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Afghanistan updates: ‘It was time to end this war,’ Biden says

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Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boards a C-17 cargo plane at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Maj. Gen. Donahue is the final American service member to depart Afghanistan, Aug. 30, 2021. – U.S. Central Command

(KABUL, Afghanistan) — With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete after 20 years in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks.

But even as the last American troops were flown out to meet President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline, other Americans who wanted to flee the country were left behind and the Biden administration is now focused on a “diplomatic mission” to help them leave.

When President Joe Biden sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House on Aug. 18, he said he was committed to keeping the U.S. military in Afghanistan as long as needed. “If there are American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” he said.

Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern.

Aug 31, 4:18 pm
President claims US prepared to handle collapse of Afghan military, government

Biden said the decision to depart Afghanistan by Aug. 31 was predicated on the “assumption” that the Afghan government “would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown.”

“The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan national security forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban,” Biden said. “That assumption, that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown, turned out not to be accurate.”

Aug 31, 3:51 pm
‘It was time to end this war’: Biden

In his address to the nation, the president said it was time to end the war.

“We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago. Then we stayed for another decade. It was time to end this war,” he said. “This is a new world: Al-Qaida affiliates in Syria and ISIS attempting to create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and establishing affiliates across Africa nation. The fundamental obligation of a president, in my opinion, is to defend and protect America. Not against threats of 2001 but against the threats of 2021 and tomorrow.”

“That is the guiding principle behind my decisions about Afghanistan,” he added. “I simply do not believe that the safety and security of America is enhanced by continuing to deploy thousands of American troops and sending billions of dollars.”

Aug 31, 3:51 pm
Biden says 90% of Americans who wanted to leave were able to leave

Biden touted efforts to get out Afghans who helped the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and said, “Now we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan, with some intention to leave.”

“Most of those who remain are dual citizens, long-time residents who had earlier decided to stay because of their family roots in Afghanistan,” Biden said. “The bottom line, 90% of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave. And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out.”

Aug 31, 3:35 pm
Biden addresses nation following US withdrawal

In his first formal remarks since the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan, the president said, “The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals.”

“For weeks they risked their lives to get American citizens Afghans who helped us, citizens of our allies and partners and others onboard planes and out of the country,” he continued. “And they did it facing a crush of enormous crowds seeking to leave the country. And they did it knowing ISIS-K terrorists, sworn enemies of the Taliban were lurking in the midst of those crowds.”

Aug 31, 2:53 pm
McConnell blasts Biden for breaking promise, leaving Americans behind

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized President Biden, claiming he broke his “promise” to get every American who wanted to leave Afghanistan out of the country before the U.S. military left, saying Biden’s “reckless withdrawal has created a humanitarian disaster and emboldened the terrorists.”

“Two weeks ago, President Biden specifically promised he wouldn’t pull out before every American who wanted out had gotten out. By their own admission, the Biden Administration has now broken that promise,” McConnell said Tuesday at an event in Ashland, Kentucky.

In an exclusive interview on Aug. 18 with ABC’s George Stephanopolous, Biden said that “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”

At the event, McConnell also warned of the continued threat from the Taliban, adding, “This fight will not end just because our politicians want it to go away.”

Aug 31, 2:19 pm
Scenes from Kabul the day after the US military withdrawal

Scenes around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Tuesday showed Taliban fighters appearing to wear Afghan National Army uniforms after the militant group took control of the airport following the U.S. military’s full withdrawal from the country — a far different picture from the days preceding.

Resources left behind in the wake of mass evacuations, including equipment stamped with American and Afghan national flags, littered the area where U.S. troops recently stood guard. Taliban fighters have apparently since seized some equipment distributed to the Afghan army by the U.S. before it collapsed.

As the 20-year war came to a close on Monday, the Pentagon said that the cost, in human lives, was 2,461 troops killed and more than 20,000 injured.

Since the evacuation mission began, 6,000 citizens and more than 123,000 people — Afghan “friends and allies” — were flown out of Afghanistan by the U.S. and partners, but 100 to 200 American citizens still wanting to leave remain, officials said, as well as thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. and fear reprisal from the Taliban.

Aug 31, 2:02 pm
House GOP promising investigation into Biden’s withdrawal decision

GOP Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Republicans had sent letters to the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the intelligence community asking agencies to preserve documents relating to the Afghanistan withdrawal for what they said would be a future investigation.

“We want the Democrats to join us but we are going to do it with or without, exercising our constitutional authority of oversight to get to the bottom of how this got so wrong,” McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said at a news conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

The announcement comes after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Friday there would be “a day of reckoning” for Biden, promising an investigation into the withdrawal. Other GOP House members criticized Biden’s withdrawal, with Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., saying “this disaster is solely the responsibility” of Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Aug 31, 11:57 am
Harris presides over Senate passage of bill assisting Americans fleeing Afghanistan

Vice President Kamala Harris gaveled in a pro forma session of the Senate on Tuesday morning, to enable the passage of a bill that will help with the repatriation of Americans coming from Afghanistan, according to a White House aide.

The bill provides emergency, temporary assistance for Americans returning from Afghanistan. It was passed without any objection at roughly 10:30 a.m. and will now head to the president’s desk since it originated in and already passed the House.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday there is still a “small number of Americans — under 200, and likely closer to 100 — who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave.”

Aug 31, 10:18 am
Taliban spokesperson congratulates nation on ‘freedom,’ American defeat

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told Taliban soldiers at a press conference hours after the last U.S. soldiers left the airport in Kabul that they had secured victory for the whole of the Afghan nation.

“Due to the sincerity, perseverance, and patience of our elders, we gained our freedom. I congratulate all of you and our nation on this freedom, and I hope that Afghanistan will never be occupied and that it will be free, prosperous, and the home of Afghans, and that there will be an Islamic government,” he said, according to a translation of his remarks from Reuters.

Mujahid said the Taliban wanted to sustain good relations with the rest of the world, that Afghanistan was not a country for occupying forces, and that Americans were defeated and could not achieve their goals.

“The nation has suffered a lot, and they have been repressed because of the occupation, have seen problems for 20 years, and can no longer tolerate misbehavior. Therefore, I call on all our militaries to treat the people well because the people have the right to peace, to unite, and we are the servants of the nation, not to dominate the people,” he said.

Aug 31, 10:04 am
Biden to defend Afghanistan withdrawal in speech to nation

President Biden is expected to defend his decision on Afghanistan when he speaks at 2:45 p.m. from the White House — a day after the last U.S. troops left in accordance with his self-imposed deadline but also while other Americans who wanted to leave were left behind to deal with an uncertain fate.

In an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan offered more defense for the administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, perhaps foreshadowing Biden’s remarks this afternoon.

Though Stephanopoulos pressed him for details on the plan to evacuate the remaining Americans, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken said is “under 200,” Sullivan repeated they will use “every available diplomatic means with the economic leverage that we have,” but he did attempt to take credit for the successful evacuations — and even pinned some of the blame on the remaining Americans who weren’t able to make it out.

“We do believe that there is an important dimension of humanitarian assistance that should go directly to the people of Afghanistan.”

National Security Adviser @JakeSullivan46 speaks on working with the Taliban after Afghanistan withdrawal. https://t.co/rHYsSbwZj2 pic.twitter.com/ekVqb0Qs8c

— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 31, 2021

“We got out between 5,500 and 6,000 people — Americans from Afghanistan — we got out 97 or 98% of those on the ground and the small number who remain, we contacted repeatedly over the course of two weeks to come to the airport to come to a rally point. 5,500 or more did that,” Sullivan said.

In response to criticism from many Republicans lawmakers like Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Sullivan contended that only the president, as commander in chief, knows what it is to make these hard decisions.

“Those criticizing are not the ones who have to sit in the Situation Room and make the hard calls about the threats that we face and the objectives we’re trying to obtain and President Biden made that hard call and it is a call he believes will ultimately serve the interests of our people, all of our citizens and our country,” he said.

He also insisted aid will not be given to the Taliban unless they adhere to international obligations.

“It will be about whether they follow through on their commitments, their commitments to safe passage for Americans and Afghan allies. Their commitment to not allow Afghanistan to be a base from which terrorists can attack the United States or any other country,” Sullivan said.

Aug 30, 9:19 pm
Taliban wield American-supplied equipment, uniforms after withdrawal

Moments after the last U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan, Taliban fighters entered the Kabul airport, wielding American-supplied weapons, equipment and even uniforms.

Aug 30, 8:59 pm
Military releases image of last soldier out of Afghanistan

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, of the 82nd Airborne Division, was the last American service member to depart Afghanistan, according to Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command.

“On the last plane out was General Chris Donahue, the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and my ground commander, and he was accompanied by our — our charge d’affaires, Ambassador Ross Wilson, so they came out together,” McKenzie said at the Pentagon briefing. “So the state and defense team came out on the last aircraft and were in fact the last people to step on the ground.”

Aug 30, 8:04 pm
US engaging Taliban, but not recognizing it

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. will continue to engage the Taliban going forward — engagement that will be “driven by one thing only — our vital national interest.”

“The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support. Our message is any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned,” he said. “The Taliban can do that by meeting commitments and obligations on freedom of travel; respecting the basic rights of the Afghan people, including women and minorities; upholding its commitments on counter-terrorism; not carrying out reprisal violence against those who choose to stay in Afghanistan; and forming an inclusive government that can meet the needs and reflect the aspirations of the Afghan people.”

But the Taliban have already violated many of those — denying freedom of travel to some, violating their commitments on counter-terrorism, carrying out reprisal violence and more.

Aug 30, 7:37 pm
Commitment to Afghans who worked with US ‘has no deadline’: Blinken

For Afghans who worked alongside the U.S. who wanted to leave but weren’t able to get out, the U.S. would continue to try to help them, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in remarks Monday evening.

“Our commitment to them has no deadline,” he said.

To that end, he thanked Qatar and Turkey for trying to make the Kabul airport operational soon, allowing safe passage to these people.

“This would enable a small number of daily charter flights, which is a key for anyone who wants to depart from Afghanistan moving forward,” Blinken said. “We’re also working to identify ways to support Americans, legal permanent residents and Afghans who have worked with us to depart via land routes.”

But he tempered expectations.

“We have no illusion that any of this will be easy,” Blinken said. “Or rapid. This will be an entirely different phase from the evacuation that just concluded. It will take time to work through a new set of challenges.”

Aug 30, 5:01 pm
Number of Americans left in Afghanistan in the ‘low 100s’

There are still Americans left in Afghanistan that the United States is trying to get out of the country, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said.

“I believe our Department of State is going to work very hard to allow any American citizens that are left, and we think the citizens that were not brought outnumber in the low — very low 100s,” McKenzie said. “I believe that we’re going to be able to get those people out.”

There were no evacuees left at the airport when the last U.S. flight left, he said.

McKenzie also said the U.S. would also “negotiate very hard, and very aggressively, to get our other Afghan partners out.”

Aug 30, 4:35 pm
All US troops have departed Afghanistan: Pentagon

All U.S. troops have departed Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense, concluding America’s military ground presence there and its longest war.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, made the announcement from the headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida, after being introduced in the Pentagon Briefing Room by press secretary John Kirby.

Acknowledging that the withdrawal has been completed, McKenzie said the last U.S. military plane has cleared Afghan airspace.

He said that the U.S. military’s 20-year mission in Afghanistan is over.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Florida Department of Education to withhold salaries for Broward, Alachua county boards; schools plan to keep mask mandates

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miljko/iStock

(FLA.) — Florida’s Department of Education announced on Monday that it would withhold school board members’ salaries in Alachua and Broward counties because of their school mask mandates.

Both counties’ school districts said on Tuesday they still plan on requiring masks because of the COVID-19 pandemic and are exploring legal action.

The department’s announcement came after a circuit court judge in Florida ruled on Friday that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent executive order banning school mask mandates overstepped his authority. The Florida Department of Education did not mention the ruling in its announcement.

“We’re going to fight to protect parent’s (sic) rights to make health care decisions for their children. They know what is best for their children. What’s unacceptable is the politicians who have raised their right hands and pledged, under oath, to uphold the Constitution but are not doing so,” Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said in the department’s announcement.

DeSantis had also initially threatened to withhold superintendent’s salaries, before admitting that he did not have the ability to do so.

On Aug. 11, DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, said the state “could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members” as punishment.

“I’m very troubled by the state’s action,” Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon said in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday. “Our School Board members made a courageous decision to protect the health and lives of students, staff and the people of this community, and a court has already ruled they had the legal right to do so. They deserve praise, not penalties.”

Simon said that the district has already begun exploring legal action in tandem with other districts.

Broward County Public Schools interim Superintendent Dr. Vickie Cartwright said in a video statement shared by the district on Tuesday that they have consulted with legal advisers and believe they are still complying with state rules even with the mandate.

“The health and the safety of our students, teachers, and staff continues to be our highest priority. As such, we will continue to mandate the mask, knowing that our data … is demonstrating that the use of the mask is helping to minimize the spread of COVID-19,” Cartwright said.

Rosalind Osgood, the chair of the Broward County school board, confirmed on Tuesday to ABC News that Broward County is one of the districts working with Alachua to file a lawsuit.

The state and the counties have fought over mask mandates for weeks. On Aug. 20, Florida’s Board of Education gave both counties 48 hours to reverse mask mandates, but both districts refused.

Nationwide debates around mask mandates have escalated recently as the school year begins.

On Monday, the federal Department of Education announced civil rights investigations into five states banning mask mandates. Florida is not one of those states, “because those states’ bans on universal indoor masking are not currently being enforced as a result of court orders or other state actions,” according to the Education Department.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

More Americans getting vaccinated following full FDA approval of Pfizer COVID vaccine

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Prostock studio/iStock

(NEW YORK) — Thousands of Americans were finally persuaded to get their first shot in the week following the Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the Pfizer-BioNtech coronavirus vaccine, new data reveals.

A new ABC News analysis found that initial data, stemming from the last seven days, indicates that since the FDA’s announcement of the approval, the U.S. has indeed seen a slight uptick in the average number of Americans getting their first COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Just prior to the announcement, the U.S. rate of first doses had stagnated. Although the country experienced an increase in people initiating vaccination in July as new coronavirus cases surged across the country, the average number of Americans getting their first dose had then declined.

However, following Pfizer’s full approval, the U.S. saw a 17% increase in the number of Americans getting vaccinated with their first dose.

In the week prior to the full approval, an average of about 404,000 Americans were initiating vaccination each day. As of Monday, approximately 473,000 Americans were getting their first shot each day.

“As expected, full approval was enough to convince at least some to finally get immunized,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

Although there does not appear to have been a mad rush of people getting vaccinated in the days immediately following approval, the uptick was significant enough to shift the country’s vaccination trend upward.

“While surveys initially had estimated a far greater segment of the population who pegged full approval as their reason for holding off, we have yet to see a large wave of newly convinced people to roll up their sleeves,” Brownstein added.

Experts caution that although the uptick is encouraging, there is still much work to do in convincing millions more hesitant Americans to get the shot.

However, according to a newly released Axios-Ipsos poll, vaccine hesitancy among Americans has hit a record low, with only 2 in 10 Americans saying they are unlikely to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and 14% saying they are not likely at all.

The poll, which was conducted prior to full FDA approval, found that about a third of unvaccinated Americans said they would be likely to get vaccinated if it was formally approved for use by the FDA. However, about 6 in 10 said they would still not get vaccinated even if it were approved by the FDA.

In another move that officials hope will encourage Americans to get the shot, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention independent advisory panel, took the approval a step further on Monday, unanimously endorsing Pfizer’s vaccine for use in people 16 years of age and older

“We now have a fully approved COVID-19 vaccine and ACIP has added its recommendation. If you have been waiting for this approval before getting the vaccine, now is the time to get vaccinated and join the more than 173 million Americans who are already fully vaccinated,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement Monday.

It is difficult to know for sure if this increasing trend will continue. On Tuesday, for example, the U.S. reported a single-day total of approximately 283,000 first shots administered, well below the current seven-day average.

Vaccination trends also remain unsteady, and highly susceptible to mandates imposed by jurisdiction.

“While FDA approval has many positive implications for the vaccine rollout, this is not a replacement for the constant need for basic education on the individual and community benefits of immunization,” Brownstein said.

Full approval has rendered it easier for employers to mandate vaccines, which could also be one of the drivers of rising vaccination rates, experts have suggested. In the last week alone, an increasing number of companies and government entities have moved to require proof of vaccination or risk termination.

Just hours after the full approval was announced, for example, the Pentagon announced that they would begin preparations to make the vaccine mandatory.

“I’m calling on more companies in the private sector to step up with vaccine requirements that will reach millions more people,” President Joe Biden said in remarks at the White House last week. “If you’re a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader, who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call on you now to do that — require it. It only makes sense to require a vaccine to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

The push for more companies to require employees to get vaccinated comes as the U.S. continues to struggle through its latest surge in COVID-19 infections.

With more than 101,000 patients now hospitalized across the country with COVID-19, the U.S. is steadily approaching its hospitalization peak from early January, when more than 125,000 patients were hospitalized at one time. A little over two months ago, there were under 12,000 patients receiving care.

And nationally, nearly 94% of U.S. counties are now reporting high community transmission.

“With only 53% of the population fully vaccinated, we are going to need a much more significant increase in vaccinations if we are going to limit the impact of a fall surge and get to the other side of this pandemic,” Brownstein said.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Afghanistan updates: Biden speaks to nation on military withdrawal

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Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boards a C-17 cargo plane at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Maj. Gen. Donahue is the final American service member to depart Afghanistan, Aug. 30, 2021. – U.S. Central Command

(KABUL, Afghanistan) — With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete after 20 years in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks.

But even as the last American troops were flown out to meet President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline, other Americans who wanted to flee the country were left behind and the Biden administration is now focused on a “diplomatic mission” to help them leave.

When President Joe Biden sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House on Aug. 18, he said he was committed to keeping the U.S. military in Afghanistan as long as needed. “If there are American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” he said.

Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern.

Aug 31, 3:51 pm
‘It was time to end this war’: Biden

In his address to the nation, the president said it was time to end the war.

“We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago. Then we stayed for another decade. It was time to end this war,” he said. “This is a new world: Al-Qaida affiliates in Syria and ISIS attempting to create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and establishing affiliates across Africa nation. The fundamental obligation of a president, in my opinion, is to defend and protect America. Not against threats of 2001 but against the threats of 2021 and tomorrow.”

“That is the guiding principle behind my decisions about Afghanistan,” he added. “I simply do not believe that the safety and security of America is enhanced by continuing to deploy thousands of American troops and sending billions of dollars.”

Aug 31, 3:51 pm
Biden says 90% of Americans who wanted to leave were able to leave

Biden touted efforts to get out Afghans who helped the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and said, “Now we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan, with some intention to leave.”

“Most of those who remain are dual citizens, long-time residents who had earlier decided to stay because of their family roots in Afghanistan,” Biden said. “The bottom line, 90% of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave. And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out.”

Aug 31, 3:35 pm
Biden addresses nation following US withdrawal

In his first formal remarks since the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan, the president said, “The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals.”

“For weeks they risked their lives to get American citizens Afghans who helped us, citizens of our allies and partners and others onboard planes and out of the country,” he continued. “And they did it facing a crush of enormous crowds seeking to leave the country. And they did it knowing ISIS-K terrorists, sworn enemies of the Taliban were lurking in the midst of those crowds.”

Aug 31, 2:53 pm
McConnell blasts Biden for breaking promise, leaving Americans behind

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized President Biden, claiming he broke his “promise” to get every American who wanted to leave Afghanistan out of the country before the U.S. military left, saying Biden’s “reckless withdrawal has created a humanitarian disaster and emboldened the terrorists.”

“Two weeks ago, President Biden specifically promised he wouldn’t pull out before every American who wanted out had gotten out. By their own admission, the Biden Administration has now broken that promise,” McConnell said Tuesday at an event in Ashland, Kentucky.

In an exclusive interview on Aug. 18 with ABC’s George Stephanopolous, Biden said that “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”

At the event, McConnell also warned of the continued threat from the Taliban, adding, “This fight will not end just because our politicians want it to go away.”

Aug 31, 2:19 pm
Scenes from Kabul the day after the US military withdrawal

Scenes around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Tuesday showed Taliban fighters appearing to wear Afghan National Army uniforms after the militant group took control of the airport following the U.S. military’s full withdrawal from the country — a far different picture from the days preceding.

Resources left behind in the wake of mass evacuations, including equipment stamped with American and Afghan national flags, littered the area where U.S. troops recently stood guard. Taliban fighters have apparently since seized some equipment distributed to the Afghan army by the U.S. before it collapsed.

As the 20-year war came to a close on Monday, the Pentagon said that the cost, in human lives, was 2,461 troops killed and more than 20,000 injured.

Since the evacuation mission began, 6,000 citizens and more than 123,000 people — Afghan “friends and allies” — were flown out of Afghanistan by the U.S. and partners, but 100 to 200 American citizens still wanting to leave remain, officials said, as well as thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. and fear reprisal from the Taliban.

Aug 31, 2:02 pm
House GOP promising investigation into Biden’s withdrawal decision

GOP Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Republicans had sent letters to the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the intelligence community asking agencies to preserve documents relating to the Afghanistan withdrawal for what they said would be a future investigation.

“We want the Democrats to join us but we are going to do it with or without, exercising our constitutional authority of oversight to get to the bottom of how this got so wrong,” McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said at a news conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

The announcement comes after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Friday there would be “a day of reckoning” for Biden, promising an investigation into the withdrawal. Other GOP House members criticized Biden’s withdrawal, with Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., saying “this disaster is solely the responsibility” of Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Aug 31, 11:57 am
Harris presides over Senate passage of bill assisting Americans fleeing Afghanistan

Vice President Kamala Harris gaveled in a pro forma session of the Senate on Tuesday morning, to enable the passage of a bill that will help with the repatriation of Americans coming from Afghanistan, according to a White House aide.

The bill provides emergency, temporary assistance for Americans returning from Afghanistan. It was passed without any objection at roughly 10:30 a.m. and will now head to the president’s desk since it originated in and already passed the House.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday there is still a “small number of Americans — under 200, and likely closer to 100 — who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave.”

Aug 31, 10:18 am
Taliban spokesperson congratulates nation on ‘freedom,’ American defeat

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told Taliban soldiers at a press conference hours after the last U.S. soldiers left the airport in Kabul that they had secured victory for the whole of the Afghan nation.

“Due to the sincerity, perseverance, and patience of our elders, we gained our freedom. I congratulate all of you and our nation on this freedom, and I hope that Afghanistan will never be occupied and that it will be free, prosperous, and the home of Afghans, and that there will be an Islamic government,” he said, according to a translation of his remarks from Reuters.

Mujahid said the Taliban wanted to sustain good relations with the rest of the world, that Afghanistan was not a country for occupying forces, and that Americans were defeated and could not achieve their goals.

“The nation has suffered a lot, and they have been repressed because of the occupation, have seen problems for 20 years, and can no longer tolerate misbehavior. Therefore, I call on all our militaries to treat the people well because the people have the right to peace, to unite, and we are the servants of the nation, not to dominate the people,” he said.

Aug 31, 10:04 am
Biden to defend Afghanistan withdrawal in speech to nation

President Biden is expected to defend his decision on Afghanistan when he speaks at 2:45 p.m. from the White House — a day after the last U.S. troops left in accordance with his self-imposed deadline but also while other Americans who wanted to leave were left behind to deal with an uncertain fate.

In an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan offered more defense for the administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, perhaps foreshadowing Biden’s remarks this afternoon.

Though Stephanopoulos pressed him for details on the plan to evacuate the remaining Americans, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken said is “under 200,” Sullivan repeated they will use “every available diplomatic means with the economic leverage that we have,” but he did attempt to take credit for the successful evacuations — and even pinned some of the blame on the remaining Americans who weren’t able to make it out.

“We do believe that there is an important dimension of humanitarian assistance that should go directly to the people of Afghanistan.”

National Security Adviser @JakeSullivan46 speaks on working with the Taliban after Afghanistan withdrawal. https://t.co/rHYsSbwZj2 pic.twitter.com/ekVqb0Qs8c

— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 31, 2021

“We got out between 5,500 and 6,000 people — Americans from Afghanistan — we got out 97 or 98% of those on the ground and the small number who remain, we contacted repeatedly over the course of two weeks to come to the airport to come to a rally point. 5,500 or more did that,” Sullivan said.

In response to criticism from many Republicans lawmakers like Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Sullivan contended that only the president, as commander in chief, knows what it is to make these hard decisions.

“Those criticizing are not the ones who have to sit in the Situation Room and make the hard calls about the threats that we face and the objectives we’re trying to obtain and President Biden made that hard call and it is a call he believes will ultimately serve the interests of our people, all of our citizens and our country,” he said.

He also insisted aid will not be given to the Taliban unless they adhere to international obligations.

“It will be about whether they follow through on their commitments, their commitments to safe passage for Americans and Afghan allies. Their commitment to not allow Afghanistan to be a base from which terrorists can attack the United States or any other country,” Sullivan said.

Aug 30, 9:19 pm
Taliban wield American-supplied equipment, uniforms after withdrawal

Moments after the last U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan, Taliban fighters entered the Kabul airport, wielding American-supplied weapons, equipment and even uniforms.

Aug 30, 8:59 pm
Military releases image of last soldier out of Afghanistan

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, of the 82nd Airborne Division, was the last American service member to depart Afghanistan, according to Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command.

“On the last plane out was General Chris Donahue, the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and my ground commander, and he was accompanied by our — our charge d’affaires, Ambassador Ross Wilson, so they came out together,” McKenzie said at the Pentagon briefing. “So the state and defense team came out on the last aircraft and were in fact the last people to step on the ground.”

Aug 30, 8:04 pm
US engaging Taliban, but not recognizing it

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. will continue to engage the Taliban going forward — engagement that will be “driven by one thing only — our vital national interest.”

“The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support. Our message is any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned,” he said. “The Taliban can do that by meeting commitments and obligations on freedom of travel; respecting the basic rights of the Afghan people, including women and minorities; upholding its commitments on counter-terrorism; not carrying out reprisal violence against those who choose to stay in Afghanistan; and forming an inclusive government that can meet the needs and reflect the aspirations of the Afghan people.”

But the Taliban have already violated many of those — denying freedom of travel to some, violating their commitments on counter-terrorism, carrying out reprisal violence and more.

Aug 30, 7:37 pm
Commitment to Afghans who worked with US ‘has no deadline’: Blinken

For Afghans who worked alongside the U.S. who wanted to leave but weren’t able to get out, the U.S. would continue to try to help them, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in remarks Monday evening.

“Our commitment to them has no deadline,” he said.

To that end, he thanked Qatar and Turkey for trying to make the Kabul airport operational soon, allowing safe passage to these people.

“This would enable a small number of daily charter flights, which is a key for anyone who wants to depart from Afghanistan moving forward,” Blinken said. “We’re also working to identify ways to support Americans, legal permanent residents and Afghans who have worked with us to depart via land routes.”

But he tempered expectations.

“We have no illusion that any of this will be easy,” Blinken said. “Or rapid. This will be an entirely different phase from the evacuation that just concluded. It will take time to work through a new set of challenges.”

Aug 30, 5:01 pm
Number of Americans left in Afghanistan in the ‘low 100s’

There are still Americans left in Afghanistan that the United States is trying to get out of the country, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said.

“I believe our Department of State is going to work very hard to allow any American citizens that are left, and we think the citizens that were not brought outnumber in the low — very low 100s,” McKenzie said. “I believe that we’re going to be able to get those people out.”

There were no evacuees left at the airport when the last U.S. flight left, he said.

McKenzie also said the U.S. would also “negotiate very hard, and very aggressively, to get our other Afghan partners out.”

Aug 30, 4:35 pm
All US troops have departed Afghanistan: Pentagon

All U.S. troops have departed Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense, concluding America’s military ground presence there and its longest war.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, made the announcement from the headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida, after being introduced in the Pentagon Briefing Room by press secretary John Kirby.

Acknowledging that the withdrawal has been completed, McKenzie said the last U.S. military plane has cleared Afghan airspace.

He said that the U.S. military’s 20-year mission in Afghanistan is over.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Afghan migrants trapped for weeks in woods because of Poland and Belarus standoff

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AndreyPopov/iStock

(NEW YORK) — A group of Afghans has been trapped for three weeks at the edge of a forest on the border between Poland and Belarus, caught in a no man’s land between Polish security forces who will not let them enter Poland and Belarusian troops who won’t let them turn back.

The situation of the 32 Afghans—short of food and some seriously ill, according to local activists—has attracted intense attention in Poland and internationally.

The standoff is a result of the surge in migrants arriving at the European Union’s borders that has been engineered by Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko as suspected retaliation against the bloc for its support for the pro-democracy movement that has called for him to step down.

European officials have accused Belarus’ authorities of flying in migrants and then funneling them to its western borders with the goal of orchestrating a migration crisis meant to pressure its European neighbors. So far this year, over 4,000 people—mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan—have illegally crossed from Belarus into neighboring Lithuania. That is 50 times more than all of 2020, according to officials. Poland, which is far larger than Lithuania, recorded over 3,000 illegal crossings since the start of August.

The governments of Lithuania and Poland have said they cannot absorb the influx and hurriedly deployed more security officers and put up a new border fence. The Polish government on Tuesday announced it was seeking a state of emergency for the border zone. The Belarusian security forces meanwhile have been filmed in full riot gear trying to force migrants back toward the border after they are turned back.

The 32 Afghans trapped at the border at Usnarz Górny have found themselves caught in the middle. Last week, Fundacja Ocalenie, a Polish charity that works with refugees, and an opposition member of parliament managed to pass them tents, food and clothing, but since then Polish border guards have blocked them from approaching the group, a spokeswoman for the charity said.

“It is terrible conditions,” said Marianna Warteska, the spokeswoman, told ABC News by phone from close to the border. “They are not receiving any kind of medical assistance—their health is deteriorating.”

She said the group was drinking unclean water from a nearby stream and surviving off bread delivered by the Belarusian guards every couple of days. The volunteers have been communicating with the Afghans via megaphone, she said, but Polish guards would often turn on their vehicle engines and sirens to try to drown them out.

Eight of the Afghans were suffering from kidney issues and five had diarrhea, according to Warteska. She said one 26-year-old man lost consciousness for 20 minutes on Thursday but the border guards refused to call an ambulance. She warned another woman in her fifties has been unable to leave her tent for several days.

A spokeswoman for Poland’s border service on Tuesday declined to comment to ABC News.

Warteska said all 32 Afghans had expressed a desire to seek international protection in Poland and had legal representation from her organization. There was no reason, she said, why the Polish authorities could not take the group for standard processing that would then assess whether they should be granted asylum or returned to their home countries. The decision to keep them in limbo was political posturing, she said.

“It’s really cruel. And it has basically no purpose,” she said. “Because you know it’s 32 people—they are able to process them. It’s not like it is 3 million standing here. We are not asking just for a free pass. We just want the Polish authorities and border guards to behave according to the law. Because right now what they are doing is illegal.”

Poland’s government on Tuesday announced it was seeking approval from the country’s president for a state of emergency to be imposed along part of the border for 30 days in response to migrant arrivals.

“The situation on the border with Belarus is a crisis, it’s very tense because Lukashenko’s regime is transporting people mainly from Iraq to the territory of Belarus and is then shoving these people on to the territory of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to destabilize our countries,” Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said.

The move, which would cover 183 towns 3 kilometers from the border, also requires approval from parliament. It has already attracted criticism from opposition parties and rights groups, which have said the state of emergency is less about stopping migrants than making it harder for activists and the media to be present at the border.

Jan Grabiec, a spokesperson for Civic Platform, the largest opposition party, said the state of emergency was not aimed at halting migrants and “it will only stop the Polish media from showing the chaos and helplessness of the government.”

Lithuania has also declared a state of emergency over the border situation and has appealed to the E.U. to impose new sanctions on Belarus. Both Poland and Lithuania strongly backed the Belarusian opposition during the protests against Lukashenko last year, offering asylum to some of its key leaders.

The European Court of Human Rights last week said Poland’s government must provide food, clothing, medical care and possibly temporary shelter to the Afghans. The court has not yet ruled whether Poland is obliged to let the migrants enter its territory.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Johnson & Johnson HIV vaccine trial fails mid-stage study

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Alernon77/iStock

(NEW YORK) — In yet another setback in the decadeslong scientific quest for an HIV vaccine, a Johnson & Johnson HIV vaccine candidate failed to reduce the risk of infection in a clinical trial among women in southern Africa. The would-be vaccine uses the same underlying technology used successfully for COVID-19 and Ebola viruses, but this recent high-profile failure is another example of immense challenge of creating a vaccine against HIV.

The trial, called Imbokodo, was co-sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It included more than 2,600 women living in five African countries where women and girls have a high risk of HIV infection.

The vaccine was safe, researchers said, but ultimately, efficacy was only 25% — meaning people who received the vaccine had a slightly smaller risk of developing HIV, but the difference was so slight that the result might be chalked up to random chance.

Prominent scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have been searching for an effective HIV vaccine since the virus, which attacks the immune system and leads to a disease called AIDS if left untreated, was first identified in the 1980s. Today, nearly 38 million people are living with HIV worldwide. Although effective treatments can now help people infected with HIV live long and healthy lives, there is still no vaccine that can prevent infection.

Still, scientists say they aren’t giving up.

“The development of a safe and effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection has proven to be a formidable scientific challenge,” Fauci said in prepared remarks. “Although this is certainly not the study outcome for which we had hoped, we must apply the knowledge learned from the Imbokodo trial and continue our efforts to find a vaccine that will be protective against HIV.”

“The challenges associated with the development of an HIV vaccine are unprecedented in the history of vaccinology. After 40 years of global efforts, we still do not have an HIV vaccine,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

“This trial was not a home run but hopefully will guide the HIV field moving forward,” said Barouch, whose laboratory contributed significantly to the initial development of the investigational vaccine.

Despite the setback, the Imbokodo trial showed the vaccine was safe among people who received it — a hopeful sign. Imbokodo means “rock” in the South African language isiZulu, referring to a proverb about women’s strength and community.

“We are extremely grateful to the women who volunteered for the Imbokodo study, and to our partners, including the people on the front lines, all of whom are contributing every day to this enduring quest to make HIV history.” Dr. Paul Stoffels, vice chairman of the executive committee and chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson, said in prepared remarks.

The Johnson & Johnson HIV vaccine uses the same underlying “viral vector” technology used in its current COVID-19 vaccine. Scientists say the recent failure has no bearing on the technology itself, which has been used successfully for other viruses, including Ebola and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Rather, HIV itself is a unique virus. It evades the body’s immune system, making it very difficult to create a vaccine that generates immunity against infection.

HIV activists and scientists alike say this result shouldn’t slow down other efforts to find an effective HIV vaccine.

“It is very disappointing that this particular vaccine candidate did not work in this trial, but the trial was well-conducted and got an answer quickly. HIV remains a global threat, and a safe, efficacious and accessible HIV vaccine is still needed to contribute towards curbing new infections and providing a durable end to the pandemic,” Mitchell Warren, executive director of HIV prevention advocacy organization AVAC, said in prepared remarks.

Another late-stage trial called Mosaico, which uses a slightly different vaccine approach and is being tested among men who have sex with men and transgender people in Europe and North America, will continue. Another study called PrEPVacc is combining HIV vaccine candidates with a once-daily pill called PrEP, which reduces the risk of HIV infection. Meanwhile, Moderna has said it will begin early-stage clinical trials of its own HIV vaccine candidate, which uses its mRNA technology, this year.

“This is in no way the end of the search for an HIV vaccine,” Warren said.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Biden to defend Afghanistan troop withdrawal while leaving some Americans behind

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is set to address the nation Tuesday, defending his self-imposed deadline to withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan — a day after the last troops left the country, bringing America’s longest war to a close — but only after a chaotic and deadly exit.

Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks in the State Dining Room of the White House at 2:45 p.m. — nearly 24 hours after the last military plane cleared airspace above Afghanistan but without more than 100 Americans on board who still wanted to get out of the country.

It was not Biden, who has long opposed the war, and who carries a card in his pocket with the number of casualties from Afghanistan and Iraq, to mark the 20-year conclusion of the war on Monday but Pentagon and State officials.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki offered a preview of Biden’s remarks, saying that he would express his thanks to the service members who executed the “dangerous mission” as well as the veterans and volunteers who offered support.

“He will lay out his decision to end the war in Afghanistan after 20 years, including the tough decisions he made over the last seven months since he took office to bring the war to a close,” her statement said. “He will make clear that as President, he will approach our foreign policy through the prism of what is in our national interests, including how best to continue to keep the American people safe.”

Biden did release a written statement thanking commanders and service members for completing the withdrawal on schedule “with no further loss of American lives,” praising the evacuation effort as “the largest airlift in US history,” and teasing his defense not to stay beyond Aug. 31.

“For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned,” he said in the statement, although military leaders had lobbied Biden earlier this year to leave a residual U.S. force in Afghanistan to support the Afghan army and government.

With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete as the U.S. approaches 20 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Taliban has again taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks. Shots were fired into the air to celebrate the withdrawal in Kabul on Monday night.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that 2,461 troops were lost in the war, which started as it began: under Taliban rule. Since the evacuation mission began, 6,000 citizens and more than 123,000 people — Afghans “friends and allies” — were airlifted out by the U.S. and partners, but alarms are being raised over those left behind.

Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopolous in an exclusive interview on Aug. 18, “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”

His poll numbers, too, showed uncommon cross-partisan agreement among Americans that withdrawing all U.S. troops by Biden’s deadline could be a grave mistake, according to an ABC/Ipsos poll conducted after Thursday’s suicide attack in Kabul which killed 13 service members and wounded 20. The survey found the percentage of Americans who think U.S. troops should stay until all Americans are out of Afghanistan is 86% among Democrats, 87% among Republicans and 86% among Independents.

Tuesday’s speech comes amid outrage expressed by some family members of those service members killed in last week’s airport attack over his handling of the withdrawal.

Some have criticized the president following Sunday’s dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, where he met with families. White House press secretary Jen Psaki wouldn’t respond directly to criticism from one family but said that the president feels responsible for their loss at a briefing on Monday.

Republican lawmakers have also blasted Biden for his handling of the withdrawal, with Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., calling the withdrawal a “national disgrace” and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., claiming Biden has armed the Taliban by leaving behind equipment.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” defended the withdrawal and contended that only the president, as commander in chief, knows what it is to make these hard decisions.

“Those criticizing are not the ones who have to sit in the Situation Room and make the hard calls about the threats that we face and the objectives we’re trying to obtain and President Biden made that hard call and it is a call he believes will ultimately serve the interests of our people, all of our citizens and our country,” he said on Tuesday.

Perhaps foreshadowing Biden’s remarks, Sullivan also claimed the U.S. and the international community have “enormous leverage” on the Taliban to ensure those Americans and Afghans who want to get out can do so.

But the administration hasn’t provided a clear plan for those evacuations beyond saying it’s relying on a Taliban commitment to provide “safe passage.”

The 100 to 200 Americans that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said still wanted to be evacuated weren’t able to reach the airport in Kabul on Monday before the last U.S. plane left. Of the five final flights, no American civilians made it on board.

Thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S., who fear reprisal from the Taliban, also did not make it out and are forced to rely on Afghanistan’s new rulers for departure — of which there is no guarantee.

It’s unclear what the evacuation picture will look like from now that the U.S. military is gone.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Biden defends Afghanistan troop withdrawal while leaving some Americans behind

by
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden addressed the nation Tuesday and continued to defend his self-imposed deadline to withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan — a day after the last troops left the country, bringing America’s longest war to a close — but only after a chaotic and deadly exit.

“Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history,” Biden began, going on to tout the historic evacuation numbers. “No nation, no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and will and ability to do it.”

“The real choice was between leaving or escalating,” he claimed.

The president’s prepared remarks from the State Dining Room of the White House come 24 hours after the last military plane cleared airspace above Afghanistan but without more than 100 Americans on board who still wanted to get out of the country.

“There is no deadline” for Americans who want to leave, he said, at the same time saying “90% of Americans who wanted to leave were able to leave,” adding the U.S. would continue efforts to help those who wanted to get out.

Biden said that when he made the decision in April to end the war and set the Aug. 31 deadline, “The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan national security forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban.”

“That assumption, that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown, turned out not to be accurate,” Biden said.

His speech did not focus on the operational miscues that have marred the past week in Afghanistan but instead homed in on why the U.S. entered the war 20 years and why he didn’t want to pass the war on to another president.

“I was not going to extend this Forever War,” he said.

As Americans still remain in the country, Biden repeated an administration line that “there is no deadline” on getting Americans out, but did not offer operational details for retrieving remaining Americans with the airport under Taliban control.

On Monday, it was not Biden, who has long opposed the war, who marked its conclusion after 20 years on Monday, but Pentagon and State Department officials.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki offered a preview of Biden’s remarks earlier, saying that he would express his thanks to the service members who executed the “dangerous mission” as well as the veterans and volunteers who offered support.

“He will lay out his decision to end the war in Afghanistan after 20 years, including the tough decisions he made over the last seven months since he took office to bring the war to a close,” her statement said. “He will make clear that as President, he will approach our foreign policy through the prism of what is in our national interests, including how best to continue to keep the American people safe.”

Biden on Monday did release a written statement thanking commanders and service members for completing the withdrawal on schedule “with no further loss of American lives,” praising the evacuation effort as “the largest airlift in US history,” and teasing his defense not to stay beyond Aug. 31.

“For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned,” he said in the statement, although military leaders had lobbied Biden earlier this year to leave a residual U.S. force in Afghanistan to support the Afghan army and government.

With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete as the U.S. approaches 20 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Taliban has again taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks. Shots were fired into the air to celebrate the withdrawal in Kabul on Monday night.

The Pentagon said Monday that 2,461 troops were lost in the war, which started as it began: under Taliban rule. Since the evacuation mission began, 6,000 citizens and more than 123,000 people — Afghans “friends and allies” — were airlifted out by the U.S. and partners, but alarms are being raised over those left behind.

Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopolous in an exclusive interview on Aug. 18, “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”

His poll numbers, too, showed uncommon cross-partisan agreement among Americans that withdrawing all U.S. troops by Biden’s deadline could be a grave mistake, according to an ABC/Ipsos poll conducted after Thursday’s suicide attack in Kabul which killed 13 service members and wounded 20. The survey found the percentage of Americans who think U.S. troops should stay until all Americans are out of Afghanistan is 86% among Democrats, 87% among Republicans and 86% among Independents.

Tuesday’s speech comes amid outrage expressed by some family members of those service members killed in last week’s airport attack over his handling of the withdrawal.

Some have criticized the president following Sunday’s dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, where he met with families. White House press secretary Jen Psaki wouldn’t respond directly to criticism from one family but said that the president feels responsible for their loss at a briefing on Monday.

Republican lawmakers have also blasted Biden for his handling of the withdrawal, with Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., calling the withdrawal a “national disgrace” and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., claiming Biden has armed the Taliban by leaving behind equipment.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” defended the withdrawal and contended that only the president, as commander in chief, knows what it is to make these hard decisions.

“Those criticizing are not the ones who have to sit in the Situation Room and make the hard calls about the threats that we face and the objectives we’re trying to obtain and President Biden made that hard call and it is a call he believes will ultimately serve the interests of our people, all of our citizens and our country,” he said on Tuesday.

Perhaps foreshadowing Biden’s remarks, Sullivan also claimed the U.S. and the international community have “enormous leverage” on the Taliban to ensure those Americans and Afghans who want to get out can do so.

But the administration hasn’t provided a clear plan for those evacuations beyond saying it’s relying on a Taliban commitment to provide “safe passage.”

The 100 to 200 Americans that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said still wanted to be evacuated weren’t able to reach the airport in Kabul on Monday before the last U.S. plane left. Of the five final flights, no American civilians made it on board.

Thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S., who fear reprisal from the Taliban, also did not make it out and are forced to rely on Afghanistan’s new rulers for departure — of which there is no guarantee.

It’s unclear what the evacuation picture will look like now that the U.S. military is gone.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Biden defends Afghanistan withdrawal, recommits to evacuate remaining Americans

by
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden, speaking to the nation Tuesday, gave his fiercest defense yet of his self-imposed deadline to withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan — a day after the last troops left the country, bringing America’s longest war to a close — but only after a chaotic and deadly exit.

“Let me be clear, leaving August the 31st, is not due to an arbitrary deadline. It was designed to save American lives,” a defiant Biden said, responding to harsh criticism both of his decision to leave and how it was handled.

After praising what he called the “extraordinary success” U.S. troops had in conducting the rushed and dangerous evacuation, he bluntly blamed both the Afghan army and the Afghan government for collapsing so quickly and the Trump administration for making a deal with the Taliban, that he said inherited, that would have withdrawn all ground troops by May 1.

“So, we were left with a simple decision. Either follow through on the commitment made by the last administration and leave Afghanistan or say we weren’t leaving and commit to another tens of thousands more troops going back to war,” he claimed. “That was the choice, the real choice. Between leaving or escalating. I was not going to extend this forever war. And I was not extending a forever exit.”

His voice rising in anger at times, Biden continued, “It was time to be honest with the American people again. We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan. After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refuse to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should’ve ended long ago.”

The president’s prepared remarks from the State Dining Room of the White House came 24 hours after the last military plane cleared airspace above Afghanistan but without more than 100 Americans on board who still wanted to get out of the country, something Republicans and other critics have blasted as “leaving Americans behind.”

Biden downplayed that part of the foreign policy crisis, saying the U.S. had reached out to the remaining Americans 19 times.

“The bottom line, 90% of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave. And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out,” Biden said, without detailing out how that could happen.

Biden had told ABC News’ George Stephanopolous in an exclusive interview on Aug. 18, “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”

On Tuesday, he said that when he made the decision in April to end the war and set the Aug. 31 deadline, U.S. officials had assumed that the more than 300,000 Afghan national security forces that they had trained over the past two decades would stand up to a Taliban takeover.

“That assumption, that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown, turned out not to be accurate,” Biden said. “But I still instructed our national security team to prepare for every eventuality. Even that one. And that’s what we did.”

He did not mention the problems that have marred the past week in Afghanistan.

“The decision to end the military lift operation at Kabul airport was based on unanimous recommendation of my civilian and military advisers,” he said.

“I take responsibility for the decision. Now some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner, and couldn’t this have been done — been done in a more orderly manner? I respectfully disagree,” he said. “The bottom line is, there is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenges, threats we faced. None.”

Biden also used the national spotlight to fire back at critics who say the U.S. could have maintained a limited military presence.

“Those asking for the third decade of war in Afghanistan, I ask, what is the vital national interest?” Biden said. “The fundamental obligation of a president in my opinion is to defend and protect America. Not against threats of 2001 but against the threats of 2021 and tomorrow.”

“My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over. I’m the fourth president that must face the issue of whether and when to end this war. When I was running for president, I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. Today I’ve honored that commitment,” he said.

With the military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete as the U.S. approaches 20 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Taliban has again taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks. Shots were fired into the air to celebrate the withdrawal in Kabul on Monday night.

The Pentagon said that 2,461 troops were lost in the war, which started as it began: under Taliban rule. Since the evacuation mission began, 6,000 citizens and more than 123,000 people — Afghans “friends and allies” — were airlifted out by the U.S. and partners, but alarms are being raised over those left behind.

The president’s poll numbers, too, showed uncommon cross-partisan agreement among Americans that withdrawing all U.S. troops by Biden’s deadline could be a grave mistake, according to an ABC/Ipsos poll conducted after Thursday’s suicide attack in Kabul which killed 13 service members and wounded 20. The survey found the percentage of Americans who think U.S. troops should stay until all Americans are out of Afghanistan is 86% among Democrats, 87% among Republicans and 86% among Independents.

“I give you my word with all of my heart,” Biden said Tuesday. “I believe this is the right decision, a wise decision, and the best decision for America.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Texas awaits Supreme Court move on restrictive abortion law

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renaschild/iStock

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court could decide as soon as Tuesday evening whether Texas can move forward with a controversial ban on most abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy that’s set to take effect on Sept. 1.

The law, Senate Bill 8, which would be among the strictest in the nation, also authorizes private citizens to sue anyone who helps a woman obtain abortion services and in turn receive at least $10,000 in damages per instance.

Abortion providers on Monday appealed to the court for an immediate emergency injunction blocking the law while legal challenges continue. They claim the Texas restrictions would “immediately and catastrophically” limit abortion access for 85% of patients and force many clinics to close across the state.

Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees matters coming out of federal courts for the 5th Circuit, which includes Texas, gave the state until 5 p.m. Tuesday to lay out its argument for rejecting the request. He could decide on his own or refer the matter to the full court for a vote.

“In less than two days, Texas politicians will have effectively overturned Roe v. Wade,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is leading the challenges to Texas’ law.

“Patients will have to travel out of state – in the middle of a pandemic – to receive constitutionally guaranteed healthcare. And many will not have the means to do so. It’s cruel, unconscionable, and unlawful,” she said.

Attorneys for Texas have said the abortion providers lack legal standing to preemptively challenge the law since it has not yet taken effect or had any impact on their patients or services.

Texas is one of 13 states that have passed laws banning abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy; legal challenges have so far prevented all from taking effect.

S.B. 8 runs plainly counter to the Supreme Court’s precedent in 1973’s Roe v. Wade and affirmed in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which established that state restrictions on abortion before a fetus can be viable outside the womb are unconstitutional.

“SCOTUS really might be on the verge of functionally ending legal abortion in TX and hoping no one notices,” said ABC News legal analyst and Cardozo law professor Kate Shaw in a post on Twitter.

The court is set to reconsider its precedents later this fall in the biggest abortion rights case to come before the justices in years. The case, which is out of Mississippi, will determine whether all pre-viability abortion bans are unconstitutional or whether a new standard should be applied.

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