielle, when you hear a vietnam veteran weeping like this, what do you think? guest: i say first of all, thank you for your service. as we were watching the president speak, this is that a military failure. this was not a decision badly made by our commanders on the ground. this was a loss in battle, this was a political choice. the person who has let down our veterans and americans is the commander in chief. and they are right that donald

trump made the initial decision to talk to the taliban that at the time i thought was great, motivated by that same strange, desperate desire to leave afghanistan despite the fact that we had for the most part withdrawn. when i look at so many of the examples that robert brought up, what i look at is not our failure to perform military. i look at the weakness of our political leadership. that is not why we are here today to talk about the weakness of our political ship, but if you want to talk -- leadership, but we want to talk about when our leaders are weak and confused and wrong in what they say and do, it weakens the things that we believe in, the freedoms that we believe in.

the religious freedoms, women's rights, civil freedoms, political freedoms. it is not just about the political game here at home. it is not just about who do you like more and who is lying. we get so caught up in the day-to-day battle that we fail to recognize that we are degrading our own brand and our own brand is the most important thing in the world. our brand is freedom. when we forget about that. when we let down the afghans, the kurds, the syrian people, when we let down the people who look to us, that is a disaster for our country and for our prosperity. host: like in wisconsin, republican. caller: good morning thank you for c-span. i am a vietnam vet, not combat

and not at risk, but i always thought joe biden wasn't amiable dunce -- was an emmy able dunce -- an amiable dunce. what rational person would do this. it is lbj thinking he is a general. i am so frustrated. host: fred kempe? guest: thank you to the caller for expressing that view. i part ways with president biden on how this has been executed. i understand the difficult position he was left in by president trump. i still believe you can decide early in your presidency. i think president biden from

2009 felt very strongly that u.s. leaders had been boxed in by the military and this was not a place where american men and women should live their lives. i have known president biden as a vice president biden and senator biden peered this is a good man. this is a person who really does understand the world. he's got one of the best and most experienced administrations as seen in a long time coming into office. i say that's all disagreeing with this and hoping that this incredibly high integrity purposeful president will take a lesson from this, understanding that like john f kennedy, the bay of pigs disaster was early in his presidency. you don't remember him for the bay of pigs disaster. he can get past this but he has

to double down on allies and counterterrorism and on containing the taliban, and then he can focus on his structure plans, economic rebuilding, obviously taking on covid-19 is the highest priority. he has a lot in front of him, but if he takes charge of this situation and finds a better way out of it, you could still have a presidency, and that is what you brought up in my column. he can still have that. if they don't do that, then this will be what the administration is remembered for. host: miles in new jersey, democratic caller. caller: i want to try to understand something. we went over there and train to 300,000 of their soldiers to help fight for their country. we gave them weapons that they

could defend themselves with. everybody talked about we left the weapons behind. if we had taken the weapons they would have said how would they defend themselves. we had soldiers over there and took them out and the 200,000 other soldiers that we trained let them down. but who are we blaming? the president. what about the 300,000 soldiers that they trained? host: let's take that point. danielle pletka? guest: he asks a great question. the united states goes into these countries and yes we early on had a combat role. but among our most important roles was training, support,

maintenance, intelligence, and our allies were sharing that mission. there has been a lot said about the fact that the asking -- the afghan army quote unquote collapsed. that is not a fact. they afghans have sacrificed an enormous amount. as fred noted, have not suffered casualties like we did last week since 2011. that is notwithstanding the fact that there have been battles on the ground against the taliban and those battles have been fought by the afghan armed forces and they have conformed not just bravely, but it's extraordinarily well in terrible circumstances. they should do no less. it is their country. if they are not willing to

defend, no one else can. so .1. there serve -- so point one, they have been judged unfairly. what we provided to them in terms of equipment and intelligence and support are things that we provide to our nato allies, not just to afghanistan. it is not simple to take a country like afghanistan and a population that is as diverse as it is and in some ways underdeveloped as it is and create a first world military. we did not create a first world military. they needed our support, intelligence, maintenance and support. joe biden decided we shouldn't provide them.

some folks may remember that we went into libya to take off muammar gaddafi -- take out mo mark duffy -- to take out muammar gaddafi because of the threat to his people. we had to provide ammunition because the friends in france and u.k. ran out of ammunition. they are not afghanistan. and they are not the afghan military. they needed us as well. this is what happens. this is the kind of support we provide. it is terribly wrong and terribly misplaced to put the blame on the afghan military and suggest that they did not perform up to snuff. host: herald in miami,

independent. -- harold in miami, independent. caller: we can't change in ideology and we can't transform them into our way of life. but we have to take care of our backyard. our foundation is broken in government. we have to do something peered we have to stand up together as one country and unite ourselves, forget about politics, it and just start from scratch, one country at the time. thank you. host: host: fred? guest: i am an independent. i am not a registered democrat or republican. i believe that president biden and his rhetoric has it right.

he speaks of the period we are in as an inflection point in history and the systemic struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. we have had a recession of democratic rights and freedoms since 2006 in the high point was 1992. we have to understand that and president biden is expecting to have a democracy summit but handing afghanistan over to a bureaucracy is a setback for democracy. i think it is an inflection point and to the caller, president biden's first argument is the way we can compete with others in the world is to take care of ourselves.

that is what the economic stimulus is about. i would argue that we have to walk and chew gum at the same time we cannot be locally disengaged and we cannot be overextended. we have to decide where we work and he is right again. you have to work with allies and more in more in certain regions we have to let those allies take the lead with our supports. so we have to lead in a different way, realizing our limitations but how crucial we are to the planet at this inflection point in history. we have to do it differently and more intelligently. i agree with the caller that one has to take care of themselves first but that cannot be divorced from global obligation, which actually supports overall the u.s. domestic position as well.

host: dennis in minnesota, republican. caller: good morning. we need to wake up and find out who joe biden is. i think he is a criminal and he doesn't do anything unless he lines his pockets. you have to follow the money and connect the dots neared when he was with obama there is no difference. all of the arms left behind, that was a favor to obama and his muslim friends. host: i am going to leave it there. danielle pletka, we have had callers today over the recent days asking congress to investigate this withdraw and how it happened. do you share that? guest: let me put it this way. congress' role is oversight, so absolutely. i think congress should always understand what is going on inside the executive branch and why it is happening.

i do genuinely regret -- and without criticizing what the caller thinks specifically -- i do genuinely regret this effort to criminalize absolutely everything. some people are just bad leaders. some people do just dumb, bad things and they are not doing them because they have some hidden financial agenda or some hope for a benefit. they are wrong. the right way to deal with that in the court of public opinion is to discuss it, as we are today, into here out people's concerns and to be open and frank. in that interest of openness, absolutely. i know the senate foreign committee is planning hearings as soon as possible. [no audio]

i want our members in congress to understand why decisions were made and i want us to learn lessons so we don't make the same mistakes again. i hope i didn't put out. host: it cut out for, but i think we got the just. let's go to laura in tallahassee, florida, democratic caller. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i am enjoying the conversation. i wanted to start out by asking, you know, the afghani people tested us and we spent -- trusted us and we spent time and invested trillions of dollars, and yet they were able to see the past administration abandon our allies in syria. we walked away from the kurds.

and then we had a policy in this country that we would not negotiate with terrorists, but president trump sat down with the taliban, giving them credibility in the afghan army that we trained were aware and they watched. and i think that was the beginning of their loss of trust in our standing and defending them. and so it was in evitable that trump's plan was to pull us out. so please explain what you believe, if any, that past history in the trump administration had on the 300,000 afghan soldiers basically laying down arms and looking away and how things would have been different had trump withdrawn us from afghanistan. host: we will take that. i will have both of our guests

internet. fred kempe, do you want to go first? guest: i think there is a problem among our allies and adversaries of doubts about u.s. commitment, u.s. credit ability, -- u.s. credibility, and u.s. confidence, some justified and some over exaggerated. former sig. two-state condoleezza rice wrote recently that -- former secretary of state condoleezza wright wrote recently. taiwan, ukraine, you could have more from the russians and iran and iraq. these are times when an administration can be tested and

people can overstep and miscalculate and that could cause an international conflict that we really don't want to be in. this is a fragile geopolitical moment and the situation in afghanistan certainly doesn't help that moment at all. there is a good side from our european allies wondering whether or not they ought to be taking some more weight on their own shoulders. it was announced late yesterday that the french and british are going to go to the united nations and get approval to have a safe zone in afghanistan to have people brought out into delay or -- and to deliver humanitarian aid, even after our schedule withdrawal of august 31. this is a good thing, particularly if the european say we have to carry more burden, if they are carrying more burden if they distrust the united states,

that is a bad thing. this is a glimmer of hope in the afghan situation where you could have a safe area being created with the blessing of the united nations at the instigation of the british and the french. host: danielle pletka? guest: all i can say is i hope fred is right. i will be interested to see if the chinese and russians are going to allow a safe haven in afghanistan. my bet is they are not going to be too enthusiastic about this. the caller asked an interesting question. i think it has been absolutely fascinating to watch the politics that president biden has tried to engage in on this question. well, i had to do this and i was locked into this position because donald trump made this deal, as if something else that

donald trump did was binding on joe biden. that was transparent and was a lame argument. but he was right that donald trump was very enthusiastic about drawing down from afghanistan. for those who have forgotten, donald trump actually had the gall to invite the taliban to meet with him at camp david on 9/11. it never ended up happening, it wasn't because of the wisdom of the previous commander-in-chief. the one thing that distinguished the two of them and their terrible ideas is that joe biden came into office, said he was going to withdraw from afghanistan, and said he would do so without regard to the conditions on the ground. this seems to be the kind of willful, ideal algae -- ideology that got us to what fred laid out.

that is one difference between joe biden and donald trump. donald trump didn't say he was going to withdraw troops regardless of the situation on the ground. just as a final note, there is no point in talking about what would donald trump have done or what would joe biden have done differently if donald trump hadn't done this because it joe biden is the president of the united states. he says, but he doesn't mean it, that the buck stops with him. he is correct. the decisions you make as commander-in-chief are the decisions you make and the consequences are the consequences we see. we have betrayed our allies, not just in afghanistan but european allies on the ground, asian allies on the ground. we have created a disaster where there was not one. and worse yet, one of the things i like the most about joe biden was his support of democracy and

working with allies and yet in one fell swoop, he undercut both his commitment to democracy or did he just mean democracy for us? i'm not sure. and our relationship the allies, it is tragic. host: joseph in fayetteville, indiana. an independent. we will go to you next. caller: thank you for having me this morning. it would take years to understand the last year of our involvement with afghanistan. i would like to remind your speakers today that the united states lost every battle in the revolution and yet we won the war. the confederacy lost the civil war and yet we are still talking about this. the united states is an example for all these people around the world who are involved with

terrorists because every time it looks like we have lost or done something stupid, it turns around and all of the sudden we are an example. even the communists in china looked like they had lost to the nationalists, and they came back . you can't ever count out the united states. i have been involved in the military since 1983. i was in the marines and in the andrew jackson brigade and you cannot count out the united states. host: thank you for your service. fred kempe, your thoughts? guest: i think it was winston churchill -- who said we will do what is right after exhausting all the possibilities. we have incredible stored up potential and capability. our allies will want to rely on us because they must, but also

because they want to part of the reason we were a global leader and followed by other countries is we were viewed as leading in a common interest in a group of like-minded countries. that is really what we need to get back to again and that is going to be really important right now, because for better or worse we are in a situation where our allies feel they were not consulted over afghanistan. they believe they are not being consulted close enough on china. if we really want to be global leaders going forward, we have to work with allies early on to frame policy as a country that has learned that the future can only be shaped by a coalition of allies. we talk about how our allies are our greatest asset, but then we don't use them strategically or

bring them in early enough. host: mason, charlottesville, virginia, a republican. caller: afghanistans lost a lot of people in the war but they did it under american leadership. they came to their leadership, they folded. here in charlottesville, the day before the withdraw was announced, we had a parliamentarian and his entourage come here. why didn't he stay and organize a fight? host: danielle pletka, talk about the leadership of afghanistan over the years and americans hearing about the president fleeing the country, in your thoughts. guest: we did hear about him fleeing the country. i cannot speak to a parler -- parliamentarian being there and

i can't criticize him for that. i suspect he didn't know what was going to happen in his country. had he known, you may not have been here. afghanistan politics is ugly. it is corrupt, warfare, there has been an unbelievable lack of responsibility on the part of afghan leaders to their people. i don't just mean the his -- i don't just mean his fleeing the country, but i hesitate when we try to compare these governments to our own. we have our share of faults in our own government. afghanistan is not a democracy

of 200 plus years. afghanistan isn't a democracy of 20 plus years. it is an underdeveloped country. it is a country with tribal and religious and sectarian differences. it is a country surrounded by rather unpleasant in interfering neighbors who have not hesitated to stick their finger in the pie of afghan politics and warfare. and for those who expected that this would look jeffersonian, i hate to break it to you, it takes a long time to build a functioning democracy. countries do not throw up by nature perfect democrat. sometimes we luck out and see wonderful leaders overseas in countries that have never known democracy. but for the vast amounts of time, we see bad leaders and democratic elections that throw them out.

we see other democratic elections that bring other ones back. afghan -- afghanistan has have six elections and none have been perfect but much more perfect than afghanistan was before and. -- before hand. for those who believe we prosper more with more democracies around the world, it is not a pretty process. it wasn't here in the united states of america and i can assure you it is not going to be in any country overseas. host: arizona next, democratic caller. caller: good morning. i think it would be in our best interest if we would put our backs behind biden. he is such a compassionate man. he is doing his best. he walked into a mess from trump's rollbacks alienating our

allies. he wouldn't talk to other countries. biden is a great president and i think he is doing his best. i think everybody is bashing him and i don't think it is in our best interest. we have so many problems in this country. our voting rights are being taken away. we can't have oversight if we have people in the senate that lock everything -- that blocks everything. they just don't work together anymore. host: ok, i heard your point. fred kempe. guest: i talked to a european official and what he said the

trump rhetoric on working with allies was far worse than the actual policy, while the biden rhetoric has been far better than the actual execution and policy. so you heard me at the character of president biden and i agree with the caller but i think he needs to execute now alongside allies. and going back to the evacuation, let's not underestimate what a huge accomplishment it is that we now have 120,000 people out by now. you know whether the secretary of state or the national security or the former ambassador to afghanistan, turkey, elsewhere meeting this evacuation charge we follow this very closely. it is really remarkable what is being pulled of under difficult situations, and yes, with the

cooperation with the taliban by and large. these are really good people. there is a narrative that nothing has been accomplished in the last 20 years. the evolution of the civil society is dramatic. it didn't go down to every village and town but particularly in the larger cities, women were being educated as never before. girls were getting education opportunities as never before. if this trajectory had been able to continue, then you would really see a quite different country. that is what is in danger and it really is quite disturbing. host: here is a tweet from a viewer. do you think the taliban benefits from the constant media attention? guest: super interesting question. you would really like it, wouldn't you, if all of these vile groups and frankly haters

and nazis in our own country were not able to exploit platforms like twitter and instagram and facebook in order to propagate their message. i think the longer and the short of the answer is yes, i think the benefits absolutely. i think that apart from the platform that it affords them, it also enables them to communicate their terrible messages to other like-minded extremists. it puts out a call for others to join them on the ground in the fight. this is what we saw in the ground in a syria and what we saw previously on the ground in iraq and afghanistan. and so i, for one, wish that the kind of vigilance that these groups started to show towards american politicians, even in the context of covid, would be

i'd to the extremists that we see -- that would be applied to the extremists that we see coming up. host: charlotte, north carolina, independent. caller: good morning. a special good morning to danielle pletka. i am a fan of your podcast. my comments about the president is that he is totally incompetent. he can't even remember his wife's name. he has is handled not only afghanistan but the united states. he has given us open borders and the economy is going nowhere. and who is running the country, the former president barack obama appeared this president is not there.

host: danielle pletka, can you tell us about your podcast for those who don't know. guest: thank you. i didn't set that up. i have a podcast with my colleague. we started it during the trump administration. it is still apropos. we are focusing on afghanistan this weekend and next, and i do appreciate the shout out. host: dan, youngstown, ohio, republican. caller: i hear a lot of people talking about the cost, how must -- how much it costs us to keep troops in afghanistan and the base open. what people forget about is, what is the cost of freedom? when we were drawn down and

donald trump was in charge, he had a highly conditional drawdown, in which if the taliban didn't act and perform as they were supposed to, if they misbehaved, then we didn't draw troops out. we only did that conditionally. so when biden talks about donald trump promised to have them out by may, can you tell me any policy that biden hung onto of donald trump? he reversed every policy there was. host: we will take that point. fred kempe? guest: we still have troops in germany in the middle east. i agree with the general argument that our investment in

security pays off overall for the american people. that said, we have been overreliance on the military side. we haven't invested enough in the diplomatic side of this. you see china, whatever you think of china, they are in a very sophisticated way using the belt and wrote initiative and investments and -- the belt and road initiative and investments. if the biden administration, like the trump administration, sees china as the primary rival, you have to think in nonmilitary terms. the military, as we have seen in afghanistan and elsewhere, will only get us so far. one thing i want to say the previous caller and the

advertising of the taliban and the press covering, what i worry about most is the media is not out in places the way it needs to be and used to be. i work at the wall street journal and i went behind soviet lines during the occupation of afghanistan when my it was not very convincing. there are not as many staff reporters of major newspapers and radio stations and television out in the world. i do not know how we navigate the world if our free media does not invest more in real reporting on the ground. i think we have suffered from that in afghanistan. >> kathleen in ohio, democratic caller. >> i was eight sanders supporter

for decades. those are my values. i supported biden and did work for him online, but what worries me -- i stood against the invasion of afghanistan and iraq. i understood the need for sending in counterterrorism forces, but i stood against and went to tdc. we know that biden voted for it. all senators did. he voted for the iraq war resolution. i stood against, but now i stand against leaving based on the 20 years and on -- i keep looking at both -- many administrations look at the people of afghanistan, iraq, libya as chess or checker pieces to be

moved around without really looking at the serious consequences for people in those countries from some of our actions. what i worry about with this one is when all the generals you heard on tv like mcmaster, jacobs, warning against it as they warned against going to iraq. i feel like you are a war hawk in general. you pushed for the invasion of iraq. i worry about myself when i am agreeing -- agreeing about staying. host: final thoughts from both of you. daniel pled to come in -- danielle pletka, gophers. guest: you can -- go first. guest: you can agree with the war or disagree with the war. we have a tendency to over rely on the military.

our efforts on the soft power side are lacking. it is not for want of trying. it is for want of succeeding. we are not as good as we should be. i am not sure i agree the chinese are better at soft power . death threat diplomacy is not a model for my perspective. i agree we do too much with the military and not well enough with soft power development with the kind of technical support people need. what the caller says is right. whether you thought it was a great idea or awful idea, you have to recognize we have invested in these countries. to turn around right when we are able to maintain that investment without combat troops, without casualties, and with fewer troops than we have on the ground in spain, i think you

need to recognize there is a problem. there is a problem when a lady like the caller agrees with someone like me because what you have than is a consensus that the united states could be doing something, could be doing the right thing, and is turning around and choosing to do the wrong thing. we all know where this is going to lead. barack obama pulled us out of iraq. he denied all air support for the iraqi military. they collapsed. to think something different is going to happen in afghanistan is to ignore history. guest: let me close with historic context. i have been writing for some years this is an inflection point in history, as important as the years following world war i. after world war i, the u.s. got it wrong. we ended up with the holocaust

come with fascism. after world war two we got more right than wrong. we ended up with nato and the international order where u.s. leadership has been by and large more good than bad. we are now at one of those inflection points. you cannot see something like afghanistan in isolation. it is a contest of democracy, a question of what kind of leadership the u.s. will apply. what will become of the global system the u.s. and its satellites created? all these issues we look at, these day-to-day issues we get lost in, really important issues. it has to be seen in the larger context. if we get this history wrong, it will look ugly, more like post-world war i and then post

world war two. i am all for working with allies and seeing these setbacks as moments we can learn and take lessons from. host: thank you both for the conversation this morning and were talking to our viewers. we appreciate it. we will take a break. when we come back, we continue with our conversation, your view of the president's handling of afghanistan. there are the numbers on your screen. start dialing in. we will be back. ♪ >> weekends bring you the best in american history and nonfiction books. we will feature author discussions from freedom fast, and annual libertarian gathering including gary hoover, anthony

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but think he mismanaged how it was done. we want to know your thoughts on that question. this is from cbs. biden's job approval falls. handling of the troop withdrawal is negative but support for withdrawal remains. his overall numbers, how unpopular or popular is joe biden. right now it stands at 47.2% approval rating and a disapproval rating of 46.9%. jay and maryland, independent. how do you think he has handled the situation in afghanistan? -- in maryland, independent. how do you think he has handled the situation in afghanistan? caller: it is a bad situation anyway you look at it, but my point is that we seldom see -- i

think your last segment also pointed this out. there is a disconnect with the facts on the ground and the policymakers here. i never see an intellectual from the ground. i never see an expert from the local language speaking experts that could advise you on the actual facts on the ground. there are experts from india, from pakistan, from afghanistan. there are qualified reporters, media, experts that could advise you on the exact facts on the ground. that is unsettling to me, that they never have an understanding of the facts on the ground. then it is a conspiracy theory that the facts on the ground do not matter. we are making policy in a vacuum.

host: in case you missed it earlier this week, we introduce our viewers to a university lecturer from kabul. he joined us from afghanistan this week. he had an opportunity to leave and chose to stay. this is what he had to say, his view of the operation in the country. [video clip] >> there's an interesting piece in the new york times today. the essence of it is he says we lost because the united states tied our hands behind us and then biden calls us cowards for not having fought. he says we laid down 68,000 lives, one fit of our army, for the cause of defending the country, so do not belittle what

sacrifices we give to the country. beyond that, the american populace has the power of his own voice and needs to keep president biden in check. he acts like none of this was his responsibility, like he did not owe anything to afghanistan. i do understand the withdrawal. afghanistan did not want foreign troops to stay here. there were better ways to go about it, better ways to support the armed forces, to keep the afghan government that was corrupt in check. they failed at all of that and now the least that can be done is engaging the taliban, making sure a more safe mechanism for people to get out is insured and making sure the population that

started dreaming in the past 20 years are not stripped of it in the near future. a nonsustainable society here in afghanistan will haunt the region, the world. it has done before and we hope it does not get to that. the moment the united states decides to isolate afghanistan and impose sanctions, the only truly suffering people will be the common poor people of afghanistan. host: you can watch that interview if you go to our website, c-span.org. patrick, democratic caller. >> i come from a family at the highest levels of u.s. military and military intelligence. my father was a commander and my

brother just retired, having been over and all of these theaters on multiple occasions. the american people better start understanding how deranged our total footprint has been. billions of dollars in hundred dollar bills were brought in transports and handed to afghan warlords. we are leaving $85 billion in military assets, more helicopters than the australian government has. why? i assure you that, as a democrat and not a supporter of biden, i can tell you that president trump would not have provided the taliban with essentially a kill list with addresses of americans and other citizens around the world. this train wreck -- you cannot understate it.

it is unbelievably horrible. we are talking about smart ammunition, advanced radar technology. it is greater than the military contract with the saudi arabia government. i have already established that the chinese are on the ground. they are establishing contracts. we have looted our treasury of three plus trillion dollars and now the chinese are coming right behind us to secure rare earth mineral contracts. host: john in houston, texas, republican, your view of the situation in afghanistan and the biden administration's handling of it. caller: he has a plan. he made that clear in the press conference and he is sticking to the plan. anybody that has ever done any planning -- i do not care if he was planning a vacation with your family. you do a check and build in risk.

these guys that surround him, these senior advisors, had to calculate what is an acceptable level of loss-of-life. i took in that press conference that he said this is an acceptable level loss-of-life based on our plan. i am not adjusting. i am not changing. he needs to tell the american public that the people killed, that was acceptable, built into the plan. we have not quite reached the threshold of loss-of-life where i would adjust my plan. it is pure arrogance. host: more of your calls coming up. we want to show you an interview we did earlier this morning with a white house and national security reporter talking about

the situation on the ground in afghanistan. joining us now, the white house national security reporter with the wall street journal to give us more information about the evacuation effort. we are less than 72 hours away here. how many americans are left? guest: good morning. several hundred. the u.s. has been a little bit vague about the actual numbers as they try to get the last ones out. it has been whittled down to 400 or 500 people who wanted to get out. host: what do we know about the specific and credible threat to the airport? americans have been told to leave again the airport perimeter. guest: there was a specific

threat they were concerned about in the middle of last week. that turned out to be true. they have more information about other attacks the islamic state branch in afghanistan was to conduct before the u.s. completely rolls out. we are getting into the final windows here. if we have not already, they will basically close the gates to almost anybody else here soon except maybe american passport holders and some afghans. they are all but finished here. when they do close things down, that will not eliminate the threat to american forces but mitigate it. host: what can you tell us about

the drone attack on isis-k? the president and administration say they found and killed people responsible for that kabul attack a few days ago. guest: there is a lot of caveats around the attack. they got some planners and facilitators, probably two, maybe injured a third in eastern afghanistan. it is not clear that was any kind of central command are or anything like that. they initially described these individuals as senior leaders or high-profile militants. that is not as clear, if that is really who they were. they were islamic state planners , as the pentagon terms them,

but it is not clear this is the head or something of the snake that they have been able to eliminate. they are worried about more attacks and likely planning other strikes there or in other parts of afghanistan. we reported yesterday the u.s. had a special weapon in combination with a conventional weapon that can be used with more precision and used to eliminate the possibility or mitigate the possibility of civilian casualties. host: was it a drone strike? guest: it was a drone strike from a base in the gulf, so because they have closed all the bases down they have not been

able to fly from around the region. they have to fly from several hundred miles from the region because that is where bases are. it does minimize the amount of time in the air and make it harder to fly over the country to potentially get more targets. this is what they call over the horizon, kind of the name of the game going forward because there are no other bases there in afghanistan or the region which would have been more convenient. host: what are you watching for today in these closing hours in afghanistan? guest: the remains of the 13 service members are going to be arriving today. that is significant, obviously a sad event. in terms of the airport, i thing we will see them take more

significant steps toward closing it up and starting to not only evacuate but ask people on the airport to get out and may let more in. as of yesterday, they had about 5000 american troops who had been there for the emergency evacuation who now themselves need to get out over the next few days. tuesday is the deadline. it is going to be a concerning period for the military. as they reduce the number of troops, they have less security and will be relying on the taliban to provide them with security around the airport. at some point, you're going to have only a few hundred american troops trying to leave and they

will be relying on the taliban to make sure the airport stays secure and does not get mobbed by more afghans. it is going to be a perilous period. host: follow his reporting on ws j.com and his twitter handle. thank you for the update. earlier today, our interview with a wall street journal reporter. let's go back to calls. tom in new york, and independent. we are getting your view of the biden administration's handling of afghanistan. what do you think? caller: it was chaotic. my question is how do you defeat the taliban? should we have instituted a draft 20 years ago?

to defeat them? they seem to be killing us a little bit at a time. it is a tragedy that we are losing marines over there. how do you defeat them at this point? host: tom in bloomingdale, new jersey, democratic caller. what do you think? caller: i am a democrat, but for two weeks i have been calling for biden to resign because i have been seeing the headlines and seeing those heart-wrenching images. now i have questions and i have questions based on information that i had to acquire on my own, that i was not getting from regular media. why did the former president negotiate withdrawal only with the taliban and exclude the afghan government and then praise the taliban, claiming they will be killed -- what

effect did that have on the morel and collapse of the afghan army -- morale and collapse of the afghan army? all i have been hearing is how biden reduced troops, and he did reduce it to 1000 from 2500. that was bad, but now it is 5000. was 2500 troops ever enough to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people, hold and defend the airbase and the airport, and evacuate our military equipment if 5000 troops is needed just to secure the airport? to what extent were both presidents strongly advised the afghan government and army would immediately collapse? host: the white house saying

from 3:00 a.m. yesterday to 3:00 a.m. today there were approximately 22,900 people evacuated from kabul, so evacuations continue in these closing days. we are less than 72 hours away from the president's deadline of leaving afghanistan on august 31. in dodge city, kansas, a republican. caller: can you hear me? host: i can. caller: two points. first, joe biden is acting like -- donald trump is like john wayne. john wayne goes in and gets the job done. we have got all the good people out of afghanistan now. we go in and tell them we invented terrorism. have you ever heard of the nuclear bomb?

we can turn your country into the biggest ashtray if you do not straighten up and fly right. we will introduce you to real terror and we can do it. thank you. host: michelle, independent. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. your coverage of the afghanistan withdrawal has been outstanding. please do a segment featuring civilians who served in afghanistan. the military was only one part of our presence. i voted for biden. i hoped he wouldn't still -- competency. only months into his presidency, we have a historic crisis and tragedy. he has undermined our standing in the world.

it was not a treaty. it was not ratified by our senate. -- or in consultation with our allies, who entered the war on our behalf. one man has put our nation at risk, our partners at risk. what about our american hostage? are we leaving him behind? i fear we may have a major hostage situation in a week to two weeks. host: george in ohio, democratic caller. we will go to you next. caller: i appreciate the wide variety of questions and stuff that you give out every day. i am a biden supporter, a democrat.

why could end we have's -- why couldn't we have started pulling out earlier? if you had made this decision in april or may, when trump had made the decision in may, why didn't he start pulling out people earlier? i am a democrat and a vietnam veteran. i have a son that served over there. this was a big bundle of mass -- mess he put us in. he could have done this better. host: let's listen to the president talking about completing the mission in afghanistan. >> as i have been in contact with our senior military leaders around the clock and our commanders in the ground -- on the ground through the day, they

made it clear we can and must complete this mission. and we will. that is what i ordered them to do. we will not be deterred by terrorists. we will not let them stop our mission. we will continue the evacuation. i have also ordered my commanders to develop plans to strike isis-k facilities. we will respond with force and precision at the time and place we choose. here's what you need to know. these isis terrorists will not win. we will rescue the americans. we will get our afghan allies out. our mission will go on. america will not be intimidated. i have confidence in our brave service members who continue to execute this mission to save lives and get americans, our

partners, our allies out of afghanistan. every day when i talked to our commanders, i ask them what they need about what more they need to get the job done. as they will tell you, i have granted every request. i reiterated to them today on three occasions that they should take the maximum steps necessary to protect our forces on the ground in kabul. i want to thank the secretary of defense and all the commanders in the field. there has been complete unanimity of every commander on the objectives of this mission and the best way to achieve those objectives. host: the president from last week. take a look at this photo just released. this is the president and first lady before they boarded air force one this morning to make their way to delaware, where the president will be on the ground

when the bodies of those 13 u.s. servicemen touch american soil this morning. peter in new york, republican. caller: i would like to make a couple observations. i would appreciate if you give me the time to make them. i would like to disagree with ms. pletka that somehow president trump was complicit. i agree with one of your previous callers that the withdrawal from the trump administration was based on them making certain conditions. one of those was that the taliban would meet with the afghan government and form a coalition. even the biden administration understood the taliban was going to be in control of that country. and that they had to form some kind of coalition for there to

be peace in that country. number two, as far as i can tell , the people, the 75,000 soldiers who form the taliban are the same people who live in afghanistan who were in the 300,000 strong troops in the afghan army. i had seen a training officer on tv who said that the afghan army was undisciplined and when they got paid they disappeared. i believe the afghan -- not all, but the majority of the afghan people did not want what america was offering them. and that there was not the will to fight for democracy in their country. how did a ragtag group of americans fight the strongest military in the world, the british, and defeat them?

because they had will and desire to form their own country. i do not think that was present there in afghanistan. i think that is the reason why. we would have had to stay there forever. host: darlene, oregon, independent. caller: i am not that politically involved in this conflict, but what i wish to say is they have done a great job and i hope for a safe withdrawal of the correct people out of the area. host: richard in ohio, republican. we will go to you next. >> i am a veteran. i am retired from the armed forces and everything.

we was in vietnam. we had no business being there, in iraq. they had been fighting wars for years and years. all it is to me is just a thing about overpopulation. you tell me why we are over there and here you're trying to get all our men out of their in afghanistan and everything else but you have them all around this airport putting us into a slaughterhouse. why do we have to be there? host: greg, and afghan war veteran in san antonio. when and where did you serve in afghanistan? caller: i served in a province

in 2013. i was in kandahar doing medical operations. host: what are your thoughts as you have watched over the past couple weeks the invents unfold -- events unfold? caller: it is horrifying to watch. i am not a warmonger. i want everybody to know that. i also believe in -- being a guy who has worked for several generals in the united states air force, we do not let the state department run the operation. that is how this fiasco developed.

the strategic commanders of the united states military should be running the operation. when i watch all this develop, it is mind blowing. i do not understand why. host: go ahead and finish your thought. caller: i do not understand why any commander would give the authority to the state department to let them run this operation. host: in chicago, ralph, independent. caller: good morning. president eisenhower when he left office warned the american public about the military-industrial complex. as a vietnam veteran -- then we have 9/11 and wmd's that were never there that were based on

another lie. now the one in afghanistan. people are making millions of dollars. osama bin laden shorted stocks prior to 9/11 and made millions of dollars knowing what was going to happen. host: as we wait to see the president in dover for the arrival of the fallen from that attack at the kabul airport, i want to show you with the president had to say friday after those attacks had taken place and 13 u.s. service members were lost. more than 170 afghans lost their lives. this is what he had to say, calling it a worthy mission. [video clip] >> let me begin by acknowledging the bravery and sacrifice our military makes every day and the

loss of americans and marines and army personnel is tragic, as i said yesterday. losing a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, is like being sucked through a black hole in the middle of your chest and you do not think there's any way out. our hearts go out to all of those who we have lost. the mission there being performed is dangerous. it has come with significant loss of american personnel. it is a worthy mission because they continue to evacuate folks out of the airport.

they've evacuated more than 12,000 additional people out of the airport in the last 24 hours. i met with my commanders and the first thing -- the first thing in the morning, got a detailed briefing about yesterday? at -- yesterday's attack and the measures they are taking to complete the mission. we will complete the mission. host: now an update on the numbers. the white house said that since august 14 the u.s. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of 114,400 people. we are in the closing hours of the withdrawal from afghanistan. wilma in illinois, a democratic caller. what is your view of the and ministration's -- administration's handling of this? caller: ms. pletka said biden created a disaster where there was no disaster. afghanistan was a disaster from the beginning under mr. bush.

i think these disasters cannot be blamed on mr. biden, who i think is doing an excellent job. host: harrison in south carolina, independent caller. go ahead. caller: i called on the democratic line. as a democrat, i am indifferent to joe biden my but my point is what the caller just then said. afghanistan was -- i do not want to call it a train wreck. it is what it is, but it is an illusion. it is not a country. it is just a region that shows up on a globe or map. it is a political boundary that is full of tribal lands that has existed for millennia. america's mistake is to look at

the world as if we are looking at a member where we are a collective nation with collective ideas and we try to apply that to the ancient land. it just does not work. some previous callers were talking about military solutions . we will always run it into a brick wall looking for a military solution going against ideals that drive the taliban. the caller just before me, she is right. we were not going to build a nation. america has a lot to learn going back and paying attention to history. your segment today is what you think about the -- how the ministration is handling it. this is -- administration is

handling it. the strategic decision to get out was made a long time ago. the previous caller made the point that the military should not turn it over to the state department to run this thing. and that, he is wrong. what makes america great is the civilian government runs the military. we have been talking about getting out of afghanistan forever. i look at it as either a state department or military mistake that they did not have contingencies for this withdrawal. host: ron in california, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. people forget a lot of things. it is so easy just to look at the latest news and say this is terrible, what a terrible debacle.

let me tell you something. i happen to have been drafted in july of 1967. i got out in july of 1969. i am familiar with the process. i what you to know something. we lost 58,000 people in vietnam , 58,000 soldiers. there is nothing that hurts more than to see our 13 marines -- they lived almost next door to me. it is in sad shape. in april 30 of 1975, 5400 south vietnamese give up their lives defending the fall of saigon. if you look at it in perspective, this is a sweet deal. how many people have we lost? that was a suicide bomber group

who was immediately killed with a drone. i consider that pretty efficient. you have to put in perspective what is going on. we have lost the war in afghanistan. we lost a war, another one. so take it under consideration and be happy we get our people out. be happy we do not have to bring 2 million south vietnamese to this country to protect them. we lost 2 million others who could not get out. just one basic ingredient, be grateful for what we have so far. host: listen to the reaction from republicans. here is republican leader kevin mccarthy friday and his criticism of the handling of afghanistan. [video clip] >> these new 13 gold star

families come out my message to you is this. your loved ones died as heroes. we will always honor their memories and pray you will know peace. those who died knew there was a threat of an attack and carried out their mission anyway. heroic, the only way to describe their actions and work every day. to the brave troops and stranded americans in afghanistan, we pray for you to return home safely. our enemies have taken advantage of this chaotic nature of withdrawal and yesterday they crossed a redline. like many of you, i listened closely to what president biden had to say that night. i heard the president dodge tough questions about his execution of the withdrawal and present a false troyes between exiting, evacuating, and escalating. i heard him say the mission will

continue but the taliban dictated deadline will remain. i heard him say leaving bagram was not much value added in getting -- and getting every person out could not be guaranteed. i heard him say he cannot remember if his administration gave american names to taliban terrorists. never in the history of this nation would we have ever thought our own government would give the names of americans to the taliban. i heard him say what america says matters as he gets ready to break our word to our allies and afghan partners who fought alongside us for more than 20 years. what i did not hear from the president was his decisive leadership for our troops, our citizens, and our allies, what they deserve.

host: the republican leader from friday, his view on how the president's handling the situation in afghanistan. gregory in columbia, mississippi, we will go to you. caller: how are you doing? i wanted to talk to you about the situation in afghanistan. afghanistan is just a train wreck. everybody knows that. they blame everything on biden now and now he is try to do the best he can, which i think he is. all the republicans and some democrats about how he needed to get impeached when they had all the time in the world when they had president trump doing all kinds of crazy things, messing

up democracy and everything. now you can hear everything from them. host: travis in texas, republican. caller: thank you for letting me talk. guest: -- host: we are listening. go ahead. caller: i am a republican. i used to be a democrat. host: ok. caller: biden is ventilated incompetent -- mentally incompetent. something is wrong. he is just the fall guy for nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, and all that. our guys went over in afghanistan and did a wonderful job.

why didn't he use trump's pull out plan when he had the chance and get people out safely? he messed up a lot of things trump put in place for this country that was helping us, like the border wall. that was helping us. he shut the pipeline off but let the russians continue their pipeline. this country needs to get on their knees and pray that the taliban, these isis fighters do not come back over here and do what they did on 9/11. host: the administration warning yesterday americans to stay away from the kabul airport because of another specific and credible threat to the airport as they continue with evacuations and removing americans and afghans from the country. the new york times reporting as

of saturday there were still around 300 americans who wanted to leave who were still in the midst of evacuating. in illinois, independent and good morning. caller: i do not think anyone would disagree we needed to get out of afghanistan. the disagreement is how it was executed. i cringe when i hear the numbers that were evacuated because we did not prioritize americans and those that helped us. i believe the entire thing was a disaster. thank you. caller: robert, afghan war veteran. when did you serve -- host: robert, afghan war veteran. when did you serve? what were you doing there? caller: 2009, cargo specialist.

host: what do you think about the way that withdrawal happened? caller: it should be much more organized. there is no excuse for it. biden said he would not leave until everybody was out. it would get done more faster and secure. host: in alabama, democratic caller. larry, go ahead. caller: people in this country need to realize that afghanistan has a fighting season. we have a hunting season in the united states. we have a baseball season. we have a college football season. all them people over there look forward to this killing.

why did we go over there in the first place with a bunch of barbaric ragheads? host: willie, las vegas, democratic caller. caller: about a week ago, we had a breaking story with this lady that worked in the trump administration. she was trying to go around forgetting visas processed and supposedly mr. miller cuts that off and said these people did not belong in this country. i wonder why this has not been discussed. my other point is the weapons that were supposed to remain --

we let our weapons that was going to remain in afghanistan -- what were we supposed to do, snatch them away from the afghanistan and then they would have gotten word that we really was going to leave and the whole thing would have collapsed. people still had to have those weapons to fight with. host: if you win his left ear and your thoughts on the president's -- a few minutes left ear and your thoughts on the president's handling -- left here and your thoughts on the president's handling of afghanistan. caller: i am glad that biden is in there and we got rid of mr. trump. i do not know why people think he is a republican. host: stephen, you have to turn

down the television. you have to listen and talk through the phone. joy in texas, democratic caller. can you mute your television? caller: yes. joyce, we are waiting for you. go ahead. caller: ok. my question is when they have all those people they are trying to get out of kabul, why do they announce on tv where they are taking people out of? host: ok. angela and massachusetts, independent caller. -- in massachusetts, independent caller. caller: thank you for taking my call. thank you for c-span. i know this whole thing has been an embarrassment to our country. i do not know why people do not think it is an embarrassment. our enemies are now emboldened.

the chinese army is stationed in the south china sea. i am afraid they are looking to swallow taiwan up. we should be sending military equip it to see this does not happen. the chinese and russians still have embassies in afghanistan. does biden know he has let all our allies down? i listened to the bbc and heard members of the palace of commons lambaste this president. they never said anything bad about our president ever appearing i think it is time for both parties to do their duty and have hearings in real time to impeach this president and his cronies in the state department. antony blinken was told -- john mccain said he was not made for america.

and his state department takes a lot of blame for what happened here. host: lisa, rochester, democratic caller. caller: i think it has been wonderful. the criticism of him is unfounded. this is the best departure from a failed war in history. anyone who doubts this should watch the killing fields or perhaps reread sideshow. i think pulling -- polling is irrelevant because the polls are contaminated by racism. if you just look at the races response to the debt racist spots to the name of the brave officer who killed the insurrectionist. i think the low poll numbers on the afghanistan situation are contaminated by that. host: victor in atlanta, georgia

you served in afghanistan. when and where? caller: i was in afghanistan in 2002 and 2008. host: your thoughts? caller: nobody is saying what the real problem was. trump set all this up. biden is just following what trump laid down. that is all he is doing. trump let the men out of prison. he put this in motion. biden is dealing with the hand he has been dealt. host: one final headline for you as well. hurricane ida almost a category 5 right now as it gains strength and approaches louisiana on the hurricane katrina anniversary.

please have mercy on louisiana is the sign outside that person's home. we will be back here tomorrow morning. enjoy the rest of your weekend. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. provided by these television companies and more, including charter education. >> broadband is a force for empowerment. billion infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering opportunity in communities big and small.

charter is connecting us. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public service. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> tonight on cumin day, a conversation with karen on her book, the triumph of nancy reagan, the strength of tenacity of the first lady helped to shape the reagan presidency. >> she had one agenda, ronald reagan's well-being and success. she was also -- she had better instincts about people than he did. sort of a better nose for trouble than he did. so, the people in the administration, who understood all of this, who recognized her power -- people like secretary of state george schultz, or white house she said -- chief of state james baker.

they really understood that she was an important and crucial ally to have, if you are trying to get ronald reagan on board. >> karin's biography, the tramp of nancy reagan, on c-span. you can find all today interviews wherever you find your podcasts. g institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap.org] ♪ host: good morning, everyone. we are less than 72 hours away from president biden's -- to withdraw from afghanistan and the president is warning of new specific incredible threats at the kabul airport. more from -- we'll get more on the situation on the ground coming up on today's program. we're going to begin our conversation with all of you on your view of the president's handling of afghanistan. if you're a republican, dialing in