h.r. mcmaster.r was america's 26th national security advisor, a post he assumed after 34 years as a commissioned officer in the u.s. army. he is a senior fellow at the hoover institution and the foundation for defensive democracies. his most recent book, battlegrounds, a fight to defend the free world, is truly a must read for students of american leadership and american foreign policy. thanks for joining us. i appreciate it. h.r.: it was great to be with you. you did a great job and are a wonderful colleague. rate to be back with you. mark: you are very kind. today's topic is a challenging one. back in 2020, congress chartered a nonpartisan panel of experts call the afghanistan study group. its final report was called a pathway for peace. in that report, it said, we have an interest in afghanistan not becoming a safe haven for terrorists who confront us. -- who can threaten us. have an interest in a stable afghanistan that is not a threat to its region, and we have an interest in afghanistan respec

h.r. mcmaster, thank you very much, general. appreciate you coming. >> thanks, andrea. >> joining me now, congressman kinzinger, a lieutenant in the air national guard. first, what are your reactions to what happened at the airport and our attempts to get americans safely out and the report that there are marines injured? >> yeah. i could have listened to general mcmaster for another hour mean is spot on. obviously, first, the humanitarian side of this. it's awful. our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the military members and of course, the families of those outside of the gate, but this was entirely foreseen. in fact, a couple of days ago we had a briefing by the administration in which they laid out the specific credible threat. i have never, actually personally had an administration lay out that threat in that specificity so they knew this was coming and for the rand paul endless war crowd who were stoking this fire, man, we're all tired when your grandma tells you how tired you are and you eventually feel tired.

h.r. mcmaster, and long history of commanding forces deployed as well. h.r., good to have you on this morning. thanks very much. >> hey, jim. good to be with you under these terrible circumstances. >> absolutely. tell us in your view the significance of this. this had been the fear. we knew the airport was a target. now it appears that terror groups have been able to carry out an effect. what is the potential effect on this of the evacuation operation? >> well i hope it has the opposite effect of what is intended. what the intended effect is to accelerate our departure and to him ihumiliate us. i think that the opposite fact is an end of our delusion. maybe there is a bold line between the taliban and al qaeda and the haqqani network and isis-k. haqqani is in charge of security in kabul. he's the number one hostage taker of americans. and the number one mass murderer of afghan civilians. those are the two principal tactics that they brought to the jihadist echo system and they are the bridge between al qaeda and taliban. so maybe we'll start being serious

h.r. mcmaster,

h.r. mcmaster, president trump's second national security adviser. ral mcmaster, welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> thanks, chuck. good to be with you. good morning. >> good morning. look, we're coming to the end of our presence in afghanistan. when you look back at 20 years, you've worn a few hats when it comes to dealing with either helping to create policy in afghanistan or enact it. what's been your biggest mistake or biggest miscalculation over 20 years? >> well, i think we all share responsibility for -- it's not a 20-year war, it's a one-year war fought 20 times over, and what the basis for the problems that we've encountered in afghanistan is certainly the enemies we've been fighting there. as you can see today, enemies have a say in the future course of events, and there are consequences when you surrender to a terrorist organization, but it hasn't been a 20-year war, a one dwsh year war fought 20 years over, ineffective strategies on flawed assumptions, fluid assumptions about what was necessary to achieve a sustainable outcome there.

h.r. mcmaster, is going to weigh in about what went wrong in america's 20-year war, now ending in chaos.ou can watch "meet the press" right after today in the bay. >>> and we're watching the massive wild fire, the calder fire burning for two weeks. new video of flames in along highway 50. now more than 152,000 acres. containment is still at 19%. now, to a microclimate weather alert. a quick look in wall put the creek. we've been dealing with it all week and that has everyone on alert to spare the air again. what's going on? >> it's wall put the creek down into san jose. seen the worst of the air quality. get enough to figure a spare the air alert around the bay area. one of the things we'll see is a slightly stronger sea breeze, as we go hour by hour. but take a closer look around the peninsula and the coast as that sea breeze develops. we start to see air quality improve slightly later in the day. but we have another spare the air day tomorrow. another day of 90s to hundred degree temperatures inland. by monday, better air quality but the wind over the sierra could increase fire danger

h.r. mcmasters of the world are doing, and say, we have a risk here, and we have a risk there and say thatilitary intervention in perpetuity. but that simply is not a strategy. >> tim kudo, i was thinking today about 1983, and i'm sure as all marines think about, when the marine barracks in beirut was blown up by a terrorist, 231 american deaths, i think 20 or so marines in that group, and president reagan did absolutely nothing other than completely retreat and remove all marines from harm's way. compare that to where we are tonight. >> yeah, so my old unit was first battalion 8th marines which is one of the units on the ground in kabul right now, may even be the unit that took the casualties today, and we were that unit in beirut. we were the beirut battalion. i look at the actions that have happened in the past day, and it is mind-blowing just how much -- not only do people completely ignore what's happened in the past 20 years and the attacks that have just been mentioned that have happened over and over in kabul and other parts of the country, but also just the reality of what it is t

h.r. mcmaster.uthor of the book "ed battlegrounds: the fight to defend the free world." i want to step back and talk about the implications of what we've seen in afghanistan the last couple of weeks. let's start with the war on terror. how big a setback is this in what experts call the long war? >> well, this is a huge setback in the long war against jihadist terrorists, and of course the mantra we've heard is we need to end endless wars, but our enemies, really who are enemies of all humanity fighting an endless jihad. and what we have done is we have surrendered to a terrorist organization. victory for the taliban is a victory for al-qaeda, a victory for isis khorasan and a victory for all jihaddest terrorists. and what we're going to see is a threat that increases by orders of magnitude because we know, paul, these groups become much, much more dangerous when they control territory, populations and resources. paul: now, the president and others say that we can counter that potential for sanctuary

h.r. mcmaster, who gave his assessment of the situation in afghanistan. pentagon will deploy 3000 troops to afghanistan in order to facilitate the drawdown of personnel at the u.s. embassy in kabul as the taliban advances toward the afghan capital. he shared his thoughts on the recent trip withdrawal and the recent territorial gains at an event hosted by the wilson center. >> welcome to the wilson center, where we, in the words of our congressional charter, strengthen the fruitful relation to the world of learning and the world of public affairs.

h.r. mcmaster. but we begin in kabul with nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel.ichard, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, hoda. the evacuation flights are coming in frequently now and you can sense there is urgency about them. they land, they're only on the ground a few minutes before they take off again. it is clear the u.s. wants to wrap this up as quickly as possible. kabul airport is back up and running. evacuation flights for u.s. embassy personnel and contractors in full swing. flights were stopped yesterday as tens of thousands of afghans stormed the runways, desperate to leave. clinging onto aircraft, trying not to be left behind as the americans pull out. u.s. troops found themselves overwhelmed as they tried to clear the airport, firing warning shots. the pentagon says american troops killed two armed afghans, but some afghans were able to get out. on one flight so full it may have set a record for the number of people who can fit onto an american c-17. afghans are running from the taliban, now in full control, setting up checkpoints with the very

h.r. mcmaster, former white house national security advisor from 2017 to 2018. just a little of what he wrote. pundits repeat the mantra there is no military solution in afghanistan. the taliban seemed to have come up with one on their own. self-styled strategists in washington rationalize the withdrawal as necessary to focus on china, but the refusal to provide the afghan people with the support necessary to stem a humanitarian catastrophe emboldens china and russia and other adversaries eager to proclaim the u.s. an unreliable power and declining power. calls from afghanistan -- calls from washington urged afghanistan to fight harder, but that insults the tens of thousands of afghans who made the ultimate sacrifice and underscores the psychological blow of our abandonment. about 30 minutes left in today's washington journal. journal. in about 30 minutes, we will take you to a u.s. security council meeting on development in afghanistan live here on c-span and c-span.org. we want you to keep calling into answer this question. what did the war in afghanistan mean

h.r. mcmaster well versed in all these issues and worked as a national security advisor for president trumple watching. might not be new to you, though. and we don't know what this explosion was. the extent of it, how large it was or who was responsible. what can you tell us you are thinking about this morning as this breaking news just happened? >> i think there are some important things to correct. some of the common misunderstandings about the nairt of isis-k and various groups. we try too hard to disconnect the dots. the number two person in the taliban, the military commander who put together this massive campaign. he is in charge of security in kabul now and what this network does is provide a bridge between al qaeda and the taliban. those two organizations are completely intertwined. the network specializes in two things. taking hostages and committing mass murder attacks against inoh center. i wouldn't be surprised at all if this isis k attack is a front for the taliban who are organizing the attack against us to humiliate us further after we surrendered to a terrorist organization.

h.r. mcmaster and all of the same people who are responsible for the fraud over the last 20 years to againl us what to do and of course that is to remain in afghanistan and keep fighting, which benefits them and their friends. >> tucker: i've noticed. what you think is going to happen? if you had to guess as to where we are say in a month or six months in afghanistan, what would you guess? >> i mean i don't think there's any real possibility that biden is going to change his mind, and i hope he doesn't as i think everyone of your guests has set about leaving. we have almost no force there, they are sitting ducks. they would have to search a huge amount, but i think they've generated enough anger, everyone watching those images feels disgust and anger, whatever group they are going to blame, whatever new group they are going to have and want to keep bombing and doing counterterrorism operations that's only going to make matters worse, that's why some people around the world hate us, because we drop bombs on their country with so much frequency and that is what donald trump's main promise wa

h.r. mcmaster said, the surrender document to the taliban. >> right.o just need to find a good opportunity right now to shut up and stop criticizing something they set in motion. now all of that said, joe, i will add and i think you will agree with me, this was not ordained and ultimately the buck does stop with president biden, although i think trump left biden in a terrible situation, undermined the afghan government and made this catastrophe more likely, i don't think it was inevitable, i think joe biden still made a big mistake in agreeing to carry out the flawed agreement that the trump administration reached with the taliban. there's so many other issues where biden has repudiated the damage that trump has done. in this particular case he chose to carry through with it, even keeping the same negotiator that trump had, i think that was a major mistake and ultimately that's on biden. but again, as we're discussing, the trump fans and the people trumpeting this withdrawal as a major trump achievement have zero standing right now to criticize what's

h.r. mcmaster, john bolton, some of these people were really stupid people. i mean, bolton was involved with getting us in with bush in the middle east, but you rely on people, fortunately, whether it is fauci -- i don't listen to other people if i think they have bad ideas, but we have a lot of very bad -- the only way i can think, not very smart people giving advice. but we were set up, and it didn't have to be hasty. what i said is exactly right, because we didn't have to go quickly. because we had them frozen in place. they weren't going to move. and abdul, as i like to call him, abdul was just going to wait on us -- he was going to gn and he was going to be fighting. now i told you numerous times, the afghan military was paid a lot of money by the united states -- both soldiers were among the highest paid soldiers. they weren't fighting for their country. i remember when mathis was saying "sir, they are fighting for their country." they were fighting because they got paid a lot of money. why do soon as that's big it, they turned, and that was the end of

h.r. mcmaster was out, john bolton is an, john kelly, secretary of homeland security was very upset and emotional set in the news and intended to resign. >> mick mulvaney former white house chief of staff who up until a few minutes ago plus a special envoy to northern iowa meant, he quit. he said i just can't do it. dan: so nobody can't do it. donald trump picks diet coke instead of pepsi, everybody wants to design and get joe biden makes the single -- actually three dump decisions from about to get to this, leaving equipment behind from a three of his dumbest decisions i've ever seen, ever even read about in the history from a commander-in-chief and yet strangely nobody is threatening to resign but remember the trump administration? let's go through headlines, everybody wanted to resign about everything, almost as if it's all literal. the first one, long hours withdrawn from defense secretary express prepared a resignation letter's official site. officials always say something. they are not saying anything up. another one two top military officials tried to resign if time allows disgraced concer

h.r. mcmaster's dereliction of duty where a guy name johnson harold k johnson chief staff of the army is fed up with the johnson administration policies and so he gets in his car and is it driving to the white house to submit his resignation in protest. when he got stuck in traffic in washington. as you stuck in traffic he started thinking well you know, if i resign and nothing changes i have just wasted things it. but if i stay in the game i might be able to alter policies and make things better for the troops. so ultimately convinced himself is making the right decision he turned his car around enter back to the pentagon. the sad part is johnson live to regret that decision for the rest of his life. that is a pretty heavy burden 58000 americans lose their lives in vietnam. it's a pretty bad burden to carry. >> if we were fighting chinese troops was the official stance? >> we're fighting them they were fighting us the declaration of war. it was a police action. >> the chinese fight under their own standards? >> yes. they were chinese troops with chinese equipment, chinese officers on and on

h.r. mcmaster wrote a book about the failures in afghanistan. -- about the failures in vietnam.nfident another book will be written on the failures in afghanistan. we saw the government the u.s.-backed in afghanistan fall quickly, similar to the government in iraq. they rolled over very quickly. we have to reassess a u.s. policy and u.s. leadership at the pentagon and it is time for people to be held accountable. . there are a lot of people that need fired right now. taylor: what do you want in that issue in the coming weeks and in the coming months on the debrief, not only why we got out, but on the how we got out? rep. davidson: it is an important distinction. when i went into this classified briefing recently, i felt like it was appropriate for president biden to resign. but when i had the classified briefing, i felt even more strongly like that. i was left with the impression that the secretary of state, joint chiefs and the chairman of the joint chiefs should be fired. there is no way that this national security team could inspire confidence that they will advance national

h.r. mcmaster. there are troops all over the world. >> general, i guess that's what we don't understand. we've had the last two presidents running around with their hair on fire, insisting that 3,500 troops in syria, that were pushing back on the iranians, pushing back on the russians, pushing back on isis, pushing back on the turks, that some of 3,500 troops in syria and 3,500 troops in afghanistan was somehow an endless war, when we've had over 35,000 troops in germany since thim. we've had 12,000 troops in italy since that time. south korea, as you know, over 25,000 troops since the end of the korean war in '53. the question is, why can't we keep residual forces of 3,500 troops -- not to rebuild the nation, but to kill bad guys when they step out of line and try to torture girls, torture other people, trying to build a civil society? >> yeah, that's what's so sad about this, joe. this is wholly unnecessary. if we were ecuador, it would be tough to keep, you know, 35 3500 troops or 8,500 troops in

h.r. mcmaster, thank you very much for joining us, we appreciate it. >> judy, i just want to say that theret more we can do now to stem this humanitarian disaster and i hope that the bided administration does more, provides safe passage, provide safe spaces to get more afghans out. and i think that this is what all of us should demand of our leaders athis point. judy: general mcmaster, we appreciate it, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, judy. judy: and now for a different perspective, we turn to laurel miller. she was deputy and then acting u.s. special representative for afghanistan and pakistan from 2013 to 2017. she's now director of the asia program at the international crisis group. thank you very much for joining us. let me just turn to you with the arguments general -- former -- retired general mcmaster was making. and that is that this is not just a failure for the united states, it is going to lead to a strengthening of the very terrorist groups that the united states does not want to even think about being in our future. >> i think that that is really quite a speculative ass

h.r. mcmaster and dr. anthony fauci. we hope you just stick right here and watch "meet the press" at 8:00 a.m. right after this news cast. >> to a pilot from travis air force base one of the thousand of u.s. force base helping those out of the country. austin street is commander at travis but right now he's in qatar. so far he's completed five evacuation flights flying thousands of u.s. citizens, allies and qualified refugees to safety. street tells us it's an honor. he recalls one moment after they offloaded passengers and were cleaning up the aircraft for the next crew bound for kabul. >> found a little pair of shoes and they were made out of card board and duct tape and my load master looked at me and said that's sad. i said that's inspiring. some family made a pair of shoes for their kid so that they could walk to freedom. and so that really touched our crew and that's what we're hoping to accomplish, to provide an opportunity for freedom for these families. >> as the mission comes to a close street tells us he's gra

h.r. mcmaster wrote literally the book on afghanistan, how it all went wrong and how we found yourselves inhe was more than happy to advise president trump to maintain the status quo and spend more lives, more american money. the real question we should be asking is had the american people, had the government we elect to represent us, has that government learned from this? has the pentagon learned from this? and i think that's the only silver lining in this entire debacle is can america learn from this? and will we choose to do something different in the future when we are inevitably presented with a different situation. >> thank you very much for your service. thank you for joining us tonight with your invaluable perspective on all of this. >> thank you. >>> and coming up, today kathy hochul became the first governor of the state of new york from buffalo in over 100 years and the first woman governor of the state of new york. and that means big changes in the culture of governing in new york state. that's next. can trust? with subaru, you get kelley blue book's most trusted brand winner, s

h.r. mcmaster.sionist history and trying to wash his hands of what's happening. of course, he can't do that. donie o'sullivan, we appreciate that report. great work as always. >>> as covid cases surge in florida and texas, the republican governors of those states are touting an antibody treatment called regeneron rather than promoting prevention measures that are a lot cheaper like mask mandates and vaccines. elizabeth cohen explains what this treatment is. >> that is a tool in the toolbox that really needs to be used. >> reporter: florida governor ron desantis and texas governor greg abbott have been talking a lot lately about this medicine. >> the regeneron has been found to be effective against the delta variant. >> reporter: a monoclonal antibody drug made by regeneron is a treatment for covid-19. a treatment that's needed in large part because under these two republican governors, covid-19 is spreading fast in their states. florida, number one in covid-19 hospitalizations per capita in the coun

h.r. mcmaster. plus mary trump will join the conversation. "morning joe" just minutes away.d up, t-mobile has plans built just for you. switch now and get 2 unlimited lines and 2 free smartphones. and now get netflix on us. it's all included with 2 lines for only $70 bucks! only at t-mobile. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. [swords clashing] - had enough? - no... arthritis. here. new aspercreme arthritis. full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. don't thank them too soon. it only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. my nunormal? fewer asthma attacks with nucala. a once-monthly add-on i

h.r. mcmaster forming mike pompeo for his negotiations with the taliban.xcluded our afghan government. mark esper also weighed in on cnn while rightfully blaming the biden admission strags for the botched withdrawal, he did not spare the expresident. >> president trump by continuing to want to withdraw american forces out of afghanistan undermined the agreement. i objected that we not reduce below 4,500 troops unless and until conditions were met by the taliban. otherwise we would see a number of things play out, which are unfolding right now. >> which is a reminder that not only was the deal done with the taliban no good but that trump was calling for a complete pull out of u.s. troops by last christmas. which would have been even more abrupt. now one of the areas rightfully inspiring the most grief is the failure to have a streamlined process to save the afghans who aided our military efforts. on this front, former pence aide olivia troy accused trump a adviser stephen miller. there were cabinet meetings about this during the trump administration stephen

h.r. mcmaster, retired, had this to say about the priorities there. >> when you prioritize withdrawal over the achievement of any kind of a noble aim in war, this is what you get. that is what surrender is and that's what we've done. closing all of the airports that we've just controlled a couple months ago, it makes no sense, but it only makes sense really when you recognize that there are costs associated with surrendering to a terrorist organization. speeone's of jake, you make of that? was the p.r. pole to be out by 9/11, the big, you know, prize here, what was this about in the consideration here? because the president says he was following the military's guidance and suggestions. >> i think these considerations were purely political because they obviously make no tactical or strategic sense. i mean, we concentrated all of our people in this surge at hamid karzai airport, we closed four we got all of the american citizens out, close to before we got our prized equipment out. this is a total catastrophe. i think the considerations from the very beginning by the biden administration wer

h.r. mcmaster and others like congressman kinzinger, and we would be nuts to decide to unilaterally stay on a kabul airport 7,000 miles from home, and 600 miles from the sea with one brigade surrounded by mountains and build-up area, unless the taliban extended it. en -- even then it is not good. it is nuts. you could not find one lieutenant colonel at university to sign up for that. thank god for admiral stavridis to state the obvious. we have to collapse that thing and get out of there on time. the marines and the paratroopers are terrific fighters, but which have been the last guy out on extractions is under fire, and this is complex business, and we don't want to mess it up. sorting out the svis and the afghan citizens should be over. we have need to extract the forces. >> that is my question, to what degree does this single event as tragic and heartbreaking this is affect the overall strategy, and you are saying the mission continues at pace. >> absolutely, and it may be worse. at some point, we will have a company of paratroopers on the runway with the last c-130s coming in the dark t

h.r. mcmaster is on the "today" show talking about what we should do next.m as national security adviser, but he is the foremost expert on what america did wrong in vietnam. if anybody understand the current situation it's mcmaster. he'll come on at 7:00. find me at twitter scott mcgrew. >>> the las vegas raiders are requiring fans to show proof of vaccination. the move made after the nevada governor announced events with more than 250 attendees can operate at more than 50% capacity with state approval. they're teaming up with clear and the health pass feature of their free app to verify vaccination status. the vaccinated fans will not be required to wear a mask. >>> exciting news from the material girl herself. madonna will relaunch her entire catalog over the coming years to celebrate 40 years since her debut single. ♪ can't quench my desire don't you know that i'm burning up for your love ♪ >> yep. madonna made that announcement yesterday on her 63rd birthday. that projects will be under a deal with warner music group, the studio that launched her nearly

h.r. mcmaster, basically accused secretary of state pompeo at the time and the president.called it a surrender agreement. >> it is, absolutely. we sat down and negotiated with terrorists because we completely excluded the afghan government from those negotiations. we gave credibility to the taliban. secretary pompeo told us that the taliban was going to renounce al qaeda. they told us that the taliban was going to fight terrorists. they forced the afghan national government -- we did, to release 5,000 prisoners. we completely undercut the afghan national government, absolutely emboldened the taliban. we know from public reporting that the moment that agreement was signed, the taliban went to members of the afghan national army and said, the americans are leaving you, you should lay down your arms when the time comes or we'll kill you and your families. that led directly to the catastrophe we're seeing today. >> do you think president biden could have gotten out of that agreement? he feels we would have paid a high price, maybe even with more attacks on our soldiers on the

h.r. mcmaster says it was his former administration that surrendered to the taliban. >> our secretary of stateement to the taliban. >> you're talking about mike pompeo? >> yes. this collapse goes back to the capitulation agreement of 2020. the taliban didn't defeat us, we defeated ourselves. what's worse is, we threw the afghans under the bus on our way out. >> the reality is, both parties own this fiasco. former president george w. bush turned from afghanistan to iraq for a war of choice over weapons of mass destruction that were never found. obama did not end the war. trump did not end the war. subsidized biden is trying to end the war. democrats warned against pulling out of the country this quickly. but if all of this is about competent, ex competence, do you want to leave that to trump? >> i could win that war in a week. i just don't want to kill 10 million people. does that make sense to you? i don't want to kill 10 million people. i have plans on afghanistan that if i wanted to win that war, afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth. it would be gone. it would be over in lite

h.r. mcmaster is vigorous suspecting the motives of every one of these groups, thinking the hakani network, leader of that network from pakistan, showing up in kabul, a member of the taliban leadership, showing up in kabul last week, being told, we were told he was going to be in charges of kabul security. he showed up at friday prayers publicly. he is on the fbi most wanted list as a terrorist. he is not the same as the taliban who they have been negotiating with, at least in terms of the way the state department is dealing with it, the way the white house is dealing with it. this is a mess and it is a terrible resurgence of terror from groups like al qaeda and parts of hakani. >> americans were told, the state department put out a briefing, do not go to these gates. they put out that warning. clearly they were worried. i guess one up side is our intelligence was pretty sound on this. what are americans being told to do now? just shelter in place until they hear from the state department or somebody else in government about where to go and when to go and how to go? >> precisely. and what

h.r. mcmaster, he's going to be on the "today" show talking about what we should do next.the foremost expert on what america did wrong in vietnam. if anybody understand what's happening it's mcmaster and he's coming up at 7:00. we'll be tweeting about it as well. find me on social media on facebook and on twitter @scottmcgrew. >> thanks so much. it is 6:49. >>> this morning we're learning a fully vaccinated scaf staff member from governor newsom's office has tested positive for covid-19. the staffer had not interacted with the governor or any staff who regularly come into contact with him. as a state agency mask wearing is required for staff. >>> the las vegas raiders are the second nfl team to require all fans to show proof of vaccination. this move is made after nevada governor announced events with more than 250 attendees can operate at more than 50% capacity with state approval. the raiders are teaming up with the i.d. company clear and the health pass feature of their free app to verify vaccination status. >>> some exciting news from the material girl herself. madonna

h.r. mcmasters earlier say look at the freedom that is being deprived from the afghan people as the taliban move into parts of afghanistan now and you know how much freedom they had. look at the number of women that are out there making careers, that thought leaders, academics that never would have happened under the taliban leadership. look at the fact that there were 300,000 afghan military that were fighting the taliban hard on the battlefield simply with u.s. intelligence and air power to support them. yes, there were a lot of challenges, and, yes, we might have needed to be there for longer. we're in a lot of countries, look, particularly even in places like koes voe. but the devastation you are seeing today is why a small footprint of 2,500 u.s. troops was so important, because we have dozens of jihadist groups in afghanistan anyway. now they will thrive, grow, plan. what is this saying to our allies right now and to our enemies? because america does not look very strong right now. and when we look weak, that's when people challenge us? >> the taliban is immediately doing as they take

h.r. mcmaster had an interesting interview with jim just now is that the haqqani network, they've done multiple complex attacks in kabul in the past. they're part of the taliban but they're more extreme part of the taliban. they're normally in charge of security in kabul. so, they will be able to let people in to do this kind of attack. why not? we've given that we've had about ten days of an evacuation going on here. so there has been plenty of time to plan for this. and we've seen complex attacks from all sorts of groups in kabul against civilians in the past. these group of suspects were the isis-k, al qaeda and some elements of the haqqani network are the three groups i would be looking at. >> peter, thank you so much for that. to reinforce what we know. there are have been two explosions outside of the airport in kabul, afghanistan. we know from the pentagon, john kirby specifically saying it has resulted in a number of u.s. and civilian casualties. extent of which we do not know. we just don't. to reinforce that point. we continue to seek more information. let me get over to nick paton wa

h.r. mcmaster, say we had a surrender agreement in 2020. he worked for the trump administration.lled it a surrender agreement. olivia troye who worked inside of the trump administration. she said that there were cabinet meetings during the trump administration where stephen miller, the anti-immigrant guy in there, would peddle his racist hysteria about iraq and afghanistan. his enablers across government would undermine anyone who worked on solving the issue by devastating the system. if biden had a system that was completely broken and clogged because the previous administration didn't want these people here, is there any feasible way that they could have evacuated 80,000 people between may and today? >> well, i mean you're right to point out that this crisis didn't build overnight. right? i mean, at a minimum -- at a minimum -- the february 2020 agreement stated clearly that america was leaving by may of this year. so that gave us 14 months. by all reasonable expectations, we should have used those 14 months to slim down the embassy. begin to account for american citizens in th

h.r. mcmaster. >> our secretary of state signed a surrender agreement to the taliban. >> you are talking aboutke pompeo? >> yes. this collapse goes back to the capitulation agreement of 2020. the taliban didn't defeat us. we defeated ourselves. what's worse is we threw the afghans under the bus on our way out. >> of course, here are the images from 2020 of then secretary of state mike pompeo and the man now leading the taliban after the trump administration helped release him from prison. joining me now to talk about this and the president's address is republican congressman darrell issa of california. this was more than just one president's war, as you understand. what is your response to what president biden just said a few minutes ago and doesn't former president trump shoulder some of the blame in all of this? he cut this deal with the taliban. of course, biden embraced it and you and other republicans up on capitol hill were applauding this pull out of afghanistan months ago. the plans for it months ago. what do you say now? >> well, first of all, i would have left bagram air base open. i

h.r. mcmaster, who seems to have suddenly found his words again, like so many other trump officials. he tried to distance himself from the failed peace deal with the taliban last year and also of course seemingly absolved his former boss. >> this is actually what happens when you surrender to a terrorist organization like the taliban. president trump, i think, put into place the first time, andrea, we had a reasoned and sustainable approach on afghanistan in august of 2017. but the neo isolationist far right got in his ear as well as the self-loathing far left and told him you need to end this endless war. we are facing real enemies there. >> mcmaster did point a finger at the three most recent administrations, which would include his former boss, but somehow left off george w. bush. he also forgot to mention one more architect of our present mess, himself. in 2017 "the washington post" reported that mcmaster played a key role in getting trump to commit more troops to afghanistan, presenting him with a black and white snapshot from 1972 of afghan women in mini skirts walking through

h.r. mcmaster was president trump's national security adviser in 2017 and 2018.ore that he served in afghanistan as a senior military commander. general. good morning. >> good morning, anthony. good to be with you. >> is it your belief, general, that we should not have left afghanistan? >> absolutely. i think you can see that based on the tragedy that's unfolding. seeing a humanitarian catastrophe, but it is worse than that. it will effect our security and it will strengthen the jihadist terrorists that we went with. >> general, if you go back through three presidencies, they all wanted to leave afghanistan. the american public does not support us being there but you say we talked ourselves into defeat in afghanistan. what do you mean? >> i'll tell you, anthony. we've had three presidents in a row tell us it is not worth it. what we're seeing today is the cost of our precipitous withdrawal far exceeds the cost of a sustained and sustainable commitment there. who knows what the number would be, 8500, 3500 troops. what's important is beyond the numbers. afghans wer

h.r. mcmaster, calling on president biden to reverse course and stay beyond tuesday, the 31st. re-occupation of bagram airfield. that would be the biggest parachute assault since world war ii. this is all nonsense. we started the draw down. it needs to end expeditiously with the best possible safety for the troops on the ground. >> because our viewers have become accustomed to seeing richard engel in virtually all dangerous places over these past 20 years, it makes sense we received a number of questions after today's news as to where richard's whereabouts where. i'm happy to say he was able to get out and joins us now from doha. richard, i know you have been watching what has happened in the wake of your departure there in afghanistan. i want to hear your thoughts on it. >> reporter: so i was at that airport this morning, and this is what every soldier, marine on that base fears. they are trying to evacuate the people, but a lot of the people showing up don't have documents, they don't know exactly who they are. some of them have been screened by the taliban on the outer perim

h.r. mcmaster go even further. and i wonder why he doesn't extend support for an administration that is trying to sort of make the most of the situation that they handed him. >> well, why aren't they more supportive of biden, do you mean? >> well, if they can go so far as to acknowledge that trump put this in motion, these are longstanding figures in the national security establishment. to be intellectually consistent, honest, you would make sure people understood the larger threat and lens through which all of this has transpired. that seems to be their point. >> so first of all, as you kindly recapped at the top, my story explains how even many trump officials say that they feel that the process that trump set in motion with the taliban laid the groundwork for this. and, you know, and i think -- you know, i think their view is it was a terrible deal, that it was basically providing political cover for the u.s. to withdraw without any, you know, real assurances from the taliban that we could count on or that meant