people around the world want to hear what he has to say. how he can explain the situation on the ground now and how the taliban will be flying their flag over the u.s. embassy on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. you can watch the president's remarks on "the claman countdown." that's it for me. thank you for letting me fill in for stuart varney. neil cavuto, yours. neil: thank you, lauren. the president has interrippedded his vacation to return to talk about afghanistan. the taliban put out a statement, embassies and foreign nationals are not in danger. they shouldn't be fearful. the insurgents told residents of

kabul to stay in their homes. they have very little when it comes to alternatives right now. the airport is effectively closed as they try to lock it down to make sure the runaways are safe. hundreds were pouring on to the runway right now. several trying to hide in planes. several leaping to their deaths as a result. trying to keep order there has proven a tall task. trey yingst with the latest from jerusalem. reporter: neil, good afternoon. the taliban declared victory in afghanistan after taking the capital of kabul yesterday. the images from this country this morning, devastating and deteriorating. we saw afghan civilians rush the airport overflight, chasing down u.s. military planes evacuated people from kabul. videos circulating on line young men falling to their deaths. they were clinging to the side of one aircraft. the airport is the focal point of this story. president biden has authorized 7,000 total u.s. troops, we are

learning this hour. additional 1000 from the 6,000 number were added from the 82nd airborne. bringing that total to 7,000 troops authorized by the americans. some of those troops overnight fired their weapons into the air trying to disperse thousands of civilians who showed up at the runway. five people were killed in what appeared to be a stampede near the terminal. additional two people died according to reports further into kabul, taliban fighters took over the presidential home. after the afghani fled the country. they would soon declare the afghanistan the islamic emirate of afghanistan. the propaganda, taking all provincial capitals except one across the country. will be of certain when you think about the 9/11 anniversary comes up next month. they will be in control not only of the u.s. embassy but all the american equipment left behind.

neil: trey, thank you very much. incredible reporting on this, trey. thank you. i do want to update you before we go to jacqui heinrich on how the white house plans to address this situation with further updates to trey's point. we know three afghans clinging to a u.s. air force jet left kabul were ultimately run over and killed. another young man dropped from the plane and died on impact. u.s. troops shot two other armed men as afghans were scrambling to leave the country. separately the u.s. has begun this massive effort to airlift western diplomats as well as civilians. since now the totals are running into the thousands they're concerned whether they have the capacity or wherewithal to do it. the pullout from the country now comes after our 20 years there, to keep the taliban out. the taliban is back in and the president set to address the nation in a little bit more than 3 1/2 hours from now.

jacqui heinrich with more at the white house. reporter: hey, neal. as you mentioned president biden will leave camp david. return to the white house to address the nation at 3:45 eastern. that will be the first time we hear him speak since the afghan government collapsed under that taliban surge. the administration's takeaways on this hit a few key points as the developments kept rolling out over the course of the weekend. first they have been blaming the trump administration for the withdrawal treatment that the u.s. committed to before biden took office, leaving president biden with the choice to either follow through with that timeline or send more troops to fend off the inevitable retaliation they said would come from the taliban. former president trump also reduced forces to what biden called a bare bones 2500. biden wrote on saturday when i became president i faced a choice, follow through on the deal, excuse me, follow through on the deal with a brief extension to get our forces, allies forces out safely or ramp

up our presence to send more american troops fight once again in another country's civil conflict. i was fourth president to reside over american troop president presence in afghanistan. two republicans, two democrats, i will not pass this war on to a fifth. the according to our research the total cost of the war in afghanistan including economic aid was $978 billion from 2001 to 2020. the administration privately, publicly expressed deep disappointment in president ghani, and military, three to one advantage, 20 years in tran inning and forces seemed to give it up. >> the president didn't seem it was inevitable the taliban would take control of afghanistan. he thought the afghan security forces would step up and fight. we spent 20 years, tens of billionses of dollars training them, giving them best equipment, giving them support of u.s. forces for 20 years. reporter: the challenge is

keeping kabul international airport open. by the end of the day 4,000 troops will be on the ground. in addition to the 1000 more troops we learned are coming. the pentagon says the u.s. is basically in control of air traffic control and work to evacuate remaining americans and afghan refugees, bringing 30,000 afghan refugees to american military bases where they await visa processing. that is the reversal of the administration previous plan to send applicants to third countries for vetting. how many will make it out is really the question here. as of this morning flights were suspended at the airport with hundreds of afghans literally scrambling to get on to planes, clinging to the sides, many falling midair during takeoff. so the challenge now is just keeping airlifts happening out of kabul. neil? neil: do we know at this point, jackie the tone of the president's address? he said this is nothing like the exodus out of vietnam. he is right about that.

it appears worse and a lot more just hectic and sporadic and just frantic? reporter: we don't know what tone he is going to strike in this address. in the statement over the weekend he seemed to really double down on his stance that he did not regret his choice to withdraw. this was an agreement that the country had made under the previous administration which was a withdrawal agreement, by the way, not a peace agreement. and some of his supporters will point that out. had the u.s. decided to stay, troops that were there, 2500 would likely have to start fending off attacks from the taliban which were not because of that agreement because at facting our troops. he stuck to the stance he doesn't regret his decision. while all this was unfolding there has been bloodshed, a lot of chaos and a lot of criticism saying we should have had better intelligence to really estimate how this was going to go and to be able to determine that this was not going to be a smooth

withdrawal. there should have have been a plan in place to get our people out before the drawdown was complete. now you're watching scramble happen at airport. u.s. embassy no longer functioning diplomatic services out of there. neil. neil: jackie, thank you. what little intelligence the taliban is doing little to disrupt the exodus. that is sketchy but at this point the taliban is doing to get in the way of those that want to flee the country. dave sears, former navy seal team six commander. dave, good to have you, if that is true, dave, if the taliban is standing back at airport, letting this exodus proceed what do you read into that? the patience maybe they will instill or it's false, what do you think? >> i think that it very temporary. you cannot rely on it.

so the taliban, they're not, been unified in their, for the country in these places but not unified command. they could turn on a heartbeat and could turn completely, even more chaos is now. because they don't have control over all the commanders and everybody else. there is a lot of people there seeking vending against and just want wreak havoc t could turn ugly at moments notice, we have problems with your audio. it keeps skipping. we'll try to fix that. meantime, go to susan crabtree, "real clear politics," national political correspondent. susan i will pick up on something i wanted to get clarified with dave, that the notion that the taliban will suddenly behave differently. that is what people hope. maybe they have not interfered with the exodus. maybe to dave's point don't get ahead of yourself on that. we're hearing from a taliban

officials, the head of the taliban political office saying no one was expecting our victory would be like this. in the past we were not as responsible as we have become. it is now a test for us. now some have interpreted those remarks as a sign we're a new taliban. we're a different taliban. are they? >> i can't imagine that could be true. trusting the taliban and begging them not to get involved in our withdrawal and hurt anybody while we're withdrawing is humiliating to be quite honest. this is a travesty, a completely predictable and avoidable travesty. back in 2011 i was in the hangar at fort bragg, home to u.s. army airborne and special forces when obama held celebratory welcoming home of the last soldier from iraq. 100% withdrawal that joe biden spearheaded. i remember thinking shouldn't be a celebration. this is a capitulation. and but everybody else seemed

very triumphant about us leaving. then the rise of isis filled that leadership vacuum. biden needs to tell the world today why are we doing this all over again? now on the 20 year anniversary of september 11th, we'll be analyzing how quickly we're set offing the stage for another terrorist attack. for anyone whose parents served in vietnam, had loved ones who had loved once and friends who served in afghanistan, it is gut-wrenching we can't learn from our mistakes. neil: they're trying to put out a different image that they're a new taliban again. all the conflicting statements out of the top security officials or those who represent for wont of a better term their pr office, they're saying that embassies and foreign nationals are not in danger. you shouldn't be fearful. the insurgents told residents of kabul stay in your homes.

everything will be okay. what do you think they could be setting the stage for? >> well they want us to leave so we're leaving. they're not going to interfere with our withdrawal but then they will hunt down the people that had anything to do with helping us and they're going to execute them. that is the situation that these people, these afghans face on the ground. so why should any of our allies and people that we're asking to help us trust us ever again? general mark milley told a group of senators in a briefing over this weekend that the terrorists will be reconstituting in afghanistan much quicker than he previously thought considering how quickly the taliban took the whole country. this is a slap in the face of every man and woman who wore the uniform and served in afghanistan and accomplished their mission there. it is just unbelievable to me that biden doesn't seem to be listening to his national security advisors, not listening to his generals. could it be donald trump was actually more pragmatic and

better listener to what was actually happening on the ground? unbelievable. neil: donald trump wanted us out of there earlier. wanted us out in may. do you think it would be different under donald trump? >> yeah i do think it would have been different. he always left the door open to a footprint a small footprint of special forces and strategic teams, strike teams. he was also making sure there was conditions based on our withdrawal. yes, he did draw down to 2,000 forces but it was always conditioned based. when we, in the spring when biden decided that he was going to lift those conditions and withdraw completely i wrote a piece saying this is incredibly risky strategy. i wish some other journalists would have spoken out sooner. we have a lot of armchair generals right now saying this is a great, they can't believe this is happening but some of us were predicting it back in the spring as well. neil: i remember indeed you

were, susan. thank you very, very much. i want to go back to dave sears. i think we corrected the technical issues with him. dave, and i apologize for that, but my last guest was quoting the general mark milley, chairman of joint chiefs of staff, after all we've been through the terror threat was going to rise, he told some senators that. is it? do you think the terror threat will rise right now? >> i think that the -- is on side it is going to rise but i honestly am really questioning our intelligence community's ability to predict anything as well as the military's ability to predict anything. if they didn't see this coming for years and years, they have been telling us that, hey the afghan national army is growing, the afghan national police are growing. yes, we're making advances, year after year after year, just give us more money and more time we'll do this. if they didn't see this coming either. this caught them by complete

surprise and it should not have. so is the terror threat going to grow? yes, most likely but significantly, i'm not sure that. remains to be seen. impossible to say. neil: i know. it is always a mistake game trying to guess what could have happened what would have happened under the prior administration, whether the may departure would have been pushed back. response from the taliban would have prompt ad very different response from president trump and from president biden but apparently we are learning that all the top generals and military honchos were advising the president against i think both the timing of this move and how it would sort out getting closer and closer to the end of august and he ignored them. of course he would not be the first president who has gone a different direction than his generals. i want to get a sense from but the hand-wringing going on over this, who will take the heat for isn't who let the american

people down? >> i think there is a lot of blame to go around. number one though, president biden he is the leader, he is the commander-in-chief. he owns this, this whole blame game it was president trump, president trump doesn't help things by chiming in either, throwing more partisan politics on top of it. the thing that gets lost, the first casualty in politics and ideology is truth and reason. that is what we've lost here and we lost this, a lot of this was our generals and the military establishment and the intelligence community have become so politicized they sort of lost a lot of objective truth, the ability to look at this from an objective kind of lens. so there is a lot of blame that can go around with. this right now the situation has changed. you need to get towards resolving this current situation, proceed on to what will we do for messaging in the future and how do we control the

damage of this. then take a look, hard look postmortem what did we do wrong? who is to blame? i think there is a lot in the senior leadership of military, intelligence communities, our government, civilian oversight, that they all carry a lot of blame. so it should be exposed. neil: dave, want to press one last issue. i know producers are really upset. but i learn a lot having you on so if you will indulge me. the notion that the country fell because the u.s. wasn't there anymore to back it up, to support it, to train, whatever you want. it got me to thinking about other countries in that neck ofe woods where the united states plays instrumental role, viewed did i kingdom having their back if something happens. the saudi kingdom dealt with many incursions they have stifled but makes you wonder whether it is sort of like an

odds like control on their governments? that it isn't as impressive as it appears to be. and that there are a lot of tenuous ruling governments in that entire region? afghanistan was just blown open wide because we're leaving entirely but there are others just as vulnerable. what do you think? >> without a doubt. afghanistan, and it becomes difficult to compare all these different countries because afghanistan is a very unique situation in terms of gettinggraphy and look at arab spring. how quickly egypt went into chaos. a lot of these countries are pous dud powder kegs willing to go. , you don't put your head in the

sand, no it is perfectly stable. no it could blow any minute and how do you respond to that. that is the big question. neil: dave, thank you, more importantly, i have to mention this thank you for your service to this country. why we do talk to you, because you know of what you speak. dave sears. again we're getting more details coming out of the kabul airport, temporarily shut down. they're just trying to clear the runways. people were storming them by the hundreds. some say about it thousands. hard to quantify issues like this. it makes it very difficult to fly out in an environment like that, just total bedlam. we were looking at this as a comparison back to saigon and our departure from site name back in 1975. this makes saigon look like a hop on a disney ride by compare son. we'll have more after this. ♪.

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the down about 250 points. had been down about 50 points. why this is not a great concern on wall street that it appears to be on main street and main streets around the world? jonathan hoenig is with us. jonathan, why is that? >> well neil, the scenes out of kabul, unbelievable chaos. you have thousands of american troops there. you have residents shouting "death to america." unbelievably chaotic scenes. reminiscent of the early 2000s. you saw a flight to quality to early part of the day. stocks down, gold and bonds up. there were jitters out of there but the stocks have recovered. look at the big picture, you realize the market is up six months in a row. investors many are looking for a reason to sell. at this point it doesn't seem to be it. neil: i hope it is not because the taliban is putting out various statements. everyone is safe. our nationals is safe. we'll not disrupt things at the airport, trusting them at their words might be a bit of a leap

of faith but having said that obviously the new concern down the road could be if the taliban protected with control of a government in a country we swept them out of some 20 years ago, could, could, disrupt things in the united states. now that is the fear. wall street doesn't share that. do you? >> neil, not yet but i remember 20 years ago we're marking a very somber anniversary coming up. there was a time when things like terror, color-coded threat levels really impacted the market. that threat of terror was a constant impact for those of us investing. we've been fortunate that has gone away for quite some time. as you said if the threat of taliban continues to rise, legitimacy of this murderous islamist group continues to rise, it come home to haunt us on main street but wall street as well. neil: what about, jonathan, the notion it might give pause to the initiatives that president biden wants?

fairly or not, last president standing as we pull out there, the fingers are pointed at him. a lot of things he bungled with this departure. dismissing concerns of his generals and his top military aides to do this but it will hurt him in other areas? the big human infrastructure push, the climate push, that he could be a weakened leader and that would have reverberations well beyond afghanistan, what do you think? >> certainly to his legacy, neil. jimmy carter, for example, actually did a lot of great things when it came to deregulation, everything from beer prices to trucking but what he is remembered about is the terrible situation in terms of the iranian hostages. this is a real risk for biden. we knew he was a big spender, a big taxer but if this international situation is bungled by the biden administration, this ultimately could come back to haunt him big time. the economy writ large, neil, think about it, a trillion dollars spent in afghanistan. we don't have a lot to show for

it. that bill is paid by every american every day of his or her life. neil: jonathan hoenig, thank you very much, my friend. following all of this. as you can see not much movement in the dow one way or the other. biggest catalyst was retail growth slowing in places like china. of course china had its own problems with spikes in covid cases and the like. that could jeopardize the second largest economy on the planet, maybe spread elsewhere. that was the initial concern. very little of targeted what is going on in afghanistan right now. after this. as someone who resembles someone else... i appreciate that liberty mutual knows everyone's unique. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. [ nautical horn blows ] i mean just because you look like someone else doesn't mean you eat off the floor, or yell at the vacuum, or need flea medication.

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quote, biden has a history of pushing for endless wars while trump has continued to take the lead in peace talks as he signed a historic peace agreement with the taliban in afghanistan which would end america's longest wars. we stress, that the trump administration, donald trump said under different circumstances and with the activity of the taliban it would not have down countenanced the same reaction, that we do know that touting the peace agreement with the taliban back in 2020, that has been taken down from the republican national committee site. meantime back in this country, the concern about virus cases that are spiking although not as spiking in certain areas as they were before. we'll get to that in just a minute but taking effect tomorrow, for example, in new york, today is the day vaccine mandate you have to prove, businesses have to make

sure customers can prove they have been vaccinated. that is not going down very easily or nicely. lydia hu has more from staten island, new york. lydia? reporter: yeah, neil, we're talking to restaurant owners here on staten island who say this policy will really jeopardize the fragile state of their recovery. we're getting insight on that very point from greg who is the owner of daddio's barbecue. thank you for your time today. greg, you think this policy is one step too far. you say you are not going to require your patrons to show proof of vaccination. why do you take, why do you take that position? >> not going to do it at all because i, our community, staten island community are very tight, they support you. they support everything you do. if i turn around and tell one of my guests that have been supporting us for years, especially through the pandemic, you can't come in because you're not vaccinated, you lose that support. reporter: what do you think the reaction would be like here?

>> oh, not good, not good. i would rather take my chances and go about it where i'm not going to ask them for a card. i'm all for it, vaccines, whatever you want to do, it is your choice. you do what you want to do but as far as carding people, i'm not the police. reporter: there is the business component to this. that would add costs to your bottom line. part of your policy requires staff at these small businesses also be fully vaccinated. you're having problems finding adequate staff. one of your restaurants in brooklyn is totally closed because you can't get people to go to work. that is another reason. reporter: that is another reason. i would have to hire someone to stand there at the front door to card people. it is embarrassing. it is embarrassing. we can't afford it anymore. we are just getting back on our feet. we can't afford it. reporter: that is the point that the new york state restaurant association made to us, neil. i asked them for a statement around they provided a comment that says essentially the restaurant industry is being

targeted. they go on to say this is a draw back for the industry. here it is the day before this policy now takes effect. the restaurant owners that we're speaking to say there is confusion, there is frustration and there is a lot of anxiety and tension among them. neil? neil: understandably so. lydia hu, thank you very, very much. lydia in staten island, new york. another popular restaurant in new york is the poco restaurant. he is the owner. emanuel, you were among the first to offer vaccinations right on site, right? so how did that go? all right. emanuel, we'll check your audio. we have some problems with that maybe we can fix that. take a quick break here to find out what is happening there. >> can you hear me now? neil: i think he is good now. i apologize. i was kicking you out too soon, emanuel. you started the vaccination

program on site. how did it go? is it still going? >> we were the first restaurant, that was settled by the new york state latino restaurant and bar association, together with the city. we started last tuesday. been there three days. very successful. we're doing it again today. neil: what's the response? when people come up, i mean obviously they can get vaccinated right there, they can come into the restaurant. you don't have to deal with some of the hassles that will take effect tomorrow that you have to police, how do you feel about that? >> well, unfortunate situation we're put at this again by the city and it is going to be another challenge. it has been very, very challenging year-and-a-half. thank god the customers trust us. good loyal base that comes and trusts us with you know their needs. that is one thing i think is missing in this whole thing. the city and the government try to mandate people, it is not the way to go. we have to engage with them and

make it a friendly you know engagement especially for the percentage of the population that doesn't want to get vaccinated. neil: there is a stubborn percentage that doesn't. you talk about the customer loyalty. i see that. your steaks are good enough to stick around put up with the hassles, that aside, what do they tell you? do you fear some of them tomorrow will tell you it is none much your business whether imvaccinated or not? or that you have to explain so this is now the new policy in manhattan and new york city, greater metropolitan area i have to do it? are you afraid some will just leave you? >> well 100%. we're already having people calling the restaurant asking if we're going to follow this mandate and cancel reservations in the last couple weeks. so there is definitely you know, it will be very challenging. this is going to hit the businesses hard. and, you know, we don't think it is fair but i mean, not really much we can do at this point.

neil: hang in there. you're doing everything you can to try to make it as smooth as possible for the customers and staff. i can't imagine that is very easy. emanuel, boca restaurant owner in new york. i was talking about some of the trends in cases. cases are still at a six-month high in spikeses across the country, in florida the hospital rate is stablizing a tad. this doesn't apply to all icus, intensive care areas but across hospitalizations there they're beginning to see a decline in activity which could be a response to increased vaccination going on there. maybe a combination of fear. maybe a combination of jawboning and arm-twisting but appears to be doing the trick in the sunshine state. we'll have more after this.

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♪. neil: a little update on afghanistan. we're learning that russia's foreign minister has been a busy

bee, not only discussing the situation in afghanistan with our u.s. secretary of state antony blinken, similarly discussing with his chinese counterpart coordination of actions around afghanistan. don't know exactly what that means. but if it has any ominous tone to it there is no way of telling. certainly wouldn't see it in trading in the stock market, for that matter any flight to quality if you will of bitcoin, that particularly benefits with a lot of cryptocurrencies, not all the time t doesn't do, behave like gold that type of thing. still the same to monitor the whole thing. jonathan hoenig back with us, capitalist pig hedge fund management fame. you know bitcoin has been a weird one to monitor of late, particularly in crises, whatever you want to call them, not going to form but still going. what do you make of it? >> neil, it has kind of been off the game or the price action it

has shown before. many months the bitcoin and stock market were closely correlated. when stock market went down the bitcoin went down. it seems to have a mind of its own. tesla it seemed to be correlated with, tesla is down sharply today. we've been agoing, aghast at bitcoin's performance. it is up 53% just since july. none of the fundamentals really changed. not as if bitcoin is widely used as currency. still primarily speculation. it is ironically the new flight to quality for whatever reason when times get tough. neil: what do you think of it as an investment, jonathan? >> neil, it will be an investment until it stops going down. i don't see the use for it at beyond this point except for speculation. i harken back to the global.com. this is late '90s internet incubator that went all the way

up and went all the way down. that is not my prediction of bitcoin. if ultimately the technology behind bitcoin that they will use the blockchain if the price of bitcoin continues to go up that is the first in investment history to keep going up like bitcoin has been going up. i'm a bear on bitcoin but bullish on the technology behind it. neil: i'm talking about the government effort now. it does seem more of a bipartisan one, not across the board or equally among republicans and democrats, certainly with the new admin strange setting its sights on bitcoin. it is almost too late to kill this thing off whatever the views of regulation, it is well along the way. i don't know where that way is, but seems to be a bit premature to sort of say, all right we can kill it in the crib. it's grown. >> right. unfortunately, neil, the u.s. regulation will not kill bitcoin but will move it offshore. what the biden is administration requiring of basically every transaction in bitcoin above

$10,000 will have to be reported. so bitcoin is going to thrive. it will not be affected but all that business, all that trading, all that investment opportunity will go offshore unable to benefit americans who would want to invest. neil: all right. hone loan, thank you, my friend, very, very much. we're we're showing you companies that accepting bitcoin. that gives it street credit. paypal, home depot, microsoft, venmo, visa, that accept bitcoin for payment. that gives it a lease on life. my point on hard to kill off when that many people are knee deep in it. after this.

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search-and-rescue. behind me there is a u.s. coast guard helicopter and bringing in over a does people critically injured from the southwest peninsula. that is 80 miles west of port-au-prince. take a look at this video. these critically injured people are brought to hospitals in port-au-prince because they have the resources to take care of them. this earthquake on saturday, while 7.2 magnitude, it really it, hurt over 5600 people, about 1300 people are killed and we expect those numbers to go up. here is the u.s. coast guard what we've seen on the ground. >> seen everything from crush injuries to debris falling on people. compound fractures, head trauma. we're seeing entire gamut. we're trying to get as many people as we can to higher level care. reporter: some 12,000 homes were completely destroyed or damaged. buildings, including schools, hospitals, churches, businesses also demolished in the two cities of lacay and jeremy.

i'm sorry, these are cities 80 miles west of the capital city of port-au-prince. also we're dealing with people now honestly, neil, out in the streets. they have no shelter. hospitals are completely damaged. we're getting video of people who with temporary shelters and makeshift shelters are set up on soccer fields, in the middle of fields with tents as people are trying to recover from the 7.2-magnitude earthquake on saturday morning while at the same time dealing with what is a tropical depression which is sure to bring mudslides, landslides, perhaps flooding, 15 inches of rain, we shall see. again a big effort here from the u.s. coast guard getting supplies and as well as search-and-rescue teams and we have gangs in the streets, making it far to difficult for humanitarian aid and trucks make it their way to from port-au-prince they need to get

to. time is of the essence. search-and-rescue continues despite all the elements. neil? neil: incredible, bryan llenas. how much more than the country take? just last month the president was assassinated. political bedlam going on there. robert jenson joins us. kenyan international services company chairman and co-owner. robert, you've seen these type of emergencies quite often, sadly, really quite often in haiti. how are things looking from your vantage point? >> i was in haiti in '94 when we occupied the country, then again in 2010 following the earthquake that struck the port-au-prince area. as you mentioned, haiti is a country what's next? it is a very sad country. it is getting people out of the rubble is difficult. you can't move heavy equipment because people are in the streets, and can't get it there

because roads are clogged with gangs. it is critical for life-saving recovery, once we help people, what is next? it has still not done well since 2010. neil: i'm remembering, robert, you know this far better than i after the 2000 quake, we raised a good deal of money. there was a rock concert, bringing some of the biggest names to raise money to help haiti. very little of the close billion dollars raised worldwide got to the people that needed it. a lot of people want to help all over again. what can they do, how can they do it? >> aid at the grass roots level is probably the best thing because the way the haitian government worked with aid agencies. they want everything coordinated through the government. the agencies don't like that. so it creates conflict on the ground who actually gets the aid. it is hard to know which agency to trust, where to get equipment. not so much donations but they need money because they have got

to rebuild. helping come up with the political will. there has got to be a mandate or political will from some country or some governments who say enough is enough. neil: real quickly if i could switch gears to afghanistan, you're familiar with afghanistan as well. the taliban is saying that it will do no harm. some statements put out for wont of a better term the pr guy, we will not disrupt exodus operations at the airport. those in the country should feel safe. stay in your homes. where do you think it is going there? >> not well. i don't think the taliban of today is going to necessarily behave in the same way they have done in the past but you can see the incredible chaos. in fact i think they have just now shut down flight operations until they get some control over the airfield but you have people who are panicking. they're afraid. i have got emails from people we have worked with in the past saying, help us. get us out. we're going to die.

so when you have that fear it will be difficult to have a controlled evacuation or exodus and, you know, i don't think it is going to end well. i hope i'm wrong. i'm not really optimistic at this point. neil: you have a pretty keen track record, robert. people should be worried and asking these questions. international services and company chairman and cokohner. to his point, disputed reports whether the kabul airport is shut don't entirely or some has reopened. a lot of people were thronging, term you can see with the air force jet making it very difficult to take off and land in an environment like that. they're trying to clean it up so that is not an issue. they're having a devil of a time. stay with us ime. gold.

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♪♪ neil: saigon on steroids, that is what one military leader explained when looking at the total upheaval at kabul airport right now and the collapse of a country in a little more than 11 days. but it was something that president biden said not all that long ago would not be repeated here, that this would not look like our exodus from vietnam, not even close. do you remember this.

>> there's going to be no circumstance with where you see people being lifted a off a roof of the embassy of the united states from afghanistan. it is not at all comparable. neil: well, it's worse. it's gotten, actually, far worse than anyone could have ever imagine ifed. it makes the saigon departure look orderly by comparison. connell mcshane following all of this. >> reporter: well, we'll hear from the president this afternoon, neil, on afghanistan. he's been at camp david, as you know, supposed to spend a few more days, but he's cut that visit short. i mean, boy, this has been some chaotic scene that we've watched unfold especially at the airport in kabul today. the shocking video that we've all been monitoring with people not only flooding into the airport and out on the runway, but some of them literally hanging on to u.s. air force planes. there have been reports of people being killed at the airport, pentagon spokesman said at least two people were killed there today. we do know the evacuation

efforts that were underway earlier in the day were halted. u.s. officials said the runway was just not secure. last we heard they were still working on getting it to a place where it would be secure enough to resume those efforts, but it's been a remarkable ten days in so many ways, the entire country falling back into taliban control. yesterday was the capital city of kabul that fell. the president of the country leaves afghanistan, and that effectively ends what has been a long and costly conflict. and it ends in pretty much the worst way anyone could have imagined. we've been looking today at the total cost in dollar terms. you know, the best estimate seems to be $978 billion when you include economic aid, meaning that, you know, this is basically a 20-year, $1 trillion war. and i will say some of the experts we've spoken to argue a little bit more would have gone a long way. >> a little bit more investment might have actually protected what we had inside of afghanistan, might have given

the afghan government that we helped establish some space to secure itself and would have given the national security forces a chance to really prepare for life without the united states. >> reporter: president biden has now ordered an additional 1,000 paratroopers into afghanistan, so that means 7,000 troops will once again be on the ground there pretty soon. and we will hear from the president on all of this and maybe what comes next 3:45 this afternoon from the white house once he arrives back there if camp david. neil. neil: connell, thank you for that. the state department, how it's handling things and reacting to all of this as well. for that we go to rich edson. hey, rich. >> reporter: good afternoon, neil. much of that has to go with the evacuation effort that the state department has been handling right now. the embassy has been closed for a day now as the u.s. has brought down the flag there and moved operations to the airport. pentagon says there will be a

thousand more paratroopers going to the airport in if kabul bringing the total to 7,000 u.s. troops soon. air operations have been evacuated for some time today, still unclear if or how much they have been restarted there. one source describes it as total chaos there. another says it's a total free-for-all there. we have had afghans hanging from taxiing airplanes. officials are trying to evacuate thousands of american citizens, embassy workers and thousands of afghans who worked with the u.s. over the past two decades. >> we believe that we can effectuate an ongoing evacuation of american citizens, of afghans who worked for us including interpreters and translators and other vulnerable afghans at risk. we are, first, securing the airport today and then in the days ahead by taking people out one flight at a time. >> reporter: republican senator ben sasse writes, quote: the mission at this point ought to be simple. bolster american troops and

firepower until we can get flights running around the clock. the taliban must not dictate when every last american, our courageous afghan partners and their families are off the tarmac. state department says the u.s. has already relocated 2,000 afghans to fort lee in virginia where the government will process their application. the state department has maintained that any military force that takes over the country will not have legitimacy, though china's government now says it hopes the taliban can build a broad-based and inclusive political structure. russia's u.n. ambassador just said that moscow will be interacting with the taliban. the taliban has seized control of afghanistan. neil. if. neil: rich of edison, thank you very much. all right, so in the middle of all of this we're really just trying to clear out an airport and get those personnel out of there asap, but what happened? what brought us to this point? 20 years, nearly a trillion dollars, 2400 plus american

lives. what, if anything, can we learn from this experience? lieutenant general keith kellogg, former national security adviser to vice president pence, with us now. general, thank you for taking the time. what went wrong? if you had to cite one thing that triggered all of it, what was it? >> yeah, neil, thanks for having me. neil: thank you. >> we went in this for righteous purpose, to decimate al-qaeda, kill bin laden, which we did, capture khalid shake khalid she, the mastermind of 9/11. he sits in guantanamo jail. that was our mission, we did it. for the next 18 years we went into nation building. huge mistake. our american army is not designed to do that. our army is -- our military's designed to deter, and if defense fails, we will fight and win on any battlefield. instead, we tried to create a country that was ungovernable.

alexander the great learned that in 327 b.c., the russians learned that, the british learned that, and we shouldn't be nation-building. we tried to do that. we tried to make a country into something it was not, and it was a huge mistake. i think when somebody looks at this, they really are going to have to hook at what did we do for the last 18 years and who made those decisions and why, because it's a failure. neil: you know, general, the taliban is apparently saying international experts saying all the right things about working in the area to protect them, no,ing we're not going to do anything at the airport to get in the way of this exodus and all of that. and yet they almost seem to be, you know, exhibiting this totally new and different taliban. but what the administration was talking about reentering the international community, i'm not so sure the taliban has any interest in either their nod of approval or their support. what do you think? >> well, neil, it's always easy

to talk when you're or winning like that, and they're winning on the battlefield x they know it. when trump picked up the phone and called mullah baradar, he was the number one successor to mullah omar. he was very clear, trump was very clear, you screw around with americans and you screw around with what we're trying to do, we know where you live, and we'll come and get you. he did that the not once, but twice from the oval office. i'm not quite sure how that was translated, but i think he got the point. and they say that we can do. they know we can come back and get 'em if something bad goes on. so they're doing -- neil: is that response then, general -- i'm sorry, would that response have been different under a donald trump then who actually wanted a may departure, not the one they end ended this? he had seen action against the

afghan government? >> well, neil, look, we had a conditional evacuation and movement towards getting out of afghanistan. we had certain gates, conditions to be met, expect last one before we left, and 2,500 troops plus 3,000 paramilitary this was successful intraafghan talks between ghaani and the taliban. only then were we going to move out of afghanistan. everybody knew that. it was a conditions-based removal. they somehow didn't do that. so baradar understood that, and it would have been totally different. we wouldn't have been in this situation. when we said may, that was if that condition was met. they knew it and we knew it. neil: let me ask you a little bit as we wait to see the president arrive at the white house to address the a nation on

this. what do you want to hear out of him? >> what i want to hear? what i want the hear from the president of the united states is that we will operate with force and strength behind it and we mean it. if you do something that harms americans, we will come and get you regardless of where you are at. do not mess with americans, do not mess with what we are trying to do and go forward that way. you've got to push strength. that's the only thing the afghan taliban understands. strength. and you have to have that strength. we didn't show that. for some reason we showed weakness, we tried to evacuate, we got people out of there, we shut down bagram air base early which we shouldn't have done, withdrew air power too early which we shouldn't have done. we just didn't do it right. and when you do something like we're doing, you need to get it done right. neil: what if the people who are there can't do it right? we trained them for 20 years, close to a trillion dollars to say nothing of lost american live -- loss of american lives?

>> neil, i think that's really unfortunate. i don't know why we're blaming the taliban -- the afghan soldiers. look, we are the ones that said we were going to train them. for 18 years we're going to show you leadership, we're going to show you training. i think we need to reflect on what we didn't do and how we got to this position. i mean, when you think about it, that means somebody who was born 18 years ago is now an afghan soldier, and we didn't get it right and we spent 18 years there? something's wrong. neil: were they just not up to the task? is it possible? fighting in the ranks and what have you, division, people competing for all sorts of things, that it was an impossible task to gun with? >> i don't think anyone's an impossible task for the u.s. military if they put their mind behind it. i think we tried to create an army in our like, and that's not -- it was never going to work. we had to create a military that adapted to that situation and that environment. neil: and it didn't work out.

generalling thank you very, very much. -- general, thank you very, very much. that first helicopter looked to have been the staff around the president arriving, he's going the interrupt his vacation at camp david to address the nation a little bit more, about two and a half hours from now. claudia row set with us, former "wall street journal" bureau chief in moscow. claudia, what do you think we'll hear out of the president in what do you want to hear out of him? >> i expect spin that make a nuclear-powered washing machine look small. [laughter] very likely to blame it on everybody else and then tell us it's really okay. what i would like to hear is something that takes into account not only the incredible agony that's now going on in afghanistan, but the strategically devastating effect of having the whole world witness this spectacle of america basically cutting and running chased out by the taliban. because, neil if, one of my huge

concerns going forward is that in beijing, in china, in moscow, in tehran, even in north korea, what are they making of this and what it says about whether the u.s. will stand by its friends? i'm very worried right now for taiwan, for instance. neil: our jennifer griffin is reporting right now, claudia, that the taliban is going house to house looking for those who worked with the american military. what do you make of that, and what kind of changes are in place or already happening in afghanistan? >> oh, well, what's happening there is atrocious. we're hearing from some -- well, maybe it's some sort of new, moderate, modern taliban. no, it's not. if you look at what they've already done in places that they've taken over, what they've been doing for years and years, that's not at all what's happening. and, i mean, you only have to ask yourself one simple question

to understand just how dangerous and bad this is. if you and your family were living right now in kabul and you had been working, you were american and had been working with the americans for years, how would you see this? would you think it's fine if the taliban knock on your door? i think we're going to see -- i don't know how much we'll see because it's becoming very hard for people to get things out already. and the foreign correspondents there,st going to be very, very dangerous to stay. but there will very likely be with pictures of incredible atrocities coming out of afghanistan just as there are these heartbreaking pictures now coming out of the airport. neil: could any of the people who are trying to find asylum here -- i don't want to be negative or pessimistic -- actually be, you know, not intending to do any good, that they're trying to sneak into the united states under the guise of aasylum? maybe this is something -- >> sure. neil: -- asked to address when

he speaks in a couple hours. >> yes, i would expect that. of course, a couple -- you then look at the bigger picture, we have a southern border that's basically uncontrolled right now where he's been telling us it's closed, sort of the same way he said we could never see scenes like saigon out of kabul. and he has to address all of this. and the problem for us, it's not for him, he seems perfectly ready to believe his own malarkey when e wakes up, but the problem for us, we americans when live in the real world, people watching your show, you, me, is that he'll have to do things about it. it's not just academic. we have this massive, you know, what, more than 200,000 people walked over and had encounters across our border. we don't even know how many in full got over. does anyone think the taliban, al-qaeda, you name it, aren't looking at that? so you do have the problem. of course they'll put agents in with people who are seeking

asylum in u.s. it's important to -- in the u.s. it is certainly a danger. but i think it pales next to what's going on with the fact that all this coincides with the biden, president biden's complete failure to control our long southern border. so it's a very dangerous time, neil. neil: to put it mildly. let me ask you very quickly about iran and china and russia. they've been very active in talking up life after all of this in the region. so they all seem to have vested interest in this region. what do you expect out of them? >> oh, i think they all have one shared interest with the taliban, one great big shared interest, and that is getting us out of there, out of the region as far away as possible. china wants that, russia wants that, the taliban certainly want that, and they've achieved it in afghanistan. and if you look right now, the russians have been brag up that

their embassy is open and operating. there was of just something from a chinese government spokesperson on twitter saying their embassy is functioning. it's a little hard to tell the details because i also read it was suspended, planning to reopen, but clearly china's happy to say we're delighted to carry are on in kabul while the u.s. lowers its flag and runs. and i think you'll rethink, you know, well, the taliban pose a real problem for china because they might see common cause with the uyghurs. i don't think we're going to see the taliban riding to the rescue of the beleaguered uyghurs. unfortunately, this is one more step in china's hegemonic ambitions to control that entire region and have us way gone. so it's actually pretty sinister stuff shaping up. and when i mentioned taiwan earlier, the signal that joe biden has just given to both vladimir putin and xi jinping in

china is that we will cut and run. we won't stand by our allies. we won't stand by the people we support. and reversing that is going to take more than words and a speech, whatever he says today. it's going to take more than words. i mean, what -- if you think about it, president trump managed to get through years of dealing with all this without this kind of scene. whatever the deals he negotiated, he didn't come to this. and one of the things about this time into his presidency he had dropped the mother of all bombs on isis, taliban in afghanistan. he sent tomahawk missiles into syria. with reason, he had real targets that were worth hitting of that was his disthat play of strength -- display of strength. joe biden has been signaling weakness on every front. i mean, from killing the keystone pipeline here little nord -- letting nord stream go ahead, that farce of a summit

with putin, from the deference to china, and this afghanistan, this is real. this is a debacle. and this is america not just withdrawing its troops, but lowering its flag, closing its embassy, being run out of town by the taliban. put yourself in xi jinping's shoes for a minute. if the taliban can do that to us, think of what nuclear-armed china would be able to do if they make up their mind. that's the bigger danger behind all this. neil: i so hope you're wrong on all of that, claudia -- >> i hope i'm wrong too. [laughter] neil: you rarely are. thank you very much, independent women's foreign policy fellow, very brave woman. she's taken on everyone from the united nations to the biggest powers on earth to question their truthfulness. with all of afghanistan falling apart and pure bedlam at the kabul international airport, how is it that stocks with unfazed and, for that matter, bond prices are going up and yields are going down? that is the one area where

there's what they like to call a flight to quality, disdained and maybe controversial, the united states still does remain a bit of a haven. all of this after this. ♪ ♪ ♪♪

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♪ neil: you know, sometimes there's a very big difference between the united states getting fingered for the fall of afghanistan and just pooh-poohing american investments. that is not happening. look at the yield on the 10-year treasury through all the bedlam at the kabul international airport, thousands trying to get the hell out. a lot of money has been pouring into our bond market, our dollar. a reflection that when things hit the fan, people head to securities. government-backed securities, including the currency of the united states. what to make of that with david nicklaus, wealth management ceo. i don't want to overemphasize that because this doesn't apply universally to stocks, but stocks are kind of holding their

own in this. and you would think, telegraphed as this was, that's remarkable. what do you think? >> >> well, neil, this is certainly a defining moment for u.s. foreign policy. and, you know, i think it has potentially huge impacts for the global order. if you just take afghanistan by itself, i don't think that's enough to derail u.s. markets or the economy, but the rest of the world is watching how america reacts in this moment x this somewhat feeds instability, namely china, russia, iran. that's where i really think we could see a chain of events that could lead to negatively impacting the u.s. consumer. because really this is all about how does the u.s. consumer respond to the events happening. you saw some of the reports this morning didn't look great. if new york fed -- the new york fed manufacturing numbers came out today, one of the lowest on record. by itself not realistically an issue for the u.s. market, but if this expands globally, we

could see a slowdown in overall spending going through the rest of the year. neil: interesting. so this might be more a reflection on that fear than any sort of flight to quality in light of what's going on in afghanistan. and that is an interesting point because if you think about it, china just released some retail sales data that shows it's getting hit hard there. very, very low levelses, barely moving at about 4%. you could make the argument as china goes, so goes that region, so goes the recovery that we have been betting on. where are you on this. >> >> yeah, i agree, neil. the delta variant has kind of hit both here domestically and globally. so there's question marks is this a temporary slowdown for the global market or something bigger that's going to continue into the fall and the new year? we also have inflation concerns, but i also think the fed is, i think one of the biggest issues that'll affect markets in the next quarter. there's a lot of support at the fed for tapering. they could push it until november, but i think when you add owl of that together, i

mean, this is ultimately about the u.s. consumer and how they're going to react as i mentioned earlier. but it doesn't bode well for sentiment, in my opinion, in the short term. neil: when you look at the environment, the backdrop here, afghanistan notwithstanding, it is having a reverb rating effect on president biden and many democrats, for example, are very worried. i know we tend to -- politics, but that it's going to hurt his negotiating stance on sol of these things -- some of these things he wants to push through, that $3.5 trillion human infrastructure plan, his push to address climate change, the electric vehicle push, all of that could be sort of, you know, on tinder hooks here in light of what has been unleashed in afghanistan. what do you think of that? >> neil, that's an excellent point. i mean, the question is has president biden's brand been

damaged this week? i think the answer to that is emphatically yes. a week ago at this time, he was having a good week. it was the rollout of the infrastructure bill, there was a lot of momentum, you had republicans and democrats working together to pass this bill. we hadn't seen that in a long time. it's amazing what a week difference make for the white house. i think the president's going to have a much harder time pushing the agenda because if those popularity numbers get under 50%, i think administration's going to to be playing defense. they're going to be reactive going through the rest of year which is coming from a position of strength. i don't know, i think it does impact their ability to push policy the rest of the year. neil: so much we don't know, but we're on top of it. as were you, david. excellent job. i appreciate you coming back. david nicklaus, nicklaus wealth management ceo. we're not ignoring the virus

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♪ ♪ >> more than 400 children have died of covid-19, and right now we have almost 2,000 kids in the hospital, many of them in icu, so anybody that says don't worry about the kids, that's not the virus. and especially with delta being

so contagious, kids are seriously at risk. it's up to all of us to protect them as well as trying to protect everybody else at the same time. neil: all right. and the numbers bear dr. collins out. there has been a serious spike in kids' hospitalizations. should we be worried about that, what could it portend? dr. singh with us right now, former health and human services chief medical officer. doctor, what do we make of that? >> good morning, neil. this is, of course, very concerning. if you think about it, what the nation is seeing is this variant, the mutation that occurred in the original alta that variant in the covid-19 virus, that is here now, has definitely shown it's more transmissable when it was overseas and then came over here. at the same time, we have young kids, those that don't meet the vaccination requirements, now feeling better since may when our mask mandates, etc.,

lockdowns really lifted as schools are starting. so we're really seeing this delta variant making its way into really sort of perfect circumstances where the kids are definitely coming in contact with each other. so it is, it is a cause for pause and to insure that adults who are qualified for vaccines are getting the vaccines, that we are not letting up on all of those common sense measures that we know are there to help us prevent the transmission of the delta variant while we try to get more of the nation vaccinated. neil: now, among the more controversial of those measures is kids wearing masks when they return to school. i assume, doctor, from what you're saying you would recommend that especially since now a good many of them are coming down with this, the numbers speak for themselves in hospitalizations, what have you. are they a threat or are they, you know, the group of people that teachers, administrators

and others worry about when they talk about in-person classes? because i can just hear some of them saying yet another reason to put off in-person classes. >> yeah, i certainly hope not. i mean, i think we have to balance everything that we're seeing in front of us. the truth is we've learned you can't just focus on one disease or entity. i mean, everything is always happening like in texas where the rsv virus, the cause of the common cold, was dormant because everybody was really isolated, and now that kids are out if about, they're seeing infections of both covid-19 and rsv requiring kids up to 25 being hospitalized, kids under 5. so we're seeing a lot of things that have consequences from social isolation and us not building up immunity. we also know by not having our kids in school last year, the numbers are out, our kids have really fared worse from the mental health perspective,

socialization perspective, a lot of bad things. so the hope is that we can balance this, and i think it's going to, of course, depend on individual counties and states. but my hope is that we'll use common sense measures to do everything to keep the kids in school so they can learn and socialize and have less impact, less adverse impact from the ongoing pandemic. neil: doctor, thank you for that. we needed to get that update. we're going to take a quick break here, folks. speaking of some of the things the good doctor was touching on, we are learning that the u.s. is seriously mulling covid vaccine boosters not only for those who are immunocomp prominds, but the elderly. all the you elderly. after this. reason, or fun. daring,

or thoughtful. sensitive, or strong. progress isn't either or progress is everything.

neil: you know, here's the thing about the markets that always amazes me, they can find a way to make good news out of bad news. i'm not talking about

afghanistan. i'm talking about or mortgage relief that could be ending for millions of americans. the way they're looking at it though, this could lead to a flood of available housing and keep the boom going. grady trimble with more on that in chicago. hey, grady. >> reporter: hey, neil. we know inventory has been tight, and with so many people exiting forbearance in the near future, as you said, that could lead to new inventories on the market. so zillow is estimating around 850,000 americans will exit forbearance between now and october. and with prices as high as they are right now, between 25% to half of those 850,000 could decide to list their homes. so let me show you some of the market to pay particular attention to. atlanta, houston, chicago and dallas as well as d.c. and baltimore. in those cities, they have the highest number of borrowers behind on their fha loans, so it could lead to a chance for buyers who have been sitting on

the sidelines because they can't afford the high prices right now to enter the market. >> the impact on the market could be a positive one. over the last 12 months, we've seen a shortage of inventory. we're moving up upwards more towards a balanced market, but there's a lot of opportunity here where we have buyers who weren't able to purchase because of appreciation or because of the frenzy due to low inventory. >> reporter: the national association of realtors says median single family homes have are gone up in value about 23% year-over-year. that's an increase of more than $66,000 for a median home. so, neil, not expecting a complete flip from a seller's market to a buyer's market, but at least there could be more inventory on the market at a time when it has been extremely tight. neil: all right: a tough way to get it, but they get it. grady trimble, thank you very much. we've been telling you as well with these virus spikes and

everything else that's going on here some improvement in some areas, some of these vaccination requirements go into effect, for example, in the new york city metropolitan area tomorrow. pushed back a day. restaurant owners, business owners have to check that the customers coming in have been vaccinated. ed renzi, former mcdonald's usa ceo. ed, always good to see you. a lot of these restaurant owners i've been talking to large and small say they are not the vaccine police or vaccine bouncers. they're not going to do it. but their customers hear that that might happen x they want nothing to do with it. i'm wondering if that boomerangs on restaurants. >> well, it's a crisis getting ready to happen all over again. first of all, the restaurant owners cannot become vaccination if police. first of all, we've got laws in this country about our personal health records and how we have to comply with exposing what those records are. secondly, the consumers can just

vote by not going to those establishments. so you've got a problem where the people that run the restaurants don't have any way to enforce the rules that are being put out there, and customers are going to object to it and and say, the hell with it, i won't go there. this is a absolute total breakdown of strategic leadership by our leaders in these big cities and across the country, frankly. i look at what's going on right now at the border, we're importing covid cases like crazy. how do we expect small business people to become the police for vaccinations for the national institutes of health? i don't get it. i think it's wrong, if i think it's going to fail, frankly. it's going to put people out of business. neil: yeah. and a lot of them are telling me they have no intention of following that. and you hear this in a lot of counties, for example, l.a. county local sheriffs are saying i don't have the time to enforce it. with that aside, it comes at a time when the restaurant

community, by and large, is strongly -- albeit with all these other labor issues and problems with inflation, that it would hit at the worst time, wouldn't it? >> yes, it sure would. and you couple that with the fact that we've just increased the subsidy for food stamps in this country dramatically -- neil: right. >> -- plus all the unemployment that's going on. we're short workers now, now we put this other imp position on the backs -- imposition of the backs of these small business owners. restaurants were starting to claw back, and now we're going to get a second whack in the head? i mean, this is craziness, and i don't understand for the life of me with the level of vaccination if we have in this country, with the number of people that have had covid, you know, we've got to be close to herd immunity if there is such a thing. i don't know if there even is anymore. i don't know why we keep putting burdens on the small businesses. they can't be the vaccination

police. neil: yeah. and what we have discovered about this is even in the states that have very, very high restrictions and requirements and all, they're getting the same influx of cases. so there must be something more going on here. having said that, this inflation spike is probably a more pressing, immediate concern for these guys. they're able to pass it along to their customers, but you do have to wonder for how long. what do you think? >> well, you know, restaurant prices have gone up over 5% just in the last month. in the restaurants i look at. and i talk to some of the full service people, they're up as much as 12% because a huge shortage of commodities. they've had to raise prices. we've got labor problems. we're paying, many system of these restaurants, $25 an hour to get people in the door. they can stay home and collect $20 an hour without working and having to buy gas to get to work. there's so many different points of contrast and difficulty for

these restaurant operators. inflation is going to eat us up. price of gasoline and first of all and transportation going up, that keeps people at home. their disposable income goes down because of inflation at the grocery store, at doctor's office, everywhere. i would -- i went through this with jimmy carter back in the '70s. i'll tell you, stagflation is an awful thing where prices keep going up and people stop buying and engaging in commerce. if we don't do something pretty quick, i think in another year we're going to have major crises on the hands with the economics of small business. neil: yeah. a horrific combination; inflation running rampant and the economy shutting down. and that's, indeed, where stagflation started. i didn't know you were old enough to remember that, ed. [laughter] you are, and like me, you do remember. ed renzi, former mc's usa ceo -- donald's usa ceo. waiting to hear from the president of the united states in a couple hours from now

responding to what has been the cataclysmic collapse of afghanistan and what has been pure bedlam at the airport right now in kabul. they've shut it down. we understand that there are attempts to open up some runways, but that's because thousands of afghans, what we saw earlier yesterday, descended on the place, chasing planes, anything and everything to get onboard. a few even took it upon themselves to sneak onto the plane. if not inside, outside, and a couple fell to their deaths doing so is. that is desperation. that is something the president said would never happened, but it has. he has argued again and again that it would not be like what happened in vietnam. he is right. it is worse. [inaudible conversations] commercial real estate exchange. you see it. you want it. you ten-x it. it's that fast.

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♪ neil: all right. if you think all of this afghan, you know, collapse, whatever you want to call it, has sort of taken the kick out of the administration's push on other matters, you might want to think again. charlie gasparino, moves out of the sec and the guy who heads it. hey, charlie. >> hey, neil. gary gensler, as you know, is the chairman of the sec, has an

incredibly ambitious regulatory agenda that's upending wall street. everybody's talking about it, his calls to crack down on everything from trading to cryptocurrencies. i've been asking democratic party insiders what's his end game in all this to as to opposed to is it just reforming wall street, does he have bigger ambitionings. and they are telling me that he's aiming to, essentially, replace janet yellen at treasury. that he knows that he has to essentially have, compile an ambitious regulatory agenda x. if you look, the agenda that he's announced coincides with 900% of what elizabeth warren, the powerful -- 90% of what elizabeth warren, senator from massachusetts, is saying. anything to reform payment for order flow, cryptocurrency, diversity on boards all those things that gensler has announced was first announced by warren. if you go back and hook at it, which i did, and and which democratic party insiders on

wall street told me to do. they're saying he needs her. in order to get her in his corner to be treasury secretary when and if janet yellen steps down -- we should point out she's 74, it's a hard job. treasury secretary, high burnout rate. most people don't last more than one term in that job. very few last two or more than two. he wants to be the guy. we should also point out that gensler almost was treasury secretary and would have been -- well, would have had a good chance, he was one or two at the top of the list, if hillary clinton beat donald trump in 2016. he was on short list to become treasury secretary. he has an interesting background, wall street partner at goldman sachs, worked at the cftc, was assistant treasury secretary, academic at mit. he's got the jobs. he now needs to appeal to the one person that could put him there, and that's clearly elizabeth warren. she has sway over just about every regulatory position inside the biden white house, and if it

was -- and it wouldn't matter. it's democrats look to her as the nod. she's kingmaker when it comes to regulatory affairs and appointees. neil, back to you. neil: that is very interesting. charlie gasparino. the dow is holding its own, little flight to quality in treasury bonds and notes, dollar more than holding it own. the irony being here that this collapse of afghanistan, a lot of people are putting on the united states or more particularly the biden administration. when push comes to shove, they still put their money into u.s. assets, especially those guaranteed by the full faith and credit of uncle sam. ♪ ♪ iness, is to be on a journey. and along the ride, you'll have many questions. challenges. and a few surprises.

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and now the first-ever rear-mounted front-impact airbags. all in the hope that you never need any of it. ♪ ♪ neil: all right. waiting to hear from the president of the united states on the collapse of afghanistan, the degree which he did not see coming. now here is charles payne. charles: neil, hope you had a great weekend, my friend. good afternoon, everyone, i'm charles payne. this is "making money." breaking right now stocks under pressure as signs of slowing economic growth are appearing all around the world, by the way in the united states. many think the fed will remove the punchbowl sooner rather than later. i have an expert who says the market is entering a state of nirvana. horrible images out of afghanistan worrying investors. our foreign policy image might have taken a