nbc's shannon pettypiece is at the white house. good evening. >> reporter: yes, the president defiant today in pushing back against that criticism and trying to place some blame on his predecessor, former president donald trump, saying it was an agreement reached between the trump administration and the taliban that essentially left him with two choices, either start extracting troops from the country or put more back in and restart fighting with the taliban he said the status quo was not an option. here say little bit more of what the president had to say about that. >> it was only a cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more american troops back into combat in afghanistan. >> reporter: but that justification is unlikely to quell so much of the criticism we have been hearing in washington, not just from republicans, but democrats and former obama administration officials as well. here is what senate minority leader mitch mcconnell had to sa

with that let's bring in our starting line on this busy thursday night, shannon pettypiece, veteran journalist our senior white house reporter at nbc news digital, frank figliuzzi former fbi assistant director for counter intelligence. author of the book the fbi weigh in the host of the podcast the bureau. and admiral james stavridis, 30 year navy veteran retired with four stars on his shoulder, he is the former head of the u.s. southern command, former supreme allied commander of nato, also happens to be the coauthor of the recent book 2034, a novel of the next world war. good evening, welcome to you all. admirable, i would like to begin with you, along with this quote from the washington post. several people said thursday they had received confusing signals from the united states about how exactly they were supposed to leave, citing emails from the state department urging them to go to the airport only to find that was no one to receive them or to answer their questions on how to board flights. 39-year-old librarian, a dual u.s. afghan citizen who came with his wife and two children after re

shannon pettypiece at the white house. shannon, thank you as well. very busy hour for me. i'll see you right back here tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. eastern. brian williams and nicolle wallace pick up our special coverage as we wait to hear from president biden on the unraveling situation in afghanistan. don't go anywhere. anywhere. >>> indeed, good afternoon. 3:56 p.m. here in the east. brian williams here with you kicking off special coverage of afghanistan's collapse. the president set to deliver remarks from the east room of the white house in just a few moments following the scenes of chaos at the airport in kabul, afghanistan overnight. and this indelible image. afghans clinging to a u.s. air force c-17 aircraft upon takeoff, desperate to escape their circumstances as panic courses through their nation. now overtaken once again by taliban rule two decades after being toppled by the united states, held at bay until u.s. troop withdrawal picked up speed in recent weeks and months and days. over the weekend the comparisons to the evacuation of saigon at t

i'm joined now by shannon pettypiece as well as peter baker, a chief white house correspondent for "the and an msnbc political analyst. we just have a few minutes here, but shannon, this felt like a speech this president has wanted to give for some time to kind of fully defend his decision and the way in which it's been handled. >> yeah, absolutely. it was a defiant tone and an address that went after some of the criticism that he has been facing in recent weeks head on. of course criticism not just from republicans but democrats as well. he said he refused to continue a war that was no longer in the service of the vital national security interests of the country. he said he was not going to extend these forever wars, he was not going to extend a forever exit. and he put some blame in pretty specific terms on his predecessors, former president president trump, saying that the status quo was no longer an option because the trump administration had reached an agreement with the taliban to be out of the country by may 1st, so he faced either the choice of sending in additional u.s. troops

nbc's shannon pettypiece is at the white house for us tonight shannon, a stern defense from the president today. >> reporter: yes, emptly, shep we heard a defiant speech from the president as he addressed head on some of the criticism he has been getting in recent weeks over his decision to pull out troops and his handling of those evacuation efforts in the final weeks. the president stood by his decision to pull out all u.s. troops, saying it was no longer in america's national security interest to have a military presence in the country. and he outlined his foreign policy will be driven by what is in america's national security interest he defended his handling of the chaotic, bloody final weeks, say ing an evacuation sooner, as some have suggested, could have hurt confidence in the aftghan government while there were still hope that that government could hold on and the military could push back the taliban. and he called the ultimate evacuation of 120,000 people a success. he also placed a lot of blame on his predecessor, former president donald trump, saying that essentially the statu

we want to get to nbc's shannon pettypiece at the white house. shannon, are we hearing anything from president biden about these major developments that happened over the last few hours? >> reporter: no, we have not heard anything. the president is away at camp david for the weekend. we did get a statement from the white house yesterday saying that the president is not double -- second questioning his decision, that he has no regrets about his decision and the u.s. is essentially staying the course. the white house has said the focus is getting out american personnel at the embassy, ensuring that the troops who have been deployed to the country to help secure that exit of embassy personnel are kept safe, and trying to expedite the visa application process for many of these afghans who had helped u.s. forces. but as we see this humanitarian crisis unfold, the administration is really maintaining their course. here is what the pentagon spokesman had to say about that. >> we are certainly concerned by the speed with which the taliban has been moving.

let's get over to shannon pettypiece at the white house. shannon, with everything that is going on and meagan describing what we are seeing in terms of the president, the leader out of afghanistan and what he is saying, is president biden having second thoughts about the decision to withdraw the u.s. from afghanistan and the timing around it? >> reporter: we know the president was briefed today. we have not heard from him directly on this issue in several days, but the white house did put out a statement yesterday essentially saying that, no, the president is not having any regrets. he is not having any second thoughts, and the u.s. is staying the course. the focus, the white house says, of the president right now is on getting embassy personnel out of the country and ensuring that those thousands of u.s. troops who have been sent back in to help with the extraction of those embassy workers are protected. you know, of course the images are very concerning and this is not how the administration or the president had predicted this would go jus

military. >> all right, shannon pettypiece getting us started right now in the 7:00 hour here in the east coast, from the white house. shannon, thank you. do want to bring in right now nbc news correspondent kelly cobiella who will be in afghanistan for us, and also with us is kevin barron, the executive editor of defense one. and kristen rous is a u.s. army veteran and founder of new york city veterans, welcome to both of you. credit ten, starting with you, as a veteran of the war on afghanistan, get your reaction, what is happening right now on the ground, you served three tours in that country. >> yes, and thank you so much for having me. this is absolutely heartbreaking, just gut wrenching to watch. i am so sorry for everyone we worked with in afghanistan for what is happening right now. this is a humanitarian catastrophe. our -- you know, the afghan national army kroops, who i worked with for nine months, you know, they've been left in so many ways, stranded and it looks like unsupported in many ways by their government, and, you know, with nobody else to turn to. and they're mak

shannon pettypiece is at the white house.ite house is expecting to happen next and some new reporting about the behind-the-scenes pressure campaign house speaker pelosi apparently put on the administration, too. >> right, we had been hearing for days from the administration, from the white house that their hands were tied. there was nothing else they could do based on the supreme court ruling, that said you can't indefinitely extend this eviction moratorium, we need action from congress. back-and-forth days of finger pointing. what we heard last night, late yesterday afternoon was the administration coming up with what they think might be a legal work-around for that, saying that this would be a more targeted eviction moratorium that would only apply to areas that are seeing substantial or high spread of the coronavirus, but because of how widespread the delta variant is right now, that essentially applies to about 90% of renters who would have been affected by this. so essentially extending this for millions of people. you r

joining me now are our nbc digital white house reporter shannon pettypiece, and white house reporter us. shannon, i wanted to ask you something that popped into the inboxes, we have this new speaking point circulated from speaker pelosi and among the talking points, the administration knew that there was a possibility that kabul would fall to the taliban and not inevidentability, but possibility. so that is in line with what we will be hearing? >> yes, it is in line for what we have been hearing from officials in the last 24 to 48 hour, but they don't get to the core criticism that we are hearing not just from the republicans, but from the democrats in washington, from former obama administration officials like that clip that you just played from general petraeus, and why these final days have been handled so poorly. in the talking points that we have heard from administration officials talking about how there was a plan, and they were contingency plans in place, and they knew it was a possibility, and the criticism has been if that is the case, why are american embassy workers still

>>>m let's go now to the white house where joining me is senior white house reporter shannon pettypiece. shannon, thank you very much for being here. let'she pick up where courtney left off, her talking about the afghan forces, and i want to play what our colleague richard engelr had to say earlier toda about basically how i started off thell program, which is askg the question, aren't people -- why was the biden administration caughtti off guard, so surprise by how quickly the taliban raced through afghanistan and is now entering kabul? have a listen to what he said and we'll talk about it on the other side. >> there is not that that is happening as much as how fast it is happening. would you agree with that? >> no. everyone keeps saying that. i've been listening all day. oh, my god, we're shocked. i'm not, shocked at all. last time i was here, i was looking at the calendar and figuring outal -- because now wh covid and travel, when are you going to have tod come back an how long you have to isolate for covid, you have to plan ahead a little onla traveling. i thought kabul would fall r

shannon pettypiece is at the white house for us and leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill. think this would have been a big victory day for them had the governor of new york not created his own set of headlines. but look, it's still a -- the b.i.f. is a b.f.d. for this administration. >> yeah. it certainly is. by far the biggest legislative win for president biden so far. as much as this is a win for infrastructure spending for this white house and the projects and the broadband and lead pipes this string has talked about wanting to get done, as much as it is about getting those things, it's certainly also about the bipartisan nature of it. this isn't one of these bipartisan bills where you get a couple of senators from the other party joining on like a mitt romney or a susan collins. this is a big number of republicans who have joined on to this bill. and it gives this white house the opportunity to say they are delivering on the promise that they believe encourage many people to vote for president biden that they will take down the partisan rhetoric in washington, that th

we want to go to shannon pettypiece who is live at the white house, and shannon, the president and the house, they have been briefed on the current situation, the senate too. what more do we know? >> well, we're really getting this sense today of the administration being on defense. we saw that from the secretary of state's comments coming out on the sunday morning shows today. trying to defend this decision amid all of these images you're seeing played out. and one of the key defenses we're hearing them make is that regardless of how much longer the u.s. stayed in there, that there was really nothing that could be done if the afghan forces, if the afghan government wasn't able to unite and defend off the taliban. we heard that clear in a length haey statement from the president today. we're also hearing the defense of how this operation was handled. there certainly have been a number of parallels between the fall of saigon and what we're seeing happening now with a helicopter once again evacuating americans from an embassy as a city is under assault. secretary of state blinken said th

shannon pettypiece, thank you for starting us off. now to the reporters covering, from the phones, sam brock, and from new orleans, ali velshi, and meteorologist michelle grossman. and ali, you are between new orleans and baton rouge, and that portion there, the rushing waters have turned into rivers. ongoing rescues, there and what is the status of the rescue mission right now? we have lost sam, so over to you, ali velshi. what is the scene in new orleans, and folks still without power? sorry, ali. >> well, geoff, the power is the big deal here. okay. >> ali, go ahead, and finish the thought. >> yeah, the issue here is the power, right. we have got, and we have managed not to flood new orleans which is a very, very big deal compared to hurricane katrina and we have structural damage around the city, and trees down and power lines down, and entergy is the major energy companied and they have had failure across eight of the transmission line, and so there is no power in new orleans at all, and the only power running here is with anybod

. >> okay, julie joining us from capitol hill, shannon pettypiece at the white house. thank you for joining us. it will be a busy day ahead. >>> want to bring in evelyn farkas on these developments. madam secretary, you tweeted before coming on the air with us that this whole situation is disastrous. you say that we have vastly diminished diplomatic leverage to save lives. can you explain what we mean by that? we know from shannon pettypiece's reporting they are withdrawing military and diplomatic efforts in the region. >> lyndsay, i worked on afghanistan as a senior staffer, under the bush administration, i worked under president obama in the executive branch. i ran for congress last year saying we should leave afghanistan, but not this way. and the problem is that, you know, we have maximum leverage and we had maximum leverage. frankly, i would say before president trump got into office because it was clear that once he was in, he was going to try to withdraw us and possibly suddenly precipitously. but we really didn't use that leverage very effectively. that's obvio

cass, alison barber, thank you, shannon pettypiece, thank you all. if you have questions about this pandemic and back to school, if you have those questions let us know you can tweet them to us with the hashtag msnbc answers. it is talk @msnbc.com. we're doing to do that this friday at 11:00 a.m. eastern. >> cathy hockel is about to loose lieutenant from her title. her first public comment from 24 hours ago. where is she and what happens to quo moe when he is out of office. we'll break that down for you. and democrats working on a 2.5 trillion budge deal and we'll look at what is next for that plan and the bipartisan infrastructure bill. it imagined to get a fair amount of support. comcast nbcuniversal is investing in entrepreneurs to bring what's next for sports technology to athletes, teams, and fans. that's why we created the sportstech accelerator, to invest in and develop the next generation of technology that will change the way we experience sports. we've already invested in entrepreneurs like ane swim, who develops products that provide hair

let's bring in courtney kube, as well as shannon pettypiece, who is at the white house for us. courtney, let's start with u.s. officials are pushing back on the narrative there was in fact an intelligence failure over the afghanistan withdrawal. what can you tell you about that? and why are they pushing back on that narrative? >> there's devil levels of exactly what went wrong here, and the main -- there's two main ones we need to focus on. yes, the u.s. knew that once the u.s. military left that there was a good chance the taliban would takeover. how much did they know about how fast it would happen? u.s. intelligence and u.s. officials who our colleague and i have spoken to are saying, look, they knew the taliban would take over, knew it was happen quickly, but even the worst-case scenario options here, even those -- the taliban surpassed those. now we know we're in august, we're nearly a month before that anniversary, and it looks as if the taliban are completing their takeover as early as today. what is important to point out, this didn't happen in a vacuum. what has change

that was shannon pettypiece, with the latest from the administration. some. >>> coming up, how is the administration responding. e a p. new parodontax active gum repair toothpaste. with relapsing forms of ms... there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too. it can all add up. kesimpta is a once-monthly at-home injection... that may help you put these rms challenges in their place. kesimpta was proven superior at reducing the rate of relapses, active lesions, and slowing disability progression vs aubagio. don't take kesimpta if you have hepatitis b, and tell your doctor if you have had it, as it could come back. kesimpta can cause serious side effects, including infections. while no cases of pml were reported in rms clinical trials, it could happen. tell your doctor if you had or plan to have vaccines, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. kesimpta may cause a decrease in some types of antibodies. the most common side effects are upper respiratory tract infection, headache, and injection reactions. ready for

back here at home, president biden is monitoring the situation from camp david let's bring in shannon pettypiece. do we have any word right now from the white house about the taliban's movement? really are there any updates to u.s. plans? >> we haven't heard from the president recently, assigned from a lengthy statement he put out last night. no public remarks today, no public remarks planned. as you mentioned, he was briefed at camp david, where he was intending on having a vacation. not very much of a vacation going on today. he met virtually with the leaders of his team. >> we were told the focus of that brief us was on the state of getting the americans out of country. where things are at on this visa effort to try to get out the thousands of afghans who have helped the american and international effort over the years. it's really on an american first agenda. it's not on the afghan people, what they're doing for afghan women, or any talk of trying to push back against the taliban or support the afghan forces at this point. the white house, despite how quickly things have unravelled is mainta

. >> all right, shannon pettypiece for us on friday. i want to get back to some more questions.nd dr. ho tez are back with us. let's get to this question from shirley. are children mostly getting covid from each other or from adults? also, what should parents have on hand if they get sick. >> first to your point, yes, yes, and yes. we know that children are getting and giving the virus to each other. we know they giving and getting it from adults. so it speaks to just how infectious the delta variant is. and quickly, number two. i'm a mom that believes in a lot of lists. keeping your lists tight of what you need at home to prepare for a child that might be sick. a thermometer that works. having a humid fier or ways to make runny or dry noses, depending on what is happening comfortable. fluids, electrolytes. sometimes you need additional snacks and up tos friendly for a sick one's stomach. and if you use over the counter medications to reduce a fever you may want to check with your pediatrician on how to administer it and when, and the warning signing to talk to your daughter abl

here's nbc's shannon pettypiece. >> reporter: the white house says president biden is having no second thoughts about his decision to withdraw troops even as the taliban takeover of the country continues and critics draw parallels to the fall of saigon press secretary jen psaki said the president is focused on america's interest and the region and making sure there is an orderly draw down and americans are protected. administration officials have been defending biden's position to pull troops out saying it is up to the afghan anies to unite and take control of their country's future that has come under heavy criticism. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell said the u.s. is heading into a scene worse than the fall of say gone the criticism is not just from republicans. here's what the former ambassador under the obama administration had to say? >> we basically gave up on afghanistan and what president biden did was to embrace it, embrace the envoy. he owns it >> reporter: domestically what all this means for biden is unclear. polling in the spring indicated the public was behind his de

shannon pettypiece is joining us. and morgan chesky is in pennsylvania where there is expected to be a update on masking this afternoon. it is safe to say they didn't expect the vaccination rate to just fall off of the table after the spring peak the way it did. what other tools do they still have in their kit? we have the new federal workers vaccine requirement. what else can the white house do at this point? >> they got a boost on the vaccination effort from the delta variant. the areas where they have seen vaccinations going up the most are the areas getting hit the hardest by the delta variant. so there have been some uptick in the number of vaccines driven by that. at the same time they have a paradigm they're struggling with that you touched on a moment ago. the delta variant is out there three to four ins and the cases are increasing and they need to reassure people that the vaccines do work. there is concern and we saw internal documents that the increases reports of breakthrough infections, so it is a message

joining us to talk about it, shannon pettypiece. good morning.g. talk a little bit about the briefing. it's the first one the white house has held in a couple of weeks. it only lasted about 30 minutes despite the number of increased cases. what is the white house's message during this pretty precarious time in the battle against the virus? >> going into this, we have heard from administration officials they were concerned about the messaging in the media around the breakthrough infections and there's a concern too much emphasis is being put on the potential for vaccinated people to get infected with this virus, and that ended up being a big focus of this briefing they had yesterday. you had dr. fauci laying out data, including from other countries about what the vaccine efficacy was like in vaccinated people against this new delta variant. you had dr. walensky putting up slides, showing a correlation between areas with high infection rates and low vaccination rates, trying to make the case the vaccines are doing, they're doing what they're suppos

scott gottlieb, shannon pettypiece, thank you both so much. >>> coming up next, the federal evictionions that could lose their homes and what about the landlords? we'll dig into what might happen next and what the long-term solution might be. and what the solution might be. makes us wonder why we booked fifteen second ad slots. (piano playing) here we go. ♪♪ [john legend's i can see clearly now] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ make your reunion happen with vrbo. your together awaits. vrbo this past year has felt like a long, long norwegian winter. but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world. viking. exploring the world in comfort... once again. ♪♪ i thought i was managing my moderate to severe crohn's disease. then i realized something was missing... ...me. my symptoms were keeping me from being there for her. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is the #1 prescribed biologic for people with crohn's disease. the majority of people on humira saw significant sympt

i'm hallie jackson in washington joined by kerry sanders, leigh ann caldwell and shannon pettypiece andiew what's happening in new york city but as a medical professional, i have to ask you about it. this is just coming in to us reporting out of the "new york times" this big move potentially by mayor de blasio who,

shannon pettypiece on the ground at the white house for me. the u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy. welcome back to the program. >> thank you so much, chuck. good to see you again. >> look, you are in many ways one of the more prominent spokes people who tried to help when it comes to messaging on anything regarding the health of americans. obviously with covid. i want to play for you what happened to the governor of arkansas in a town hall. you may have seen a piece of it. but i want the audience to see it because i think it does underscore the challenge you and other public health officials have with messaging on this virus. take a listen. >> it's absolutely very real. i think what we agree on is that covid is real, people get sick from -- >> there was one person. >> what's in the vaccine? give me. if mr. doctor gives me a vial and says trust me. >> if doctors were about to tell the truth and treat their patients with these therapeutics we would not have hospitals full of sick people dying, okay. don't snark at me, governor. what will sav

i'm hallie jackson in washington joined by kerry sanders, leigh ann caldwell and shannon pettypiece and dr. bernard ashby, florida state lead for the committee to protect health care. dr. ashby, i want to start with you and this is not your purview what's happening in new york city but as a medical professional, i have to ask you about it. this is just coming in to us reporting out of the "new york times" this big move potentially by mayor de blasio who, according to the paper, is set to announce any minute, i don't think we have that live stream up just yet but we'll bring it up in a second as it gets going set to announce vaccine requirement indoors in the nation's biggest city. i believe this would be the first of its kind mandate in this country, similar mandates have been put in place at areas overseas. i wondered just initially hearing this, dr. ashby, what your take on this is, and what the impact could be. >> that's a loaded, loaded question. so let me start with the fact that -- >> break it down then. pick apart where you want to go with that, doc. >> let's establish the fact v

shannon pettypiece is at the white house. this is going to affect 90% of the country, a 60 day extension or new moratorium. walk us through it. >> reporter: and of course, this comes after days of finger pointing and back and forth over who and how they should solve this problem of millions of people facing evictions. administration officials had said for days that their hands were tied legally after a supreme court ruling said they couldn't indefinitely extend the eviction moratorium. of course house congressional democrats on the hill kept pushing the white house to do more, activist groups kept pushing them to do more. here is the solution that the administration has finally come up with. the cdc yesterday saying that because of this surge in cases and the widespread nature of this delta variant, they're putting a new targeted moratorium in place that would keep people in their homes if they are in an area with substantial or high transmission. but given how widespread this is, that applies to about 90% of the population,

shannon pettypiece writes, quote, since biden took office, much of the decisionmaking and messaging around pandemic policy has been in the hands of public health officials, not politicians, a stark reversal from the trump administration which was accused by members of its own coronavirus task force of releasing false information that contradicted the messaging from cdc officials. there is a solution to all of this. that our elected leaders follow the lead from the cdc. but republican lawmakers don't seem to want to follow that advice. "new york times" opinion columnist paul krugman writes, quote, it's crucial to understand that we aren't facing a national crisis. we are facing a red state crisis with nakedly red roots. bernard ashley, debbie powell, and david jolly who is also an msnbc political analyst. it's the who's who of florida. dr. ashby, the latest in your state, it hits a record for daily cases. i am not in florida but that is incredibly alarming to me. can you talk me through what that looks like on the ground? >> alarming is an understatement. where do i start? we are number one

. >> shannon pettypiece and pete baker, thank you both. i know we'll have much more analysis coming up on "deadline white house" with nicolle wallace, which starts right now. >>> hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in washington. president biden just moments ago wrapped up remarks on the end of america's nearly 20-year war in afghanistan. the president applauding the work of the u.s. military and u.s. diplomats in what he called one of the largest airlifts in history and singling out for praise the 13 u.s. service members who were killed in a bombing near kabul airport late last week. the president also making a forceful defense of the decision to withdraw from afghanistan by the deadline of august 31st, saying he would not, quote, continue a forever war and extend a, quote, forever exit. in a moment we will speak with the president's national security advisor, jake sullivan. but first for our ongoing coverage we are joined by helene cooper, pentagon correspondent for "the new york times," an msnbc contributor, former top state department offici

shannon is pettypiece joining us from the white house. we also are very fortunate to have jack jacobs. colonel, i do want to start with. you leave been watching over the last couple of hours some of those live pictures from afghanistan. if you have those life shots let's put him up as well so we can monitor the situation. there notice some of the ship helicopters. the c 47 shook helicopters which can carry about 33 people are so. at some point, i saw them firing off what would appear to be some heat flares? and the idea what is happening there? and the idea>> the assumption ie taliban have anti aircraft capability. unless it just upper protective measure to divert the focus of any ground to air missiles. it would not appear from richard's report that the taliban are anywhere near where the americans are located. but just as a measure of safety, they do that from time to time. >> colonel, i'm going to ask you a question that i posed to richard and then he obviously went to continue gathering there on the field. colonel, can afghans right n