nothing will stop me from vacation. no canceling. flexible cancellation. kayak. search one and done. this is "andrea mitchell reports" as the longest war in history officially ends. president biden preparing to address the nation this afternoon on his decision to withdraw on what comes next for those left behind. the last u.s. military planes left kabul at 3:29 p.m. eastern, one minute before midnight kabul time, capping a chaotic end to the 20-year conflict. the last soldier to board the final c-17. major general chris don

donoghue. the allies who helped our troops did not make it to the airport gates in time. >> we believe there are still a small number of american, under 200 and likely closer to 100, who remain in afghanistan and want to leave. >> the taliban celebrating the u.s. withdrawal with fireworks and gun fire after midnight and taliban fighters surveying the kabul airport and the destroyed arms, ammunition and aircraft that the americans left behind. coming up, we'll be speaking with former defense secretary and the cia director leon panetta on the withdrawal from afghanistan and what comes next. we're also following the devastating aftermath of tropical storm ida. millions of residents along the gulf coast could be without power for weeks. louisiana governor john bell edwards is scheduled to hold a press conference. we'll bring that to you live when it happens. first, the latest on afghanistan, nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander and pentagon

correspondent courtney kube. >> as you noted that number of americans just shy of 200, but the number of afghan allies likely tens of thousands and the president in a statement and we'll hear from him around 2:45 this afternoon. he said there was unanimity. there was a unanimous agreement that the u.s. should stick to that august 31st departure date, deadline date as opposed to extending it. he said among other things and the fact that the responsibility going forward now is going to be shared, it is going to be working with international partners to try to hold the taliban accountable for its commitments according to the president to help allow for the safe passage in that process. obviously, that requires a lot of belief in the taliban's desire to help and there have been aid organizations and others right now saying that the taliban is inflicting terrible

pain and death among many of those who helped americans and many of those vulnerable allies who are left behind right now and that's among the elements on the topic to this point. we heard yesterday from the secretary of state effectively saying that this is no longer a military mission that now becomes a diplomatic operation. as you know well, the diplomatic corps is no longer in kabul. they left. a lot of this will be happening long distance with the responsibility relying on the qataris in hopes of allowing the airport to allow safe passage for airplanes to get in and out and how long that will take and some some of america's allies in the region to help those folks to come to those countries. a lot of tough questions, among them why didn't they begin this evacuation sooner and the chaos of these frantic, final days and the 13 service members' lives.

courtney, let's listen to part of what general mckenzie said yesterday when he was announcing the withdrawal when the final plane had lifted off. >> there is a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. we did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out, but i think if we'd stayed another ten days that we wouldn't have gotten out, and there still would be people disappointed with that. it's a tough situation. >> courtney, now the general said the military operation is over. this is a diplomatic mission and we have no diplomats on the ground. they've all left in doha in a u.s. embassy there. we understand there is no relationship because we have not recognized them or recognize good transition government, but there will still be communication. how do we get people out? >> so right now, as you well know, andrea, this is a diplomatic mission. there will be two lines of effort and the diplomacy side and peter mentioned the qataris

as a potential intermediate and that will be one of the main lines of effort and the other will be the economic one and that is something that the taliban are going to need if they want to form a government and run afghanistan, it will be funding from the international community. so those are the two main levers that the u.s. has and leverage that the u.s. may have over the taliban is economic. there is a lot of talk and there are a lot of questions about whether there will be a u.s. military component to getting more americans and potentially afghans out of afghanistan. according to pentagon press secretary john kirby, at this point there is no talk of that and no military. the 20 years of having a u.s. military mission there ended yesterday and now it's diplomacy going forward. that being said, no one is ruling out the possibility that there could be the potential for the u.s. working to extract americans going forward and that that could involve some sort of

military assets, military helicopters for instance or aircraft under the guise of some other u.s. government agency, that being said there is no military role or component to the mission in afghanistan, andrea? jeremy bash, michael leiter under presidents bush and obama. peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times" first american journalist in afghanistan after nech. >> jeremy, the war is over, a lot of unfinished business and what role will intelligence play going forward trying to help extricate americans or trying to make that happen through some sort of other covert means. >> andrea, after 9/11 the intelligence community was the first into afghanistan and even though the military presence has ended, the intelligence

community will be the last out, and i say that because when there's no diplomatic presence and no overt military presence essentially afghanistan becomes like iran and north korea, becomes a hard target where it's hard to operate from traditional u.s. posts. so the intelligence community will have, i think, three critical missions on the ground without having an official presence. first, as reference, i think the intelligence community will have to play a critical role some evacuating those we couldn't get out, whether it's american citizens or siv applicants or siv holders or others who want to leave because they're in peril, i think the intelligence community will have to play an essential role in that evacuation mission and that will go on for months and years. second, we'll have to collect intelligence on the threat landscape, isis-k, al qaeda something that mike leiter might know a lot about and the intelligence community will have to play an essential role to

have those threats don't metastasize and ultimately our homeland. if we do find intelligence targets or terrorist targets the intelligence committee will have to have strikes whether air strikes or ground operations to take out training camps that threaten the united states. the mission and the agenda for the intelligence community is going to be a tough one for the next coming months and years particularly because we don't have those outposts in the country, but this will evolve to the top of the agenda of all leadership. >> michael, over to you, let's listen to general mckenzie about isis and how it's formed in the u.s. prisons. >> they remain a lethal force and there are probably 2,000 hard core isis fighters in afghanistan now and many of those come from the prisons that were opened a few days ago. so that number is up and it's probably as high as it's ever been in quite a while and that

will be a challenge for the taliban in the days ahead. >> you correctly point out and wisely point out in your op ed in "the washington post," that the counter terrorism threat is nowhere near where it was in al qaeda in 2001 when you were running the counter terrorism center, but there is a terrorism threat. it's a threat more to the taliban now than to the u.s., but it certainly is a factor to get more people out. >> absolutely, andrea. what general mckenzie didn't mention in that clip was, of course, the taliban also executed one of isis-k's leaders who was in that prison before he was released. it is a very complicated scenario. as jeremy said, this is going to a fall on the intelligence community and their job has just gotten more difficult in many ways to include part of the

trust that is so central to intelligence collection of developing and recruiting sources has now been squandered because of the way we left afghanistan, but we're going to have to fall back on some of the things we know we can do well and that's monitoring these risks of terrorism within afghanistan from pakistan. developing sources across that border in a way that we have done before and we can do again, and i think the cia is likely to play another important role going back to the reporting. it will be difficult for tony blinken and the state department to have broad discussions with the taliban. there are lots of things that the taliban is going to do that we really don't like and often the agency that fills that void between formal diplomacy and military action is the cia, and i think they'll play a critical role in talking with the taliban behind closed doors to try to

make sure that although the taliban will not be perfectly aligned with u.s. interests and in particular, general mckenzie said, combatting isis-k, we can reduce the terror threat coming out of the region. >> peter baker, now that the planes have left, we are told that diplomats takeover and there will be a consular presence in doha. of course, we have ambassadors and other officials in pakistan across the border, but we also don't have a large presence in some of the other surrounding countries and obviously iran, no presence there. here is a picture that secretary blinken tweeted within the hour of the final picture of the diplomatic or last consular, people led by ambassador wilson with the american flag that's been folded up from the embassy as it's relocating to doha. it's hardly an embassy in doha. it's 1200 miles away.

>> yeah. that's exactly right. you mentioned i was in afghanistan shortly after 9/11 and we went into kabul after the taliban fell i went to visit the american embassy there which had been abandoned during the previous taliban regime, and it was a broken down, decrepit site, but there had been a taliban -- not taliban, an afghan security guard who had been guarding it for years since we left waiting for the moment when america would return and we did. we built up a new embassy there and it was rather striking 20 years later to see it all unfold again the way it has. having an intersection in another country is better than nothing, any as jeremy talked about, there is something that an embassy provides you and not having one there at all is a handicap in terms of counter terrorism in so many ways and the question is whether or not we will have any kind of

relationship with the taliban going forward. secretary blinken made clear we will not have a diplomatic relationship per se. that doesn't mean there won't be conversations and talks. the taliban likes to pretend that there are a new taliban and people are skeptical about that. the test for that will be in the days and weeks to come about what we can do about the remaining americans and afghans there. >> i was on a veterans group and coalition and non-governmental organizations who say that they've been hearing horror stories and this was just an hour ago. they've been trying to extricate people, jeremy, what they're hearing from the ground is that the taliban are going door to door, are targeting people and are executing people in some areas of the country in the streets. this is anecdotal, but they are people that they know that are tweeting and texting to them. >> yeah. i've heard the same, andrea, and like a lot of former government folks, i've been working on a lot of cases of individuals and families who want to get out of

afghanistan, evacuees who were not able to get out and some of them were able to get out of kabul, but remain in the country and they're looking at their options to travel over land and arrange flights out of the country. there remains 100,000, 200,000 people and many of those people who served alongside the u.s. mission over the 20 years they were outspoken in their support of the united states and for the afghan security forces and for the efforts to combat talibanism and now with the taliban in charge they have a target on their back. so it's incumbent on the u.s., on our government and allies and partners and ngos to truly step up our efforts to get those people out. we weren't able to do it by the deadline, but we must do it still. >> michael leiter, there is a lot of blowback from veterans groups and a lot of anger and support for the withdrawal certainly from the american

public and 60% approval in most polls, but not for the way this was done with the evacuation and the siv process was not done a whole lot earlier. the response from the pentagon and from the white house has done if we'd done it earlier it would have been signaling defeat and signaling that we were giving up to everyone involved and the ghani government as well as the afghan defense forces and what about this? you were a navy pilot and what are you hearing from people you know in the military. >> mostly i'm hearing sadness. there's anger and mostly sadness and what i would say to the people who worked so hard for the military and the state department over the past 20 years is we did do something important in afghanistan. we clearly failed and we were certain of our goal, but we held terrorism at bay and made the country safer for 20 years. it doesn't mean that what happened is a waste. it does mean how we left is a

problem for all of the reasons weave said and it will be a huge challenge for terrorism and for everyone who served you accomplished something important and there were many failures along the way and we should learn from those and we should refocus to make sure that we're protecting the highest national security challenges and to the extent we can and absolutely living up to our commitments to our americans and afghans. >> for people who say we can't donation building and shouldn't and there is a whole generation of girls and women who have now been educated and now have careers and are now on robot teams and sports teams and engineers and doctors and judges and lawyers and that knowledge doesn't go away, but we just have to protect them from their lives being ruined at this point. thank you all so very much for starting us off today and it is a difficult time and a historic moment and i couldn't have better partners, thanks so much. speaking of partners, what about the tenuous relationship between

the u.s. and the taliban moving forward? former cia director leon panetta joining us next. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete! with 30 grams of protein. i'm still drawn to what's next. even with higher stroke risk due to afib

not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin that's a trail i want to take. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk better than warfarin. and has less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis has both. don't stop taking eliquis without talking to your doctor as this may increase your risk of stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking, you may bruise more easily or take longer for bleeding to stop. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, or unusual bruising. it may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. the number one cardiologist-prescribed blood thinner. ask your doctor about eliquis. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ mission control, we are go for launch.

♪♪ um, she's eating the rocket. ♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten.

with the last american troops now out of afghanistan, questions are mounting about what could the u.s. have done differently and whether evacuations should have started

sooner. pentagon press secretary john kirby addressing those questions on "morning joe" today. >> i think there will be times to do the forensics here, willie, and to see what might have been done differently and those are fair questions. we are asking ourselves the same questions, as you might imagine. what i can tell you is we went from 48 hours believing we had a capable, longtime ally in the ghani government and the afghan forces to having to develop a pragmatic relationship with a longtime enemy which was the taliban. >> joining us now leon panetta former defense secretary and cia director who oversaw the successful hunt for osama bin laden. thank you. the taliban now is the unofficial partner of the u.s. so is it up to the cia to conduct that partnership since there is no military presence on the ground and no diplomatic presence. >> well, in 20 years we've learned a great deal about the taliban. i've never trusted the taliban,

and i don't trust them now. and so it's going to be a difficult relationship. obviously, the cia will be a very important intermediary here to try to not only deal with the taliban, but also find out what is happening with the taliban and terrorism in afghanistan. the likelihood is that the taliban will provide a safe haven for terrorists in afghanistan which means that this war is not over, that indeed we'll have to continue to face threats from afghanistan when it comes to terrorism, and that means that we'll have to not only deal with the taliban, but we'll have to deal with isis-k, al qaeda and other terrorist groups that develop in taliban-held territory. >> in fact, general mckenzie

said that now there are at least 2,000 isis-k fighters which -- who did not exist there in such large numbers before, but ever, of course, the prisons, they were released from prison from the taliban on the march toward kabul. they are supposedly the enemies of the taliban and fight the taliban for supremacy there, but the taliban have already enabled the haqqani network who has a $5 million bounty on his head from the state department and is wanted by the fbi to do the security in kabul. so how can the u.s. government say that we're going to see how the taliban responds? we already know what they're doing in terms of haqqani. >> andrea, i heard an interview with richard engel and one of the spokesmen of the taliban in which he asked about bin laden's

role in the 9/11 attack and the spokesman for the taliban said that there's no evidence that he's seen that bin laden was involved in the 9/11 attack. now, if that's the taliban's position, and i think it is, there's no question in my mind that the taliban is going to allow al qaeda safe haven in afghanistan and one of the primary missions of our effort in afghanistan after 9/11 was not only to get bin laden which we were successful at doing, but also to prevent afghanistan from ever becoming a safe haven for terrorism. and fortunately, today, that mission was not accomplished. >> and mr. secretary, i'm afraid i'll have to interrupt because the louisiana governor is about to hold a news conference about the situation with hurricane ida. i hope you can stand by and we

can bring you back afterwards. >> i'm sorry, in st. john the baptist parish. we have additional law enforcement that will be on the ground to help you, sheriff, state troopers from louisiana. we have wild life and fishery officers, we will be moving national guardsmen in as well for basic security functions and so we'll be with you for the long haul. what i'm trying to make sure people understand is many of the life supporting infrastructure elements are not present. they're not operating right now. so if you have already evacuated. do not return here or elsewhere in southeast louisiana until the office of emergency preparedness tells you they are ready to receive you. the hospitals are slammed and there's not water in your home and there's not going to be electricity. so let's get you where you can be safe and somewhat comfortable

and if you need a hospital we can get you to a hospital. please don't come home before they tell you that it's time, and the last thing i'm going to say before i ask the fema administrator to come up is most deaths, right now we have two confirmed deaths in southeast louisiana because of the storm. i expect that number will rise, but historically, we know that most people are injured and killed because of the response, not the storm itself. carbon monoxide poisoning from generators and driving through water that turns out to be deeper or having more current than we realized and falling off roofs when you're cleaning up and heat exhaustion. it's going to be -- heat indexes will be 100 degrees for the next two weeks and -- >> no deaths. >> at this point in time, even though i told you 80% of the rescues were done in st. john the baptist parish we don't have

a single confirmed death and i want to thank all of the law enforcement people and the first responders that have done a tremendous job and the people of st. john the baptist parish have done something right, too. now is the most dangerous time over the next week and couple of weeks. we are asking people to be patient and people to be careful. please be check on your elderly neighbors or elderly parents or special needs families. we have 911 operating here so call 911. at this point i'm going to ask the fema administrator to come up. she's going to tell you that the president signed a major disaster declaration that turned on individual assistance for all of southeast louisiana including st. john the baptist parish and we also have 100% for the next 30 days and all of the costs associated with debris removal like sheltering and other things

that we need to bear to stand this parish back up and we appreciate your presence and the good news. if you will come up? >> thank you, governor. good morning, everybody. on behalf of the president our thought goes out to everybody that has been impacted by this devastating storm that went through louisiana. as you heard, we understand many people are away from their homes and want to get back in their home, but i strongly encourage everybody, please listen to your local officials. please listen to when they tell you it's safe to come back home. we also understand that many of you did stay behind and you are now seeing the damages across your neighborhoods and your own personal homes. as the governor mentioned, the president did sign a major disaster declaration which means that if you do have damages or you are displaced from your home you may be eligible for a

assistance, you can go to disaster assistance.gov or go to the fema app or call 821-fema. many of you do not have communications right now. we'll be bringing in teams that will be walking around your neighborhoods. they will be able to register you, as well. so if you haven't been registered or if you have questions about your registration, you can find someone wearing a fema shirt and they'll help you answer your questions and help you get registered already. we have been embedded with the state since the storm made landfall and we've had such great partnership with state and local officials in louisiana and the family that comes to be part of this response, and fema is just one small piece of that. we have brought in the coast guard. we have brought in the army corps of engineers, the department of defense, fish and wild life, many other federal agencies that are here on the ground that are supporting you. we staged a number of resources ahead of the storm and now we

are moving those in to meet the needs and the requests from the local officials to help them address their immediate concerns. i'd like to just also say it's been a rough 24-48 hours and the first responders have been amazing. they worked so hard to make sure that they're keeping their community safe and many of them at the same time struggling with their own losses to their own homes and i just wanted to give a big shout out to the first responders across louisiana for the hard work that they've done and all of the work that they'll continue to do over the next days and weeks and finally, just to repeat what the governor said, checking on your neighbors and checking on your loved ones is so important right now, people are going need help and what i've found across this country is just how amazing it is that the community's come together to help each other out and it really goes a long way. thank you, governor. >> thank you.

>> good morning and thank you all for being here this morning. i also just want to offer my prayers to our entire community. what we are experiencing right now is one of the greatest disasters that our governor and president, they both have said it that they have seen. our community is devastated at this time, and i would like to ask our residents also as everyone has said, if you can stay where you are right now, please do so. currently the parrish is without power and we are without water. if you are in a safe place with water and power, that is probably the best place for you to be. i'd also like to remind our residents, as well. we know that communication is a challenge right now. for about 30 hours no one was able to communicate with anyone. i want to thank fema everyone and who is here because they recognize the communication challenges that we're having because our residents may not be able to get on fema.gov. if you are not able to call

anyone and they'll be having boots on the ground to intake and get with our residents to get them the assistance that they need. american red cross is here, i can't thank you enough. the communications are getting a little bit better and yesterday there was no communication and that has really made it difficult for us to reach all of our residents. i can't everyone enough for being here. if you have family that's somewhereles and you can communicate with them about what's going on on the ground please do so. we are doing all of our assessments right now for water and our utility assessments and damage assessments and once we have a good assessment on what our infrastructure is looking like, we'll be able to get a better assessment on when we think water can be restored. we have activated all of our re-positioned contracts and removing debris from roadways because that's posing a damage for us to do a good damage assessment that we can't get to the areas that have been damaged

and all of that is moblized and activated and we are working quickly. this will be a marathon and not a sprint. i have been in this community for hurricane isaac, and i know we are a resilient group of people. this will be very difficult. worst disaster that we've all seen in st. john parrish and it will take a long time and we want to thank everyone and thank the media because for a while now we could not reach the residents. i do appreciate you coming. jaclyn hotard, st. john the baptist parrish president. >> good morning. thank you all for coming out. thank you for being here in the past and you've not let us down again. we've been through hurricane ice being and have seen this movie before and the residents are resilient and they do a good job when it's time to recover. two things i want to mention.

to the criminal element out there. curfew, dusk until dawn. when it gets dark, do not be on the streets of st. john parrish. there's nothing out here for you to do. for the criminal element, if you decide to come to st. john parish, my jail is empty and you will be in there by yourself. we're not having it. the 911 connections are very scarce and hard to come by. most residents can't call us which means they'll take matters into their own hands and you may be the one needing 911. that is the most polite terms i can say and for the people suffering out here do not become another victim. if someone saying they will fix this and fix that, do not give money up front. i want you to do law enforcement a favor take a picture of them and take a picture of their vehicle and license plate

number. do not let yourself become a victim of not only ida, but the greedy people that will try to take advantage of you. if you need 911 call 911. we will get st. john parrish back to you to come home. be careful. be safe. if you want to come in and get your stuff to leave, pay, tension to the news reports and the traffic presence, just sit still for us and we will bounce back. thank you. >> sheriff mike shray. >> thank you, governor, for reminding me. >> we'll take a couple of questions and we'll move on. >> what is the situation with food and water availability from people here and those kinds of supplies? >> yeah. we are coordinating now with the parrish for points of distribution and we will see that stand up very quickly in terms of what the national guard will do here with mres and water

and so forth trying to add ice to that list, bags of ice as soon as we're able to do that. those are not operating today, but we are also working with the red cross and that coordination started already where we're going to have hot meals fed here and we'll be coordinating with the parrish where the people have them the most and fast food restaurants and that sort of stuff. we're working as fast as we can to get that stood up. the hurricane came through sunday. it didn't leave this area until after lunch -- well after lunch on sunday. but the presence you will see here will grow and grow from here on forward until obviously we're not needed anymore. yes, sir? [ inaudible question ]

i don't believe anybody. i'm not satisfied with 30 days. the entergy people aren't satisfied with 30 days and nobody needing power is satisfied with that. i am mindful that we just had the strongest hurricane at least tied for the strongest that the state has ever experienced and infrastructure has been damaged. the damage assessment continues. that started yesterday and it actually continues and once they know exactly how heavily damaged the infrastructure is they'll be able to respond and put together a plan, but what i can tell you is they have linemen, vegetation crews and others in the state

right now. i did a two-hour phone call with entergy last evening to make sure they knew that this was a very high order of priority. look, we all want air-conditioning because that's how we run our lights and air conditioners. i'm worried about it because that's how we run our hospitals, too and our hospitals are full and we have so many other things that are critically important and we know that even if you have a generator, typically after so many days they start to fail, right? and so we're doing everything we can to work with them to get them to restore electricity as soon as possibility, but to prioritize the things that really are the priorities for repowering and we're bringing in redundant generator capacity and technicians in the meantime, but nobody is satisfied, and quite frankly, i will be surprised if -- not pleasantly surprised, but unpleasantly surprised if it actually is 30 days before we start to see power being restored.

but there are parts of the state as you move from here and the coast the damage that you saw in new orleans. everything is not going to come back at the same time and we do ask people to be patient and that's why we asked people to stay out. if you've evacuated or decided to evacuate, take all of this into consideration because it will be a while before you have the conveniences, but the things you need to live. wgno and this will be it. [ inaudible question ] that's a great question. we'll bring the teams in today and they'll be starting coming

into neighborhoods around louisiana. we will work in the neighborhoods that are in the most need. they have ipad and register people online and upload that information and they'll get a case number. my name is deanne criswell. >> we heard from the louisiana governor saying stay home if you have left, if you have evacuated do not come back, we don't have food. we don't have water. we don't have sewage and life-sustaining abilities and they haven't finished the damage assessment because they haven't cleared the roads yet and they don't know what the areas are like and how long it will take for the power to come back. you also heard the sheriff of st. joseph's county saying or st. john's county, forgive me

saying -- st. john's parish, saying my jail is empty. so if you come back that's where you may be heading. you may need 911. we can't take care of you. he had a strong warning not to come back and to warn against consumer contractor fraud for those trying to do repairs. don't hand over any money. take a picture of the truck or the car, get the license plate number and don't let yourself be a victim first of ida and some contractor fraud. all very good advice from st. joseph's parish and returning to a very patient former secretary leon panetta. you've dealt with a lot of crises both as a member and omb director and the white house chief of staff and you know how tragic this is for everyone concerned so thanks to you for this. you referenced richard engel's

extraordinary interview with the taliban communications guy who said that bin laden had nothing to do with 9/11 and you were meeting the team that tracked for years, for ten years osama bin laden with your cia colleagues and then at the pentagon. so obviously, the taliban has not changed its colors. this is not taliban 2.0, maybe just in contract to isis-k, they seem at this moment less radical, but the counterpoint from the white house is they're not a threat to the homeland. they're a threat internally to each other and to the region perhaps, but they're not a threat to the u.s. what's your response to that? >> look, first of all, andrea, let me just say that our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those victims of the hurricane. it's a tragic event and our prayers are with them every

moment of the day. look, i -- i think it's pretty clear that we are very much still in a war on terrorism dealing with al qaeda in various parts of the middle east, dealing with isis, dealing with other elements like boko haram, al shabaab, and the reality is that those terrorists have one goal and one goal only which is to kill americans, and what we saw happen with isis in afghanistan, with the killing of 13 marines is a wake-up call that the terrorists are going to continue to try to target our country. now, look, after 20 years of war we did a pretty good job going after bin laden and we did a pretty good job at trying to

make sure that another 9/11 never happened, but the reality is that now having a safe haven again in afghanistan represents a continuing threat in terms of our country. they are continuing to plan for attacks against us, and against our people, and for that reason, we have got to constantly be vigilant and you know, i understand that it's largely a diplomatic mission, but let's not kid ourselves. if we have to go after terrorists in afghanistan it will be a military mission, as well. >> what is our responsibility to try to extricate hundred of thousands of afghan allies who have been left behind and as many as 200 americans who never got to the gates in time? >> i think it's very important for the president today in his remarks to hopefully turn a corner here. he's obviously made the decision

and he's accepted responsibility for the mistakes that were made, but i think now we've got to show where we're going from here, and first and foremost, is to complete the evacuations not only of the 200 u.s. citizens, but also the afghans who fought alongside of us. >> how do we do that, mr. secretary? how do we accomplish that? >> i think we have got to work not only using our cia capabilities and our contacts who i'm sure are located within afghanistan and also continuing to put pressure on the taliban to cooperate with us in that effort. we cannot give up on those that were left behind. we're going have to continue to go after them. we will have to continue to make sure that we are dealing with

any growth of terrorism in afghanistan. we will have to continue to put pressure on the taliban. very frankly, we should push them to create a coalition government and that's their best hope if they want to participate in the governing process in afghanistan. and the last point i'll make, andrea, is that we have got to learn the lesson from what occurred over these last few weeks, not only in the larger strategy dealing with afghanistan, but why were we not better prepared to deal with the challenges that we faced both in evacuations and in the situation that developed into chaos in afghanistan? we have got to learn those lessons in order to make sure it never happens again. >> leon panetta, former defense and defense secretary and cia director, thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. returning to the of amath of hurricane ida. . four people were killed in the

storm in louisiana and mississippi, more than a million were still without power for weeks in 100-degree temperatures and sam joins us from laplace, louisiana. what are you seeing there. rid thou over my shoulder, nothing in particular is going, on, andrea. it is 90 degrees with the regular temperature with the heat index. nobody has electricity and nobody has air-conditioning. he's trying to impress on the people of louisiana, do not go back and expect that hospitals and hotels are functioning. if you have evacuated stay out. st. john the baptist parish where i am right now had a zero fatalities which is incredible

because if you look over my shoulder right now, this is the amount of water that is left over from almost 48 hours ago that is still sitting here and several feet deep in this particular spot in the street. it goes back there i'm told five or six feet deep still right now and yet, with all of the rescues, hundreds of them here that took place, everybody is okay to the extent of our knowledge which is incredible. >> we spoke with the gentleman who lives across the street and asked him how he's reacting to this event and here's what he told us. >> i was very scared when that hit the house and the whole house shook. i didn't expect the wind to be this strong. >> how many people were rescued here, from your observation? >> my observation, at least 300. >> officially the louisiana national guard said they rescued 332 people. we don't have a levy system here.

we have a railroad. when new orleans put up their new levy system, residents here tell me was that created a backup of water flow especially from lake pontchartrain. since that point in time they have flooded to this level twice, once in 2012 and again with hurricane ida. back to you. >> it's just a tragedy there for all of the people concerned. thank you very much. with the u.s. military now gone and no diplomatic presence remaining in afghanistan, what is going to happen to the tens of thousands of afghan allies and others under taliban rule who have been left behind? i was just talking about that r leon panetta. he says it's a sacred obligation to do something to get them out and joining me now is "new york times "michael crowley and chief correspondent ayman nowaz. they hosted just within the hour of the final departure day on the tarmac, the ambassador, the flag, the corps of consular

officials who have done so much to try to get both. they got out and i know the white house is frustrated and not focusing on the 100,000 that did get out and those this left behind were either on the siv list and denied, even though they're veterans buddies said there's no reason. he did two tours with him. no reason that guy should have been denied. how do we ever get them out? >> right, andrea. so the phase that just completed was this frenzied, massive logistical operation of, you know, aircraft coming in at an unbelievable pace, cramming hundreds of people in planes meant to seat far fewer. what will happen now becomes much more of a sort of careful

diplomatic effort where the u.s. government tries to persuade the taliban to allow people to the extent they are able to leave the country under their own volition. that could involve taking commercial flights, crossing the border into neighboring countries. that's going to be incredibly difficult. the taliban have been to be glib about it playing nice the last couple of weeks clearly with an interest to do so because they want us to get out of the country and see us gone, but we've lost a lot of leverage now that was no longer have boots on the ground, and what is unclear is whether they will continue this posture of relative permissiveness of letting people out, and if not, what is the biden administration prepared to do to sort of escalate the situation without putting any of these people in harm's way? it is very, very difficult. >> now that the airport is

closed, it is not going to be open awhile, there are other airports, don't know if people can get there, what are the over the land routes, what are the taliban doing. you've been in touch with women and other afghans, some that don't qualify for the list of the siv list but are clearly targeted for past roles in the last 20 years. >> reporter: by some estimates, we talked about this so much the past several days, 1% of afghanistan's population is in some way over the last 20 years or trillion or so dollars poured into the country connected to the u.s. or american funded or affiliated programs in the last two decades. that's an enormous amount of people that feel some connection, may feel they are vulnerable in some way, many of them outside kabul. all eyes have been on one city for the last couple of weeks in particular, but there is. i agree with michael, conversations at the highest level, how to use diplomatic and financial leverage, talks among

international leaders about opening humanity corridors, talks with regional leaders how to open some of the overland routes. some of the neighboring countries are saturated. pakistan has been accepting afghan refugees for decades, they are not keen to let more in without some path forward. those are big questions ahead more broadly speaking for tens of thousands of people, some i spoke to in past days, and that desperation, urgency has only grown the last few days, particularly yesterday. the number of texts, calls, messages i was receiving were as desperate as they could have been as people saw the last planes leaving and gates closing. for women in particular, it is a very acute fear. to be blunt, the fate of women's rights in afghanistan hangs in the balance. what we've seen happening anecdotally in the last few months as the taliban made a march across the country continues, which is women told to go back inside, girls pulled

from school if over the age of 12, women forced to cover their heads, where burqas. that's not a good recent track record, doesn't offer confidence for women moving ahead. talked a lot about gains for women, thousands more girls enrolled in schools, many women in the highest levels of government, what their role will be. there's a constitution in place from 2004 post taliban that guarantees a lot of those rights. we don't know if those rights will be protected. we'll have to see how much priority that is for the u.s. and for global leaders to exercise that influence, guarantee that this is as the taliban leadership says an inclusive, different kind of government than the way they ruled 20 years ago. >> and michael, finally do you think there's any way there can be covert action, extractions of some of these afghan allies?

>> it is not impossible to imagine. again, andrea, we have some leverage over the taliban. could you imagine there's a kind of look the other way situation where we are able to slip in, perhaps some prearranged meeting point, we get people on helicopters in the middle of the night. i don't know the tactical details of what the limitations are, but seems plausible but very difficult. again, on this question of the taliban, are they going to become more pragmatic. it is in their interest to do so because if they want international aid and international recognition, and they're also at their core a radical fundamental religious militant group. to what point do they have to cut deals to be more permissive on women's rights. >> thanks to you.

finally, what long time game show host is now out as executive producer as well? the answer is jeopardy. mike richards, out as executive producer, effective immediately. comes after he was named as alex trebek's replacement to host the show and was removed from that because of a lot of controversial past statements, the statements said when mike stepped down as host hoped it would minimize disruption and internal difficulties we experienced the last few weeks. that clearly has not happened. that's the end of mike richards at jeopardy. that does it for us and this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us online. chuck todd is up next with "mtp daily," only on msnbc. th "mtp daily," only on msnbc. [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito]

[triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today.

open talenti and raise the jar. to gelato made from scratch. raise the jar to all five layers. raise the jar to the best gelato... you've ever tasted. talenti. raise the jar.

if it's tuesday, president biden will address the nation this afternoon. the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan is officially complete. what about the americans that are left behind? the longest war may be over, but fallout from the last few weeks may be just beginning. here at home, hundreds of thousands are in the dark after hurricane ida slams new orleans. an update as the cleanup and rescue efforts continue. later, at the worst news we could want, a new variant detected in south africa. what we know and what we