in the coming days. i don't know if they can wait that long. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up coverage right now. hi there, i am stephanie ruhle. monday, august 16th. we start with breaking news out of afghanistan for the so-called forever war coming to a messy, chaotic, heartbreaking end. sunday, the taliban seized the capital of kabul, effectively taking control of the country, making headlines around the world. after nearly 20 years of trying to hold afghanistan together, the united states is just trying to get out. but they're not alone. look at the pictures. crowds of desperate afghans descended on the airport in kabul. people flooding the tarmac, climbing onto planes, trying to get out any way they can. to make matters worse, you can hear gunfire breaking out amidst

the chaos. for the u.s., job number one is getting americans out safely. 3,000 u.s. troops arrived in kabul. they have helped evacuate staff from u.s. embassy sunday. now they're trying to get them out of the country all together. that is not an easy task. this morning, national security adviser jake sullivan told nbc the u.s. military is still in the process of fully securing the airport. those are afghans under an air force plane, trying to climb on landing gear as it is trying to take off. if that is not a picture of desperation, i don't know what is. across the country, thousands of afghans are selling what they have, grabbing life savings, trying desperately to escape all at the same time. chief foreign correspondent richard engle is in kabul with

the latest. richard? >> reporter: afghans are tlonging to the airport, desperate to leave the country at any cost. scaling the airport walls, rushing in this morning. no streeng, no security checks. just force of numbers. when they manage to push aboard planes, they're so crowded, pilots won't take off. no one agrees to disembark. it is all happening a few hundred yards from the military side of kabul airport, now separated by a row of barbed wire from the civilian side in chaos. the military side where the u.s. is staging an elaborate evacuation of american diplomats from the embassy. even here, afghans manage to push through, willing to cling onto an aircraft as it took off, rather than stay in afghanistan. afghans say americans are only

focused on getting u.s. citizens out, along with interpreters. although tens of thousands of translators have no u.s. visas, so they, too, are left to the taliban. the militants took control of kabul yesterday. we watched them move in. >> kabul is falling. we left our office, long time home in afghanistan, heading to a safer location, hopefully safer location. we have seen gunmen look like taliban on the streets and all government check points, police and soldiers are gone. now the taliban are out in full force. they took over the presidential palace, occupied kabul's version of the oval office. the afghanistan president fled the country. they set up check points across the capital and islamist rule is already coming back. this was a popular beauty salon, styling women's hair and makeup. the taliban banned salons along

with education for women and girls. so when the taliban came back, people panltd over the butd ee shop. they know what the taliban want and expect. we watched a man tear up the beauty parlor sign in line with the taliban's wishes. the taliban don't just control kabul but the whole country and all the weapons the u.s. bought for the afghan army. there are reports of atrocities, including abductions, rape, executions. militants are much stronger now than 20 years ago when the u.s. drove them from power, when they sheltered osama bin laden as he plotted 9/11. now the taliban are back as the u.s. leaves afghanistan gripped by panic and run by extremists. >> richard is on the ground in kabul. he will join us live in a moment. with us, nbc courtney kube, mike mel me, and former marine that

commanded infantry troops in afghanistan back in 2012. courtney, what can you tell us about the evacuation at the airport. the images of horrific. do we know how many americans are still stuck there? >> we don't. we know more than 500 have gotten out, these are americans assigned to the embassy. but we don't have a good sense of anything beyond that. basically what the military was doing, as planes were coming in, bringing in soldiers and marines who were shoring up the airport, providing additional security, they were filling them with people, sending them back out. the situation at the airport is literally like much of afghanistan the past several days, evolving, changing almost in hour by hour pace. where we are, the u.s. military has control f the, securing the military side of the airport. a lot of viewers may not realize, kabul international airport has a distinct

co-located civilian and military side. the military side, there has been a u.s. and international presence for years now. infrastructure, it has been a base there for years. the u.s. military on that side is also working with the air traffic control over the airport now, so they're basically taking control of that to help get planes in and out. but the big unknown factor is the images we are looking at the past couple of minutes, afghan civilians swarming into the civilian side of the airport and the chaos that is ensuing. at this point, there are still no flights coming or going from the civilian side of the airport, and there are americans and afghans who are eligible or potentially eligible to leave under the u.s. diplomatic processes that are on the military side, trying to get out as well. so the situation is very chaotic. we are trying to figure out

exactly how many americans are still there and how many they're able to move. once the entire u.s. military prenls is there in the coming day or so, it will be about 6,000 strong, the hope is they'll be able to move 5,000 people out every day on military aircraft. they're not at that capability yet. >> that is a big hope. michael, when are we going to hear from the president? >> reporter: well, steph, certainly the urgency of this moment, dramatic pictures you're seeing on our screen now are raising the political pressure at a time when he and so much of his team was set to have a little bit of a break, close to a break as you ever get, when you work in the white house, when you're the president of the united states. white house officials are saying now it is likely the president will return to washington likely and address the nation in the next coming days. certainly the pressure to do that sooner rather than later is

changing the calculation by the moment. what we have heard is from senior officials. yesterday we saw the secretary of state, tony blinken on the sunday shows, saw jake sullivan today doing a lot of morning television shows, all making the same point. one, yes, conceding the speed and scale of the taliban takeover of afghanistan surprised them, but two, that they really were left with very few palatable political options here in terms of the u.s. strategy going forward in afghanistan, because they inherited a deal as they put it from the trump administration with the taliban that laid ground work for the u.s. departure. here is jake sullivan explaining what it would have meant to reverse that agreement. >> i think the worst case scenario for the united states would be a circumstance in which we were adding back in thousands and thousands of troops to fight and die in a civil war in afghanistan when the afghan army wasn't prepared to fight itself. that was the alternative choice

joe biden faced. >> reporter: steph, folks are likely asking given how much this president reversed what the previous president did, why didn't he do that, and part of it is because as the president himself laid out over the course of the year, he wanted to see himself end to the forever wars. he was confident the u.s. withdrawal would happen in a safe and orderly manner as he put it last month. what we are seeing in terms of pictures now present a picture that's anything but. that's something the administration has to be dealing with, both in near term as they deal with escalating crisis in afghanistan, but in the long term what it means for u.s. national security, not an easy challenge as they have so many challenges on so many fronts. >> congressman, $2 trillion spent and the taliban stronger than they were when this whole thing started. you did not think the capital would collapse this quickly. what's your reaction to this?

>> it is appalling and it is a testament to lack of political partner in kabul for the united states government. this president inherited a decision that was wrenching. it was not status quo or withdrawal, it was ramp up american forces in afghanistan to hold the taliban at bay during the fighting season or to finally end a failed forever war. he made the high integrity decision to not hand off this boondoggle to another administration. and what we are seeing now, truly there was no political leadership that we could work with. >> why wasn't the afghan army even remotely prepared for this? >> the united states built afghanistan with a 300,000 person army and one of the best air forces in the world. you can't buy will and can't purchase leadership. afghan political leaders from

kabul, despite a 20 year opportunity to plant seeds of civil society, rule of law, democratic governance, lined their own pockets, devolved into corruption and there are front line troops with whom i served, i know are strong fighters that love their home land were completely let down by leadership. couldn't get bullets or rags. >> i want to bring in richard engle live from kabul. what is happening on the ground where you are? >> reporter: so we are near the airport right now and that is where we have been seeing incredible scenes of desperation. scenes that will go down in history about this withdrawal and what the united states is leaving behind in afghanistan. the u.s. is leaving a country that's now run by extremists where people in the thousands and tens of thousands will risk

anything to leave at the kabul airport, tens of thousands of afghans are trying to break in, many succeeded breaking in, bursting through the doors, there's no security or passport checks. they're rushing onto the tarmac, getting on planes, and they are laying down on the floor of the planes, getting into the undercarriage, they want to leave at all cost. there's also a military side of the airport. that's happening on the civilian side. on the military side of the airport, that's where the evacuation of u.s. personnel primarily from the embassy is taking place. thousands of afghans were able to get into the military side and cling onto american transport jets as they are taking off. that is the level of desperation here. people don't want to be left behind, don't want to be left behind in a country run by the taliban. and afghanistan now is run by the taliban, the militants are

asserting more and more control. today we saw the first big deployment of taliban on the streets of kabul, they're trying to maintain law and order, law and order, according to the taliban rules. >> richard, what happens to you there, your safety. you're now in a country controlled by the taliban. >> reporter: so we and other journalists are trying to figure out. we have some plans in the works to leave when the time is right, probably not best to discuss them in detail now. so far, the taliban have not been hostile to foreign media. they say that we are welcome to stay as long as we register with them but there are many indications that is not a good long term strategy so we are covering it day by day, but also keeping an eye on the exit and probably leave it at that.

>> absolutely. your safety is our priority. congressman, given what you said moments ago about political leadership in afghanistan not being our partner, was this ever a winnable war? >> the war in afghanistan began as a counterterrorism mission, totally stoked to deny safe harbor to terrorists and bring to justice architects of 9/11. the counterterrorism mission in afghanistan has been largely successful. osama bin laden is dead, no attacks in central asia in the last 20 years. under bush, rumsfeld, cheney, and in situation room after situation room, smarter people than me knew we could not win a counter insurgency. that was learned by the soviet union but didn't have the integrity to say it to the american people, this president did. >> i want to play what the president said last month about the taliban.

watch this. >> the taliban is not the north sri et nam east army, not remotely comparable. no circumstance you see people lifted off the roof of an embassy of the united states from afghanistan. it is not at all comfortable. >> when you were face to face with the taliban, how did the administration underestimate them so dramatically? >> i think the largest miscalculation in the last 20 years is not about the taliban, it has been about afghan central leadership. there's been this continued bias saying more troops, more time, more pressure, build a viable partner in kabul, help build a nation with them. what they showed usury peetdly with corruption is that afghan political leadership couldn't.

the fleeing afghan president in the face of them coming to the gates of kabul is exemplar of the leadership we had in the last 20 years. the right images here are not 50 years ago in saigon, it is what would be 50 years from now. without president biden making this hard call, america would be there, losing american troops, and for what. without a viable partner in afghanistan, we would not be winning a counter insurgency. >> this disaster situation would be no matter when we pulled out. thank you. stay close. any developments, come back to us as soon as you have them. we're going to leave it there. coming up, we're going to continue coverage from kabul and the taliban takeover. how everything went so wrong so fast. first, the death toll in haiti rising after a devastating earthquake. we'll bring you the latest from the ground, speak with the former prime minister about just how bad it is. me minister aboutt w bad it is. as i observe investors balance risk and reward,

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weenchts following new developments following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in haiti over the weekend. the death toll jumped to more than 1200 with 5700 injured. dramatic video shows the horrific aftermath with rescue teams pulling stunned survival from the rubble including babies and children.

hospitals, schools, churches destroyed. as the country tries to assess the damage, residents are bracing for a tropical storm. gabe gutierrez is there with the latest. >> reporter: good morning. the u.s. coast guard is bringing supplies to hardest-hit regions in the southwestern part of the country and evacuate some critically wounded patients to the capital of port-au-prince. some images you're about to see in the story are tough to watch. haiti prime minister declared a state of emergency after one of the most powerful earthquakes this country has seen. this morning, a country in crisis. people tear through rubble to find any signs of life after a monstrous 7.2 earthquake saturday devastated southwest haiti. the death toll now soaring to 1300, with more than 5,000

people hurt. many seriously. >> people started screaming everywhere, on the streets, out of panic and fear. >> reporter: the massive quake flapping buildings across the southern peninsula, triggering land slides that cut off access to smaller communities. families who lost their homes are sleeping on nearby soccer fields. hospitals already pushed to the brink by the covid pandemic, people in need of aid, evacuated by air to port-au-prince. an international effort to help is under way, u.s. sending 65 person search and rescue from virginia at the request of the haitian government. the coast guard is helping care for the injured. overall, how significant is the devastation on that part of the island? >> pretty significant scope of damage, substantial work to be

done. >> reporter: this is the latest devastation for a country that never fully recovers from the earthquake in 2010 that killed as many as 300,000 people. haiti is also already dealing with political chaos, sparked by the brazen assassination of its president last month. now tropical storm grace is forecast to hit haiti by tomorrow, bringing punishing rain that could lead to flash flooding and new mud slides. yet another blow to a country in crisis. this latest earthquake was more powerful than the one in 2010 in haiti that killed an estimated quarter million people. the difference was the epicenter was in the southwestern part of the country, more rural than here in the capital city region, potentially causing the death toll to be lower. it is still expected to grow. now there are new concerns about tropical depression grace which is expected to bring torrential rain to the country and potential for more mud slides

further complicating the rescue effort. stephanie? >> gabe gutierrez, thank you. joining us, former prime minister of haiti. mr. pm, it is stunning and devastating to watch this. you and i spent time together in haiti. talk about where we are now. more than 1200 confirmed dead. knowing the country, knowing the infrastructure, how much higher do you think the number is? >> i think it is going to go much higher. right now there are still people under the rubble. there's still search and rescue happening. there are many villages, coastal villages that people don't have access to because most roads are blocked. most of the rescue effort being carried out by helicopters. so there's many areas where people are still under the rubble. i expect that number to go much higher because as you said

earlier, this earthquake is much more stronger than the one that hit in 2010 and it is the fourth earthquake haiti faces because we're sitting on a fault line. it is the fourth earthquake. one in 1751, one in 1770, one in 2010 and the latest saturday. it is a major catastrophe. >> put into perspective, give us comparison now versus then. the quake in 2010, we were there five years later and five years later it seemed like things couldn't get worse. how bad are they right now? >> well, it is extremely bad in terms of the quake itself. the only i would say, if you can call it positive news, it hit more rural areas, less densely

populated areas, you see less casualties. as a reminder, the quake in 2010, we had over 250,000 people dead, 500,000 injured. so the level of casualty was higher because of the more densely populated port-au-prince area, and the energy in this quake was released backwards rather than forward towards port of prins area. that's why you see less casualties. still tremendous amount of casualties, but 1700, 2,000 compared to 250,000 in 2010. that's the main difference. this one hit about 30 miles west of port-au-prince and the latest hit 50 miles further west. this is a catastrophe anyways of major proportions i would call it. >> after 2010, billions of

dollars in humanitarian aid came from other countries and from private support. haiti is not going to get that kind of money this time in part because so much of the money spent, people feared, didn't get spent to making the country stronger, improving the infrastructure. there's now a tropical storm on the way. you have political instability following the president's assassination. given all of this, how bad is this going to be for haitians? >> hopefully it will get -- in the short term, is going to be very challenging and difficult situation because as you said, very few countries in the world can deal with so many back to back catastrophe. losing president to a brazen assassination. basically, the strongest earthquake in history of earthquakes in the country and in coming days a storm. very few countries in the world

could cope with something like this. haiti, it is going to get worse before it gets better, but hopefully the storm will be with less intensity. that's what we're all hoping. and it is not going to hit us with the same impact as predicted. this way we can manage, won't hit the same area. right now not the whole island, it is mostly the south part of haiti hit by this earthquake. but it is very difficult to describe. it is not an easy situation for any country. the greatest country would have difficulties dealing with assassination of the president and earthquake and storm in one month period. >> you know better than anyone, haiti has the strongest people. prime minister, thank you for joining me this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you very much. ahead, more than 2400 american lives lost, trillions of dollars spent in afghanistan

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right now to breaking news out of afghanistan where the u.s. evacuation is getting more dire by the minute after the government fell to the taliban. let's put this moment in context. afghanistan was our longest war, but it has also been called the

forgotten war and we paid a huge price as a result. over the last 20 years, mofr more than 2400 u.s. troops have been killed, 20,000 more wounded. we spent about two and a quarter trillion, with 143 billion spent on rebuilding afghanistan basically from scratch, including, this is what i want to know about, 88 billion specifically to train and ee kwipt afghan military and police forces. just for the taliban to now take over. want to bring in sahil kapur on capitol hill with us, defense one executive editor. with all of this as backdrop, lawmakers are quick to play the blame game. the house and senate are playing the blame game from home, they're both on recess. is congress actually doing anything here? >> reporter: in terms of concrete action, no. you point out they are on recess, still absorbing

information, being briefed. most of them informally, the house intelligence committee expects to brief members soon, according to chairman adam schiff. now the reaction. among democrats, the reaction is split. some have been very critical of president biden and decision to withdraw american troops, essentially blaming him in large part for what happened, that includes the congressman from texas that said this is a shame on the administration. then there are others like chris murphy of connecticut that said president biden was right to withdraw american troops, sticking to former president trump's timetable which he extended by several months and said there's hubris at play to think the united states can build nations abroad, create democracy in places like afghanistan that don't necessarily want it. among republicans, reaction is more lock step in blaming and criticizing president biden for this. let's play some of what two

republicans had to say. >> i think absolutely president biden bears responsibility for making this decision, but there's no question that president trump, his administration, secretary pompeo, they bear very significant responsibility for this. >> president biden said in july this is not going to be saigon, not like south vietnam. guess what, talk to ambassador crocker, we think it is going to be worse. >> reporter: behind all of this, a haunting feeling among lawmakers and aids that the united states spent trillions of dollars, lost thousands of lives trying to build what now looks like a "house of cards" that ultimately couldn't stand on its own. president biden made bad predictions about speed and strength of the taliban and its ability to take control of afghanistan which critics are pointing to. at the end of the day, not clear what congress will do about it, it will take a lot of support

and a lot of damage that has been done. >> three months ago you talked to the afghan president ghani. he said he would never abandon his people or leave. well, that changed. >> three months ago feels like a different world, remember what was going on at that time. talks were very much ongoing between the u.s. government lead negotiator and members of the taliban leadership, government largely left out of that. they knew the u.s. would be leaving. the taliban has always known the u.s. would leave, from the moment they set foot on the ground, the question from taliban leadership has always been when will you be leaving, they knew this day would be coming. the u.s. continued with the military campaign, poured trillions of dollars into nation building, which was working to some degree.

there were universities stood up, infrastructure projects under way, a middle class that was taking hold in a number of cities. but the taliban were not weakened, they were just waiting. as for those that are saying it is stunning in speed, perhaps how quickly it moved across the country, it did catch many by surprise. we shouldn't be surprised by the fact they were able to do this in the way they were. this was not a military march across the country. there was very little fighting in each of the provincial capitals and they took them one by one. it was a psychological operation. everyone knew the u.s. was leaving. the taliban had the leverage all along, no one should be surprised that today we are where we are with the taliban in control, the u.s. embassy evacuated, and the president having fled for his life. >> kevin, trump made the deal with the taliban, he set the date. biden, he didn't have to, but he executed on it, went through with it.

if he hadn't, we would have had to add troops. did he have a better option? >> better i don't know, but that's what the other option was. we have seen reporting of the white house and administration officials that thought that look, this was going to happen anyway, the taliban were going to either fight or walk their way into kabul, and the amount of troops trump left in kabul wasn't enough to do anything. it would take another 10,000. we reported two years ago, talked to senior commanders, asked that question. what's the minimum number of u.s. troops we need in the country to do the minimum counterterrorism mission, not fight a war, to do minimum number and to continue the job of advising and assisting the army there and to continue to train and equip them. the number was always between 8 and 10,000. as soon as trump went below that a few years ago, it was a different ball game.

the administration, if we wanted to change it for real, we had to bring in another division and the country didn't support that. the country didn't support it in general but they support putting troops in other places and when it has specific american inte articulated. that wasn't the case. this is a case of far left and far right, both camps want them out as soon as possible and getting what they asked for. >> i am confused with what the country supports. what in the world happened to the afghan government. we talked about the president a moment ago. we spent $143 billion to rebuild the country. more specifically, 88 billion to train and equip afghan military and police forces and they left without a fight, with nothing? >> you know, i think in years to come, there's going to be a lot of analysis where politically and institution building where things went wrong. couple things we know now and

are clear which is the central government the u.s. tried to set up and support that now president ghani was leading until he left 24 hours ago, that was never recognized as a central figure for anyone else in the country, for large parts of the country very much controlled by their local leaders. and there's going to be conversation whether or not that was the right way to go about it. we know and president said, if it is going to be a democratic way, central government in kabul and elections to be held. the taliban wanted nothing to do with that and saw president ghani as a puppet of the west. he survived several assassination attempts, no one should be surprised that he left as soon as they came in the city. when you look at the troops were able to do, this was a military that had billions of dollars, u.s. dollars poured into it, but

only worked when it was supported by thousands of u.s. troops and separate army of contractors for logistics and technical support. the u.s. in recent weeks was carrying air support strikes to support the afghan army. at the same time, in the long term as i mentioned before and have always known, the u.s. was going to leave. in the end what you have today are sources telling me about military members of afghan national army taking off and hiding uniforms, afraid they'll be found out they were fighting for government forces, because they knew the taliban would come back. wasn't a question of if, it was a question of when. >> i know we're out of time. kevin, when the u.s. left, it was always going to be disastrous, is there a chance biden gets a pass for this here at home? the country is sick of being in

this forever war. >> the country is sick of it, but come on. go back to the top of the segment, republicans and democrats are going to fight over it, this will run on fox news on a loop the next four years and probably it should from their perspective. look, i think the point was made that the afghans fought and died by tens of thousands, and training was there. there weren't enough forces. it is not that they didn't fight for their country, they always relied on american intelligence, logistics, paying to do the job asked of them. >> trump wanted this. >> that's politics. if i was a republican and wanted to get biden out f office, i would run it on a loop five years, right or wrong, morally wrong, that's just politics. >> we'll be speaking to a republican in a couple of minutes who served in afghanistan, republican dan crenshaw of texas. thank you all so much for making

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now to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic, with some encouraging news on the vaccine front. nearly a million vaccine doses were administered across the nation saturday, up from less than 400,000 daily shots in mid july. the delta variant continues to rage across the nation. hospitalizations now reaching new pandemic highs for americans under the age of 50, and that includes kids. from august 5th to 11th, average of 263 children were admitted to hospitals every day with covid.

the director of the nation's institute of health sharing this very dire warning. >> all we can say is that this is going very steeply upward with no signs of having peaked out. i will be surprised if we don't cross 200,000 cases a day in the next couple of weeks, and that's heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again. >> the u.s. is currently averaging 129,000 new cases daily, and we have reporters covering the latest developments from coast to coast. ron allen in new york. vaccine mandate goes in effect today for indoor activities. what does that mean for people? >> reporter: if you want to go into a restaurant, gym, concert, other performance venues, you need to show proof of vaccination, starting today. enforcement comes in a few weeks as the policy is rolled out. forms of vaccination proof you

can use are the state excel see or pass. the city is trying to increase the vaccination rate here and they're concerned about the delta variant as is the rest of the country spreading. numbers are going up slightly, though not as much in other parts of the country. it is a carrot, stick approach. the point is they're saying that if you want to participate in the life of new york city, you need to be vaccinated. here there's acceptance of it, vaccination rate is relatively high, i think 66% of all adults are fully vaccinated. and numbers are tending to go up. but there are a lot of concerns. over the weekend there were some protests, a lot of it political, a lot of it spearheaded by the republican who is running for mayor, and the son of former mayor giuliani, andrew giuliani who is running for governor saying this is infringement of individual rights. what we hear in the south as

well. some business owners, how is this going to be enforced, hire additional staff to do it, what records they have to keep of customers. a lot of details to work out how this is going to happen. bottom line, if you want to fully partake in benefits of new york city you need a vaccination. this is happening in san francisco, new orleans, and i suspect other big cities in days and weeks to come as well. >> bottom line is, the vaccine saves lives. take us to l.a., the nation's second largest school district implementing strict rules as students head back to class today. tell us about it. >> reporter: exactly. very strict. now they have a vaccine mandate for all staff of the l.a. unified school district. talking people that work at the schools and teachers. that's by october 15th. everyone has to be vaccinated. they have a new system in place to test everyone, students and staff, at least once a week. we are talking like you mentioned, second largest school

district in the country, more than 600,000 students, 75,000 in staff. that would make it about 100,000 people getting tested once a week at the school district. a lot f parents are excited to have kids back to school, some school district has done their best to put all the measures in place and also using the daily pass, a qr code that works with ipads and given to students with the schools and work with phones or a document that can be printed by the parents. daily pass students answer questions about the way they feel that day to make sure they're healthy and also links up to the test that they take once a week, so when they come into school every day they will be showing this daily pass again, everyone will be tested once a week here at l.a. usv and by october 15th a vaccine mandate for all employees. stephanie? >> get tested, get vaccinated, stay safe.

guad, ron, thank you. our top story all morning, we've been talking about the taliban taking over afghanistan. it is a gut-wrenching and embarrassing end to our longest war and it has been compared to saigon at the end of the war in vietnam. here is what i want to know. what is next for the u.s. and for the afghan people? joining us to discuss, texas republican congressman dan crenshaw, former navy s.e.a.l. deployed five times overseas, including afghanistan. congressman, you've been there. you know what it's like. i know you're angry about what's happening. it's not political. you warned against the withdrawal when president trump announced his plan and unhappy with how the withdrawal is playing out. can you explain to us why we needed to stay? >> yes, it's a great question and it's fundamental to this entire debate. you have a lot of people who have been using emotional slogans to drive foreign policy. say bring the troops home. no more endless wars.

here's the reality on the ground. there's two choices that we have. you have a residual security force or you have an islamic authoritarian emirate that is killing people and providing a safe haven for terrorists and bring us right back to the situation that was pre-9/11. that doesn't make people feel good but those are the options and this was going to happen if we withdrew in a hasty manner and even if the biden administration had done this better, which they certainly did not, it probably would have happened six months from now. what do we get out of that? make some people feel good, they like to repeat slogans and makes them feel good to bring troops home. we get no other benefit and we've made the world more dangerous as a result. let me say one more thing on this. people have been unable to distinguish nation building, 100,000, 200,000 troops which we all agree is a waste especially in a place like afghanistan but they've been unable to

distinguish between that and residual security force that does limited counterterrorism operations like to call this an endless war is strange. we haven't had a combat casualty in 18 months. there was no political need to do this, no strategic need to do this in such a hasty way and so disappointing. >> you believe we should have stayed the course or changed the mission entirely? people here might say i don't know, $2 trillion, 2,400 lives seems expensive. >> nation building is expensive. we stopped nation building a long time ago and people have been unable to distinguish between the two strategies. residual security force is what we've been doing the last few years and that worked well enough. we ended up in afghanistan a stalemate where we're supporting the afghan government against an insurgency of taliban fighters that wants to create a safe haven for terrorism. so those are your options. neither are great options.

to believe otherwise is to live in a fictional world. we have to live in the real world, i've explained to people on my side, the democrats side for years now that it would end up like this. >> you can argue we need to be in afghanistan so we can have our eyes on insurgents and terrorists but this morning, we heard national security adviser jake sullivan say there are terrorist threats all over the world, yemen, somalia. he said we can't have thousands of troops everywhere there's a threat so how do you respond to that? >> he needs to look at his own force footprint. he doesn't know what he's talking about. we have troops everywhere. special operations guys like me in well over 100 countries. we advise, we assist, do training missions with host nation governments, so that their government doesn't turn into a failed state. because the failed state does have consequences around the world and especially in a place like afghanistan. so we already do this and nobody seems to complain about it.

he talks about yemen? we've been doing operations in yemen forever. so it's just not true. >> in afghanistan we worked with the government and you blink and the afghan government walks. we spent $88 billion on training the afghan military. did they just give up? >> yes, they did obviously, but in that, that hurts my heart as much as anybody else but we can't fall into the fallacy on this because we spent a lot of money, doesn't mean we should cut and run and you have to understand it from on the ground perspective here. let's say it's 20 years of training and building up an army. that's not a lot of time in the grand time line of history. 'a short amount of time. they don't have a lot of foundation there. the primary reason that american forces are soeffective is because of our logistics. it takes more time to build that up and frankly, we got to a

point where they needed a minimal support mechanism from the united states in order to do the job of keeping the country afloat. it was very minimal. we only had a few thousand troops there. we had air support. we had eyes and ears on the ground. we weren't losing any americans. again, we haven't lost an american in 18 months there. so we had the balance right, and then we threw it all away. >> can i just ask, i know we're out of time, how do you feel personally as somebody who fought against the taliban in the front lines, things fall so quickly, how do you feel this morning? >> it's heart-wrenching. look, i do want to say this to my veterans and to gold star families. it does not mean that our sacrifices were in vain. it is not the case at all. because the reason that we were over there was to prevent them from having the operational space and timing to plan an attack here and you know what? for 20 years, we her in another 9/11 so i think everybody should be sleeping easier, your sacrifices were not in vain. >> congressman, thank you for

joining us this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you. that wraps up this busy hour. hallie jackson picks up breaking news coverage on the other side of the break from inside kabul, as afghanistan falls to the taliban. do not go anywhere. breaking news right here. i've never slept like this before. we gave new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep to people who were tired of being tired. what is even in this? clinically-studied plant based ingredients passion flower, valerian root, and hops. new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep.

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what happens when we welcome change? we can make emergency medicine possible at 40,000 feet. instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. we can create new ways to connect. rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change. faster. vmware. welcome change. air this morning with the