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 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. ♪