not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you. president biden spoke about the withdrawal of afghanistan and the use achieved its objectives in the country. the president says even though u.s. troops are leaving, america will continue to do its part to help afghanistan. >> we'll continue to provide civilian and humanitarian asustance including speaking out for the rights of women and girls. i intend to maintain our diplomatic presence in afghanistan and we're coordinating closely with our international partners in order to continue to secure the international airport. we're going to engage in a determined diplomacy to pursue

peace and a peace agreement that will end this senseless violence. i will not send another generation of americans to war in afghanistan with no reasonable expectation. >> laterer, the president will sit down with civil rights leaders at the white house. we'll talk with a member of the meeting. and two weeks after a high-rise condo collapsed in florida, the death toll stands at 60. the search and rescue effort has now become a recovery mission. we're going to talk with the town's mayor about what comes next for his community. and haiti's national police chief says four people us is suspected of killing the president have been killed and six others arrested amid more fears of chaos. we're going to talk to the former haitian prime minister. we begin this hour at the

president's speech at the white house. the president making the case as to why the united states is withdrawing from afghanistan. and joining us now, nbc news white house correspondent monica alba and nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in the afghan capital kabul for us. richard, the president had this to say when asked about the readiness of afghan forces and the inevitability of a taliban takeover after the u.s. pullout. >> you have the afghan troops at 300,000 well equipped, as well equipped as any army in the world. and an air force. again, something like 75,000 taliban. it is not unestable. inevitable. >> richard, you've been with the afghan forces including some of the special ops. should we have confidence that afghan forces will be able to defeat the taliban as they advance forward?

and certainly as they advance towards kabul. the reality on the ground tells a slightly different story than what the president's optimistic thinking is. >> there is not a cohesive well armed well equipped, well led afghan army right now. the afghan army has been surrendering. it's been losing territory. it's been giving up weapons to the taliban. in many cases the units don't fight at all. it's a negotiated surrender. the afghan soldiers will hand over the weapons. they'll be given some pocket money in order to be given safe passage out of the area and then have that money for taxi fare home. that is happening time and time again. the afghan commando that's are special ops. imagine if the u.s. military collapsed and you only had the navy seals and delta force left. the tip of the spear but the spear itself is broken.

it doesn't mean the taliban are going to come in and take over kabul. what is also possible is that you could have a civil war. there are many, many people here who have guns, who have heavy weapons. not just the afghan military. so you seeing the core afghan military disintegrate, fracture. but you're also seeing different warlords, people who fought in civil war sometimes decades ago volunteering to come out and fight against the taliban. so it's not inevitable that taliban moves in, takes this city, takes kabul, takes the whole country. it is, however, a more likely or according to afghan officials i spoke to, quite likely that you'll enter into a civil war with the taliban take some areas. the afghan security forces collapse or partially collapse and armed militias move in to

seize different parts of country. >> monica, another major concern raised by the withdrawal of american forces is what happened to all of those afghans by the thousands who have worked with u.s. forces for the past 20 years? let me play for you what the president had to say about them. listen. >> we're also going to continue to make sure we take on the afghan nationals who work side by side with the u.s. forces including interpreters and translators since we're no longer going to have military there after this. the we're not going to need them. they have no jobs. we're also vital to our efforts so they -- they have been very vital. >> there are calls to bring the folks to guam, a u.s. territory where they can wait for visas to be approved. they can be held in third countries, not afghanistan or the united states for the time being.

what is the reasonable for doing this? and what is being done to speed up the visas? who are these folks to come to the united states? >> and the white house says this is really a security risk issue. that's why they don't want to say exactly which country. but we do know from our own reporting that likely central asian countries could potentially be the destination as some of the afghan nationals are relocated. and the president today defended the time line of how this is going to take place because he said that processing aspect is actually been reduced from a much longer 10 to 12 month process to something shorter. and that already a few thousand of these special immigrant visas have been in the works and he feels many of them may be able to even come to the united states. so that's a possibility. but they don't want to get into all of the numbers. the they say because they are still workied about the families and how at risk they will be. so the president and his own speech today said speed is safety. that's why when he announced the withdrawal in april we're now

already seeing it 90% complete. but that same quick in is does not necessarily apply to the thousands of afghan nationals. thousands are in limbo and waiting to see what happened to them. i asked the president if he was satisfied enough with how that's going. if it's quick enough in terms of his concerns, of course, that these partners in the region but at the same time, he said the u.s. was not going to be responsible for them entirely. that is up as well to the afghan government. that is at least how the president defended that. but he did say he wanted to see as many of them relocated safely as possible. and the time line he put on that as well is the end of august. when we expect all troops to be out of afghanistan except for the tiny footprint. >> i'm curious to get your thoughts on the pentagon and how they view the afghanistan military's capacity to defend its country going forward. something to the point that richard is talking about.

the american military invested awe lot of money, personnel, resources to train the forces. what is the upper brass of the military, the u.s. military think about their afghan counterparts? whether they can hold the territory. a swift moving of the taliban in rural partsst country. >> right. so the u.s. and nato have -- they spent years more than a decade and they build up over the 352,000. that's military and police. the issue with the afghan national defense forces is really the underlying issue we face in afghanistan. and that's that there are so many rural parts of the country. the central government really controls kabul and some of the areas right around there. the central government didn't have a direct hand in the kun tru. that's why we're seeing the more rural areas. the afghan military and police who again have been trained,

supported, still getting money and weapons and logistic support up until literally the most recent days. they've been getting it from the u.s. and from nato allies. burt we're seeing them start to melt away when the taliban are advancing. and that's because they really don't have this fundamental strong support of the central afghan government in kabul. and so that's why the taliban is able to march into these areas. that's what, you know, what president biden is really talking about today when saying it's not clear necessarily that the taliban are going to take over. but defense officials are very concerned. even if they're not able to take the central government or take over kabul, they will create this -- whether what richard is referring to as a civil war in the country, they'll create such a sense of unstability in the

country and thent concern becomes will that lead to other terror networks like al qaeda, like isis being able to grow up to grow there? and on this issue of the interpreters who have been so important, so critical to the military and to the diplomatic personnel who have been there for the last 20 years in afghanistan, i've been told that while many of them have not been applying for the special immigrant visas, it is in the half that may be eligible. part of that is because they weren't necessarily in this imminent danger there in kabul. but that's changing. so we can expect more to start applying for them. we should be looking at some neighboring countries for places that maybe taking them in not necessarily some of the ones that we've been hearing about but others that are closer into afghanistan who may be taking some of these in, ayman? >> thank you. courtney, monica and richard, thank you for starting us off on this important story. joining us to dig deeper into this, ben rhodes, former national security adviser under

president obama. and editor in chief of foreign policy magazine. let me begin with you. this idea that we've been talking about. the president saying that it's time to get out of there. but at the same time, does not think it is a forgone conclusion that the taliban will take over kabul. first of all, do you agree with that assessment. based on what you've known and seen, are the taliban not likely to go after kabul. but if they tried to go of after kabul, they wouldn't be able to take it over as easily as we're seeing in other parts of the country? >> well, i thought that president biden was careful not overpromise in this regard. i think we see the momentum on the ground is very much with the taliban. i think what president biden is trying to say is, look, we also have to fortify the more afl the morale. they're not going to be able to retake large swaths of the country. they can fortified kabul and try

to get into some kind of peace process. we can't ignore the factors going into afghanistan. i think the most important element of president biden's decision is he's not kind of conditioning a return of u.s. military forces based on the state of afghanistan. he's saying we're leaving. he's made the judgement that if we stay here for another year or two years, thing was not be improving anyway. and so this is really a decisive shift away from the u.s. using the military as the principle means of the policy to effect this. he is saying clearly the days are over. part of the thinking in the administration is she didn't want the u.s. military and troops to be used as a bargaining trip in the afghan talks between the taliban and the central government, is there an argument to be made that removing america's presence gives the upper hand to the taliban in those negotiations

with the afghan central government. that without that firepower and support, the central government is much weaker at the negotiating table. >> yeah. i mean, look, there is no question. without the u.s. presence which has been the muscle behind the afghan security forces, the air power for the afghan security forces, that diminishes leverage at the table. joe biden, look, i was with him in the room with him in 2009. i think he argue ford a long that we've been extended in afghanistan and 20 years is long enough for the united states to be involved in a war in the other country. even if you subscribe to the belief that 2500 or 5,000 u.s. troops were some leverage in the negotiation, that's a recipe for keeping them there forever. the taliban has not surrendered. the taliban will continue to fight. and so you're creating a perpetual rational to keep u.s. troops there even if the

situation is not improving. he is saying, look, i'm going to break the cycle the first year of my presidency and 20 years is long enough. again, that creates a lot of risks in a lot of because. we'll see difficult things happen in afghanistan. what he's saying is we have to recognize there is a limit to what we can achieve in afghanistan. we've achieved the central counter-terrorism mission with al qaeda and bin laden which is the reason we went there in the first place. and the foreign policy is focusing on china and climate change and other things that doesn't allow for the united states to provide the amount of resources and bandwidth and obviously the risk to our troops that we have for the last 20 years. the. >> what could this situation in afghanistan look like three months, six months, nine months down the road? i was also struck by the president repeatedly saying afghanistan has never been a united country in the history which i think some would look at and sayen that is an indication that the administration is not counting on afghanistan going forward to be a united country since it has never been one in in its past.

>> that's right. and sorry for the background behind me. he had to be positive about the outcomes and the coming months to try to defend the discussion to go out. but on the other hand, he did leave room open to acknowledge the fact that this could turn soun very quickly. the government could fall within six to nine months. the truth remains that the taliban has taken the 400 districts this year. but that it is holding itself back. likely will in the coming months. it didn't get discussed much by the presser today is the fact that other countries have their own designs on what is going to happen. the indian foreign secretary --

the indian foreign ministry is in russia. both of those countries have designs on the future of afghanistan. it has never long discussed or engaged in bate that's have begun to do so. you have reports with asia and pakistan. each of the countries as biden stressed will play a role in what happens in the coming months. >> and there is, of course, the concern about what happens to some of the games made by women and young girls in school. something the president talked about. but there was this kind of moment where he said, you know, he was told by a young girl she wanted to be a doctor. if the u.s. leaves, she wouldn't become a doctor. the u.s. wouldn't be able to hold the taliban back at bay. it is a moment that is jarring for me. in some ways it made the argument that the future of fwhim afghanistan is in jeopardy after this withdraw. >> it really is. there is just no denying the advances that have been made in

recent years for women and girls. girls being able to go to school. women now make up about 28% of the afghan legislative body. that is higher than the global average. you know, afghan public approval of women's right to vote is at about 90%. that's also record high. it's not just in kabul. even outside of kabul in rural areas. there are more women engaged in local government. you know, afghanistan has a deputy of defense. this will be reversed the more the taliban is able to gain control of this country. not only that, this is going to be so dire for afghan who's are forced to leave the country. already this year about 205,000 afghans have been displaced. 50,000 in recent days. and many of them are going to flee for iran, pakistan, europe. there are already three million registered afghan refugees worldwide. that is one in ten of all

refugees. this is situation is only going to get worse. i think the world will look to the united states to help out to be able to fund the u.n. refugee agency and to be able to ask other countries including those in central asia to try to house them, try to help them, to repatriate them. >> this will raise questions in the middle of a global pandemic. thank you for joining us this hour. greatly appreciate it. up next, new developments in the assassination of haiti's president. four suspects dead. a manhunt underway. esident. four suspects dead a manhunt underway 's coverage customizer tool? so you only pay for what you need. sorry? limu, you're an animal! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ use a single hr software? nope. we use 11. eleven. why do an expense report from your phone when you can do it from a machine that jams? i just emailed my wife's social security number to the entire company instead of hr,

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. four suspects in the assassination of president moise have been arrested. haiti's election minister says two of the arrests are believed to be haitian-americans but just moments ago, the state department spokesman said he is not in a position to confirm or deny that reporting. haiti's first laudy is in miami undergoing treatment for injuries she us is staund in the attack. the u.n. special representative confirmed afterward the country's interim prime minister will remain in control until elections take place. joining me now is former prime minister of haiti.

sir, thank you so much for your time. i greatly appreciate it. i know that haitian leaders are asking for international support. the u.s. says it will respond to haiti's request for help with its investigation and the u.n. has said it will also assist as it can. neither though has made any concrete commitments yet. how can the u.s. and the u.n. help right now from your expertise? >> well this is very important to have that help. an international investigation is the only way to get not only to the people that have carried out the assassination but also to the naem have financed this horrific -- this assassination of a sitting president that was killed execution style. i mean the president was shot 16 times and the first lady there are three bullets. so it is, you know, the haitian people -- haiti is in it

mourning. people are angry. the people are on the street in front of the jail, you know, asking for justice for the president. and it's welcome news that the u.s. and the u.n. have offered assistance, not specific ones but they could do what they've done in lebanon, for example, when an international investigation body was put together for the assassination of the prime minister of lebanon. this is something that will be good for haiti and good for the world if we have this international body investigating this foreign services. >> let me ask you this, sir. you know that country better than anyone. can you talk to us about who in the country has the capacity to carry out this type of operation? i mean, it's highly sophisticated, highly trained. from your expertise being the

chief executive in that country as a former prime minister, do haitians and private individuals have the capacity to hire these types of mersonaries. >> there are very few people that can afford such an assassination. 70% of the population get less than a dollar a day. that should make it easy to get to those that financed this operation. >> foreman prime minister of haiti, thank you for your time. i greatly appreciate it. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. crews at the site of that deadly condo collapse observe a moment of silence for the victims as the search enters a grim new phase. the number of dead now up to 60. surfside's mayor joins us next. you're watching "ayman mohyeldin reports." u're watching "ayman mn reports.

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after two weeks of around the clockwork to find survivors of that deadly condo collapse in surfside, florida, the search has turned to a recovery mission. there is no sign of life among the rubble. joining me is sam brock. sam, talk to us about the latest recovery efforts there today and how things have changed in the couple hours that decision has been made?

>> good afternoon. look, we know that it was about 36 bodies that were recovered within nearly two weeks. they went to the last 36 hours or so. it's been another 24 bodies, ayman. part of the reason why, the debris field is not entirely accessible because there was an unstable building. the remainders of the tower moved six to 12 inches had to be made safe again or stabilized and then demolished. now that the search and rescue teams have full access here, we're sadly starting to see the numbers continue to rise and there are still 80 people who are unaccounted for at this point. you mentioned a second ago at midnight last night, so now we're about 15 hours into this, it went from search and rescue to recovery. you talk to family members. they sell you, look, just because that switch was made does not mean psychologically or emotional, that's how we're feeling. we've been going two weeks hoping they would find our loved ones. i spoke with a woman, her 65-year-old mom lives in that power. her husband was across the

country on business when this happened. thet they have grandchildren. they talk about the faith in this community and why she chose surfside. >> my mom really wanted to stay in surfside. she really likes surfside. she really likes her apartment. she likes being able to walk out and walk on the boardwalk. she likes the community. and that's why this is so hard. because, you know, she wanted to be here. like this to her -- this is her home. this is our home. >> of course, the tragedy that happened here is prompted all sorts of questions about the structural stability of buildings all over south florida. we spoke with the folks in miami beach today. they told us of the 5,000 commercial properties in miami beach, 10%, 507 of them, are currently at some stage of recertification. they went through right away and inspected the buildings. we have the results of what they found coming up on nbc "nightly

news" this evening. back to you. >> all right. sam brock, thank you for that important update. we're going to be watching that tonight on "nightly news." at this morning's briefing, local officials including the mayor of surfside thanked those who continued to search through the rubble as they began this phase of the recovery effort. listen. >> i want to say and express my most passionate thanks to the search and rescue teams, all of our fire and police departments and their professional and dedicated leaders among them chief cominski, chief jadalah, director ramirez and our own town manager andy hyatt and our police chief. surfside loves and thanks you all for everything that you have done and continue to do. >> that mayor joins me live now. mr. mayor, thank you so much for your time. talk to us, sir, if can you about the difficult decision to shift from a rescue effort to a recovery mission.

what went into that thought process and led to that conclusion at this point? >> i think all the rescue experts on the scene got together and made a determination that there was a near zero chance that there was anyone left alive in the rubble. having said that, when i was told of that, you know, i questioned that. because even if there is a near zero chance, it just doesn't sit well with me to stop looking for people when there could be somebody left in there. of and i believe they took that into consideration when they basically said nothing is going to change. we're still going to search. it's just that we're going to change the name of it to try to give the families a little more closure because the torture the families are going through, the waiting, not knowing is really brutal. and i think that some of them are starting to feel as though

they can begin the process of putting this horror behind them. i know you was out there with them about 20 minutes ago at the site. we had a moment of silence. we had all the families there. metro fire department had a fly over. it was a really moving experience. all the work stopped. all the workers on the pile stopped. all the heavy equipment stopped. there were men on the pile with their hands over their hearts. so it was quite moving. and i feel as though the families are moving towards some semblance of closure. at the same time, we haven't given up. god is in control. and i believe in miracles. i'm hoping for one today. >> can they work more quickly in trying to recover the body? do protocols change in any way, shape or form that makes it

different? >> basically, he said the only difference that there will be is they're not going to be running the dogs over the pile looking for live people. but that doesn't mean they're not carefully and respectfully and systematically removing the debris in order not to damage any of the people that are buried in there and god willing we still have hope that maybe there is a void and maybe there is someone in there. but for all intents and purposes, it is pretty much the same thing with that very slight difference. >> mayor, thank you so much for your time. greatly appreciate it. >> and happening now, president biden meets with leaders from top civil rights organizations over voting rights in this country. texas congressman collin alred joins us to talk about the gop's persistent efforts to put strict voting laws in place.

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the texas legislator kicked off a special legislative session to take up a voting rights bill with the house recessing this morning after only 32 minutes and the senate after about an hour. the election overhaul bill would add new voter id requirements for mail in voting and then drive through at overnight and early voting. joining me now with more from austin, texas, nbc news correspondent priscilla thompson. so this bill is the first in the country since the supreme court upheld arizona's restrictive new voting laws. how important was that ruling for today's special session? and what are we seeing play out on the ground right now? >> yeah. there is no question that lawmakers here particularly democrats are watching very closely what has happened in other states and how that is playing out throughout the

country. and that is why as the special session got underway today, part of the messaging from democrats was around how best to strategize on how to block these restrictive voting measures. but the other piece of this is talking about the need for the federal government to act. that this is not something that states can do alone. and i spoke with the democratic caucus chair, the house, about this and i want you to take a listen to what he said was his message to lawmakers in washington, d.c. >> my message to them would be we need your help and we need it now. we need hr-1. we need the john lewis voting rights act to be able to block suppressive laws like the texas legislature wants to pass. >> and as for what exactly democrats can do here on the ground in a legislature why the gop controls both chambers, democratic leaders tell me they're going to be analyzing

these bills as they come through. spending the next couple days looking over those election bills that have just been filed in the house and the senate. and they're also going to be looking very closely at the time line and the timing that the gop leadership is laying out for this. as a reminder, the special session can only last a maximum of 30 days. so that timing is going to be very important here. and in terms of what comes next, we know that bills have now been filed in both the house and the senate. we expect hearings to begin in committees as early as saturday. >> thank you very much. thank you. and right now, president biden and vice president kamala harris are meeting with civil rights groups to discuss voting rights. this follows remarks earlier today from the vice president where she announced the dnc is investing $25 million in voting rights initiative in response to new restrictive state voting

laws. watch. >> these laws create obstacle upon obstacle. these laws make it harder for you to vote. because they don't want you to vote. we will not let anyone take way our power. that's why we're all here together today. >> now this comes as a federal judge rejects an effort to invalidate parts of georgia's controversial new voting law. saying that a ruling now risks a disrupting the administration of an on going election outweigh the harm to plaintiffs. joining me now is texas democratic congressman collin alred. great to see you again. welcome back to the program. i know according to the dnc, the $25 million will be used for voter education, protection efforts as well as targeted regulation and technology to increase voting accessibility. is that enough though? as we heard there from the caucus of the democratic --

excuse me, the chair of the democratic talkous in texas, they need more from the federal government. we know there are bills across the country introducing new restrictions to voting. and many of the bills we heard about are in georgia. >> there is only so much can you do through organizing, through education. and i do think there is going to be a backlash nationally as people realize how hard some of these states are trying to keep them from voting. but we still need to have federal protections. the we have seen this before. we've been down this road before. we're in certain states. they try to make it so that certain americans could not engage in our democracy. so we passed the voting rights act of 1965. now we need to restore that and establish affirmative abilities and ways for folks to vote, to overcome what is happening in these states. some of what is happening is really frightening. that is also to be very

difficult for any amount of organizing. >> what do you hope that the outcome of this meeting that is taking place right now with the president biden and vice president harris and civil rights groups, what concrete actions are you looking for to come out of that meeting? >> i certainly want to see and seeing the department of justice being very aggressive and challenging. . some of the laws. but i think that it certainly time for the president to make, you know, pushing to pass hr 1 and the john lewis voting rights act to make those as high a priority as anything else on his agenda. i know president biden well. i know this is something that is near and dear to his heart. i believe that he will push very hard for this. this is something that every american should be focused on. we need presidential leadership to find a way to get around the super majority requirement in the senate. the house has passed the for the people act. we'll take up the john lewis

voting rights act. we need to get something through the senate. what is happening is unamerican. what is happening is trying to take us back in the words of john lewis to another time and to another place. >> you use the word leadership. >> i want to play for you what someone said about this administration. watch. >> i am p not seeing the level of the urgency of what i am feeling and other voter advocates are feeling on the ground as i'm hear in austin, texas. what i want to see is i want to see the kund of passion and the sense of urgency of now. what this moment will mean. >> do you think they're missing the sense of urgency that is on the ground by activists and others and not using the bully pulpit of the white house enough? >> you know, i think that she's certainly right. we all need to be approaching this period as if it is a

crisis. we need the president and administration, we need all to be speaking with one voice about how important this is and to act. you know, i think the white house is moving on this. i think they have in many ways being to allow the senate to work through the process. the time has come for us to push really hard. we have to try to find a way forward here. the status quo is untenable. we don't want to be sitting here when we go into the 2022 elections knowing it's not going to be a free and fair election. too many states have been jerry mandering. gerrymandering. >> all right. congressman, always a pleasure sir. thank you so much for your timing. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> what's next for afghanistan? now that u.s. troops have

withdrawn from the country? pentagon press secretary john kirby joins us next with the answer. tary john kirby joins us next with the answer so then i said to him, you oughta customize your car insurance with liberty mutual, so you only pay for what you need. hot dog or... chicken? only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ it's dry. there's no dry time. makes us wonder why we booked fifteen second ad slots.

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afghanistan to decide on what government they want not us to impose the government on them. our mission was accomplished that we got osama bin laden and terrorism is not emanating from that part of the world. >> joining me is pentagon press secretary and an assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, john kirby. thank you for your time. i want to start with what we're seeing on the ground. from our reporting, even by some military assess many, are you alarmed at how quickly the afghan government and its military is losing territory to the taliban at this point? >> the security situation on the ground is absolutely concern. we've been very public about that. it's not moving in the direction we want it to move in. what the president said and it's a really important point is that the afghan forces do have the capacity and they have capability to go after the taliban and defend their territory and their people. they have an air force. the taliban doesn't.

they have 300,000 troops in the field. the taliban has something more than 70,000. they have the capacity. it's now time for them to use that capacity to have the will to do that. >> is the u.s. prepared to go back in to afghanistan to prevent the afghan government from collapsing? is that right now a promise the americans can make that they will not let the central government collapse to the taliban? >> our focus right now is on completing this drawdown of forces. nothing has changed about the president's direction to get all u.s. forces out of afghanistan and to end this very, very long war. that means we transition to a new relationship with afghanistan. the government there and the forces, one that helps them develop more capacity to continue to help improve their capability in the field. and it's all ultimately going to be up to them to preserve the government they want and to protect their citizens and their territory. that's the goal here.

so, again, our focus in the military is on completing this drawdown and transition to go a new relationship with afghan forces. >> let me play for you something the president said about the taliban earlier today. watch this. >> is the taliban takeover of afghanistan now inevitable? >> no, it is not. >> why? >> because you have the afghan troops at 300,000 well equipped as any army in the world and an air force against something like 75,000 taliban. it is not inevitable. >> the u.s. for 20 years has been fighting the taliban and other remnants. and as the president has acknowledged now that the united states is leaving, they're not going to stay there to be a part of what might descend into a civil war. can you guarantee that the afghan government won't fall to

the taliban and the military's assessment? >> i think anybody that just seems that's going to happen is actually underestimating the afghan people and their capacity and their bravery and courage and the freedom that they want to pursue. it's not inevitable that will happen. the taliban advances we've been talking about only argue more for pressure to end this conflict and to give the afghan people the government that they want and they deserve and that's what the focus has to be. it's not inevitable that the taliban take over afghanistan and the whole world can help by continuing to push for a diplomatic political settlement to this war. >> as you heard the president say we went in for terrorism and

getting osama bin laden. they are seeing an influx of groups in other parts of afghanistan. former national security adviser john bolton was on this network earlier and said the withdrawal would risk another 9/11-style attack. from your vantage point does the military have the ability to respond to the threats inside afghanistan without having a presence inside afghanistan? >> the short answer is yes. absolutely. we have counterterrorism capabilities in place right now. a carrier strike group is not far away -- well, far enough away in the ocean but within reach and facilities to use fixed aircraft as well as manned and unmanned to deal with the threat. it's always easier if you can cut down some of that space and time and get closer. we are in discussions about possible use of facilities there or closer to afghanistan to act

more quickly. we are going to have a persistent set of eyes. and it is a greatly reduced terror threat. i recognize there are terror groups there, isis and al qaeda and others in afghanistan, but the threats coming out of afghanistan are not necessarily significant to our homeland and homeland security as they were in 2001. we're seeing the terrorist threat migrate to other areas such as africa. we have to stay focused on that as well. >> john kirby, it's been a long day for you. i appreciate your insight. and that wraps up the hour for me. "deadline white house" with nicolle wallace right after this quick break. h nicolle wallace right after this quick break. rotein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein.

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