hi there everyone. it's 4:00 in the east as we continue to monitor the administration's efforts to manage the crisis unfolding in kabul, afghanistan, including the evacuation of u.s. officials and civilians as well as afghan allies. the u.s. woke up this morning to another searing image of all of it, a c 17 u.s. military cargo plane packed with an estimated 640 afghans who managed to scramble on board, desperate to escape taliban rule in their country. the taliban at this hour is described as having full control of life in of afan stand, they set up checkpoints using weapons

purchased by americans for the afghan army, the one that collapsed into recent days. today the white house is responding to those painful images of human suffering, here is national security adviser jake sullivan at this afternoon's white house briefing. >> president biden and all of us as i said in my opening comments are heartbroken by the human consequences that have unfolded and could continue to unfold in afghanistan. we believe passionately in human rights and human dignity and we want to work with the international community to advance that wherever we can, but president biden was not prepared to have american men and women continue to fight and die in the civil war of another country in order to achieve that. we will use every other tool at our disposal to achieve that and we will do so day after day, month after month, in the period ahead on behalf of the people of afghanistan. we gave 20 years of american blood, treasure, sweat and tears

in afghanistan, we gave them every capacity in terms of training and equipment to stand up and fight for themselves, and at some point it was time for the united states to say that the afghan people had to stand up for themselves. >> now there are new questions about intelligence reports that warned the biden administration weeks ago of the impending fall of the afghan military at the same time president biden's white house was trying to sound a reassuring tone, from a brand new piece of reporting in the "new york times" out this afternoon "classified assessments by american spy agencies over the summer painted an increasingly grim picture of the prospect of a taliban takeover of afghanistan and warned of the rapid collapse of the afghan military. even as president biden and his advisers said publicly that was unlikely to happen as quickly, according to current and former american government officials. the drumbeat of warnings over the summer raise questions about why the biden administration officials, and military planners

in afghanistan seemed ill-prepared to deal with the taliban's final push into kabul, including a failure to ensure security at the main airport and rushing thousands more troops back to the country to protect the united states final exit and amid the questions about the biden administration's response to the intel they received, new concerns were mounting over the strain on u.s. intelligence, now that the taliban is in place. there were concerns over the fallout for u.s. national security with fears of an al qaeda resurgence front and center as the nation careens toward the 20th anniversary of 9/11, struggling to defeat covid largely due to political divisions and more distrustful of one another than at any point in u.s. history. "current and former officials said the process for identifying and responding to terrorist plots has been up-ended as the pentagon and the cia instead of planning for operations alongside an allied government and friendly spy agency in kabul are now forced to contemplate an

environment abruptly off limits and under the control of a hostile reseem. the counterterrorism posture went from problematic with the u.s. withdrawal to extraordinarily bad with the taliban in full control." according to one veteran intelligence officer who served as a cia base chief in afghanistan "suddenly one wonders if we will go entirely dark. it's like a bad dream." we start with some of our favorite reporters and trends. helene cooper, jonathan lemiere, and retired four-star general barry mccaffrey is here, lucky for us, all msnbc contributors. general mccaffrey, let me start off with you and your understanding of the latest reality on the ground. >> well, it's all over. the taliban are back in control. we have zero strategic leverage

left. we're trying to accomplish one primary mission, evacuating the americans and nato civilians out of the entire country, not just kabul. thousands are still there, and it seems to me we're in a very perilous situation at kabul international airport, one runway surrounded by mountains, surrounded by urban areas. the taliban obviously will outpost, will form a perimeter. it's highly unlikely in my view that the friends, interpreters, families will present their documents for safety to a taliban soldier and then gain access. so it's going to be very painful in days to come. looks to me as if, fortunately, the taliban are sensible, not going to try to take down the evacuation air field and probably will not interfere with the movement of americans out of the region.

so bad situation. jake sullivan i thought was very impressive, very thoughtful, very straightforward in outlining what's going on. >> general mccaffrey, let me show you something he said that's getting a lot of attention about whether we will continue to help americans get out after the president's deadline. >> if it's not complete august 31st and there are americans and afghan allies who remain there, will u.s. troops stay until everyone is out or will they leave? >> i'm not going to comment on hypotheticals. i'll stay focused on the task at hand, getting as many people out as rapidly as possible. we'll take that day by day. >> you can't commit to bringing back every american? >> general mccaffrey, we have the luxury to ask you to comment on hypotheticalhypotheticals. wha was was he saying there was

no guarantee or that a misread? >> 31 august we're gone, hopefully minus combat with the encircling taliban, who could bring up additional forceses, artillery, armor, attack helicopters. we're coming out by 31 august. i would assume it will take weeks, if not months for americans to filter out of the country one way or the other. again, it was a total collapse of the afghan security forces and the political system. it caught the administration and others by surprise, but i wouldn't think we're going to have an open-ended presence at kabul international. the majority of them had better be on a c17 out of there by 31 august. >> helene, i want to ask you about some new reporting from your colleagues on the intel picture and particularly the white house's line on it. i'm sure you've already heard as well that the president takes

advice of course from the intelligence community but also from his military commanders, and they had more confidence in the than the intelligence did in the capabilities of the afghan military. do you have more understanding of what he was hearing after that april announcement as july started to see the taliban very much on a very aggressive and successful offensive in the country? >> well, first of all, the idea that the military commanders have been sort of encouraging president biden to get out is kind of i think a little bit of history rewriting. they certainly have worked and trained with the afghan forces on the ground, but at the same time, you can't -- money can't really buy will, as the pentagon keeps saying. the intel picture is really interesting, because we all know, we've all reported and you reported that back in april, president biden was depending, was looking at an intel assessment that sort of said 18

months to two years before we see the taliban, before we see the afghan government falling. so that was sort of in april, what the president was relying on. as the months went on, though, the intel picture started to shift, and particularly in june, you saw the story by julian barnes and mark mazetti and adam goldman about the intel assessment as the months went on, they started to get more and more dire and looking at the possibility that the taliban would be taking over. they've already been taking over all the space in the rural areas of afghanistan but that the cities were in much more danger than we originally thought at a much faster pace. the issue, though, and what the white house is going to say is that intel assessments often disagree. they go from, they look at all sorts of different scenarios, that can be the same thing with military commanders.

they come into these situation room meetings and say these are all the scenarios. it could be like this or it could be like this. it could be this bad or it could be not so bad and so the argument you're getting from some people in the white house is, there was no consenconsensu a high degree of confidence from the intel committee that things go as sideways as fast as it did and the reality is nobody, even the intel community, even the people who thought okay, now we're looking at 30 days, now we're looking at maybe this could be a lot faster than it ended up being, even those people, nobody thought things were going to happen as soon as it did, not a single member of the administration, intel community, military, none of them thought we'd see kabul fall this past weekend. that was a shock to all of them. >> helene, we've heard from veterans, the war in afghanistan and iraq, who are sort of free to speak their mind. we have experts like general

mccaffrey who guides us through all this as well. what are we not hearing? what is sort of the buttoned up and more opaque view from inside active duty military and pentagon leadership about the events of the last 72 hours? >> there is a level of depression, i think. there's two things. the military people that we cover, the active duty troops, the officials are very good at compartmentalizing. at the building, at the pentagon, everything is about evacuating this horrible situation going on at hkia, hamid scar die international airport in kabul. there's a lot of focus on getting the mission, not just the americans out but as general mccaffrey mentioned, the afghan interpreters and translaters who worked for not just the american military and the state department but for american institutions, as well in afghanistan and getting these

people out because the people in the military have strong relationships with all of these people, but on the other hand, beyond the let's get these people out is there is a lot of, it's a level of despair and depression that i haven't seen in a long time, people are angry. people feel distraught. there are a lot of people talking about what were the last 20 years about and still trying to come to grips with this, you see people who haven't slept in days and that will take a lot of time to work through. it's a really different environment here in the building than i am actually used to. >> we're days not months from the anniversary of september 11th which is an extraordinary impact on that building, physically, figuratively and literally. >> i think that's going to be

huge foot in the eye of people in the country. the president wanted them out by september 11th saying we ended this longest forever war. he can say that and he has to his credit certainly owned this decision he's made. not stepped away and tried to point the finger at anybody else. he said "the buck stops here with me." i think september 1k 1th is going to be different than anybody in the administration thought it would be. >> i think that's the understatement of the day. jonathan lemiere, it's going to be painful for the country absent the events of the last 72 hours, but in light of them, do you understand the white house to be making any adjustments to

the president's plan for that day? >> the white house has yet announce the president's travel for september 11th. we anticipate that he'll visit one and maybe even all leave it the sites, that was one of the expectations being considered, that he would be in new york, he would visit the pentagon and shanksville, pennsylvania. it's not clear he'll change those plans but certainly the day will have at least a slightly different meaning. this is, you know, for a lot of americans, extremely painful that day anyway, the anniversary always is, even with the passage of time, and certainly with the magnifying glass put on it for an anniversary like the 20th, it's hard to believe that's been 20 years, you know, this was already going to be a bigger deal than perhaps the last few years. it's always a huge deal for the families involved of course, people who live in the cities but the nation as a whole, in particular the idea of especially as just said, so many veterans given interviews into

recent days and taken to social media and question the sacrifices they've made in afghanistan. why did i go over there for multiple tours, suffer injuries, lose a league or lost colleagues in combat. what were the sacrifices for if at the end of the 20 years, the taliban is simply back in charge and obviously that's not the message the administration is trying to push out but there are concerns about this, the heightened warnings in recent days that afghanistan could once again be a safe harbor for terror groups to plot attacks on the west, including the united states. that was in president biden's estimation the mission of the war in afghanistan to prevent that. for 20 years that was largely successful but now that's in jeopardy again. >> i want to ask you if the white house is involved in sort of cutting red tape around the special visas that so many veterans who are speaking out as you said on our air waves, on

all air waves and to folks like yourself and helene and folks that general mccaffrey knows as well, they're talking about the bureaucratic process. some people are getting knocks on the door from the taliban literally. i want to show you what john kirby said on the pentagon side but when we come back i want to ask if the white house has gotten involved in that. >> we were working on this issue of special visas with the state department from an early part of the spring. as you know, that is a process that can be fairly lengthy, but we've been working with the state department. there are a lot of them, and there's a vetting process that has to occur. as i said, we are working really hard now to make sure we can get as many of them out as we can. >> jonathan lemiere, is the white house involving itself at all in sort of helping to streamline that process? >> discussions are under way to do so to try accelerate it. a source of great frustration

among a lot of veterans who cannot believe that the people they served alongside with afghans so helpful and essential to their efforts in combat over there are at the risk of being left behind, and that answer from admiral kirby and other versions of it from other officials in the administration is seemingly not good enough. it's a lengthy process, a lot of red tape, takes a long time. we tried to start it early. that's not cutting it. the desperation is evident and obvious. we saw yesterday the horrifying scenes at the airport with afghanis trying to cling to the airplanes as they take off, some falling from the sky, because they held onto landing gear and couldn't anymore. there is no excuse and we heard from jake sullivan today, from others saying they are hustling as many people out as they can, there are more flights coming, there will be the ability to do more in the way of evacuations but i think there's a sense it's not good enough and more red tape needs to be cut to pay back

and to those people who helped us and to frankly give them what they're owed, a chance at a new life with the taliban resuming control in afghanistan. >> i want to, if this has already been put up i apologize to the control room. i want to put up an image that i saw last night, this is 640 afghans crowded onto a c17. i think breaking a record from an evacuation from the philippines in terms of the number of people transported. can you speak to sort of the fervor with which the military is trying to help the effort that's under way right now that maybe we don't see? >> yes, by the way, c 17 will put an m1 tank weighing 72 tons on the aircraft, land it on a dirt field and off-load it, so it's a strategic asset. that will be the primary tool

getting people out of of azban tan in the coming weeks. it is a panic situation. the afghan security officials didn't fight to the death. they evaporated in the face of taliban messaging and negotiations city to city. the senior political leadership has left the country and the common people, that includes 20 million women and girls, one would assume are looking at the dire consequences of falling under the control of the taliban. so there's going to be millions of people fleeing across the borders and the tajikistan, pakistan, iran, you name it, and others will try and get out with visas. it's a desperate situation. we shouldn't believe one word the taliban says. we have very little or no leverage. the taliban will listen to the chinese and the pakistanis. the russian intel people are

still in there. the iranians will try to get in, i assume, and shore up the shiite hazares but our rule has gone except get out the nato and u.s. civilians and to the best ability we can, get the cia commando force, the interpreters and others out, but that will have to be with the tolerance of the taliban. >> helene, i want to read you something from one of the few americans who sort of stands in the middle of the deep divisions in this country, he tweeted this "president biden bodily botched the withdrawal and deserves the scorn he's getting. he's also the first president who seems determined to get america out of afghanistan during his presidency, politics be damned. for that, he deserves credit and thanks." before the searing images of this botched withdrawal and the taliban's rapid takeover of

afghanistan, public support for leaving afghanistan, i'm sure you know this, was the high 70s. there hasn't been a majority of american public support for the war in afghanistan for decades, i wonder what you make of that. it's not even splitting it. it's almost two unattached halves, the human calamity of the last 72 hours and the american people's clear desire to leave this war behind. >> it's such a dichotomy. it's so -- and it's such a good question. i want to come back to it but before i do, i want to address what you asked general mccaffrey about, that scene of the 640 afghans on that c17 plane. that was a deal in which the pilots of that plane made an on-the-spot decision.

they knew that that plane could carry -- normally supposed to be carrying about 300 people but they knew that because it's used to the tanks and the sorts general mccaffrey was talking about, knew it could handle the people and made an on the spot decision they should be commended for, let the people on up the ramp and got them out of there, but to answer your question about the american public in afghanistan, it's such -- there were so many people in favor of the afghanistan war in 2001, the overwhelming support it had at the time after september 11th and we have both been there, nicole, watching the erosion of support for this war over the next two decades. nobody came in thinking we're going to be here for 20 years and so there was an amazing amount of support for president biden's decision to withdraw. on the other hand, i sit and

work at the pentagon listening to the military for years and the military officials and the troop members who wanted to leave afghanistan still struggle with this whole idea of the blood and human cost the american troops have put into this and what was it all for if we are just going to pull out. that's one of those push/pull situations that can be very hard to reconcile, even amongst the people who boast support the pullout or opposed to it. >> and that's the piece where i think you see all this emotion around getting all of our friends and allies out, people that were alongside us, it really feels like for them, if we don't take them out, if we don't save them, it feels like a veteran described it as a moral injury. do you think the white house hears that? >> i hope they do. i know we will have much more ptsd to deal with if we end up

leaving those people back. if you have american servicemembers thinking and feeling people at the state department, people at the pentagon thinking that and hearing that people that they've worked side by side with, people who they have made promises to, people who they look at as their colleagues, their brothers, their sisters are now being targeted and killed by the taliban, that i can't even begin to describe just how searing that emotional toll will be on these people. i think the white house on one level is aware of the need to get these sivs out of afghanistan but i don't think -- i think they are still bogged down in this american system, which is sort of geared up, even though we say that we are a nation of immigrants, the visa program, the bureaucracy of getting into this country is really hard. everything is designed to make you jump through as many hoops

as you possibly can. it's very, very difficult, and we're still stuck in the bureaucracy of saying we've got to do this vetting, we have to do this processing and we're not thinking let's get them all out. i don't think the white house at this point has turned that page yet and i think it's going to have to come from president biden or you will see a lot of people being left behind and you're going to have stories of people being killed. i think that's what i think people here need to start preparing themselves for. >> brutal truth from all three of you. we leap cooper, jonathan lemiere, general mccaffrey, thank you for starting us off today. thank you so much. when we come back, the ripe new messaging on of ajanuary refugee, the immense hypocrisy saying why isn't the president doing enough while at the same time saying don't bring them here. leaning in to their familiar cries of imvaders. our next guest says it's another

move in the playbook of fear and xenophobia. the hunt for capitol rioters continues. despite all that, new signs groups remain emboldened, showing up in a few new places. another layer of protection for those already smart enough to protect themselves getting vaccinated. all those stories when we continue after a quick break. don't go anywhere. so i did. it's okay, you can stare. when you're a two-time gold medalist, it comes with the territory. we did it again. verizon has been named america's most reliable network by rootmetrics. and our customers rated us #1 for network quality in america according to j.d. power.

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thousand of afghans trying to flee their country, fear for their lives. heartbreaking scenes like this led to calls of members of both political parties for the u.s. to provide asylum for afghans. some members of the right wing media including some of the same people who downplay or outright defend the white nationalists and domestic violent extremists who attacked the capitol january 6th are using this moment to spread misinformation and engage in what can only be described as racist fear mongering. take a listen to what two of fox's most watched host had to say on this topic. >> is it really our responsibility to welcome thousands of potentially unvetted refugees from afghanistan? all day we've heard phrases like "we promise them." who did? did you? >> if history is any guide and it's always a guide, we will see many refugees from afghanistan resettle in our country in the coming months probably in your neighborhood and over the next

decade that number may swell to the millions. first we invade and then we're invaded. >> turning our conversation, charlie sykes, columnist and editor at the bull work and kim atkins-stohr, co-host of "sisters in law." lucky for us both msnbc contributors. before i burst with my own feelings of being revolted by that, charlie, i'll read what you wrote. guessing why you were revolted by that. "this is the next big fight although it's really just a continuation of the old one that trump launched when he came down the escalator and talked about mexican rapists. the it's the same fight about invaders and caravans and walls and disease-infested migrants who are the real culprits in the spread of the pandemic. this time though the right is targeting our allies in afghanistan and demanding that we break our promise to them because american greatness is now more about ethnic purity than keeping our word."

this is also charlie sykes, the continuation of positions especially these two hosts who have a whole lot of viewers on fox news have put them at odds against the u.s. military. >> no, and the speed with which they made the pivot is extraordinary, even as we have the scenes of our afghan allies men and women who put their lives on the line to fight for the united states fleeing the taliban for their lives, you have tucker carlsson beginning to describe them as invieders. this the comfort zone about replacement theory. it was said biden lost in afghanistan so he could begin a transformation bringing millions of ilan omar to the country. she's somali not afghan but in this world it doesn't make

difference. we know what dog whistle he's trying to send. this is the next big fight and in their minds, nothing incoherent or hypocritical or inconsistent about attacking joe biden not to do more to protect these people and building the war to prevent them from coming here. it is xenophobia and fear mongering. i'm predicting through the 2024 election scaring people throughout america that they are coming to your town, that they're raising the specter of the refugee chaos and crisis that we had in europe after the syrian war, and they're going to try to frighten people about these brown people, these muslims who are coming and it's going to be an ugly chapter in america. you and i, most of the world may she this as a moral test, a test of our decency, that our failure to open the doors to these people who had fought with us

would be infamous but for the right wing media, this is an opportunity to play that card again. >> and kim, there is so much, so bankrupt here morally but the opposite is true. these are people that had to make a choice. so far away from here, so far away from the cozy climate controlled studios at fox news headquarters in afghanistan, they had to choose between america and their country, and the taliban, and they chose us, from all the way over there. the notion that they are horrific fear mongers and racism doesn't carve out the men and women in afghanistan who kept our soldiers alife for two decades, is a new level of reprehensible. >> yes, i mean these are people who have worked as you said for two decades, think about it, some of the folks we are talking about, this has been all that they've known for their entire

lives. the understanding and learning, the ideal of america, the promise of freedom for women, who including activists working to stop the human rights abuses that were happening in afghanistan. you have young girls grown up with all the problem of what could happen of them being able to go to school, not being sold off into sex slavery and having a future, suddenly that has been instantly stripped away, and the people who were there promising this, the americans, have now gone and what are they left with. yes this message from the right it'svillifying afghans,villifying anybody who is muslims, this is not new. this is a tried and true position that happened after

9/11. it was sr.ifying xenophobia and anti muslim sentiment, not just politics but policy. the state and defense department were set up to focus on islamic terrorism from outside the borders as the biggest threat to america. over the last 20 years, what we've seen and we'll talk about this a little more next the biggest threat to america is right here, it's home grown, right wing violent white supremacist, white nationalist groups that we saw take part in large part on january 6th. so this is a narrative that's been incorrectly pushed for a long time to scare people, what donald trump campaigned on the need for a complete and utter shutdown of muslims entering the country. there hasn't been an attack afghanistan on the united states, hasn't been an attack from any foreign country in the united states on that way. the attack came from inside the country so this isn't new but

it's a sad chapter. >> kelly, i saw a couple from fox trying to argue the points both of you are making, this is what we owe to the people that kept our soldiers alive. >> there's tradition protecting your word and honor and the image of america, it's a moral obligation but also prudential because the world is watching whether or not they can rely on america, but if the past is any indication, this is going to become another litmus test. i'm watching republican politicians throughout the country, immediately embracing this, using trump-like language about well, there are some good people but there are some bad people from afghanistan who hate this country and shouldn't be allowed in, j.d. vance in ohio is pushing it, other candidates are suggesting that we should not allow afghans in.

so keep in mind that a lot of our politics flows downhill and not going to be confined to fox news. i think it's a very real chance that this is going to become orthodoxy in the trumpified republican party into the mid terms and so that just simply compounds the tragedy but also it's a real challenge to the biden administration, how much they lean into this knowing they'll get this republican blowback. >> charlie and kim are sticking around. when we come back, a supporter of the far right proud boys is now facing 15 years in prison for threatening the life of senator raphael warnock before and during the rise of january 6th. most reliable network. then we add the speed of verizon 5g. we provide security that's made for business and offer plans as low as $30 per line.

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eight months since donald trump supporters rioted and stormed our nation's capitol and we're still learning more about the extreme is who tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power that day. the sedition hunters helped identify a rioter wanted by the fbi for assaulting federal officers. images posted by ""the huffington post"" he appears to drag a capitol officer down a set of stairs and since been picked up by the fbi. a supporter of the proud boys pled guilty for threatening raphael warnock. prosecutors say the defendant

wrote on the right wing parle "warnock will have a hard time casting votes for communist policies when he's swinging with the bleep fish." kim, the language would be a story about language, if the language hadn't came before the deadly insurrection and i wonder what you make of all of the language. political violence when tied to the event of january 6th and an ongoing threat of domestic violent extremism. >> yes, it gets to the point that i was making last time is that we are increasingly seeing the threat that exists within the united states of a growing group and these aren't just individuals who are just lone wolf type of folks who happen to all meet january 6th. these are organizations for which this sort of language sort

of ideology is a foundational principle, and they have shown that they have no qualms about using violent language and using violence itself, that we saw unfold in the u.s. capitol. it's imperative that law enforcement study and understand this, that the fbi understands this, and what kind of threat is presents. i know we've heard it talked about but we really need to see some sort of policy that really prioritizes that, because it is the top threat americans face on u.s. soil and certainly for congress with the investigations into january 6th, and broader investigations into domestic violence. to really have a full understanding, because this threat isn't over. most of these people are being arrested, there are hundreds of them but a lot of them got on planes and went home, a lot of people who didn't come to washington believe the same ideology and they're working and living and existing right alongside of folks who are

watching on this show right now so it's an ongoing threat and a federal authority and local authorities need to get to the bottom of it. >> i want to put up two related headline, calls for violence online are similar to january 6th before, according to dhs head of intelligence and proud boys are teaming up with anti maskers to threaten school boards over covid mandates. every maligned force in this country seeking to rip us apart said kids can't be vaccinated to school without masks and threatening violence to anyone who deigns that. if you take domestic violence extremists and take proud boys and you take white nationalist group and put in al qaeda, because we're about to have a conversation in this country how to make sure al qaeda doesn't reoccupy the taliban or get in

bed with them or some other terrorist group, if you made the threat, the last threat that this country faced on the homeland, republicans would be for all the things that republicans were for when al qaeda was the threat, everything from drone strikes to waterboarding to any enhanced interrogation to metadata to all the stuff that was so unpopular and ended before the republican president and his republican vice president put those things in place left office. the fact that the gop is silent as this threat metasthesizes stains the party and undermines all credibility and shouldn't be at the table when we talk about homeland security in this country. what are they thinking? what if something else happens? >> they need to be at the table because they claim they want to defend america and love america and going back to kim's point, one of the things we discovered is after 20 years of focusing on the external threat from

international terrorists, that the real threat was coming from inside the house and it's getting worse. and you think about how much denial there was, there were people who were during the trump years were trying to warn about the rise of domestic violence, of these networks of extremists, and they were largely suppressed, they were largely ignored, and it's only recently that i think it's really become obvious what we have home grown here, and it is frightening, and i do think it's getting worse. i do think that you're seeing these networks of disinformation, of fear and outrage spreading, and if you convince millions of americans that they are under threat from invaders, from people who have stolen the election, or trying to inject bio weapons into their arms or trying to do terrible things to your children, we shouldn't be surprised that people will lash out, because we are pumping this poison into the

body politic, and so this is a scary era. i mean, you remember when we thought that august 2021 would be boring, that it would be a return to normalcy, what we discovered is that all of those forces accelerated and i think the threat is very, very real, and again, to kim's point, after years and years and years of focusing on the middle east, to suddenly now realize that maybe the real threat is coming from people who live in our own communities in our own states. >> i just hope that everyone in the press polices any republican who wants to step out and talk about the threat to america from what has transpired in afghanistan, they should be forced to answer the question the threat to america by the fbi under donald trump and now under joe biden, radical domestic violent extremist who believe the b.s. they pump into their minds and parrot on fox news.

oy, another day we'll pick this up. thank you for spending some time with us, charlie and kim. up next we'll clear up some questions with the doctor in the house on the expected recommendation for booster shots in the fall. that's next. i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer. ♪ ♪ i feel free to bare my skin yeah, that's all me. ♪

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who received the pfizer or moderna two-shot vaccines. the guidance for a booster shot expected as early as next month comes as officials have been weighing their concerns that vaccine protection might wane over time and the strength of the delta variant spreading largely thanks to the 93 million eligible americans who haven't gotten around to getting a single shot. let's bring in our coverage, dr. van gupta, global health policy expert at the university of washington. tell me what you think of this. >> good afternoon, nicole. i don't like it at all and thought this was surprising. it sets the wrong expectation and message to the american people much less the world. here's why. this decision seems to be pivoting on a study conducted by pfizer out of israel suggesting that the efficacy of the pfizer vaccine is lower. the term efficacy, nicole,

refers to whether or not the vaccine can prevent you from testing positive say the delta variant version of coronavirus. that's not the purpose of vaccination. we novak seen in history against a respiratory virus like flu or now covid can prevent people from testing positive. that's the wrong expectation. that was the wrong expectation the cdc put into place in may and we should rid ourselves of the notion of that being possible. vaccines are meant to keep you out of the hospital. under 65, otherwise healthy there is not a single data point suggesting these vaccines two doses are extremely effective and remain effective against the delta variant to the tune of 90% keeping you out of the hospital. why we're saying everybody is eligible for a booster it's going to harm efforts of getting nonvaccinated vaccinated and confuse everybody else. >> i want to focus on the last thing you said. i see and i felt this way when we put our masks back on.

viewers of this program they are largely vaccinated, they are mask compliant and if we're told to get a third booster we're probably going to do it. the crisis in this country is not us p it's the people who didn't put their masks on the first time, stocked up on hydroxychloroquine and refused to put their masks on kids under 12 going back to school. i wonder if you think that should become the whole focus. >> nicole, i do. others disagree with me and say i'm coddling the unvaccinated. i disagree. we have to reckon the unvaccinated account for 99% of icus across the country. i'm a doc, i took the hippocratic oath. we have to deal with that as do our colleagues. we have to be clear and consistent with messaging. immunocompromised, older than 65, a booster shot makes sense. for everybody else we should not say you need three doses of an mrna vaccine to be protected.

the goal is not to prevent from you testing positive. it's to keep you out of the hospital. if it is to keep you protesting positive we'll never have enough shots in arms. constantly booster shots every six months is craziness. we need simple goals that make sense. >> dr. gupta, do you think once every head of a household mom or dad can make a decision about vaccinating their child as young as they are when vaccines are approved, do you think we really risk a split in this country, the vaccinated and the protected and the at risk who are going to continue to land in icus? >> absolutely. this comes down to the fact how do we encourage those that are still resistant that will not be reachable through education or incentives, how do we reach them. we need to think about a paradigm for example if you're a smoker, health insurance copays can be 50% higher. that's allowed in the affordable

care act. we need financial incentives, we'll penalize them if they decide not to get vaccinated or we need to think about ways we have a ration kill already now, nicole in icus across the country. kids are filling up icus across the hospitals for non-covid pneumonia. when are we going to prioritize for those who are responsible ahead of those who are not. >> dr. gupta thank you for spending time with us. the next hour starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. we're just getting started. quality, 27 times in a row. proving once again that nobody builds networks like verizon. that's why we're building 5g right, that's why there's only one best network. i was drowning in student loan debt.

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whatever happens in afghanistan, if there is a significant deterioration in security, that could well happen. we discussed this before. i don't think it's going to be something that happens from a friday to a monday. so i wouldn't necessarily equate the departure of our forces in july/august or by early september with some kind of immediate deterioration in the situation. >> it's 5:00 in the east. that was then. after public testimony like that, things changed. the administration received warnings by u.s. intelligence as they did about the weakness of the of axwan government, according to brand new reporting in the "new york times" breaking this afternoon, says "classified assessments by american spy agencies over the summer painted an increaingly grim picture of the prospect of a taliban takeover of afghan sustain and

warned of the rapid collapse of the afghan military" yet the times adds the intel was vague." one senior administration official who spoke anonymously to discuss the classified intel reports said by july as the situation grew more volatile, intelligence agencies never offered a clear prediction of an imminent taliban takeover. the official said their assessments were not given a high confidence judgment. the agency's highest level of certainty." that report is adding to a picture of a white house caught off guard with how quickly the situation in afghanistan deteriorated. "washington post" reports on the scramble over the past few days and writes this, "one close biden foreign policy ally who is in regular contact with the white house and the state department said the president's team would never have let him leave for camp david had they known how quickly afghanistan would implode amid the president's decision to withdraw all u.s. troops by september

11th. the white house stands by its decision to pull troops out no matter the flood of criticism coming its way, even'criticism isn't just coming from the usual suspects from the other side of the aisle. jack reed argued that several factors over the last 20 years in the war have shaped this outcome and must be considered but that they were compounded by failures of intelligence, diplomacy, and a lack of imagination as we transition military forces from the country and this powerful statement from another democrat congressman in iraq veterans to express the somber and harsh reality of the situation as the taliban seizes control of kabul. to our afghanistan veterans and their family i am too honest to stand here today and try to convince you that your sacrifice was worth it. some will find solace in the millions of afghans, especially women and girls who woman we gave two decades of ataste of freedom, more hope, liberty and

opportunity than they would have ever had without the tireless work and irrep.able sacrifices of our troops. we accomplished our initial mission, osama bin laden is dead and the threat of terrorist attacks against americans originating from afghanistan is diminished. we also provided the security needed to accomplish a peace process that unfortunately was never realized. others will ask the haunting question i heard too often from my own marines in iraq, why are we here? the best answer i could ever come up with was simply so nobody has to be here in our place, and while that was never an adequate answer, it is true. i remain proud to be from a nation whose brave young men and women stand on the ramparts of the freedom tonight. the ongoing fallout from president biden and his administration and handling of the withdrawal from afghanistans with' start with our reporters

and friends. john harmon, executive producer of showtime's "the circus" and also an nbc news and msnbc national analyst and joining us, jackie alameny aforementioned quoted congressman seth moulton from massachusetts. i have read your statement to myself and out loud a couple times. i can barely get through it. how are you doing? >> i'm doing okay, nicole but i think i'm doing okay because at least i feel like i can still do something. i hear from fellow veterans all day long who are reaching out on behalf of their translators and friends who are still in afghanistan today saying what can we do to get them out to save them? they're young kids.

they're wives, husbands. how can i get them here to safety? i can't do very much but at least i'm in a position to try so i think this is easier on me than veterans today. >> what is the arns to the question? how do we get them out? the administration sent in thousands of u.s. troops, a lot of them u.s. marines and the marines have secured the airport. the problem now of course even as they ramp up the flights coming out of the country, we can't get people to the airport. i was on the phone late the night before last with an amazing american hero, afghan american who served in our armed services himself. his wife was cowering in a

basement in afghanistan as we spoke. he was contemplating trying to somehow go back there himself to get her out. i was trying to figure out what can we possibly do to save herb life before the taliban track her down, learn of her connections and rape or torture her or worse. that is the challenge we have, how do we get these amazing afghan american heroes from all over the country to kabul airport when the taliban control everything and by the way, it's also, reports are now saying 5,000 to 10,000 americans passport holding americans, not just our afghan allies, but american citizens who are trying to reach that airport as well to get to safety. >> if they're not at the airport in kabul, can you imagine military operations around the

country to try to go get them? >> it's certainly an option that we have to consider. it's a terrible option, considering that a mere week ago we controlled much more of the country or at least the allied afghan government did. we really missed the boat here. that's why i've been asking the administration, pleading with the administration for months to start this evacuation. don't wait until the last minute. do the math. you can't do this in the last week. but they didn't heed that advice, and now we're in this terrible position where we've got to figure out how to get the people to safety. it is within the power of the united states military to do this, so through diplomacy, through military action, through whatever it takes, i want to hear a commitment from the administration that we're going to get this done, that we're not going to leave anyone behind. >> that was not their message today. jake sullivan notably did not

confirm if people weren't out by the deadline, we would go back and get them. have you had any private conversations in which you've been assured that we'll get everybody out? >> no, i have not. >> jackie, i want to bring you in. i want to show you what i think the solid ground is this president is standing on before the events of the last say 72 hours. it's clear from the reporting the intelligence picture became bleaker as the summer went on. they saw what we saw on television live 72 hours. before this calamity, the human tragedy, there was i think about 25% of the country was for continuing our military commitment in afghanistan. the recent poll numbers that we found, withdrawing all of our military from afghanistan, 73%, 59%, 57%, high numbers of public

support. the numbers have taken a hit. no one likes to see america in a scene reminiscent of saigon leave any military effort like this, even if the vast majorities of the public want to see the conflict over, over, over, but i wonder, what is your feeling on capitol hill from democrats concerned not just about the humanitarian crisis, but about the political instability of the moment? >> it's too early to tell how much this is going to affect president biden's favorability ratings. democrats and republicans on the hill is getting american national and civilians in support of the u.s. mission out of there as quickly as possible as the congressman just told us. a bunch of senate staffers who were briefed by the biden

administration's national security officials just an hour or so ago, 10,000 to 15,000 u.s. citizens are still in afghanistan according to two senate aides and that is the most concrete figure given so far and there is no plan to evacuate americans who are not at the kabul airport as congressman moulton noted because there are difficulties in getting people through those taliban checkpoints that are outside the afghan capital. so that is the primary concern on people's minds and a crisis of confidence that's looming. you hear bipartisan support for hearings on why there seemingly was an intelligence failure, foreign affairs chairman greg meeks just called for tony blinken to come testify before congress, that's a democrat, mind you, to talk about why there seemingly was such a swift and unexpected collapse, that

the intelligence briefings didn't necessarily convey to the president or at least the administration and the white house didn't act on, and there's also a concern of this as you mentioned the humanitarian crisis, definitely a two-track concern at the moment that why the administration did not listen to the outside humanitarian groups who have been agitating the administration for months now to speed up the special immigrant visa process, which has always taken a very long time and start that in may when biden first announced the plan to withdraw by the end of september, and get that going as early as possible, and try to help the afghan civilians who have put their lives on the line in support of the u.s. mission for decades now. >> john helmand, i want to ask this question carefully and hanging a lantern around my history on this topic.

the american people put up support this president's decision to leave. the american people and particularly veterans of these wars deserve all of the sort of floor here. there is a lens through which this white house benefited and it is being seen as both so extremely compassionate and human with all the suffering the country endured with the pandemic and mayhem of the ex-president. it is not manufactured. he is a griever in chief. that is the extreme competence not just of the white house everyone claimed and the professionals running the government. i worry for them that both those important traits are endanger . how do you see that? >> first of all, hi, nicole and

second of all, yes, i don't think you're alone in worry being that. there's worry about that and for all of our listeners out here, viewers out here but the strategic and humanitarian complexities. the subtleties it requires it is going to sound overly simplistic. the people who are paid in the white house to worry about joe biden's politics, people in the world jackie was just talking about among the many concerns she laid out, a lot of democrats who say the midterm elections aren't far away. a lot of democrats right now, august recess a lot of democrats think about re-election next year and there are a lot of

democrats who are vulnerable, who are concerned about the president's politics also because they recognize their politics are entwined with the president's politics. they're watching his numbers carefully. they had concerns with their resurgence of covid, is that joe biden's fault? no but the reality is that for the reasons you just said that in the end for a lot of americans particularly for the americans who decide elections, the ones who are not the hard core democrats who are going to be with joe biden no matter what and the republican whoever that happens to be no matter what but the democrats in the middle who swung pretty dramatically in terms of the popular vote in joe biden's direction but didn't swing dramatically into democrats favor in 2020, those people in the middle are taking away a very high level of takeaway from what they're seeing right now which is that those two key assets that joe biden has had i'm not sure his

compassion quotient is plummeting as much as i think what people are more worried about, purely political sense the perception that his competency may be plummeting and you can see it in the messaging of republicans. they are not messaging the way they're messaging in the dark. they're messaging on the basis of data, out there doing the research and finding where they think the soft spots are around joe biden, i think that that is a great for people who think about winning elections and politics and getting through joe biden's agenda in the fall. if you don't want to look far ahead as the midterm elections, think about the complexity the size and scale of the domestic legislative agenda. those things are hard to do and really hard to do even with the president's popular and strong. if the president is seen as less popular and weaker or dented or banged up or bruised up getting those things done in the fall is

harder. strictly through the political lens this is a worrying set of developments for the things you put your fingers on. >> and yet congressman the other side of the coin is if republicans want to run on going back to afghanistan or staying in afghanistan, i'll give them my number. it's brutal. what are your thoughts on this part of the conversation? >> look, i get the fact that i'm the member of congress here but really i'm not thinking about the politics at all. i'm thinking about this as an american, as a united states marine, before politics, and we need to be focused on right now is saving lives in afghanistan. saving lives is good politics. the best thing that joe biden can do for his politics is rectify the operation in afghanistan. save as many lives as we can, get out of there with our heads held much higher than today and

this chaos getting a good plan. admit responsibility as he started to do yesterday in his speech for the things that went wrong but most of all, fix it. get it right, save lives, that's the best politics that joe biden can show right now. >> congressman, was this the right thing to do to make the standard that he will not stay anywhere or protect anyone that will not fight once we're gone? some veterans who responded to that in a defensive manner for their afghan friends and allies. >> it's easy to cast blame and there's a lot of blame to go around. to have an honest debate, a vote before the american people whether we should be in afghanistan in the first place. there's a lot of blame to throw around but when you know some of these afghan heroes, who risked

their lives, who lost their lives fighting for the value that every single american holds dear, i would never trivialize that sacrifice or that commitment. we can talk about how the army broke down, how the afghan police in certain places failed to do their duty as an organization. do not forget these are people, too. these are heroes, too. they risked their lives in many cases not just for afghanistan but for america. i'm proud of them for what they've done, even looking today at the ways in which as an organization, as a nation they have failed. >> and just one last question, when you see them hanging off of airplanes or crammed into cargo carriers, did we owe them more than that? >> yes.

we did. and we do, and i would never claim to speak for all veterans, but veterans are many different minds about afghanistan and about iraq as well, but i don't know any veterans who don't appreciate the commitment of the afghans that we served alongside. they weren't all great, just as not american serviceman is great, i get that, but we owed them more than this. we still owe them more than this and we still have the opportunity, as the united states of america, it is within our power to do more today to save more lives before we finally go home. >> we'll stay on it. thank you all for your candor. thank you for starting us off. when we return, the taliban back in control of afghanistan, one of the big questions on the

ground is whether or not the country could once again become a safe haven for terrorists. we'll get answers on the question next. and talk to the ambassador to the united nations what the world community should be doing to help the innocent people and especially the women and children of afghanistan. and the massachusettsing confusion. red states down on mask mandates run head into the start of school and it's parents and kids caught in the middle. the white house continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. one's there. and sgt moore. who leaves room for her room. with usaa safepilot, when you drive safe... ...you can save up to 30% on your auto insurance. get a quote and start saving. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for.

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we conduct effective counterterrorism missions against terrorist groups in multiple countries where we don't have permanent military presence. if necessary, we'll dot same in afghanistan. we've developed counterterrorism offer the rise in capability that will allow to us keep our eyes firmly fixed on the direct threats to the united states in the region, and that quickly and decisively if needed and act. >> that was president biden yesterday seeking to reassure all americans that the u.s. will be able to contain any threat of al qaeda or other islamic extremist groups even as the u.s. military leaves afghanistan. the fact that american has not been attacked out of afghanistan since september 11th is one of the successes of america's war in afghanistan. in an op-ed in "usa today" this message for fellow veterans "as the tragic and saddening scenes from afghanistan dominate the news, many military veterans and

others who served in america's longest war these last 20 years will understandably wonder, was it all in vain? our answer is a resounding no. whether one believes that the taliban takeover now unfolding in afghanistan was the inevitable outcome of this conflict or the result of policy-making mistakes in washington and elsewhere, much has been achieved. many of the gains will likely be lost under taliban rules but many will not. joining us is amy mcgrath, retired marine corps lieutenant colonel author of "honor bound" and clint watts, former consultant to the fbi counterterrorism division and msnbc national security analyst. amy, i'll ask you this question i started with congressman moulton. how are you doing and what are you hearing from veterans and active duty? >> those of us who are veterans who have served in afghanistan and i served two tours in that

aor, my husband one, we are very saddened by what's happening. i'm getting texts from friends of mine that served over there. we all feel just so torn and sad and like congressman moulton said, we feel very strongly that the biden administration and our country needs to do everything it can to try to get out our allies and friends to get them out and get their families to safety. that's really important right now. >> how do you think we arrived at this point, where they weren't prepositioned and they weren't organized and their families weren't all in one place, some are separated. a woman separated from her husband cowering in the basement, and the paperwork to complete the visa application

could get them slaughtered by the taliban. what do they do with the paper? how do we get here? ingly >> i think we got here from many americans. the special red tape program is bogged since 2008. many veteran organizations, iraq afghan veterans of america which i'm a member of their board have been vocal for not only months but years trying to get that program to right the program so we can get the individuals here to the united states and i also think clearly we weren't prepared for this, the intelligence wasn't there or we didn't listen to it but this is happening right now and i think there is a time to look back and try to figure out what happened, but right now, we should be doing everything we can to take care of those who stood shoulder to shoulder with us in afghanistan for so many years. >> amy, the president spent some

time yesterday talking about how we'll continue to protect this country and our friends and allies from a terrorist threat reestablishing itself in afghanistan. you write about that today. share with us your views. >> i think it will be harder to do that now the taliban has taken over the country. there is value to being in the country in terms of getting the intelligence in terms of being there, the structure, the logistics to counter the violent nonstate actors that might arise. we have learned so much in the last 20 years how to counter these organizations. as i talk about in my book it's a complex place to live and be in afghanistan, and the taliban

is a brutal regime but the ones i met when i was there in my second tour and i talk with them, and i talked with several of them. they care about getting america out of afghanistan and attacking america was not something that they were super interested in doing, and so i feel like if you're looking at veterans, and any veteran out there who is understandably thinking did it all matter, did my sacrifices matter, did the sacrifices of gold star families matter in afghanistan? yes, it did. this country, we have protected this country in the last 20 years. it's going to be harder to do that from these organizations, that potentially could come up in afghanistan, but my hope is that we will continue to be able to do that going forward. >> clint watt, some of the

analysis about that getting difficult, more difficult suggests that a real rapid pivot is required and i'm sure there were contingencies in place but i wonder if you can speak to how the intelligence community makes that adjustment quickly. >> nicole, i think some of the assessments of hyperbolic in terms of shifting to counterterrorism. behind the scenes, america's already been operating very much at a global surveillance sort of capacity on counterterrorism for a decade. since bin laden died we went to many places and extend our capabilities without necessarily deploying troops. we'll have to change that posture in afghanistan but several things have changed. one, few places in the world over the last 20 years have been more amassed in terms of terrain, technology and humans than afghanistan. having worked on a lot of those projects, i can tell you the

capacity we have now and opposed to 2001 when i was an army captain and we were literally rolling maps buried in archives trying to figure out where afghanistan was at or might land. we have a much better position there now. second part is technology. many homes in afghanistan 2001 didn't have a radio. today could you go to many social media applications and watch live feeds of what's going on inside the country. this isn't perfect but a very different situation than the struggles we had before 9/11 when we were already sending in intelligence assets, we were sending in military forces to try to find out what was going on in this area when we knew bin laden was there but couldn't keep a tab on him. we'll pivot but it comes down to resourcing and threats and i think there's some things to look for, for a lot of the social media chatter. jihadis haven't had much to cheer about since isis was mauled in syria.

there are 20 groups as you heard that will be competing with each other. 20 years ago there was one called al qaeda, the top dog so i think there's a lot of dynamic there is to look for and i think our counterterrorism community can't get on top of it in short order. >> obviously all this is in focus as we head toward the 20th anniversary of the attacks of september 11th. i wonder if you can just speak to what these events both the images of the last 72 hours, the 20-year anniversary of september 11th, what they might do to a veteran family or as you said a gold star family who may be struggling with the question you ask, you know, was it worth it? >> i think it's really hard right now, and for a lot of veterans who are going to be looking back on 9/11 and 20 years on the sacrifices, i think that we have come a long way in

trying to take care of our veterans but there is a lot more to be done, and one of the things i'd like to mention here on air is if you are a veteran and you need help right now, you're in distress because of everything that's going on, we have the iraq afghanistan veterans of america has a quick reaction force, quickreactionforce.org and you can get help immediately. that's important and if you're an american that just wants to help in this situation right now, if you want to help refugees, it's the red cross, if you want help in this particular instance, getting our afghan friends and allies, those who stood with us who are interpreters who put their lives on the line for us, helping them to get, make a new life somewhere else getting them out, there are organizations out there that are trying to make a difference here, one of them is no one left behind. they're doing good work and they've been doing this for months and years. there are organizations out

there, and we all need to do our part. i think as congressmen moulton said it best, we owe it to our friends to do the right thing here and get as many as we can out of that terrible situation in afghanistan. >> amy, we'll get all three organizations' numbers and websites from you and push them out today and in the coming days. amy mcgrath, clint watt, thank you for spending time with us today. really important conversation. i'm grateful to both of you. when we come back, the united states and the united nations can do now, what we can do now from today forward to protect the women of afghanistan, the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. will be our next guest. that i should get used to people staring. so i did. it's okay, you can stare. when you're a two-time gold medalist,

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batteries and first aid kit are a good start to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com a female politician i was talking to had no idea this was going to happen and now the taliban have sent people to stay right in front of her house trapping her inside with her three daughters. she can't get out. she could try to get out but the problem is she said even if i try to get out i couldn't make it to the airport. no one is there to let me in. these are our friends we left without any way out. >> haunting stories like that one that underscore the truly urgent situation unfolding in afghanistan not to mention what

many consider a moral imperative for women and girls who face an extreme threat, the subject of a "new york times" op-ed this afternoon written by malala, shot by thetal been when she was just 15 years old. malala writes this "we will have time to debate what went wrong in the war in afghanistan but in this critical moment, we must listen to the voices of afghan women and girls. they are asking for protection, for education, for the freedom and the future they were promised. we cannot continue to fail them. we have no time to spare." joining us now is linda thomas greenfield, the united states ambassador to the united nations. ambassador, wonderful to see you. thank you for spending some time with us today. >> good, thank you very much. i'm delighted to be here. >> can we achieve what malala is asking to us achieve? can we protect realistically afghan women and girls in the taliban? >> let me just state, one, to

say how courageous malala is, and i did read her article in the "new york times" and yes, we can. we have to. our commitment to afghan women and children and to all afghans is unwavering, and it's not related to our military presence. we have diplomatic tools. we have economic tools. we use our development assistance and our humanitarian assistance to support women and girls' education moving forward, and we will continue to do that and right now, we are working around the clock to help afghan women and other vulnerable people who want to leave afghanistan get out of afghanistan. the president has acknowledged that the situation is a painful situation, it's gut-wrenching and especially so for women, who don't know what they face in the

future, but they should know that we are committed to continuing to assist them in every way possible. >> congressman seth moulton has some interpreters have access and wives are stranded cowering in his words in basements, former bureau chief reporting on a woman trapped in her home with three daughters. what should women do right now today? >> you know, the situation is difficult, but we're all working as i noted around the clock to provide direct assistance to people, our military is at the airport. we've gotten about 3,000 people out in the last two days, and we will continue to work to provide assistance to every single person who needs assistants, who we can gain access to. i know there will be stories

such as the one that you are describing, we will make every effort to assist everyone. >> what is the future for the women that can't get out under taliban rule? >> you know, we have here at the united nations gotten together with all of our allies and our colleagues to put forward a very strong press statement calling on the taliban to respect the rights of women, to include women in all of, in their government and we will be watching them very, very closely over the coming months as they attempt to form a government, and our message to them is the message that has been unified here at the united nations, that message is clear that we have to honor the rights of afghan women. they have to be an inclusive

government. if they want any respect, if they want any recognition by the international community, they have to be very conscious of the fact that we will be watching how women and girls and more broadly the civilian community is treated by them as they try to form a government. >> people throw around the expression the world is watching, but when you walk around doing your job, the world is literally watching and i am not sure what measures are in place for covid but with the world watching you, what kind of questions have you had about the haunting echoes to 1975 and saigon as this evacuation is messier and more dangerous and our friends and allies are hanging off airplanes. what sorts of things have you

heard? >> i think this is not 1975. this is 2021. we are in a different world. we have planned and we are responding. this is not an unplanned situation that we are in. it's difficult, i am absolutely not denying how difficult the situation is. we are in a process of trying to get people out and our friends and allies are not hanging off planes. our friends and allies are getting the support of the u.s. government, and we're working around the clock to get people out. >> i just don't want to misunderstand you. who do you identify as hanging out the planes of the airport in kabul? >> i don't know. you said people were hanging off of planes and i did see the one

report where there were hundreds of people at the airport, and all of those people we want to assist >> ambassador, thank you so much for spending time with us. >> i was just about to say that we're getting out planes every hour on the hour, and we will continue to do that until we finish the job. >> madam ambassador we're grateful to you where the place all the world's problems coalesce and your desk.

>> thank you very much. >> thank you for taking our questions. breaking news out of texas where the governor has tested positive for covid. it's an interesting twist for a governor who banned masks and vaccination mandates in his state. we'll bring you the latest reporting next. once upon a time, at the magical everly estate, landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck.

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priscilla, is a governor feeling all right? i see pictures of social media of him mask-less in a crowded indoor event. are those people notified and doing okay as far as we know? >> the governor's office says he's vaccinated and not experiencing any symptoms although he's going to be isolating and being tested everyday, waiting for the test results. everyone he's been in close contact with has been notified. a lot of opponents of the governor are seizing on that picture, showing him in a

crowded room no one in that room wearing a mask. really talking about this point that the governor has made of personal responsibility. the reason why he signs that executive order banning mask mandate should be an issue of personal responsibility. it is important to note that as we are getting this news of the governor, the other thing that happens today is the texas attorney general moves forward of filing paper work requesting restraining orders against all texas school districts that have asked for a mask mandate or put a mask mandate in place. less than 24 hours later, another judge issued an injunction less than that. all of this back and forth over whether masks allowed to be

required or not is taken place and as parents and students are heading back to school and parents are making decisions about what is best for their students. we spent the day here speaking the superintendent what will happen if the mask mandate is blocked in court. i want to play with what she shares with us. take a listen. >> we are not legislatures, we are not judges, we are educators. we'll do what we do best which is teach and serve students, their academic and emotional learning, we'll do it in the safest and responsible way. >> reporter: an important note here, last week announced that masks is required. and so now these mask mandates

hang in the balance and parents are left with some very difficult decisions likely over the next several weeks as we watch all of these play out. every parent i spoke with today told me they are fine with their students with their students wearing masks in school and if the mandate goes away, they'll continue to allow students to return in person. some did say they would not. >> we have complicated debates, there is one way to do that. there is only one way that's really easy and universely, available and that's masks. >> my 13-year-old son, he'll go

to school and he'll wear a mask. if it helps him get an education and this idea that vaccines and masks are an infringement on personal liberties and is imprisoning our children and forcing us to live under the boot of an opressive government is ridiculous. the weaponization of this and sound and policymaking for human sacrifice rituals is a hallmark of our time. people like greg abbott and ron desantis all know better. it is tragic what's happening in texas and the fact that the governor vaccinated and also getting regeneron treatment. regeneron is given for those developing severe symptoms.

be that as it may is from him playing the proactive role and protecting the well-being of their citizens. hospitalization surged and they are sending trailers around the state now to be prepared to pick up more dead bodies as the death count surges and when is the gop, this is essentially a gop ploy going to learn that it is not worth ruining people's lives simply to win elections. how deeply do we have to get into that before we change course? >> it is unbelievable affair. tim o'brien. priscilla austin from us, thank you for your reporting. a quick break for us, we'll be right back. eporting a quick break for us, we'll be right back

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thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times, we are grateful. "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. welcome to "the beat." the pentagon says kabul airplane is under control after the initial chaos and evacuation is speeding up. >> we have no attack or threat by the taliban. the speed of evacuation will pick up. repredict that our best effort could l