memoli, before i let you go here, i want to ask you quickly about the vice president. she just landed in vietnam but she was delayed because of a so-called, quote, anomalous healths in department. what does that mean? >> yeah, craig, absent these developments to the story we are following with regard to afghanistan, this will be a were bigger story line that we would be following. the vice president making her second significant foreign trip and she was you in singapore and her departure there as she was heading to vietnam was delayed because of the explanation of an anomalous episode. officials are confirming there was concern about an episode of the havana syndrome, and this is something that we first encountered at our diplomatic compound in havana and it's something now we have seen throughout the world, hundreds of diplomats experiencing this, and at least two u.s. diplomats at the u.s. embassy in vietnam had to be medevaced from there because of the some of the significant symptoms they were experiencing as a result of the havana syndrome. the team traveling with

joining us is our nbc news correspondent courtney kube and mike memoli and over to you, courtney, the details are limited, because the first details of the pentagon is to piece together what transpired this morning. >> so, we know that there were two explosions that occurred. you have laid it out pretty well in the intro, geoff. one is at the abbey gate attached to the airport, and the other is at the baron hotel is a matter of 100 meters of the abbey gate of the hotel. so the pentagon is verifying there were u.s. service members attacked and killed at that attack. there were marines at the abbey gate. they were there for several days checking the people who came through the gate to get on the planes. there were times u.s. consular officials to make sure they were getting the right people through that gate. what we also know is that security has been a concern, and add to that the abbey gate, and it is well known to the viewers at this point. that is the gate we saw that a baby was lifted over a u.s. marine grabbing the baby up and took him in for medical treatment. it is also the gat

. >> and joining us now are the aforementioned courtney kube and mike memoli and douglas london who is a nonresident fellow with the washington institute and author of the upcoming book "the recruiter." courtney, the pentagon said it has evacuated 19,000 people in the last day, and 88,000 so far, but there are tens of thousands who still qualify for the visas who are waiting to be evacuated and the window for them to leave is rapidly closing, and the biggest obstacle to the evacuation effort is time. so what is the pentagon saying about the operation as it enters the final days? >> so s they are not giving specifics on the time line, and this is one of the biggest questions that everyone has, if you are looking at august 31st as the deadline, it is going to be taking a couple of days to get the 5,500 u.s. troops out, and the equipment if the u.s. is going to be taking equipment out as well, so the question is, well, when do the last evacuees, americans, afghans whomever, when can they -- do they have to stop accepting people to evacuate out of the country to get the u.s. troops out, an

mike memoli is in delaware where the president is spending the weekend.t lengths are we hearing through the president and his administration go to on a federal level to get folks vaccinated? >> reporter: well, yasmin, we have heard over and over from this white house a real reluctance to decide any form of vaccine mandate. there are political reasons for that. we have certainly seen it play out when local government proposal masks man mandates. as you laid out, we're still -- under an emergency use authorization, not the full authorization that dr. fauci did say could be coming within a matter of weeks at this point. at that point dr. fauci is saying that will be the be 'tis for local and private institutions. like schools, universities, businesses, to impose their own requirements on workers, not necessarily a government mandate on vaccinations. as we continue to see the spread of the delta variant, it poses the risk of further variations in the future. take a listen. >> if you allow the virus to freely circulate, not try and stop it, sooner or later the

let's bring in mike memoli, and admiral james stravdus. let's talk about what we expect president biden to say. our reporting is he's going to stick to this august 31st deadline for a full withdrawal from afghanistan with contingency planning in place to stay longer if the mission requires it. >> to use the word that white house officials use often, this is still a very dynamic situation. all accounts at this stage are that the president is proceeding as if the august 31st deadline still holds. what do we know about the situation on the ground in kabul for the past two weeks? it's that the degree to which we've been able to get individuals to the airport and on planes out of afghanistan has depended in large part on cooperation from the taliban. the taliban has made it crystal clear in the last 48 hours that they expect the u.s. will stick with its august 31st timetable. there's the obvious risk if the president were to give any indication if he intends to extend that. we also know there's cross pressure from our allies who have wanted him

joining us now are nbc's mike memoli, msnbc military analyst barry mccaffrey. former advisor to canada and france, ambassador omar. the "new york times" headline is this, "intelligence warned of afghan military collapse despite biden's assurances." even as the president was saying that kabul was unlikely to fall, intelligence was painting a grim picture. >> the pace of warnings over the course of the summer starting in late june through july grew and presented an increasingly dire picture of the state of the afghan military and really the ability of the afghan government to hold on. we know famously that president biden said on july 8th that kabul is unlikely to fall and you're never going to see images of helicopters on the roof of the embassy like you saw at the end of the vietnam war, which of course we saw something very similar. at this time the intelligence is basically showing a picture of an outcome that could be exactly that. as they get through july into august, this was this picture of almost inevitability that the afghan forces were melting away, sw

mike memoli from the white house, heidi pryzbla and dr. torres and azar.ut the landscape. not a surprise butofficial. what else can you tell us about the statement? >> reporter: you hit the headline, something we've been reporting for the last 24 hours but i think the rationale in this joint statement from the top medical officials across the government is significant in our understanding of where the virus is heading in this country. it starts by laying out the research that is well-known at this point that the efficacy of these vaccines over time is shown to diminish, and what the statement says specifically based on the latest research is that they're seeing an increase in mild to moderate cases, even among those who have been vaccinated especially among those who were vaccinated the earliest. now, hallie, who were those vaccinated the earliest in this country? those most vulnerable, the seniors, the front line medical workers so there's a concern of course, now given the prevalence of the delta variant a more severe strain of the coronavirus, that we n

mike memoli was standing by. we know that president biden is pokes to have this agreement, we understand that has been pushed back at last check. you told me the president is still in the situation room monitoring the situation, is that still the case? >> that's right that announcement just coming from the white house in the last few minutes here. i have been checking over my shoulder regularly here. we have not seen them arye for that meeting. i'm also looking in the other direction where we see the marines still stationed out front, that indicates that the president is in the west wing, but we have not heard a update along those lines. later today in a virtual discussion with governors about the arrival of afghan refugees. it stands to reason that it will be in a different and the casu americans and others as well on the ground there. this is a significant setback from the white house that obviously in these early days was struggling to gain its footing as kabul fell much more quickly than anyone had anticipate

. >> mike memoli is in wilmington, delaware where the president is spending the weekend. mike, to you, and to the white house, i'm curious whether they are feeling any heat. they had the big event that took place on the south lawn for the fourth of july, where the president kind of had what some are saying his mission accomplished moment. are they feeling any sort of heat now with these cases rising? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. the white house has been on the defensive over the course of the past month, the president using the july 4th weekend, launching a campaign-style tour of administration officials around the country, touting that the country was reopened again, even though the delta virus was very much on the horizon. we had seen what it was already doing in europe with cases spiking there. now the white house is pleading with the american people, saying this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, arguing the answer to the chance that we're face s is really within our grasp. we heard the president announce that states and local government can use covid relief money t

colonel christopher, i want to bring new on a point that mike memoli is making. what does this evacuation process look like after the end of the month? can the taliban be counted on to help facilitate that process? how would this work? >> i think first of all my heart goes out to the people who lost their lives and their loved ones yesterday. both american and afghan. in addition to the 13 service members, 98 plus afghans who lost their lives. i know what it is like to be a commander and have your soldiers killed in action. and you're grieving. you're adapting and driving on with your mission all at the same time. in terms of the taliban, it's difficult for americans to wrap our minds around the idea of working together with a group of people that we've been fighting for the last 20 years. i found when i negotiated with insurgents that it's important to create some space between emotion and actions. so acknowledge the emotions that you're feeling, frustration, outrage. i hope the administration acknowledges those things that americans are feeling. you can hear it

mike memoli is in wilmington, delaware. stephanie is in orlando outside a testing site. mike, we're going to start with. you at this point, what is the presidents next move? and how do you convince the seemingly unconvinced ball to get the shot. >> seem well, lindsey. i thought the president said something quite telling when we last heard from him about this rise in cases that we're seeing across the country. he said it will be the dangle to variant just like we be the original covid-19. interestingly, the president presenting this as a new challenge rather than a continuation of the old challenge. and it's notable because it was just a month ago, right around the 4th of july, that he was marking in a campaign style fashion, the end of the independence from the virus. but what the president then went on to lay out in terms of strategies to defeat delta, were a mix of things that the administration has already done. he talked about giving schools the resources they need to reopen. and reopen safely this fall. the $45 million from that covid relief laws that are going out

nbc's mike memoly is in wilmington, delaware following the president. mike, starting with you this morning, possible vaccine mandates for nursing home workers, possible mandates for domestic air travel. what are you learning? >> reporter: well, lindsay, this has been an administration that approaches the subject of any form of mandates very warily. but as they've seen the spike and surge in the coronavirus cases primarily because of the delta variant the white house has been considering using its tools where it does have oversight and control. we saw a few weeks ago the white house announcing the department of veterans affairs would be the first to require its health officials to be vaccinated, then you saw a requirement that all federal workers, more than 2 million of them, would have to at least attest to the fact that they are vaccinated or undergo regular testing. now what the white house is confirming is that there are preliminary, and they emphasize these are preliminary discussions, about potentially requiring those who receive federal dollars, p

and our friend mike memoli, who will be along, probably has more thoughts on that.igating the crisis in the mideast earlier this summer he felt like he knew as much as anyone who'd ever had this job. i think that's why the very, very vivid and very tragic scenes that you're describing are such a blow to one of the central strengths of his presidency. i have talked to senior white house officials all weekend, and they are so unapologetically committed to making this about the decision to leave afghanistan after 20 years. they're full of statistics and data about the sacrifice of the men and women of the military and the financial cost. but so far their messages haven't spoken to the pictures most people have seen on their television sets. and i know all too well that when people are consuming tragedies and the president isn't speaking to them it's usually not good for the white house in the moment. >> we see an aide putting the president's remarks at the lk tern in the east room. nicolle, before i toss it back over to you and mike memoli, we're just inside two minute

nbc's mike memoli is in delaware.have learned throughout the panned, the states, the governors have a lot of power. how is the white house responding to some of the republican governors refusing to bring back mandates or even preventing some local officials from putting them in place? >> reporter: yeah, joe. unfortunately, since even the earliest days of this pandemic mask wearing has been a highly politicized issue. it was really one of the defining contrasts in last year's campaign between then-president trump and candidate joe biden. we saw when president biden was inaugurated he encouraged americans in his first 100 days to mask up as he put it. the president was also among the first to celebrate when the cdc issued guidance in may saying those fully vaccinated no longer needed to wear a mask. the challenge the white house is facing now that we have the cdc guidance in light of the new delta variant, that is encouraging many municipalities, local jurisdictions to wear masks again depending on the spread there, is

mike memoli is following this for us in wilmington, delaware, where the president is spending the weekendke, good to see you. crucial few days ahead, right? one of the cornerstones of this presidency. what is the biden administration focusing on behind the scenes to make sure this thing does not fall apart? >> reporter: well, yasmin, based on what ali just went through in terms of the process that's undergoing in the senate right now, it may not sound like it, but this is, in fact, the easy part in terms of getting both the bipartisan infrastructure bill through and then the larger reconciliation package, which together represent the full sum total of biden's build back better economic agenda. this is just part one of track one of that two-track process. what really gets more complicated is once we leave the senate, because this bipartisan bill would typically go to the house for a quick vote, but we know progressives especially with a very slim margin for democrats in the house are saying they want to make sure the bigger reconciliation package is also going to get voted on as well. so t

mike memoli is at the white house. kerry sanders is in tampa floor, both of them covering real problems that schools are having. mike, let's start with what we're about to hear, that briefing is coming up any moment. all of the top health officials in this administration we're expecting to be there. walk us through what we know about this plan so far. >> well, kris, the officials that we're about to hear from are the same as those that issues this significant recommendation. it is as soon as september 20th. there has been data to show the effectiveness of the vaccines and we're talking in this case about pfizer and moderna waiving over time. the incidents, the production against mild to moderate disease is really beginning to wane among those older populations. what is so significant is that those elderly populations, they would have been the very first to receive those doses when they began really going online eight months ago. and that is significant because the recommendation that they're making is that individuals

. >> mike memoli is in delaware. morgan chesky is here. mike, i want to start with you and the news about the next more draconian measure. to me is that just the simplest way for it to take place? universities that take pell grants? is that what they're thinking here in order to find more ways to mandate vaccines across the country? >> chuck, this is a without that is very reluctant to talk about mandates. they prefer these to come back to businesses from local and state governments. they're very aware of the politics of a fall mandate. but you might consider it to be mandate adjacent, right? it went from carrots, to sticks, to the reverse of unfunded mandates. if you want medicare dollars as a nursing home, influence, there are potentially strings attached. the white house is really stressing these are very early conversation that's are not at all ready to have anything rolling out in the near future, but what it speaks to is something that i have been hearing more from white house officials over the last week in particular which is very

also courtney kube, andrea mitchell, and mike memoli. richard, i will start with you. set the scene for us right now what is going on in kabul at this hour? >> i will start with the airport that is just a few hundred yards from here. they do seem to have cleared out most of the people, and i say they, it is the taliban that took over the civilian side of the airport, and the u.s. military that is overseeing the evacuation from the other side, the military side of the airport. that allows the arrival, once again, of the american transport plane sos they can bring in extra troops and bring out diplomatic personnel and they will have to bring out the troops. they're trying to set up a perimeter and as the situation here in kabul gets more and more dangerous they're beefing up that perimeter. all day long, and now kabul is controlled by the taliban, they have been firing shots up at the planes, it seems like they have been just harassing fire, almost celebratory fire as the american helicopters have been circling over the airport. american apaches tries to chur the perimet

mike memoli is near camp david. we're also joined by doug olivant. he is also a retired army lieutenant colenel in afghanistan. good to have all of you here on a very important day. richard we have to start with you on the ground. the situation still very much unfolding. what are you seeing right at this moment? >> so courtney just confirmed that the flights out of kabul are supposed to resume soon. we are very close to that airport. i have been watching it for the last several days. we have not seen those flights resume at the moment. but the operation that has allow it'd to reopen has been under way to clear the people off of the tarmacs. starting last night, about 24 hours ago. tens of thousands of afghans broke through the doors. they rushed through the security checkpoints, but the security at the airport already collapsed, and they burst right on to the run way and they started climbing into and on planes, getting into the baggage areas, and they were able to push their ways on to the military said of the airport. kabul is one airport but it is

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let's bring in nbc correspondent mike memoli. the most solemn duty a president can perform as commander in chief, something he performed as vice president about five years ago. >> this is a difficult set of days for the white house. it's hard to think of, in recent memory in a four-year presidential term, convergence of crisis what the biden administration is facing now. you started the show with the hurricane bearing down on one of the most vulnerable stretches of coastline in the country. you have the ongoing pandemic and millions of americans set to return to school and work with the highly transmissible delta variant still raging. but the high wire act by the white house in the next 24 hours, ahead of the deadline, really came to life with this incredible scene at dover air force base yesterday as the president met privately with some of those families of the lost heroes in afghanistan, and then participated for roughly an hour in the most solemn proceeding you can imagine. no sound audible other than the commands being issue

. >>> let's bring in correspondent mike memoli to talk about the process likely underway at the bidene any intel about why the delay? we were supposed to see the president coming up on 11 minutes ago. >> reporter: well, brian, as we've become very familiar with over the course of his presidency and me over the years i have been covering him, this president is not always on time, but obviously with the speech of this gravity and with constantly evolving situation and circumstances on the ground, i think we will allow there might be other additional reasons why this speech is not on time. now, brian, today the center piece of the white house schedule, what we were expecting to be talking about was the first meeting of president biden with the new israeli prime minister bennet. that's a reminder of what up until about two weeks ago was the only major foreign policy crisis that this president had tackled so far, which was those 11 days of rocket fire in and out of gaza, the tension there in the middle east, which when it was resolved the president took a measure of credit for helping to d

mike memoli, and james satisfy read he is, former officer and allied commander at nato. we know americans wanted to leave afghanistan, but they didn't want it to fall apart the way it did. your thoughts on what we're seeing now? >> first and foremost, strategically the president has made a choice and the military will execute it. but frankly, no one wanted these scenes. partly it is because we didn't anticipate the speed of the taliban response. we didn't anticipate the complete collapse of the afghan army. and frankly, stephanie, these scenes are so reminiscent for those of us old enough to remember saigon. that's what it looked like yesterday. what's important at this point is what happens next. if we can continue to secure the perimeter, which should be doable with 6,000 u.s. troops around an airport and if we can convince the taliban to continue to protect the perimeter on the other side, hopefully allowing people through, i think that's the big question, we could conceivably in the next couple weeks get out the majority anyway of people we are trying to move. but cl

bradley at ramstein air base in germany where thousands of evacuees have started to arrive and mike memoliant to start with you on this one. i know you're speaking to a lot of folks on the ground, a lot of afghans that have evacuated from kabul. take us through what you're seeing so far. what they've been telling you. >> well, what we have been hearing from the afghans who have evacuated from kabul who have arrived here, they have not come here directly from kabul. some have come from elsewhere in asia where they have come from kabul before. some came from doha where in colleague richard engel is right now. when they get here, you know, they're well taken care of, they're quite safe. health care, food, they're put up in tents or large hangars that are normally used for equipment and airplanes and there is a palpable sense of relief, but at the same time, to get here, to get all the way here is to have run through a horrible gauntlet and that includes a taliban gauntlet at the airport and then we talked to those who slept on the tarmac amidst trash for days with their children, and then aft

mike memoli is near camp david where president biden is.rtney kube, and long time columnist from "the washington post" and nbc and msnbc contributor. mike, let me start with you with the president at camp david. how are they feeling now the day after. if the speech was attempt to at least provide some i don't want to say unity for the country but unity for his own party, doesn't look like it went that well. >> reporter: chuck, there's just something about august, isn't there. you know well from your own time on this beat in 2009, this was the summer of the tea party, the town halls that posted the first significant test for the obama administration. four years ago almost exactly that president trump stood in the lobby of trump tower, talked about very fine people on both sides. as the story goes, that's what motivated joe biden, private citizen, to consider a run for president himself. this is a very critical moment for this administration and if there were already not enough warning signs for them, we heard two serious ones in the last hou

mike memoli at the president with camp david and paul from veterans of america served as infancy officer in iraq and host of the independent americans podcast. before we get to the four of you here i want to lay out key developments watching for today. potential pivot points or milestones. will there be a taliban address to afghanistan after they seized control of the country? will the kabul airport operations start, if so when, how soon is that? the humanitarian situation in afghanistan, people looking to try to escape, waiting for the next moves by the taliban. will president bide andres the nation as we mentioned we're told that could be maybe a matter of when and not if. plus the political fallout as both he and former president donald trump facing criticism for their moves, their roles in this. richard, let me start with you. you're on the ground. you've been watching this since the "today" show this morning. tell us where things stand at 10:00 eastern time. much later where you are, obviously, as it relates to what's going on at the airport and now in the city. >> reporter: i can s

brittany cuby, and mike memoli, and we are joined by the president of the council on foreign relations and the author of "the world: a brief introduction." courtney, you just got out of the pentagon briefing and you asked a key question, what about the people who are not at the airport and who are elsewhere, either in kabul or other regions of afghanistan? what about the other question, the ongoing talks f. we can call them that, correct me if i am wrong, the taliban? give us the highlights of what we learned at the pentagon briefing. >> that's right. from an operational perspective we learned military flights are going again after there was an extended pause yesterday, on monday, because of the civilians crowding the runway, it was not safe for the planes. the u.s. troops are moving in now again and people are getting out. somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 to 800 have left. that's one positive development for the situation on the ground. the larger issue we were trying to get to in the briefing, chris, is what about all the people still trying to get to the airport? there are repor

i want to go straight to mike memoli at the white house. raf sanchez on the ground, and lieutenant douglas is also with us. and courtney kube. she has worked 24, 7 the last few weeks. i want to say thank you. the last troops are officially gone. obviously no one in this administration or the military is bold enough to say something like mission accomplished. but despite a rocky start a few weeks ago, does the pentagon senior this a successful withdrawal? >> reporter: they do. what was a success was to evacuate as many americans and afghans as possible and get people from the embassy out and remaining troops. they consider that mission to evacuate people a success. we heard of candid sentiment from the commander of u.s. central command when he said they wanted to take more people out, wanted to get more afghans out. even with an extra ten days or weeks, still probably wouldn't get every afghan out that they wanted to. he talked about how they're heartbroken over some things that occurred during the course of this evacuation mission, particul

nbc's mike memoli is in wilmington, delaware, traveling with the president.>> reporter: how often have we talked about the white house's efforts to reach the vaccination goal july 4th, they got there a few weeks late. there's still tens of millions of americans who aren't vaccinated and the white house is doing everything it can to consider all options in what they are calling a war time effort to get americans vaccinated and try to stem the virus as hospitalizations and deaths are starting to tick up just a bit. so as we saw with the eviction moratorium, the white house taking a step that even the president has conceded might not be within his constitutional bounds, the white house is also considering using the president's spending authority, the dollars that are sent to states through programs like medicare to potentially mandate things like nursing homes to get their employees vaccinated if they want those federal dollars. now, this all comes as the president was spending friday touting a strong jobs growth number, but also concerned that the continued spr

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 the

richard engle in qatar, matt bradley in germany, mike memoli at the white house, courtney kube at the. we have david rode, who was kidnapped by the taliban 12 years ago. good to have you here. richard, what's the latest happening on the ground in afghanistan? >> reporter: well, they are moving very, very quickly on the base and flights are coming in, flights are going out. people are getting processed. the problem is still at the gate. we talked a lot about the gate. they're in a rush to get to the gate. word has gotten out in kabul that people can leave and some people who were initially sticking it out, thinking maybe the taliban wouldn't be that bad, some of them are having second thoughts, perhaps these are people that would always want to leave, according to an official i have spoken to here in doha. this is one of the transit destinations that people are coming to. about half the people that they are now interviewing would not, do not qualify for onward visa, have no third countries, they're not american citizens, didn't work for contractors. the u.s. is scooping up a lot of peo

nicolle, before i toss it back over to you and mike memoli, we're just inside two minutes until we hear from the president. >> the only other thing i would say, brian, is that this country really hasn't had a debate about afghanistan because the two men running for president at the top of the democratic and republican party had the same position. this white house also constantly pointing back to the fact their hands were tied by a deal the ex-president donald trump made with the taliban. but i think what people want to hear from him is that we'll take care of our friends, we'll take care of our allies, and we'll do what we can for the afghan women and children who are now at such grave risk from the taliban. >> mike memoli who is standing by near camp david where the president spent the weekend, mike, knowing that we have probably less than a minute to go, what kind of situation can you give us from there? >> brian, what the white house wants to be today to be about is consistency, the consistency of a president who before that as a candidate for president, as a vice president and even