host: jeremy butler? guest: i am by no means saying it is the exact same situation, but also i think there were hundreds of thousand -- i think we evacuated 300,000 total in the time leading up to the withdrawal of vietnam. which goes back to the point we have been trying to make, that this evacuation of our allies should have been going on for years, at a minimum for months, since the details around the withdrawal were finalized under the trump administration. it was an incredible missed opportunity. incredible frustrating that we did not take advantage of that time when we did have control over kabul, the airports, and certainly the forces on the ground, and the ability to bring siv applicants to staging areas to bring them out. so much more could have been done if we had started working on this earlier, as so many of us were pushing for. host: i want to run this number by you, and for our viewers as well. 51, the number of countries including nato and partner nations that have fought in the afghanistan

host: jeremy butler?: i am by no means saying it is the exact same situation, but also i think there were hundreds of thousand -- i think we evacuated 300,000 total in the time leading up to the withdrawal of vietnam. which goes back to the point we have been trying to make, that this evacuation of our allies should have been going on for years, at a minimum for months, since the details around the withdrawal were finalized under the trump administration. it was an incredible missed opportunity. incredible frustrating that we did not take advantage of that time when we did have control over kabul, the airports, and certainly the forces on the ground, and the ability to bring siv applicants to staging areas to bring them out. so much more could have been done if we had started working on this earlier, as so many of us were pushing for. host: i want to run this number by you, and for our viewers as well. 51, the number of countries including nato and partner nations that have fought in the afghanistan war.

jeremy butler, ceo of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. congresswoman jackie speier of california is here, a member of the intelligence and armed services committees. we will start with you, congresswoman. i said when i first heard the speech, i listened to every word and i feel maybe 95% of what he said is the way the american public sees this war and has seen it for a while and maybe 95% of the national security establishment and the press who cover it see it the opposite and don't approve of what he said. what do you think of the president's response today? >> i think he was being very honest, nicolle. he has been committed to getting out of afghanistan for close to a decade. i think many of us have been in that position for a long time. what is regrettable is the manner in which we're leaving and the fact that we have something like 18,000 translators seeking to be able to be airlifted out of there, and right now only 2,000 have been. so we have got to negotiate, as i understand has been done, with the taliban to keep that airport unde

host: joining us this morning is jeremy butler, the ceo of washington -- of iraq veterans of america. want to get your reaction to the withdrawal from afghanistan. your opinion on that decision? guest:

let's bring in nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube and jeremy butler, a navy veteran and ceoey, we'll start with you. what do we know about the 1,000 possibly americans that are still on the ground? what is being done to get them out? what is being done to vet them? how much of a priority are they as we try to get as many people as possible. >> we know very little about these individuals. one thing that we can assume based on the fact that this evacuation effort has been ongoing now for more than a week and there's still these thousand plus people, americans who are out there, we can assume that these are sort of the most difficult of the difficult to get to kabul airport. and that may be because they're outside of kabul. they may be behind taliban lines and just very -- it's difficult and dangerous frankly for them to travel to kabul. one thing we've been trying to figure out all week and have been asking questions here at the pentagon and across the u.s. government is as it gets closer and closer to this august 31 deadline, will the u.s. military begin more efforts to go ou

admiral and jeremy butler, thank you for starting us off on this hour. break, despite the flood of death threats and racist attacks from the far right, the officer who shot and killed a capitol terrorist charging on the house chamber on january 6th is stepping out of hiding, speaking to nbc's lester holt. >>> plus, millions of texans poised to lose critical voting rights and millions of renters poised to lose their homes. the new two-front fight that's opened up in america in just the last 24 hours. >>> and the california recall election and why it is important enough that president biden himself is planning to get involved. "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break, so don't go anywhere. ot a weeke. fifteen minutes until we board. oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board. excellent. and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. have a great f

host: joining us this morning is jeremy butler, the ceo of washington -- of iraq veterans of america. i want to get your reaction to the withdrawal from afghanistan. your opinion on that decision? guest: my personal opinion is that it was the right decision in general. i think that there has been a lot of mistakes, miscalculations, mission creep over the years. we accomplished what the original goals for the mission to afghanistan were a long time ago, but unfortunately the mission creep has been very real in this case. i believe the decision was correct, but there is obviously plenty of room for error and recriminations around the way the withdrawal was executed, but i think in general the decision was correct. we just wish there had been more listening to the veterans groups that were calling for the early withdrawal and evacuation of our -- there is plenty of room for, in my view, bipartisan criticism from many decisions made throughout our time in afghanistan and the way the withdrawal was planned for, the agreements that were reached, and the way it was executed. host: talk about