helicopter with the state police to get him on the island and as long as there is communication, we will communicate with him to see what is going on there, the but it is hard to have no word from the island and the people on it. in lafitte, the water is very high, and from the louisiana national guard and others are there doing the search and rescue. they are having to get the boats in and out, and we are sheltering the people at the park playground, and then the state is going to coordinate the pickup and move them out to alexandria is the plan. and our systems are down and we have no communication and the water systems are down, and we are losing pressure and we had to do the boil advisory, and we will have the backup systems there with the sewage, and that is a hygiene problem, and encouraging the residents who

are out of the area, not to come back, and to stay out, because we don't have the modern amenities to take care of them. and the people who stayed there in the storm who are okay, they may want to get out, and it is the best idea for them to get out, because it is going to be difficult life for quite some time. >> thank you, madam president. >> thank you. >> cedric, what about the oil port? >> well, the governor or president sheng could talk about that. the president is inquiring about the oil port in port fuchon. >> i don't get any information on that and i only get information if it is on the

national -- and we have been listening to president biden detail the federal response to hurricane ida and getting an update from the leaders and governors and mayors along the affected region, and it appears that the comms there went south. so now, we will go to digital reporter shannon pettypiece, and how is the white house dealing with the confluence of challenges. it is testing and taxing the white house, and we are less than 24 hours away from the fall of kabul, the self-imposed biden deadline the drawdown the troops there, and now clearly dealing with this storm where you have more than 1 million people left without power in new orleans and the president saying one confirmed death, and he expects that number to grow. >> absolutely. this is really the first two

dualing crises of the administration and the test to see if they can respond to it simultaneously. and getting an update of the damage with the meeting of the governors and the catastrophic situation unfolding on the ground there in louisiana and more damage to come in mississippiment at the same time, we anticipate a few hours from now, we will hear from the administration that they have completed the evacuation efforts in afghanistan. you know, the administration has been trying to, you know, tout the number of people that they have been able to get out of the country and change the narrative to show it as an effort and operation that has succeeded in getting people out, but of course, we will continue to see likely, very difficult scenes from that country, and in a way, both of the stories are at the beginning, too, and the governor saying that the recovery effort going to take months. we are really only at the very, very beginning stages of this, and the story in afghanistan

really only at the beginning as well, and while this is the end of the u.s. operations there, at least at the foreseeable future, it is a new chapter in afghanistan as the taliban is to take sole control of the country within hours, geoff. >> and shannon, focusing back to the storm, i was particularly struck to hear the president tell the mayors or governors to reach out to cedric richmond, and tell us who he is and why he is important? >> he is one of the top senior advisers in the administration, and one of president biden's close tight inner circle, and he happens to be a former congressman from louisiana. he knows the people of that state well. he knows the region, the geography, and the dynamics of that state. he has really been focused on the president's domestic policy issue, and particularly on issues like voting rights, and gun control legislation, and police reform legislation, and

those issues obviously have kind of fallen to the back burner as there is a focus on the infrastructure and the foreign affairs and international issues that have been dominating the agenda lately, so now having cedric richmond step into that is quite good timing and a good person to have in the white house when it comes to dealing with louisiana and this recovery. >> absolutely. shannon pettypiece, thank you for starting us off. now to the reporters covering, from the phones, sam brock, and from new orleans, ali velshi, and meteorologist michelle grossman. and ali, you are between new orleans and baton rouge, and that portion there, the rushing waters have turned into rivers. ongoing rescues, there and what is the status of the rescue mission right now?

we have lost sam, so over to you, ali velshi. what is the scene in new orleans, and folks still without power? sorry, ali. >> well, geoff, the power is the big deal here. okay. >> ali, go ahead, and finish the thought. >> yeah, the issue here is the power, right. we have got, and we have managed not to flood new orleans which is a very, very big deal compared to hurricane katrina and we have structural damage around the city, and trees down and power lines down, and entergy is the major energy companied and they have had failure across eight of the transmission line, and so there is no power in new orleans at all, and the only power running here is with anybody who has a generator, and we are hearing though that they don't have to repair all eight immediately,

because some of them were redundancies, but they have none at the time, so no transmission of electricity coming into new orleans, and now we are trying to get to the bottom of how long it will take to fix that, and we have heard an estimate of ceo of 7 to 10 days for most customers, and 7 to 10 for most customers and those hardest hit, and the structural problems for them to be prevented from getting in, so if you don't have any damage on your property, and entergy can start power up again, it will be about 7 to 10 days. and last night, they thought it would be last night, and some people thought it was a relatively quick fix and do whatever they wanted to do and the day or the next day it will be going back, but it is not true. so until we hear otherwise from entergy, and we are reaching out to them to find out what specific repairs have to take place for them to get energy

back, and there are most people here without power 7 to 10 day, and that is not going into effect, geoff, because the power is cleaning for the water, so right now, people are talking about boiling water even here in new orleans. we have not heard that we have a problem with the water and sewage system, because energy said they could route the power to the water and sewage system, but generator systems work for so long and they work off of fuel and tend not to be a long-term situation. so businesses around here with the generators may be running out of fuel, and without the power, you can't pump the fuel. so this a new turn this morning as we learn that the energy, the power may not be restored to the area for 7 to 10 days at the least, and three weeks on the outside which has people scrambling and concerned about what is going on. the point is, geoff, if you stayed here and your house did not flood, and you have food,

now you learn it is 7 to 10 days, it is going to change the dynamics, because do people have enough gas to get out of town, and can they do that and infrastructure or things blocking the road. new layer of problems for new orleans and the surrounding areas this morning based on when they are expecting to get the power restored in the area. >> yes, 7 to 10 days without power is unbelievable. sam brock, you are back with us, and the comms are dodgey and the cells are unreliable, and if you can tell us what is the situation there. >> yes, the communication is terrible here especially for those areas stricken by the floo floods, and you can't get through. the 911 systems are talking about being spotty or nonfunctional at the time. that played into the area this morn where there were rescues and initially reported hundreds or thousands of calls that people made in la plaz, again,

about 30 miles or so from new orleans on the western edge of lake pontchartrain, and it turns out hundreds of calls and after the water had receded the national guard and the cajun navy went in, and using high water boats to take people out. and we spoke to folks, geoff, who said that when the water was coming in, it was at the ankles and the waist, and when it was closer for the chest, they would go up to the attic to wait and not knowing the fate. several of the individuals were rescued this morning, and so that is the reality, and also, i would add that driving through the area of grammercy and paulina, i would say that this is a pool of water here in st. james boating park, and this is a day after all of the water came down, and there is still all of the water, and i watched as ali was talking about trying to get the gasoline, and you

want to get out, because you don't have electricity, and a line of cars down the highway for 30 to 45 minutes for a single gas pump as a transformer from a power pole was dangling over them, and that is speaking to the level of desperation that people are experiencing in new orleans, without gas or electricity and strain on the water as well, and all of these things are coming together. it is devastating to see it on the ground in person. facades of the buildings are ripped off. so many people's lives are uprooted and changed because of this event, and it is vast. the breadth is vast and how many miles we have driven through today and seen the roadblocks and the homes of water still in the front lawn and families whose lives will never be the same. >> and sam, i imagine a number of people who have evacuated and they want to come back to see what is left of their homes, and what are officials saying for people who are inclined to do that? >> the mayor of new orleans said do not do so, and for the

reasons that ali just ute lined, because they don't know how long it is going to be before the power is restored. at one point, we were about 1 million customers without power, and at one point, you could see a parking lot full of the bucket trucks to try to restore the power and talking about a transmission line in the mississippi river, it is not a quick fix. the warning is weeks if not longer for some of the areas to receive power. that is deeply problematic, and no doubt people want to return to the homes, but it is coming with considerable logistical problems if you try to return now. >> i cannot imagine. sam broc and ali velshi, thank you. and michelle, ida made land as a category 4 storm with 160-mile-an-hour winds and since turned into a tropical storm, and where is this storm headed

now? >> it is now in mississippi, and hi, there, geoff, and this is going to be five days worth of ida. so we will talk about this until friday. it exploded into a category 4 storm, and almost a high strung one, and almost category 5, but now in mississippi, and we will see a big wind event now, and it is all about the flooding rains. let's talk about the history of ida, and the name is going to be retired and not in terms of renaming it, but in terms of the history. so it is the fifth strongest landfalling, landfall on the continental u.s. tied with laura about this time last year. and it went through the rapid intensification of 65-mile-per-hour in 24 hours, and that is a lot. to have that classification, it has to have 35. so geoff, that is where you will see the darker colors which is

the rain, and heavy rain in mississippi and alabama and looking in the severe weather threat which is story through friday, and moving very, very slow at 9 miles per hour, and that is not good news, because tropical systems are like sponges, a hold a lot of water, and squeezed out, and when it is moving slowly, and that is swr we get the flash flooding. and again, the wind story is over, and becoming a rain and flash flooding story, and still life threatening, and when you have flash flooding, that a dangerous system, and when ida slowly moves over mississippi, you are seeing a tornado watch until 5:00, and then it is moving into the tennessee valley, and a week ago, we had 17 inches of rain in one spot in tennessee. so we are going to see, and add to that places that don't need to see the rain. we had henri and fred that came through, and then thursday and friday it is into the mid-atlantic, and this started last week in terms of

history-making with the landfall, and now we will follow it. >> and we go to the press briefing where jen psaki is talking about the afghanistan exit. >> we are coordinating with the local officials every step of the way. today, the response efforts of the gulf coast where the conditions allow on the ground, and first responders are focusing on the immediate priorities, search, and rescue operations and medical evacuations for those in distress, and electrical restoration where over 1 million are without electricity and communications where they are down, and providing emergency food, water and shelter to those in need, and in new orleans, energy companies have reported catastrophic damage to their systems, and we don't know how long for the utilities to

repair, but it is a big priority for everyone involve and it could take weeks to get everything back up and running. and officials are engaged with the leadership to ensure that all available resources are brought to bear as quickly as possible. as you saw, the president spoke with the governors and the mayors in the louisiana communities and he was also receiving the latest responses from the communications at fema and he went to thank them for their local and state response efforts. you may have seen this, but last night, he signed an emergency declaration to allow individuals to apply for assistance, and also approved a pre-landfall emergency declaration to direct federal assistance. i want to give you a quick overview of the federal resources to support the state and local efforts as of now, and many of which are prepositioned before the storm.

fema is working with the federal, state and local partners as well as nongovernmental areas to support the needs affected by ida. the agencies position supply meals, water and shelter and generators. and fema employees are deployed to louisiana, florida, alabama and texas and ready to supply what is needed. they have supplied over 34,000 meals and 37,000 tarps and generators and additional ambulances and air ambulances have been moved into the area. and seven assistance fema teams, and search and rescue teams have been activated with debris and subject matter experts. and health and human services is deploying a 250-bed shelter to alexandria, and the rotary wing

aircraft positioned to help with rescue efforts. shelters are open in affected areas throughout the gulf coast across the states and they are implementing steps to prevent the spread of covid-19. the national guard has activated 200 personnel in mississippi, alabama and texas and louisiana to aid. and also, the army corps of engineers has deployed to provide temporary housing. and the storm has been down graded to tropical storm, and that is going to also result in more downed trees and power lines as it moves east. and ida is going to produce more flash flooding and tornadoes remain a threat. the secretary of homeland security mayorkas will travel to baton rouge to meet the governor

to survey the damage, and the fema administrator will travel to jackson, mississippi, that evening and meet with the governor and tour the damage. the last update that i wanted to provide to all of you is that it is part of all of the across government approach to prevent evictions, today, mayor garrick garland is asking for immediate action to prevent immediate evictions in this emergency. asking major law firms and law schools and individual lawyers to work with the providers with pro bono services to work with tenants. and so far, 40 law school students and deans from harvard, howard and ucla and more have committed the students and law clerks to prevent evictions is and several legal services corporation, and the american bar association and the national law housing project have joined the commitment to immediate action and thursday we will have

a emergency rental training program held by the pro bono alliance to help. with that, darlene, why don't you kick us off. >> in afghanistan, there were at least 300 citizens looking to get out, and can you tell us about the numbers waiting to get out, and down to 150 or down to zero? >> yes, i know my state department colleagues will have a more specific up to date number, but let me give you an upto date number. of those self-identify as americans wanting to leave the country since august 14th, we have confirmation that 6,000 have been evacuated or otherwise departed. this number is going to likely grow as the outreach and the arrivals continue, and we have continued to provide updates on the assessments. in august 14th, there were 6,000 americans in afghanistan who

wanted to get out. so as we knew at the time, there could be an option of the people who registered had already departed or the people who had registered had not de-registered or additional people coming forward. i believe there are a small number and you are asking for the exact number who remain and we are trying to figure out exactly how many, and we are going through the manifests, and we will have a more concrete number as soon as possible. part of the challenge with the fixed numbers is long-time citizens is of afghanistan and the dual passports and majority who are trying to determine if they want to leave or not, or have been in the last couple of days and in many instances it is because they have many family members there, and they have a range of reasons, and we are working to assess that. >> one other question on afghanistan, the deadline is tomorrow, obviously, and what can you tell us about what the president will do tomorrow. how will he mark this moment?

should the public expect to hear from him tomorrow after this is all wrapped up? >> yes, darlene. without getting into the specific operational details, and i know you are not asking me about that, but to preface, the public can expect to hear from the president in the coming days, but i don't have anything to outline for the specific date and time at this time. >> and president biden said that i do not regret my decision to withdraw from afghanistan, and after watching the heart wrench ing ceremony yesterday, does he not regret that decision? >> with the men and women who gave their lives to honor their service and sacrifice and had the opportunity to meet a number of the family members yesterday, we can't, and that doesn't take the place of all of the progress

that we have, all of the work that has been done to evacuate people, but i will tell you something that has been said time and time again by the brave men and women of the military leading this effort. these 13 individuals sacrificed their lives to save tens of thousands of people, and this is something that is, should be honored, should be valued, and we will continue to look for ways to do that. >> and meeting with the families of the fallen service members, does the president still stick by the decision and he does not regret at all how this has played out the last couple of weeks? >> of course, for any president as i said last week, a day or a week where you lose 13 service members is the worst day or the worst week of your presidency. that remains case, and yesterday and i have seen him since he has of course went to dover yesterday, and he is of course deeply impacted. he knows firsthand that there's nothing that you can say to a family member. there is nothing that you can

say to someone who loses a child to fill the black hole. that is the case, but if you take a step back beyond yesterday, the president stands by his decision to bring our men and women home from afghanistan, because if he had not, his view, and the view of many experts and military out there is that we would have sent thousands potentially more thousands troops back into harms way risking more lives to fight a war the afghans themselves were not willing to fight. >> how was the interaction of the president and the families yesterday? >> i am obviously not going to speak to private conversations of the president and the service members who lost their lives saving others and he was grateful to be with the families yesterday and to honor the heroic service and sacrifice of their sons is an daughters. while his son did not lose his life directly in combat as they did or at the hands of a

terrorists as these families that they are mourning, he knows firsthand, there is nothing to say or nothing to convey to ease the pain, and to ease what all of these families are going through. but he was honored to be there yesterday and to spend some time with the families. got ahead. >> two technical questions and one other question. you said that 6,000 have been evacuated or otherwise evacuated, and is that with the people who have been evacuated and have been registered or did not register on the way out, and i am trying to understand? >> well, there are people as the state department goes through and says, i have departed or vi left. that is not going to change the total number of evacuees that we have provided to you on everyday on the planes and transport, but right now, we are at the point to assess and get a final number. >> jen, the president has been clear that the commanders on the ground have the leeway to do

what is necessary on the ground. were a defensive strike like we saw last night, is that something that he signs off on or is that commanders on the ground who make that decision? >> i can tell you that the president has made it clear to the commanders, they should stop at nothing to make isis pay for the deaths of those service members at the kabul airport. they have the authority necessary. it is self-defense, and obviously, these are isis terrorists who killed u.s. service members around and the president is regularly briefed, but he has directed them to go after and to kill these isis terrorists who have taken the lives of the men and women serving our country. >> and one more. in dealing with the high stakes issues here in the white house, and yesterday was the most dangerous part of the mission before the hurricane slammed the coast, and can you tell us what the white house has been like given the very, very high stakes

events happening. >> well, i would say that addressing crises is what any president is supposed to do or vice president is supposed to do and the senior members of the president's team are supposed to do, so when you have moments like this, where you are facing as you said multiple crises, i would add of course that we are continuing to fight a pandemic that has continues to take the lives of thousands of people every week. you have to rely on strong and capable team members, and you have to be nimble enough to adapt quickly, but i think that we would argue that this is actually government working to do our best to function as best we can. is it tough? yes. are the days long? yes. is it always going to be perfect? no. but this is exactly what government is supposed to be doing. >> jen, back to the hurricane. is the white house seeing the reports or have data about the

fuel forages from the fuel refineries? >> it is something that we are monitoring, jeff, but we are not seeing it as an issue, and we will closely monitor that and over the coming days. >> and the white house, along the same lines, considering or seeing the need for the jones act waivers? >> well, as you noted the jones act which we talked about a few weeks ago, there are a range of tools at our disposal that the federal government has to address fuel supply shortages in national disasters by issuing is waivers in an affected area, and if warranted by circumstances, the epa can make sure that sufficient fuel is available, and epa and several components of the government are in touch with the departments in louisiana and mississippi and pipelines and tankers on the ground to see what needs to exist to make sure that we have the transportation fuel, and we

have not made that assessment at the time, but we have that authority, should it be needed. >> one last call on afghanistan, and meeting with the families yesterday, does the president plan to continue to stay in touch with the families? >> absolutely. and he is going to continue to look for ways of honoring them, and the lives that were lost last week as well. go ahead. >> thank you. a few others on the ongoing evacuation and the caveat of winding down the numbers and get reported here versus the situations on the ground. we heard through the weekend of americans who were going to the airport and then because of the danger on ground not to go to airport. if for some reason, and we don't have an example, but maybe because of the final flights out, what is the message to the americans who were left behind trying to get out. >> as you noted, and i appreciate the caveat, we remain in touch with the american citizens as i noted to the top

at darlene's question, and we are continuing to work to evacuate the american citizens. what the message directly would be is that our commitment is enduring and our commitment does not waiver. even as we bring our men and women from the military home. let me just outline a couple of the steps that i expect we will give you updates on as the details are finalized and the diplomatic front, the secretary of state is going to be meeting with a number of his international partners and the department of state put out a letter from 100 countries making clear that there has to be a safe passage for the afghans who want to leave after the 31st, and friday, the taliban leader conveyed remarks that any individuals who want the leave after the 31st will do, so and that does not mean that we trust what they say, but it is a, but there is an enormous amount of international leverage that we will continue to work in a coordinated way with our partners around the world. and there is also of course a

discussion about what our diplomatic presence may look like going forward as the secretary of state and the national security adviser confirmed yesterday, the current plan is not to have an ongoing presence through september 1st, and the means and mechanisms on the ground, and being able to process out the applicants and the passage of people who want the leave afghanistan, and we will have more details of that in can coming days and the other piece is operational which is the airport and the airports that are also regional airports, and we are currently working with a range of partners this region about how to keep those up and operational, and we need to reopen or figure out how to work with our partners to reopen the civilian airport and ensure that is a mechanism. and that is an area where there is mutual interest by the united states, by international organizations like the world food program, and want to get the assistance n and by the taliban to get the airports operational and running.

>> you anticipated part of this because of the ongoing conversations with the rest of the world about being able to get people out if they want to leave, and any sense of how long afghans who are trying to leave, and don't leave by tomorrow are going to have the wait for further instruction or sense of whether or not they will be able to go? >> well, i will tell you that there is ongoing immediate urgent conversations happening at a very high level with international partners now, and we hope to have more of the update on that in the coming days there. are different components of this. the airport operations, and it may take some time to get that going, but we are working through a range of mechanisms so there is ongoing efforts to move people out who are looking to depart afghanistan. >> one more final one on this, because based on the things that we have heard from people there, did the evacuation of the non-american, siv recipients or the people applying or eligible to leave effectively stop after

thursday's attack? >> no, we have continued to work to evacuate individuals since that time, and i think that we have put out a range of numbers that have made it clear that we have continued to evacuate, afghan partners and other applicants. go ahead. >> first of all, it is approaching midnight in the 30th of kabul, and is that how you view the deadline or the white house viewing the deadline tomorrow? >> i am not get into the operational details of when we will continue our retro grade efforts and that is led by the defense on the ground. >> and so saying that they believe they were on pace, and this is before the attack on pace, and for the achievement of our objective, so as we approach the deadline tonight or tomorrow, did the u.s. accomplish its objective knowing that there is likely thousands of siv applicants and certainly some other americans as well? >> i think that first, we have to date evacuated 120,000

people, and that is 120,000 lives that we have saved including 6,000 americans and their families and many of them dual nationals, and our commitment is enduring to afghan partners, to american citizens who may not have decided to leave. that is their right to determine when they want to leave. that commitment is enduring. but we have saved more than 120,000 lives and i will let you evaluate that for yourself. >> when you talk about that whether they prepare to leave tonight or tomorrow, and there are billions of dollars of u.s.-made munitions and aircraft and other vehicles falling into the hands of the taliban here, and giving them new capabilities that they did not have before this, and are the americans less safe now, because the taliban now has access to billions of dollars worth of american-made weaponry? >> well, let me unpack the question a little bit, because the u.s. military, and part of the retro grade effort is to

reduce any of the apparatus that anybody on the ground has access to. i won't give details to how they do that, but that is part of the effort. i will reiterate something that our national security advisory said. we had to make the assessment of whether we could provide the materiels to the afghan fighters, and they decided not the fight. so we have not assessed that any group on the ground whether it is isis-k or the taliban have the ability to attack the united states. we clearly -- sorry, that is an aggressive bug. we need to insure that is the case, but it is not a capability that we have assessed to be the case at this point in time, and there is a difference between the threat between the u.s. men and women serves or the people

gathering outside of the gates outside of the gates of kabul. >> and in acknowledging that, you will limit what access they have to some of the weaponry that are in ways that you cannot communicate here, and it is not the united states under risk here, but americans around the globe, and western interests at risk, because the afghans have access to thek? >> the world is watching and we have leverage including access to the global piece which is not a small leverage to the taliban who are overseeing large swathes of afghanistan. our objective was to not leave them with any equipment, but it is not an option to retrograde and move out of the war zone, but that is the clear leverage with the taliban and the capacities are over the horizon capacities that by the way killed two isis terrorists and

so they remain on the ground in the region and other parts of the world, and somalia and yemen and libya, and we don't have a presence on the ground, and we still prevent attacks against u.s. citizens who live around the world from growing. >> is the u.s. more or less safe today than before the taliban took over? >> again, we won't do anything that is going to allow the terrorists to grow or prosper in afghanistan or any terrorist a organization that is the president's commitment, and his announcements show that he going to deliver on that commitment. >> and china and russia did not sign on to the letter -- >> it is an open letter that they are welcome to sign on, and i will tell you that it is important to engage with a range of partners including those who we have adversarial disagreements with about the

need to maintain a safe passage for individuals who wish to leave afghanistan. there is a range of international organizations to have those discussions, and they are ongoing. go ahead. >> another question unrelated to this. >> sure. >> the ieae has put out a report that the north koreans nuclear reactor may be restarting, and they say that it is a matter of curious concern, and what is the white house concern? >> we are aware of the report and coordinating if the allies and reports are coordinating this reporting, and the urgent need of the dialogue, and to complete the complete denuclearization of the peninsula. and we are committed to the complete denuclearization. go ahead, jackie. >> i want to go to this about the american university in afghanistan and the student, and the new york times reported that they had been left behind and

contacted apparently to try to get out and stay at safehouses for a period of time, and that the evacuation had stopped, and that separately the university president apparently told the students and their parents that their information had been handed over to the taliban, obviously, to get them safe passage, which has not happened, but as this is drawing down, don't we sort of owe a group like that where we have given out their information and passports and names, and aren't we obligated in some way to make sure they get on the last flights given the fact that the taliban soon after coming into kabul will be closing the universities and this is where the americans trained people and they are obviously threatened and scared by that. >> absolutely. first, there are reports that we provide or the u.s. provided lists of people who wanted to

leave u.s. to the taliban that is misaccurate, and that is misreport and misconstrued. we have confirmed repeatedly that we have had to coordinate with the taliban, and so there have been limited, limited cases where it is possible that when buses or individuals are at a border checkpoint and trying to get through in order to get them through to evacuate them successfully, we have had to coordinate and provide details. i don't have confirmations of those events, because that is the scenario in limited cases where that would happen, and in a vast number of cases where that has not been, and those individuals have been evacuated. i understand what the president of the school said, but don't have confirmation that has happened on the ground or in from anybody who has leading the effort on the ground, but certainly our commitment remains to american citizens and afghans who want the leave like these individuals and young people who have been courageous to get them out of the country, and we are in touch with all of the individuals on the ground.

i note, and as they know, it is scary, and it is a very dangerous situation on the ground. another attack could happen at any time. and when we give these security briefings or warnings or tell people to move away from the gate, it is to protect them. so what we have been trying to do is to work with individual cases and families and groups and trying to get them evacuated when and if we can. i'd also note that our commitment is the enduring, and this a fluid and dangerous situation on the ground, and i don't have a detail on the current state of this particular case. >> and with the drone strikes, it seems that we're witnessing these happening with more frequency, and obviously, the over to horizon ability to do it, and have the intelligence to do it, but my question is why is it that we were not able to do or to use similar action to

prevent the attack on thursday. and then part of that is now, because we hearing the reports of how they were carried out and the fact that one of the drones had flown from the uae, and what is the ability to respond in a matter if they have four or five hours of arrival time, and then is there a future or ongoing worry to be behind the eight-ball again. >> first of all, i would say ta -- say that the fact that we have had two successful strikes confirms sen -- cencom, and also, the rise of isis-k can attack at any moment in time, and what we can do, and the

commanders ton ground have, and access to all of the information as well is to mitigate the risks. we cannot mitigate all risks, but if we were to evacuate our afghan partners, we had to mitigate the risk and not eliminate it that is how we have proceeded. the president has been clear to the military, and the commanders on the ground, that force protection is of concern. my colleague from dod confirmed the closure of the gates today, and steps have been taken, and we have gone over the retrograde process. and there are steps to be taken as the threats have increased. >> as i understand, we are looking for other ways after the military pulls tout get people back -- pulls out to get people back. has this been affected by putin and the basis for drones and the

central agencies, and also in that june meeting, putin spoke, and did we ever get an answer from china about a position on that? >> i cannot speak of the private diplomatic conversations, but we have a partner in the region who we are discussing with to maintain the over the horizon capacity. ashley. >> going back to the president and the families at dover yesterday, and the sister of one of the marines in the attack said that the president's comments struck her as scripted and shallow, and you cannot f-up as badly as he did. and can you tell us how the president's thoughts of the meeting with the families went, and how he feels about the steps leading up to these events. >> well, as the president made

clear, and the national security adviser feels, that he feels responsible, and everybody feels responsible, and we all feel responsible, and thursday when he spoke to the loss of life of these servicemen and women, and shortly after it happened. it is certainly the right of any individual who met with the president yesterday to speak publicly about their experience, but i am not going to speak about the president's experience beyond what i have said already. >> you mentioned that the president absolutely plans to stay in touch with the families, and is there a possibility that he may attend any funerals or speak at any funerals? >> well, i will say what is important to remember here is that this is the worst thing that has happened ever in the lives of these family members, and last thursday or friday was the worst day of their lives. what role the president plays or doesn't play is probably not front and center for them, but he is only going to do things

that are of comfort to the family, and remembering the lives lost, and continue the look for ways to do that. go ahead. >> quick question. first on afghanistan. the drone strike that the united states conducted appears for the family members in afghanistan to have killed ten people, and does the president feel the same responsibility and loss for those victims as he does for the american members? >> we take steps to avoid any loss of civilians anywhere in the world. i cannot refer to the civilian casualties in this case, and i will note in the centcom statement what they noted is also the explosion, and there were explosives in the vehicle that could have led to additional damage. there is an investigation to

determine how this happens, but of course, the loss of life from anywhere is hohorrible, and impacts lives no matter where it happens here or around the world. >> and now, employees set to lose all benefits and not just a supplement, but given the expiration of the rental eviction moratorium, and has the president asked congress to extend the benefits? >> if congress asked the president to sign the eviction moratorium into law, he would do that. >> and when is the -- >> look, he made that in the recovery at this point in time, and there is additional assistance going out to people around the country and you know it well whether it is the child tax credit or additional funding distributed by the american rescue plan, and our objective continues to work with the states and the localities to

keep people in their homes and make sure they have the assistance they need. and that is why there is a range of systems that the president advocated for and fought like hell over and is going to be signed into law and implemented over the course of the year and not just ending this summer. >> the president regularly talks about speaking in the speech that he had called president bush, and has he been in touch with president bush and president obama, and i assume not with president trump. but has he had any phone calls with the presidents? >> i am not aware of any phone calls with those presidents. >> and jen, the travel to the eu is going to be up to those countries whether they want the travelers into their countries, and we have not let those people come into our country, so what

is the reaction of the eu for that? >> well, today's announcement to the eu is impacting the people who are vaccinate and those who are not vaccinated. we encourage the people to get vaccinated and the quickest path to travel is to get vaccinated. and we work across the agencies to develop a consistent and safe international travel policy. this is including the travel to europe, and stepping up efforts to protect people, and strengthening the protocol for traveling, and also, to ensure that the quarantine time for people coming to the u.s. these are discussions that have benefited greatly from discussions with our international partners. >> are you anticipating that the president is going to visit louisiana if possible later in the week, and i know that you have the homeland secretary

going there tomorrow. >> it is different for the president of the united states to travel somewhere from the secretary of the homeland security given the footprint. the president does not want to go until it does not impact the recovery and rescue efforts on the ground. i don't have any prediction of that at this point in time. we'll see how the next few days go. go ahead, karen. >> reporter: there have been reports of hospitals trying to evacuate patients. there's generators failing. can you give us a sense of the impact on hospitals in that region and what the federal government is specifically doing about that? >> absolutely, first let me say that i know there have been a range of reports out there, but as of late last night no hospitals ran out of oxygen. that's something we're watching very closely. we have prior to the storm we had more than 300 federally deployed health care personnel

on the ground. the department of veterans affairs has made beds available to support local hospitals and will be available to assist in response and hhs and fema are working to deploy additional assets as needed. on hospitals, we also have approximately 39 facilities as i understand using generator power and we are, of course, working on the clock to get power back on where we can. this is certainly an area where we not only did the president speak purposefully over the course of the last few months and many of our high level officials spoke out about the need for people to get vaccinated, but we have work to put in place generators, equipment, emergency personnel to help address and expect as we continue to discuss with the governor and health administrators we'll determine what additional assistance we can provide. >> reporter: shelters are open in the area and implementing steps to stop the spread of covid. can you tell us what's being

done? >> there are steps including social distancing whenever possible. that's being worked to implement. masking wherever possible and, again, i would note that the president and several other high-level members of the administration made a strong case over the last couple of months for individuals to get vaccinated. we had seen increases in numbers of vaccination in the region although not enough to prevent the spread. go ahead, george. >> reporter: can you give us an update on the american hostage the president mentioned the other day. >> it's a case that's been raised repeatedly by our officials from the state department and also managed -- the state department is working with a special representative, presidential envoy for hostage affairs and for afghanistan reconciliation. they continued to press the taliban for his release and continues to raise status in

senior level officials. obviously that's of great importance to the president and overseen by the state department who will have additional updates if there are any. >> reporter: president biden said there's a process at the airport for everyone who is not a u.s. citizen or permanent resident. he said that anyone arriving in the united states would have undergone a background check. can you clarify where this vetting process is taking place because our sources have said the president has instructed ambassador ross wilson to be more permissive to get as many people on the planes first and vet later. can you confirm that and then i have another one. >> i don't think that's a secret. that's something we've conveyed clearly and that's also one of the reasons why we're so grateful to several dozen countries out there, some of whom are serving as lilly pad countries where individuals are

going as for many of them their screening process is continuing before they proceed to the united states. >> reporter: can you respond to allegations from groups assisting evacuations that it's very difficult to get deserving afghans out because procedures that were given to the marines on the ground and officers on the ground change constantly sometimes even daily. >> i would first say that it's an incredibly difficult and challenging security situation on the ground as evidence by the fact that 13 men and women gave their lives on thursday and we dealt with rocket attacks overnight. of course, for protection of our troops is our top priority but we still evacuated -- if you subtract 6,000 american citizens, that's 114,000 people. many of whom are afghans and others are partners we evacuated from the country and saved their lives. that would be my response to that person. go ahead. >> reporter: how many of those people from 120,000, when will

you give breakdowns of nationality and when can we expect that? >> i would expect that would come from the department of homeland security. >> reporter: is the administration tracking the advance and what plans for this and what are your thoughts on the fires going on right now? >> absolutely we are tracking the wildfires and ones that have unfortunately continued in different parts of the west it seems over the past several months. i would note that even as the president did regular briefings on hurricane preparedness, which of course made us equipped to deal with the moment we're facing in the gulf coast, he also prioritized for preparing for fires and ensuring that communities have resources they need and we have the response needed. i can check with our fema team and see if there are specific resources being deployed there at this moment in time and get back to you.

>> reporter: you need more firefighters on the front lines. is the administration confident resources are what is needed? >> that is our objective. we'll continue to assess if additional resources are needed. i would note when the president came in, he looked at the impact of wildfires and the fact that in the past there has been cases where we didn't have the resources needed and he wanted to take steps to prepare for that to make sure we had those resources as we went into fire season. go ahead. >> reporter: thank you so much. the afghans that helped the united states and helped as contractors, is there any estimate on how many may be left behind? >> well, i think what we're working through right now is how many left behind who have applied for programs or -- >> reporter: how many left behind after the deadline? >> i want to make sure i understand your question. our commitment to work with any

american citizen and others who stood by our side, fought by our side, that's enduring. that will continue. that is one of the reasons why our secretary of state has been so focused on working with international partners ensuring there was a statement by 100 countries sending a clear message. i noted the statement by the taliban about safe passage and working through the mechanisms and moods for our diplomatic presence even though we don't anticipating having one on the ground after the 1st. >> reporter: i wonder difficult the number is they haven't applied yet. >> reporter: what's the president's message to veterans who are hurt and people who feel like they are people who helped them who even in some cases saved their lives who are left behind after the deadline whether it's tonight or tomorrow, what's the message

from the president to these veterans? >> we've been closely engaged with a range of veterans groups because we're grateful for their service and also for their advocacy for so many of these brave translators, interpreters, and others. tens of thousands of whom we've evacuated. you're right. there could be some that are still there who may not have applied or have not been able to depart the country yet. our message is we remain committed. these are our partners. these are allies who stood by our side for the last 20 years. that's why we are focused on ensuring we have a means and mechanisms of having diplomats on the ground being able to continue to process applicants and facilitate passage of others that want to leave afghanistan. >> there are reports of no water and power in louisiana. what's the plan to get to people who may not have cell phone services or access to the internet who are stuck in their homes given the circumstances that they may be dealing with?

>> this is why i did an extensive lay down in the beginning. it's not just one thing. we are working with companies to get the power back on. that could take weeks. we don't know. we have also preemptively set up a range of resource, food, water, and other resources that we can get to people on the ground. we have deployed across government entities and resources whether it's from fema to the health and human services to the coast guard to get out to communities to save lives, to recover, to get people food, water and assistance they need. go ahead. last one. you got in under darlene's thumb there. >> reporter: thank you. two quick ones. "the washington post" reports that the taliban offered stay out of kabul and let the united states forces secure the city. we told them we only needed the airport. is that reporting accurate? >> i have not seen this

reporting. i would have to look at it. >> reporter: and i want to go to you said that some of the reporting about the united states giving things to the taliban was inaccurate at times and misconstrued. i wonder if you can just clarify a little bit more because last week the president said that there have been instances where maybe a bus is coming through and names have been given but he also added that i can't tell you with any certainty that there's been a list of names. there may have been. >> i think that's entirely consistent with what i just said or several minutes ago. what i was conveying is that reports or suggestions that we were giving preemptive pro-active list of afghans that wanted to