thank you to peter baker, anne gearan, vivian salama and peter bergen. and monday "the pbs newshour" for more on the fall of afghanistan. our conversation continues on the "washington week" extra. find it on our social media and our website. this week's topic is covid-19. i'm pete williams. good night from washington. [captioning performed by t national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: corporate funding for "washington week" is provided b. additional funding provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities, and sandra and carl delay-magnuson. the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: you're watchi (man) this program is made possible in part by contributions to your pbs stations from viewers like you. thank you. can you all live the ultimate retirement? you can. (man) from the new world cente

. >>> joining us now are anne gearan, white house correspondent for "the washington post" and msnbc contributor and a democratic strategist and former-communications director for the democratic national committee. good to have you both with us. anne, let me start with you. the contradictions between what the president and administration are saying and what we are, on the ground, seeing seem like they have the makings of a credible gap for the administration. how are they handling that right now? >> yeah, joshua, i think you -- you see how they're handling it in the ever-evolving way that the -- the president, himself, is responding to this. um, let's start with the fact that he felt the need to address this issue three times last week. after essentially dismissing it as -- as finished business the week before. most recently, yesterday, in -- in that clip you played which -- which is the first time he had taken questions on afghanistan in -- in many, many days. he seemed a bit defensive. he seemed to be making the case that the most important thing here is that americans get out safely, and that

anne gearan white house correspondent from "the washington post."cornell belcher, peter baker chief white house dpnt for "the new york times," the first american 1y50ur7b8ist in afghanistan after 9/11. pollster soltis anderson. peter, 20 years later, we were there, you were there to tell us how you were going to fight this group called the taliban. 20 years later, it's pretty clear, secretary blinken all but acknowledged that the taliban is in charge. >> yeah, it's over, basically is what secretary blinken said. 20 years ago i hitched a hide on an old soviet helicopter with the afghan rebels going on. cia and special forces hadn't gotten there yet. you could see what kind of country it was. you could see a country that had been brutalized by this taliban regime for years. it's basically a nation of battered spouses. here we are about to hit the 20th anniversary of 9/11. basically they're going to be back, back exactly the way they were before. secretary blinken basically conceded we're only talking about whether there's a peaceful transfer of power.

mike memoli, chuck todd, and ann anne gearan of "the washington post." on the military piece of it, anne, let me get to you since we haven't brought you into the conversation yet. i got to tell you, fair amount of answers, at least on some of the numbers that we were not super clear on yet from john kirby. still a lot of questions, though, on the way that this unfolds, and what this situation is like for those americans who cannot actually get to the airport at this point. what did you hear that stood out to you, anne? >> yes, hallie, there was a lot, you're right, there was a lot of information provided there. in terms of what's likely to happen for the next few days, it's clear that the american military has really gotten hold of the airport pretty quickly. came in there, as john kirby was talking about, the 82nd airborne doing what it does getting the runways opened, making the trains run on time and flights are leaving and departing as planned. that seems like a sustainable situation for several days at the very least so long as the taliban keeps thei

we are going to dive further into this with anne gearan, washington correspondent for "the washington post" and msnbc analyst and gayle lemmon, senior fellow for the council on foreign relations. gayle, we'll start with you. you've been covering women and girls in afghanistan for years. you spoke to a young woman in afghanistan right now. what is she doing, is she fleeing? what is she telling you about what's happening on the ground? >> the situation is dynamic, but the tragedy facing women and girls is certain. and that is i think the crushing piece. i've been talking to young women, many of whom i haven't known or haven't seen in years, reaching out saying, could you please help me figure out a way to get out, i'm a college student, i'm a high school student, i'm a medical student, i'm trying to figure out what my future holds. and the truth is there's no place for people to go. so the one thing i think that can be done is to create enough time and space to evacuate those who supported the u.s. and nato effort. i've had the privilege of seeing women from 2005 on, since my first trip

the "washington post's" anne gearan.g here. >>> meanwhile alarming new numbers. daily hospitalizations now average almost 10,000 nationwide. that's up 31% in a week. in just a day, at least 152,000 new cases were confirmed with almost 900 more deaths. nbc news correspondent morgan chesky has the latest. >> reporter: hospitals running low on rooms staffed. florida reporting 41%. >> very, very tired and feeling defeated. >> federal officials announcing the next step in fighting covid announced booster shots for the immunocompromised. >> it's especially important as the delta variant spreads. >> reporter: they're now recommending another shot for the most vulnerable such as cancer patients and transplant recipients. with 90% of u.s. counties experiencing high or substantial rates at a breaking point especially in the south where vaccination rates remain low. >> along the ppp crisis, it's care crisis. >> we're not machines. >> our rates of increased cases is a straight line up. >> reporter: florida has now seen more cases in

anne gearan, from "the washington post," thank you very much.ense situation in kabul. there are things that could go wrong. the evacuation is going well. we don't know what isis is planning, the weather is planning or whether the taliban will carry on cooperating. >>> still ahead, the white house says that coronavirus vaccinations are on the rise, but many hospitals across the country. they're still overwhelmed. we're going to take a look inside of one hospital in florida. >>> and the house passes the sweeping voting rights bill named after congressman john lewis but the battle in the senate. >>> coming up later in the show, i'll be joined by democratic congresswoman madeleine dean on what's left in that fight and the infrastructure. those stories and a check on the weather coming right up. ♪ ayy, ayy, ayy ♪ ♪ yeah, we fancy like applebee's on a date night ♪ ♪ got that bourbon street steak with the oreo shake ♪ ♪ get some whipped cream on the top too ♪ ♪ two straws, one check, girl, i got you ♪ ♪ bougie like natty in the styrofoam ♪ ♪ squeak-squ

joining us now, anne gearan, an msnbc contributor. also with us msnbc international affairs analyst, former u.s. russia ambassador, michael mcfaul. the u.s. administration under a ton of pressure to extend the deadline. they chose not to. what is the current thinking inside the administration? >> well, alicia, the thinking is that the president, it appears that all or almost all of the americans that the administration believes are in afghanistan who want to leave will be able to do so by august 31st. there are a couple of complications, including that universe of people is not a precise number. the state department does not know exactly how many americans are in the country. they have a pretty good idea. nor how many of that group would want to leave. that said, the administration is quite confident that it could take care of that part of the task. beyond that, the risks rise every day that the u.s. forces are on the ground. those risks rise exponentially after august 31st. what the president decided to do today is stick to that augu

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. >> thank you so much, anne gearan. >>> joining me now is democratic representative gregory meeks of new york. the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee. congressman, thanks for joining me. we just heard an update from anne geary from the white house. what do you expect from the president today at 4:00 p.m. >> i think he'll give us an update as to the number of individuals that we have brought out of afghanistan and maybe what the continuing plan will be as we move forward in that regard. and just giving us a general update. and i think -- of what the progress has been and of what we think will happen in the next few days. >> congressman, something that piqued my interest was your critique of the administration. they said that they were going to extend the evacuation until august 31st. that's just less than ten days from now. what is your response? should this be an arbitrary deadline or should we make sure that we get as many people out as safely as possible? >> i think that we have -- we are committed to our promise of making sure that every american citizen that wants to

lucky for us, amy mcgrath, matthew dowd, anne gearan are sticking around for our ongoing coverage as we await secretary blinken's live remarks. they have been delayed until 6:00 p.m. eastern. we are going to fit in a quick break. we are going to talk about those killed last week, two of whom were women. the stories of their service, the stories of their sacrifice in a moment. "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. i'm so glad you're ok, sgt. houston. this is sam with usaa. do you see the tow truck? yes, thank you, that was fast. sgt. houston never expected this to happen. or that her grandpa's dog tags would be left behind. but that one call got her a tow and rental... ...paid her claim... ...and we even pulled a few strings. making it easy to make things right: that's what we're made for. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. get a quote today. with directv stream, i can get live tv and on demand... usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. together. watch: serena williams... wonder woman. serena... wonder woman... serena... wonder woman... ♪

let's bring in white house reporter for "the washington post," ann gearan, also an msnbc contributor.anging course i've been told many times in the past hour would be disastrous, but what's more disastrous than what is happening right now? >> mika, it's hard to really imagine a more disastrous couple of days in terms of images and the potential that those images have to undermine the message that the president has been trying to send about afghanistan and more broadly about competence and his being on top of things after having so many years to prepare to be president. this is a thing that he has wanted to do for a long time. he entered the office resolute in wanting to end the war in afghanistan and he had an opening in the deal, as flawed as it was, in the deal the former president has made. they never looked back for that, they are surprised at the white house, less so the pentagon, over what has transpired over the last two weeks but the end here was always clear, americans would leave, leaving a diplomatic presence behind, that's now in question, but the american forces would lea