our thanks to our starting line, phil rucker, rick stengel, dr. celine gounder, thanks for starting the week off with us. >>> coming up, what's the chance moderate democrats would want to sink their own president's congressional agenda? and why should you care? we'll put that question to our political experts. >>> and later, she warned that the internet is a petri dish for conspiracy theories and utter nonsense about the virus dressed up as news and information. she was right about that. and now people are dying from it. i'll ask the harvard expert who's got a plan to battle mask burning that's going on out there. all of it as "the 11th hour" is just getting under way on this monday night. ♪ ♪ [grunts] pnc bank believes that if a pair of goggles can help your backhand get better... yeah! ...then your bank should help you budget even better. (laughing) virtual wallet® is so much more than a checking account. its low cash mode feature gives you at least 24 hours of extra time to help you avoid an overdraft fee. you see that? virtual wallet® with low

that's what we heard today. >> i also think, i just have to add, rick stengel, that he is someone who is in line with where the majority of the american people are on this war in afghanistan and there has not been majority public support -- this war has been fought by the whole country. the whole country did not go to war, the military fought this war and paid the price. i want to bring into our coverage national security advisor jake sullivan. i don't know if you heard any of our reaction and i won't ask you to address any of it, but i wonder if you can speak to the president's forceful attempt, it would sound like, to beat down the critics. critics who say i hear this woulda, shoulda kept a small force there but as rick stengel is pointing out, there is no low risk military operation. >> i think the end of his speech really summed up what president biden believes about those who argue for another decade or two decades or three decades of american military involvement in afghanistan. those folks are arguing, as he said in his speech, that we could just have a low grade or low risk or

let me show the president's address to the nation a few weeks ago on this topic, rick stengel. >> the taliban is not the north vietnamese army. they're not remotablely comparable in terms of capability. there is no circumstance where you see people lifted off the roof of a embassy of the united states from afghanistan. it is not at all comparable. >> do you stand by those records, rick stengel, and do you think president biden does? >> i would agree with what he said. i mean first of all, i want to pay tribute to the men and women of the u.s. military who over the last 20 years had spent blood and treasure in afghanistan. it was a noble mission. as mark said. but what we're seeing here is a tragedy. it is not an american tragedy, it is an afghan tragedy. and after 20 years, we thought they would be able to defend themselves, we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars there and it hasn't quite worked out as we thought. if it is just the speed that this is happening, then that is an optical problem. but the real problem is the one that president biden has said which is we're not there