that we have been monitoring as close as we can intelligence that led us to believe that we were in a very dynamic and in some cases specific threat environment. number one. number two, as general mckenzie said, we are going to investigate and we are going to get to the bottom of what happened last thursday. 13 precious lives were lost. we won't investigate it in public. three, i am not going to speak to a press story that was informed by the unlawful disclosure of classified information and sensitive deliberations here at the pentagon. just not going to do it. >> conducted in the area, the

drone strike was -- [inaudible] was that the only option you guys used? was there any other option to stop that bomb in the vehicle in >> i will let the general -- i'll ask the general to provide context. only thing i would say is that we've used the word dynamic a lot. it sounds like pentagon speak. but that's really how -- the best way to describe the threats we're facing dynamic, moving, fluid, quick. because that's how isis-k operates. and we have to try to be as quick and nimble as they are. and when you have what we believe to be an imminent threat and we believe this to be an imminent threat we took the action we believed was the most necessary at the best opportunity to thwart that

attack. >> commanders will always minimize collateral damage. that is one of the key tenets of how we operate. in this case like mr. kirby said, that this strike prevented a high-profile attack against both coalition u.s. forces and other afghan civilians. and so as we look at the information that we had during the time of the strike, we took all those measures in place and the decision was made to strike and thwart that attack. >> on the five rockets, the u.s. for protective measures engaged those rockets and apparently they hit one of them or you didn't engage the other ones? you just want i had to engage the specific one?

>> going back, the force protection c ram did work and engage and had effect on the one and then one did land in an area. it was not effective. >> so it didn't -- >> we intercepted one and it was effective. c-ram was effective. >> i just need to clarify the numbers you stated earlier. of the 122,000, is the 5400 a part of that number of americans evacuated or is that a separate number from the 122,000? >> 122,000 plus evacuated over the course of this operation going back to late july when we started moving siv applicants back home and you add in the since then, yes, 5400 is included in 122,000. >> i understand you can't give

us an update on the number of troops on the ground but do you feel confident that all the troops will be out by the deadline? also if you can tell us when the deadline will come into effect. kabul time. it is a little bit -- >> bill: the answer to your first question is yes and the answer to your second question i won't get into it. >> isis-k terrorists continue in afghanistan after the withdrawal of troops on the 31st, will the united states get involved in the war on terror again? >> well, i think i would like to go back to what i said before to courtney. the president has made it clear

that our combat mission, the war we have been fighting in afghanistan is going to end. it is going to end very soon here. but what is not going to end is our commitment especially here at the defense department to protect the american people from threats. and particularly from any terrorist threat that could emanate from afghanistan again. as i said to my -- the previous answer, you can see in just the last 24, 36 hours that we do have an effective over the horizon counter terrorism capability. we've employed it now twice. and that capability will remain. obviously we aren't going to detail what it looks like any day on any particular threat but maintain that capability to protect the american people with threets that could emanate from afghanistan. it isn't just in afghanistan. it's in north africa, and you guys have all seen that and we

will still maintain that ability to thwart those threats as best we can and over the horizon is not something new to us, either. we've been doing it for a long time in places outside afghanistan. >> the over the horizon ability for strike and isr is that coming from gulf bases or are you making progress are regional -- >> it is over the horizon. we continue to have discussions with neighboring nations about possibilities. i don't have anything to announce today. alex, come back to you, are you there? >> can you hear me? >> i gotcha. >> going back to the strike, the drone strike on the vehicle, you know, i want to revisit the evidence you used. it seems like verification that it was a legitimate target came from the secondary explosion,

an ordinance expert and trainee told me looking at the available photos of the scene show a lack of soot on the lawns, relatively little amount of shrapnel. a tree knocked down with the foliage intact. after viewing these things, you know, what -- do you still stand by with a high degree of confidence there was a significant explosion and not something like a gas tank explosion or something like that that may misdirect a secondary explosion? >> we know there was a secondary explosion. assessed what was there was going to be used in a high profile attack. i don't have details on the information that you are saying there but our intelligence experts and centcom will

continue to assess the post strike activities. >> a couple more. >> does coordination with taliban apply to the final phases? will they take over the airport before you leave? how will you insure the protection of your troops? will you depend on your capabilities? how the outcome would look like the last flight? >> there is a lot there. as i said to louie, we have been in communication with the taliban about these final days so that we can make sure there is no miscalculation and no misunderstanding. our goal is to wrap up evacuations as safely and orderly as we can. i won't get into the details of either the details of the

conversation or process and procedures. as we have seen all too vividly in the last day, the threat remains high and it remains real. so what i can assure you is that general mckenzie and admiral and general donahue on the ground have worked out a very carefully coordinated method of safely completing this retrograde and that's about as far as i think i can go. as for the airport, the airport will remain operational through our final flights. what it looks like after we are gone, i will just point you to what the secretary of state said. the international community, a couple of countries have talked about being able to come up with an arrangement to keep it operational for commercial air traffic in coordination with

the taliban. i'll let those countries speak for their efforts with the taliban. it wouldn't be a u.s. military function or responsibility once we have completed the retrograde and we are no longer there. just a couple more. >> the ratio of flights to people getting out have gotten pretty high. is that indicative of fewer people coming to the airport or a mix of flights filling up with equipment and supplies heading out? >> we won't get into details of load plans. obviously we're reaching the end of our prescribed mission so commanders are inflowing and outflowing those requirements needed to complete the mission. >> are there still strike aircraft flying overhead keeping -- in case something is going on near the airport? >> assets available we won't get into the details of what is flying and what there is but the commanders that are

fulfilling the last part of this mission have all the assets they need in the air and on the ground where they are at to complete the mission safely. >> evacuation operations are dangerous. the end of them, particularly one in an environment that we can't consider clearly permissive are particularly dangerous. and the commanders on the ground have the resources they need to enact appropriate force protection. >> what is more dangerous now than there was two weeks ago? >> it's not that we are not saying more specific because for one reason or another. it is that we are in a particularly dangerous time now, meghan. not that it hasn't always been dangerous but it is particularly dangerous now and we just aren't going to detail

every aspect of our force protection measures in public while we still have troops in harm's way and still trying to get people out of afghanistan. there will be a time to talk about all of that. it is just not today. >> there is an american hostage still being held by the taliban. has the taliban agreed to release him before the u.s. leaves? does the u.s. have any plans to leave without this american hostage? >> without getting into specifics, jen, i can tell you that we share the entire government's concerns over mr. friedrichs and our strong desire to see him returned home to his family where he belongs. and there has been a concerted effort over many, many months to try to achieve that outcome

and regardless of what we do over the next day or so, we will remain -- all of us will remain focused on returning him safely to his family. that is not going to change one way or the other. i will wrap it up here. appreciate it. thank you very much. and we'll talk to you soon. >> harris: well, there were moments as we always see where the questions got tough from that pentagon press corps and the two men in the hot seat. admiral kirby and major general taylor taking some pretty hard-hitting questions. not the least of which is there are rockets coming in at our military. we're able to deflect and defend against them but just moments ago we were learning that -- forgive me, i look down at my notes. we were learning that is not the case for one rocket, one rocket got through u.s. defenses and landed inside the

kabul airport and that's what we were learning from that briefing. so then the further question has to be well, where are they getting the rockets? where are they coming from and the logistics of what is going on? who are we fighting on the ground? lieutenant colonel daniel davis i want to bring in quickly senior fellow and military expert at defense priorities. he served in the military for more than two decades and deployed to afghanistan twice in his career. lieutenant colonel davis, thank you for being with me. first of all what do you make of this rocket situation? i'm wondering where did they get this capability? are we talking shoulder to aramis ill? what's going on? >> when i was my last combat deployment in afghanistan through 2011, i was headquartered in bagram. it was almost a daily occurrence.

they are something like -- not manmade but they aren't formal kinds of rocket launchers. typically -- they sometimes fire them out of a back of a truck or car. one of the strikes we've had against isis-k you could see the rocket launchers in the back seat of the car. they are inaccurate but if they happen to hit something they can cause damage. >> harris: you can't do a directional hit. but if you created what other military analysts have told me the best word to use right now at that airport is a kill zone because you have people that can only come and go in one direction. one portal, no other airfield. if you create a target, they don't have to be all that accurate. >> the kabul airport is still fairly large. but really they are just kind of in the right direction and you just hope it lands on something. they typically don't most of them but you are absolutely right. it is such a comparative small

in terms of the city area. doesn't have to be too far off target to accidentally hit somebody. the danger is very high. >> harris: you just heard admiral kirby say we're in a particularly dangerous situation. it has always been but particularly now. lieutenant colonel davis. talk to me about exiting. none of it has looked good for two weeks. >> we have to recognize that up until -- i don't want to say it was the 12th of august this was, from the order in april, a withdrawal of 2,500 u.s. troops. it turned into an all-out evacuation, civilian evacuation of over 120,000 just within the last couple of weeks. so it has been a heroic effort by the military to shift gears when there was no pre-planning for this to get out that many people but no way it could be done in a clean way.

there was no imaccurate withdrawal ever possible and the military deserves credit for what they've done. >> harris: sure, it would never be perfect. our military personnel having to carry out orders that started with, you know, all sorts of difficulties because of the way that this thing was launched and they have done a tremendous job getting 122,000 people off the ground and airlifted out of basically a continued war zone of afghanistan. i am curious to know now, though, because it looks like we're fighting our way out. what does it look like for the last men and women left on that field? >> the reason that we're having to fight our way out on the last piece a little bit. not quite that bad. ironically the taliban have withheld any attacks and they have actually done a lot to prevent some of these attacks to keep them down to a minimum. >> harris: do you think that continues? 3:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. we have to be out.

that hard deadline. is it a flip the switch type of situation on the ground? >> here is the reason why it's in their interest to do so. nobody talks about it very much. 28 of those killed in action were taliban members. so they are even more upset at isis-k than we are. they have a very direct reason to want to do that. forget about whether they want to help us, they want to get back at their enemy and they'll do that. the only reason why isis-k has any chance to get us is because we're on the ground. the minute we get the last of our troops off the ground isis-k is almost powerless to do anything against it. they can't project power outside of their area. they are trying to get headlines to get us now before we get out because they know it will be covered. >> harris: important to separate out the groups somewhat. the break-off from the taliban group that became as a franchise for isis now trying to do what it can. al qaeda has proven it can have that capacity and they are also on the ground there. real quickly i want to get to this.

it seemed like things got a little chippy there at the pentagon press briefing when one reporter said this is a hard question. and it is a hard question. what exactly did we know of last week's attack? let's watch together and i'll come back to you lieutenant colonel. stand by. >> according to "politico" the u.s. knew where the attack -- roughly where the attack would take place on thursday and when it would take place. why were there u.s. troops at that time that gate at that time? >> jeff, what i can tell you is that we have been monitoring as close as we can intelligence that led us to believe that we were in a very dynamic and specific threat environment. we'll en *r investigate and get to the bottom of what happened last thursday. 13 precious lives were lost. we'll take that siresly. -- seriously.

i will absolutely not talk to a press story that was from undisclosed classified information. >> harris: that is a hard question. >> it is. but i can tell you as one who has been in that exact situation where we knew there was a potential enemy attack and yet we still had to go and do the mission. those guys didn't have a choice to just withdraw and hide back deeper inside the airfield. they had to keep doing the mission. of course i can assure you they were doing everything with preventive measures. the guy who blew himself up is not distinguishable. they did the best they can. there is no perfect solution. we just can't stop everything. >> harris: i take that to me they are on purpose folding into the public. >> 100%. >> harris: they know we don't

want to touch civilians. >> right. >> harris: it is part of our soul and who we are as america and then they do this. put themselves -- we see this in other places. we see this in the gaza strip and other places where the enemy will fold in among other terrorists do it. lieutenant colonel davis, thank you for your time. president biden on sunday paid his respects to the 13 americans killed in last week's bombing in afghanistan as gop lawmakers are piling on the calls for the biden administration officials and president biden himself to resign or be removed from office over the handling of this afghanistan catastrophe. 44 republicans in both the house and senate are calling for action against president biden. 33 of them say he should resign. and just over the weekend members of congress urged democratic leadership to return to washington, take on the issue of afghanistan with a strong emphasis on holding people accountable if failures

are found to have occurred. here are just some of the lawmakers expressing outrage. >> this president is hopeless as a commander-in-chief. he is totally incompetent and incapable of -- he doesn't listen. i think he needs to resign immediately. i think he ought to be removed using the 25th amendment. >> he needs to step down and resign or the cabinet needs to do something. >> this administration, it's failure after failure after failure. honest to god i can't believe i'm saying it but i am. it is time for this president to resign. >> harris: i want to start with the top republican in the house. house minority leader kevin mccarthy. welcome to the program. first your quick reaction to the ground swell that is forming it feels like for president biden to go away. >> well, it's expected watching week after week what is happening. every day we get new information of the failure. when the president does a press conference and tells the

american public it is safe to go to the airport and 30 minutes later it is contradicted. now "washington post" story coming out where the taliban said they would stay out of kabul but somebody in the administration told them no, we only need the airport. and you just reporting about missiles coming in. why would we give bagram up? the greatest fear is if you have one runway, if someone is able to hit the runway it stops the ability of movement of people. why would you remove the military before you removed the americans? and how can we leave americans behind? if earlier in this month you had this spokesperson for the defense say there were 11,000 americans and they say they have 5400 out. they are making a conscious decision they are leaving americans behind. why would you do that? >> harris: you know, i'm so curious, leader mccarthy, why you all have not been called back onto the hill.

where is speaker of the house nancy pelosi in this? i've seen your calls for her to say come on, we're going back over afghanistan. what is she responding with? >> she is ignoring us. i am at the hill today. there will be a number of republican members, all the veterans. we'll be here for a briefing. we put on the floor, the republicans, a bill to make the date not august 31st, but when the mission is complete that all americans have been removed. the democrats all voted against it. nancy pelosi called us back in a special session only to pass about $5 trillion. denying us the ability to have any oversight over afghanistan. she supports the actions what is taking place right now. we have a job and responsibility as members of congress of oversight of the executive branch. why are we not back in getting the facts but more importantly focused on getting every american out? that should be the only thing

we're talking about. that's what our focus should be. >> harris: you know, i went back through our brain room and wanted to know what every democrat has been saying about this. senator robert menendez of new jersey starts his remarks with in implementing this flawed plan and goes on. tom mill now ski of new jersey says if we leave august 31st, tomorrow, a random deadline we, not the taliban set and we'll leave good, many people behind. seth moulton former presidential candidate in 2020, to say that today is anything short of a disaster would be dishonest and this was on august 15th. worse, it was avoidable. it's piling on from the left. so how sincere an action could you see out of that if you all got together on the hill? >> you know what? if they're sincere about that come to the hill, join us on the floor asking the speaker to open up. otherwise you are standing with

the speaker and this administration in the decision of leaving americans behind. it is disgusting that we are depending on the taliban. i'm sorry, you can't say the taliban, isis and al qaeda are different. they are all the same fruit from the same tree. think of this. you watched that pentagon briefing. the question again, why have they not given the names of the individuals that they said they killed that were terrorists? why can't they give us those names? a lot of questions rise up. that's important because where do they come from? who are they? they talked about these were important people that they took out. were these important people also individuals who were in the prison in bagram? remember what happened when you made the decision to leave bagram. you left in the middle of the night without telling our allies. so right there that provided the air power to keep the after

gani -- those prisoners were let go. did they come from that prison? this is the accountability we need and why congress should be in session and the information we should have. wherever the information takes us that's when we should take action about people resigning and others, you now have an administration made up of individuals that brought us syria, that is now creating a syria in the middle east. >> lindsey graham on the long-term effects on president biden's withdrawal from afghanistan. it is not just week it's in the future. let's watch. >> 9/11 just went through the roof. president biden said he wanted to take this afghanistan off the plate for future presidents. he has done the exact opposite. for the next 20 years american presidents will be dealing with this catastrophe in afghanistan. this war has not ended.

we've entered into a new deadly chapter. terrorists are now in charge of afghanistan. >> what do you say about that? >> he is 100% correct. we stand just roughly two weeks before the 20th anniversary of 9/11. we are now less safe. the taliban has more blackhawk helicopters than australia. we have weaponized them and lost over the horizon as the state -- defense department talks about because we lost a military base that gave us the afwoilt see things and to russia, china, pakistan and others. we watched china take the situation? into taiwan and russia in eastern europe. this is not what will happen next week. it is putting americans in harm's way for decades. now we have a president who opened up our border. this is a border that earlier this year we have caught numerous people already on the terrorist watch list from yemen.

so when you release those prisoners out of bagram. where do we think they want to come? >> harris: i want to interject quickly. you have strong thoughts on this. the daily caller said the supreme court took an end to the border crisis. their take on it. but it has to do with the supreme court siding with president joe biden's administration in a crucial immigration along the border. what is happening with that and how are we going to handle that situation? >> this is the real challenge. every crisis that has come before this administration they've failed. remember, first crisis was the border and how was it created? not by legislation but by executive order. the moment he was sworn in he stopped the wall. we're paying people not to build the wall. he gave the option to allow people coming into this country. we have had more than a million people come here illegally already. we have caught people on the terrorist watch list.

fentanyl has increased by more than 300%. americans are dying because of that. we watched the cartels become stronger throughout this border. more wealthy at the same time. and what does this president do? he first yelled at the press to say it wasn't a crisis. he then ignored it and passed it off to the vice president who would not tour it or go to it. now we have a crisis in the middle east and the president gets asked a question two days before we're leaving and says i will not answer questions about afghanistan. he goes before the american public and every bit of that we can no longer trust. now we're finding out that somewhere beforehand they said they did not need kabul, that the taliban could enter it? how many americans and where did we ever think that american president would make a decision knowingly leaving americans behind? >> harris: you are doing a deal with the devil and nothing in the bible talks about the devil being reinstated, rehabilitated.

there is always faith and always hope but that's what has happened. the taliban has openly said they want our death and at the same time we have to do this on the way out according to the biden administration keep talking to them. basically negotiating with terrorists. >> they are not even getting our hostage free. you watch that state department and the defense department there. talk about it. they are leaving and still leaving americans and our hostages there and they are leaving americans to become hostages. >> harris: i was just going to say some military analysts have called the entire situation a hostage taking. anybody we leave behind. house minority leader kevin mccarthy with us in focus today. i appreciate your words and your time, your expertise. please let us know if any democrats join you on the hill and on the floor asking nancy pelosi to open up the full house and talk about afghanistan. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> harris: president biden walking away again.

you just heard leader mccarthy talking about this. i mean, we keep seeing his back side. and i guess if you are on a tik tok doing a dance and that's a move that's fine but for the american people we do have a couple of questions about afghanistan, mr. president. the withdrawal deadline is fast approaching. by this time tomorrow we'll just be about 3 1/2 hours away. former white house press secretary ari fleischer coming up. plus the latest on ida. >> it was loud. we could hear the wind. we could hear things hitting the house and hitting the vehicle. heard a lot of crashing sounds. that was probably the hardest hurricane i've ever been through. >> harris: the storm left a path of destruction. at least one person dead and more than 1 million people and counting without utilities, electrical power along the gulf coast. can rescue crews navigate that

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>> look around and it's probably at least five pounds worse than goous after. we're trying to get to my mom's house. we have no service, no internet or phone. i'm worried about my family. don't know what to do from here. trying to -- trying to let it all sink in and try to figure things out. >> harris: brandon, we are oef with you in spirit, heart and prayer and a whole lot of people are headed to give you whatever you need as a community there. hundreds of thousands of people in louisiana waking up today with conditions like brandon was talking about. there is no utility, no

electricity. tropical storm ida, she was a cat 4 beast coming in downgraded still to tropical storm with some big winds above 70 miles an hour in most cases closer to 80. it has wreaked havoc in louisiana and mississippi. 16 years to the day yesterday was that hurricane katrina crashed into new orleans and at its peak ida with winds of 150 miles per hour knocking down trees, damaging buildings. the heavy rain caused massive flooding throughout the area including new orleans because that storm kind of then twists and sat down and that is troublesome with all that water. right now more than one million homes and businesses no electricity. there has been at least one person who died. and louisiana governor john bel edwards with this statement. >> there is an awful lot of

debris, power lines, trees on the roadways and in some places standing water and so it's taken a while to get into these communities that were hardest hit but we will obviously be developing the situation throughout the day saving lives, rescuing people everywhere we can. >> harris: jeff paul live in new orleans. when the governor talks about standing water in some places he doesn't mean like up to your ankle or knees. it is deep in some areas. >> yeah, definitely especially near the coast part of louisiana. all that storm surge several feet, cars submerged, portions of homes submerged. you go to other areas like here and the damage from the strong winds from hurricane ida. as we hit daylight we get a better idea of exactly what this city is facing here in new orleans. this was a two-story building yesterday and now you can see what it's been reduced to. bricks and scattered pieces of wood. this isn't the only place.

we've seen other places in the french quarter where a roof was ripped off. that's the story here in new orleans. you go to other places in louisiana that same story is playing out. you have floodwaters, rain damage, and then even have the state fire marshal out trying to get to people and assess the damages throughout louisiana. a lot of flooding. we know one man was killed after a tree fell on his house outside of baton rouge. parishes are praying there won't be any more deaths like that one as some go through neighborhoods to check in and even checklists of people that they know stayed and rode out this storm. >> they went house to house with a few dozen officers identifying people's names, phone number, where they live and the number of people in the house. >> all of new orleans now

currently without power. more than a million throughout the state without power and officials here are telling folks just because it isn't a hurricane anymo, -- anymore now and it is a tropical storm that there -- they are telling people to stay inside as crews go out to try to clear the roads and get power restored spoons possible. >> harris: i will take some of that information and apply it here and talk about the rescue efforts. the commanding officer from mobile, alabama. one of two locations where they staged aircraft for the response to ida. what are you facing out there and how long have you been able to attack this? i know for a while nothing was flying.

can you hear me? captain, can you hear me? all right. unfortunately we don't have the capability technically to pull that off right now. you can understand the conditions on the ground there. if we can we'll go back to it. but for now again i was telling you about those conditions. let's put pictures up on the screen so people can see the water on the ground. in parts of louisiana it hasn't cleared up. tropical storm conditions will be high winds but packing so much water with it. in some areas 8 to 12 inches of rain fell quickly and some areas more than that. here is the problem. as this storm squats and doesn't move forward as fast as we would like, that heavy rain then coupled with the high tide that's coming in in some areas is really precarious. you have a small window to get out and rescue people. some reports of people on rooftops or in attic areas.

we have captain back in mobile, alabama. they have two helicopters waiting. it is my understanding the window to get out there is now. i couldn't imagine anything was flying before then. what conditions are you facing? >> so i'm not sure if you can hear me okay. we have bad bands coming through moibl. pre-dawn we launched six helicopters and airplanes from here to get eyes on the impacted area even before sunrise. we accomplished that. we did have reports of some people on rooftops but then as we were vectored into those places from the local authority we are not finding as many people needing to be pulled out of harm's way. we have already moved a number of people away from hospitals. when the hospitals were damaged. but so far we have not hoisted anybody off rooftops.

we have 12 helicopters searching in boxes that are set up above the new orleans and west of new orleans area. >> harris: i actually corrected myself. what we pray for maybe is happening, captain, maybe some of the water begins to recede in certain areas they are still able to get out. i do want to know, though, when you got up before dawn and able to see, are there pockets of areas that you have most concern about? >> yes, ma'am. specifically the southern area that were first hit by the storm. those areas. they are all the ones you are showing on your broadcast. those are the areas we're focusing on not just from the air but we have coast guard assets moving in from the south. you chase the storm in as well as helicopters and airplanes from the west and from the east. kind of almost forming a pin ser looking at the problem from a 360 degree angle. >> harris: i know you are

usually at least aware from local authorities whether or not people heeded the evacuations. it sounded like in certain areas they really did. quickly your take on that. >> yes, ma'am. that's something we always pray for every single hurricane is that people heed those evacuation orders. a perfect hurricane is one where we don't have to hoist anybody. >> harris: the southern areas that were hit first. when the beast came ashore it was a cat 4. different than it is now. still dangerous but boy, if you got hit by that those are the areas of concern. thank you for all that you are doing to make a difference. thank you for taking a few minutes to join us in focus, captain. >> thank you, harris. >> harris: president biden reminding us just how he got the nickname walkaway joe. it wasn't about twitter giving him a hashtag. he is reinforcing it by walking away from questions on afghanistan.

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>> now we have a crisis in the middle east. the president gets asked a question two days before we're

leaving and says i will not answer questions about afghanistan. how many americans and where did we ever think that american president would make a decision knowingly leaving americans behind? it is disgusting. >> harris: house minority leader kevin mccarthy in focus moments ago taking aim at president biden for his handling of the troop withdrawal in afghanistan and blowing off questions again yesterday. here is that particular walkaway. >> president biden: thank you very much and thank you, commissioner. i really think -- i'm not supposed to take any questions but go ahead. >> mr. president on afghanistan >> president biden: i won't answer afghanistan now. >> harris: ari fleischer is a former white house press secretary shaking his head. you have been in the hot spot of preparing a president for those moments. what did you think of this one? >> everything about it was wrong. look, there are times when the

president should give a statement and walk away. times when a president should not take questions. yesterday as soon as he said i will take questions he of course should have answered that afghanistan. it is too obvious. harris, the members of our military answer the call. the least the president could do is answer the question. and he didn't. >> harris: we're looking at here on "the faulkner focus" the big wall and today's big wall shows walkaway joe. this is not an isolated event. part of the problem, ari, you say it is subject matter driven. and i don't know why the words i'm not supposed to take questions, i've been instructed to. i don't know why those words come out of his mouth in the first place. normally he just walks away. but that needed a preamble of i'm not taking questions but oh, i might. >> i was wondering who was the staffer in a superior position to the president of the united states bho gives him instructions as the president put it. i used to give recommendations

to the president and advice to the president. but the president made the decisions. and i could not and would not instruct him. it is just odd that the president looks at his staff in such a manner that they can instruct him. he needs to be the one making the calls. he made the call to bug out of afghanistan. he made the calling that we withdrawal our forces. he has the right to make that call. once he did it, though, he needed a communication strategy. this is the issue that the american people do care about. this is going to break through and linger. it has already broken through. this will linger way after august 31st, tomorrow. and he utterly failed to prepare the american people for what was going to happen, what could happen, what could go wrong and dismissed it, if you remember right before july 4th by saying he only wants to talk about happy things. it is a three-day weekend. it doesn't work that way. >> harris: quickly and i will have to let you go. an observation as you were talking.

it's not always going to be pretty but tell us what's going on and we can take it. we're the greatest nation on earth. ari fleischer, thank you for being in focus and thank you for watching "the faulkner focus". about this time tomorrow we'll be short hours away from august 31st, the deadline hour of when we have to pull out of afghanistan. we will leaving people behind. we'll cover it. "the faulkner focus" tomorrow. "outnumbered" now after the break. . you could take out $50,000 or more because the newday 100 va loan lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value. use that cash to pay high rate credit card debt or plan for retirement. the newday 100 va loan. ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete,

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(jackie) talk to your doctor about austedo...it's time to treat td. td is not ok. visit askforaustedo.com. >> harris: simultaneous catastrophes unfolding. we'll start at home. you see on the left of your screen. both with major ramifications. the one on the right, obviously, afghanistan. let's begin with ida. hit the united states has a category four transform with the theory of 150-mile-per-hour win. it struck louisiana 16 years to