sirhan sirhan, the man who assassinated robert f. kennedy 53 years ago, could soon be released from prison. the key hearing happening today. >>> and lapping the field. >> as she comes to the line, it will be a gold medal and a world record. >> team usa's golden start in the pool at the paralympic games. we'll introduce you to the pair of 17-year-olds shining bright in tokyo today, friday august 27th, 2021. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with savannah guthrie and hoda kotb from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >>> hi, everybody. good morning. welcome to "today" on a friday morning. we're glad to have you with us. i'm working remotely this morning. we have hoda there in the studio and unfortunately, hoda, we are covering this tragedy that has unfolded in afghanistan. >> yeah, savannah, it is. it's good to see you. we're going to talk about that. evacuation flights out of kabul resumed overnight just hours after two suicide bombers targeted the airport, killing more than 100 people, including 13 u.s. service members. >> and in the meantime, the u.s. is bracing for more violence in the region. the head of u.s. central command saying they expect the attacks to continue ahead of tuesday's withdrawal deadline. we've got this covered from every angle from afghanistan to washington. we want to get it started this morning with nbc's richard engle. richard, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. the united states is wrapping up its longest war in history, the 20-year mission in afghanistan. but now the u.s. is withdrawing under fire, not from the taliban, but from isis. and u.s. military officials worry the extremists will continue to target americans or try to target americans until they leave. this morning, the planes in kabul are flying. but the evacuation that has already taken out more than 100,000 u.s. citizens, afghanistan contractors, and asylum seekers now has greater urgency and even more heightened security concerns that isis could try to shoot down a flight or carry out another attack. >> we believe it is their desire to continue those attacks and we expect those attacks to continue. and we're doing everything we can to be prepared for those attacks. >> reporter: in kabul, medical officials keep raising the death toll to at least 100 killed and dozens injured from two bombings, one at a crowded airport gate, another close by at a hotel used as a gathering point to go into kabul airport. as marines were doing pat-downs at the gate, checking for bombs, an evacuee was wearing one and detonated it, killing at least 13 service members, most of them marines. amid the explosions, gunmen opened fire. the u.s. is increasingly reliant on the taliban for security. our former enemies are prescreening and patting down evacuees before they arrive at the u.s.-manned gates. but this time, the new and unlikely cooperation broke down. >> clearly, if they were able to get up to the marines at the screening, at the entry point of the base, there's a player somewhere. >> reporter: isis-k, the isis offshoot in afghanistan and pakistan, claimed responsibility. isis is the enemy of both the u.s. and the taliban. and now both sides are mutually interested in fighting them. when u.s. troops pulled out of combat bases in afghanistan, including bagram, triggering the collapse of the afghan army, the taliban made advances. prisoners broke out of unguarded jails, and thousands of isis, al qaeda, and other extremists escaped. they have been on the loose for nearly two weeks. and they would like nothing more than to seek their revenge by attacking the americans as they leave, kicking them when they're down, firing on americans as they leave afghanistan in defeat. the taliban have set up even more checkpoints around the airport this morning, keeping crowds still further back. it means if you are an afghan in kabul right now, it is extremely difficult to reach the airport. unless you have a bus, a special permission from the taliban, the window has probably closed to get to the airport and get out. savannah. >> that is just a nightmare scenario there, richard. thank you very much. >>> meantime, president biden i to respond with force to the terrorists behs chief white hou correspondent peter alexander is covering that part of the story. peter, good morning. >> reporter: hoda, good morning. president biden says he is outraged and heartbroken by the deadly attack. the white house calling thursday the worst day of his presidency. still, for the commander in chief, it has only reinforced his resolve for the u.s. to leave afghanistan by his august 31st deadline. president biden vowing revenge against those who carrie against those who carried out one of the deadliest attacks in america's longest war. >> we will not forgive we will not forget we will hunt you down and make you pay. >> reporter: the president condemning the terror group isis-k for thursday's bombing, a nightmare scenario he had warned about for days, and honoring the service members who lost their lives in kabul as the backbone of america >> it's an over-used word, but it's totally appropriate they were heros, heros who had been engaged in the dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others. >> reporter: president biden noting his predecessor made the original deal with the taliban to withdrawal troops but acknowledging when it comes to the chaotic past few weeks, the buck stops with him. >> i bear responsibility for fundamentally all that's happened of late >> reporter: and this morning, the president is facing a bipartisan barrage of new criticism. top democrat senator bob menendez angry the taliban is helping protect the airport, writing, "we can't trust the taliban with american security." and republican ben sass blasting the administration's strategy saying reverse course and fight for our people this is like little to get worse and weakness will accelerate the bloodshed. still, president biden is standing by his commitment to an august 31st withdrawal date. >> we will not be deterred by terrorists we will not let them stop our mission. we will continue the evacuation. >> reporter: president biden says u.s. intelligence may have already identified those who organized thursday's attack and he says he's asked his military commanders for options to strike isis-k, promising the u.s. will respond, in his words, in a moment of our choosing, echoing george w. bush's words in 2011 when the 20-year war in afghanistan began. savannah >> peter alexander, thank you. >>> joining us now, retired admiral james stavridis, served as nato supreme allied commander overseeing the mission in afghanistan from 2009 to 2013 and john brennan who served as cia director during the obama administration, both nbc news security analysts. gentlemen, good morning to you admiral, i keep thing about the troops who woke up this morning in afghanistan and went back under extraordinary circumstances, a danger that really can't be mitigated. how do you keep u.s. troops and afghan allies safe in a situation like this? >> let's start by thinking about those 13 families who are waking up undoubtedly the worst day of their lives. i know it was a bad day for the president. it was a terrible day for those families savannah, there is no good solution here. and as i said a couple of times over the past few weeks, we are one truck bomb, one c-17 shootdown, one shoot-out at the kia corral away from this mission going sideways we can still pull this thing off. it's going to require total focus, doing everything we can to push the perimeter out, cooperating with the taliban to do so, mitigating every conceivable threat particularly threats against aircraft let's get this thing done by the 31st and step away >> director brennan, the taliban, as mentioned, is providing the first layer of security, which is just stunning to even contemplate that that is the situation we're in to rely on the taliban for american security but what options do we have? what leverage do we have with the taliban to say step it up? >> well, savannah, we have no alternative but to work closely with the taliban they control the area outside of that airport and so, therefore, we have to interact with them we're not relying on them, but in terms of making sure that they're doing everything possible to prevent individuals who have a terrorist agenda from getting close to that airport. again, this is something that i think we know that the taliban is not an organization that we would naturally work with. also, there is concern that isis-k, the group that carried out this attack, is composed of a lot of former taliban members. so, therefore, infiltrating the taliban by the isis organization is something that i think we have to be very wary of. >> absolutely. and admiral, how likely is it that we see another attack like this or worse in these coming days >> i think better than even. and director brennan knows this better than anybody, but these kind of attacks tend to go in waves. think about three to four years ago and you felt like every month you were seeing a spectacular isis attack somewhere around the world that is the dna of this group that's quite horrific to contemplate that i would say what we ought to be thinking about is what do we do going forward? as john brennan said, we're going to have to work with the taliban. think world war ii we worked with stalin in order to overcome the nazis. this is not dissimilar we have to find ways to keep eyes on, intelligence in afghanistan, we have to be able to go over the horizon and conclude, as president biden said, never forgive, never forget another saying is revenge is a dish best eaten cold let's focus on getting out of kia airport. job next is finding isis-k and putting them at the bottom of the indian ocean alongside bin laden. >> and that leads me exactly to where i wanted to head with the former cia director among us, john brennan the president said we won't forgive or forget. we will retaliate. in practical terms, what could that mean? >> well, we still have some intelligence assets that we can use in terms of overhead collection capabilities. i know that u.s. intelligence officers continue to run sources inside afghanistan so what we're trying to do now, i'm certain, is to understand where the isis leadership resides, where these oppositions are, to take the actions necessary to prevent a follow-on attack and to get to the heart of that organization and this is something that i know that president biden is determined to do we have a clock that is ticking down to the 31st of august i do believe president biden will stay focused on that departure date but between now and then, there is an enormous challenge it's a very, very dangerous security environment but the u.s. military, u.s. intelligence and others are going to do their absolute best to prevent any more loss of life on the part of the u.s. military or civilian personnel. >> and a final word from you, admiral, in the moments we have left as you know, the administration is under fierce criticism from democrats and republicans alike for the execution and the handling of this withdrawal. they say -- the administration says in essence it was never going to be pretty chaos was in some sense inevitable when you withdrawal from afghanistan but couldn't it have gone better than this? haven't there been pretty egregious mistakes made here >> it certainly could have gone better and i think we need to pull that apart and figure it out. and there's blame all the way around here from the collapse of the afghan military, which the u.s. military and i count myself, there were not perfect intelligence there never is the taliban stepped up in war. the enemy gets a vote. they performed superbly, frankly. we're going to pull that apart job one right now is to get out of this situation with all of the americans and as many afghans as we possibly can the next job is going after isis-k, and i'm sure we're going to continue to work to get the remaining afghan allies out. if we have to create an underground railroad to do so, we'll do it. we have work to do in afghanistan, but now is the time to leave tactically. >> admiral stavridis, former cia director brennan, thank you very much we'll have more on this story throughout the morning including a closer look at the rise of isis-k and the ongoing threat it poses. that's coming up in the next half hour. >> savannah, thank you >>> right now, though, let's turn to the latest on the pandemic as we welcome in craig. good morning, craig. >> good morning. good morning to you, as well in a new sign of the severity of covid summer surge, more than 2,100 deaths were reported in the united states on thursday alone, the first day with more than 2,000 fatalities since march 5th. cases have now grown so bad in parts of the south in some cases ambulances are being forced to wait outside of packed hospitals for hours. nbc's morgan chesky saw it firsthand when he rode along with some first responders in houston, texas morgan, good morning >> reporter: craig, good morning. paramedics tell me they are frustrated and in a lot of cases feel like their hands are tied when they pull up to a hospital with a patient in the back and there's no place to go for weeks now, we have been reporting about how hospitals are filling up and last night, we had a chance to witness the consequences. this morning in houston, a dangerous new normal >> they know you're going to come to work, you're going to transport a patient, you're going to be there several hours. >> reporter: at one hospital >> at one hospital >> reporter: covid-19 leaving hospitals so packed, first responders and patients facing excruciating waits >> y'all been there about two hours, though? >> reporter: we joined fire captain chris ponzeko as he took calls from ambulance crews with no place to go >> they'll call me in the middle of the night and tell me, hey, captain, we're still waiting for a bed. it's been 3 1/2 hours. what do you want us to do? >> reporter: 3 hours >> 3 hours, 3 1/2 hours. we've had up to 4 1/2 hours. >> reporter: at this houston county hospital, philly had to get hit patient extra oxygen after the first bottle ran out when you have a patient now, what is the message from any hospital >> they don't have any beds. >> reporter: nationwide, more than 100,000 covid patients are hospitalized, florida with a grim new record, 901 deaths in a single day state hospitals are reporting more than 90% of those admitted were unvaccinated. >> the patients we're getting are younger and they're turning sicker much faster >> reporter: in illinois, the governor issuing a new indoor mask mandate and vaccine requirements for health care and education workers. >> this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated >> reporter: that reality underscored here in houston by a heartbreaking announcement, the city confirming its first case of a child dying of covid with no underlying health conditions. >> do you think your patient has covid? >> reporter: for those on the front lines facing an overwhelmed hospital system, there's no win in sight. >> covid is real it's killing people. we're seeing a vast majority of our patients that don't have the vaccine. we're transporting them to the hospital and they're barely breathing sometimes. so i would tell them to get vaccinated >> reporter: and paramedics stress the covid impact goes from their current patient on to the next they say their biggest fear is someone having a dire emergency, say a heart attack, and it taking longer for an ambulance to reach them because so many of them are tied up at hospitals like this one. craig. >> morgan, thank you >>> another big story we're covering this morning, it is that tropical system expected to threaten gulf states as a major hurricane. i know a lot of folks in new orleans have their eyes on this one. al, what are the details >> tropical storm ida, right now, we have tropical storm warnings up for cuba but as we get closer, almost from the louisiana-texas border to the mississippi-alabama border, we're talking about hurricane watches up right now, ida is up 50 miles north-northwest of grand cayman, about 900 miles from new orleans. 45-mile-per-hour winds moving northwest at 14 miles per hour here is what we're concerned about. the water temperatures in the gulf are in the upper 80s. that's 3 to 5 degrees above average for this time. and that makes rapid intensification of this system likely by saturday, a category 1. by sunday, just offshore around 1:00, it's a category 3 storm. this could be a conservative estimate so we're going to continue to watch this then it continues to track to the north and then make a turn and head up into northern mississippi. but it's still a tropical storm. here is what we're looking for right now as far as concerns and watches. storm surge watches from sabine pass all the way to mobile, alabama. the storm surges could get up to 4 to 7 to 7 to 11 feet along central louisiana coast. we're also looking at heavy rain with this system, upwards of 20 inches of rain localized and there's already -- the ground is saturated from heavy storms already so this is a very concerning situation and, of course, we're going to continue to track it for you. we're going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds there's no telling what we might bundle! homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon! bundle cars, trucks, colonials, bungalows, and that weird hut your uncle lives in. so strike up the homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon band for the deal that started forever ago and will probably never end. homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon. -say it with me. -homeandautobundle-- no one's leaving till you say it right. homeandauto... >> good morning. i'm meteorologist kari hall. let's take a look at our high temperatures today. it's going to be hotter especially in the valleys looking at antioch today reaching 100 degrees. that's one of our hotter spots. compare that to 74 for a high in san francisco an 90 in napa, 87 expected in san jose. that's coming along with some unhealthy air quality at times especially this afternoon. even hotter temperatures tomorrow, but it will be gradually cooling off by early next week. we'll drop back into the lower 80s. point on this, but if this makes landfall sunday morning in louisiana, 16 years to the day that hurricane katrina hit so we're going to continue to watch this >> thank you very much >>> still ahead here this morning, exactly what is isis-k? andrea mitchell is taking a closer look at the terror group behind the deadly attacks in kabul, its rapid rise in afghanistan, and the growing threat to both u.s. and taliban forces >>> and then the officer who fatally shot a rioter while defending the u.s. capitol on january 6th stepping out of the shadows in an exclusive interview with lester holt his harrowing account of what led up to that moment and why he this unplugged device is protecting our beautiful coastlines and more. put off chores and use less energy from 4 to 9 pm to help keep our state golden. sharing their emotional story to spread the word about a hidden boating danger that impacts swimmers >> what you need to know as we head into the final weekend of summertime but first, your local news and weather. oh! we're dancing. woah! oh. ok! and that's a yeah. uh huh. 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[car horn and collisions] [tires squealing] just think, he'll be driving for real soon. every new chevy equinox comes standard with chevy safety assist including automatic emergency braking. . >>> good morning. it's 7:26. i'm marcus washington. here's today's top stories including the bay area responds to events in afghanistan. >> i'm kris sanchez in fremont's little kabul. a u.s. veteran's organization is planning a day of action tomorrow to support the afghan people in the light of the suicide attack outsides the kabul airport. veterans against the war is mapping to gather at 2:00 if san francisco's union square, while other similar gatherings are planned for other major cities across the country. if you are looking for the latest news or looking for a way to help the afghan people, go to nbcbayarea.com. >>> i'm bob redell here in dublin. the bay area air quality management district has issued air quality advisories for today and tomorrow because of wildfire smoke burning in other parts of the state like the caldor fire. we can expect hazy skies, possibly the smell of smoke this weekend, but the air quality is not expected to be the level of spare the air days like we had last week. the district expects air quality today and tomorrow to be moderate. zoo get a look at that microclimate forecast for you and speaking of what bob was talking about, kari, something we're dealing with. >> yeah. we are going to see a lot more smoke as we go into this afternoon at least for the morning hours, it's target out clear and not looking as hazy. we're going it see that smoke rolling in today as we go into this afternoon, unhealthy to be outside for long periods of time and it will linger into the day tomorrow. this as our temperatures are heating up to the mid to upper 90s for the weekend. >> all right. thanks. >> we're going to have another local news update in 30 minutes. i'll meet you back here then. jason, did you know geico could save you hundreds on car insurance and a whole lot more? cool. so what are you waiting for? mckayla maroney to get your frisbee off the roof? i'll get it. ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ whoa. here you go. 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[sfx: bear roar] does a bear sh*t in the woods? majestic mountains... scenic coastal highways... fertile farmlands... there's lots to love about california. so put off those chores and use less energy from 4 to 9 pm when less clean energy is available. because that's power down time. morning, august 27th, 2021 u.s. flags at the white house and capitol and federal buildings across the country all flying at half-staff to honor the u.s. service members killed in those twin terror attacks at the kabul airport. >> those flags will remain lowered through sunset on monday much more on the situation in afghanistan, just ahead. >>> let's get a check off our headlines here 7:30 on a friday morning and we begin with a significant ruling from the supreme court that could impact millions of americans. last night, the court blocked the biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban on evictions. it was put in place because of the pandemic the ruling will end protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the u.s. who say they faced eviction in the next two months. the court says the cdc, which reimposed the moratorium earlier this month lacked the authority to do so >>> the man convicted of assassinating robert f. contempt din will be before the patrol board today. sirhanis seeking release for the 16th time. but for the first time ever there will be no opposition from prosecutors. the l.a. district attorney says he is sticking to his policy that prosecutors have no role in deciding whether prisoners should be released he says that decision is best left to the parole board the 77-year-old sirhan has served 53 years in prison. >>> also this morning, more gold medals for team usa at the tokya paralympics. 17-year-old anastasia pagonis, who is blind, set a new world record in the women's 400 meter freestyle. the long island, new york, native dominating the competition in the finals. and then it was atlanta's gia pergolini's turn to make history, pergolini setting a new world record in the 400 meter backstroke both girls making their first paralympic appearance winning gold catch the full coverage of the paralympics on the nbc sports app and on the nbc networks. >>> now back to afghanistan and the twin bombings at the kabul airport. >> they claimed the live
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