(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — The family and attorney of a Black man shot to death by a security guard, allegedly over a dispute about loud music, are demanding Kroger and the third-party security guard company it employed to also face charges.
Alvin Motley Jr., 48, was at a Kroger gas station in Memphis, Tennessee, with his girlfriend on Aug. 7 when Gregory Livingston, who is white, allegedly approached him about the volume of music coming from their car. After the initial argument between Motley and Livingston, Motley walked toward the security guard holding a beer can and a lit cigarette asking Livingston, “Let’s talk like men,” according to the affidavit. Shortly after, Livingston shot Motley in the chest, prosecutors said.
Motley’s attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday that Kroger must be charged alongside Livingston and Allied Universal for facilitating the contract that resulted in the death of Motley. Livingston has been charged with second-degree murder.
“Kroger, you can’t pass the buck saying that this is an issue for the Motley family or the security company. It’s an issue for your company. … You have a duty to provide safety and have qualified employees and contractors who won’t kill Black people over loud music,” Crump said.
Crump and Sharpton called on the civil rights community to play loud music in front of Kroger grocery chain stores across the country in protest of Motley’s death.
A Kroger spokesperson said in an email statement that after an internal review of the incident, Kroger made the decision to end its relationship with Allied Universal Security in Memphis.
“We are deeply saddened, extremely angry and horrified by this senseless violence. At Kroger, nothing is more important to us than the safety of our associates and customers, and our hearts are with the Motley family and we stand with them in their calls for justice,” a Kroger spokesperson told ABC News.
When asked, Kroger did not respond specifically to Crump’s comments. Allied Universal has not responded to requests for comment from ABC News.
Crump and Sharpton said the shooting was racially motivated.
“I cannot imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and these were young white men listening to rock and roll or country music, nobody would say it was justified to kill them,” Crump said at Wednesday’s press conference. “So if you can’t justify killing them over music, you can’t justify killing us over hip hop music.”
Livingston’s attorney, Leslie Ballin, told ABC News that the shooting was neither racially motivated nor about loud music.
“Let it be known that we do not agree that this incident was about loud music,” Ballin said. “I don’t know of any facts that would lead to the conclusion that this event was racially motivated. If there are such facts, I’m ready to be educated.”
The surveillance footage at the Kroger gas station allegedly captured the incident but has not yet been released to the family or the public. Ballin said he objects to the release of any evidence, including the video footage, in fear that it could contaminate a potential jury pool.
Livingston’s attorneys requested their client’s $1.8 million bail be reduced, claiming the amount is excessive and therefore unconstitutional.
“My son was truly my best friend and I’ll forever hold him in my thoughts,” Alvin Motley Sr. said during the press conference before his son’s memorial Wednesday. “I just want justice for my son.”
Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine discusses his exit from Metallica in a new trailer for his upcoming episode of Gibson TV’s Icons series.
Mustaine, of course, was the original lead guitarist of Metallica before he was fired from the band in 1983 and replaced by Kirk Hammett.
In the Icons trailer, which is streaming now on YouTube, Mustaine shares that he was “destined” to leave Metallica.
“The fact that there was just so much talent and so much personality between the four of us, I don’t know that we could’ve survived,” Mustaine says. “There was destined to be some kind of an explosion at some point.”
Things would work out alright for Mustaine, as he went on to create Megadeth after his dismissal from Metallica. Still, he recalls going through a lot of “soul-searching” on his long bus ride home after getting sacked.
“Did I want to play guitar, did I want to keep doing this, what am I gonna go?” Mustaine recalls thinking. “I got it! I’m gonna make a band that’s more metal than Metallica.”
Mustaine’s Icons episode premieres this Thursday, August 19, at 1 p.m. ET via the Gibson TV YouTube channel.
Earlier this year, Mustaine announced a new line of signature guitars with Gibson.
The “S.O.B.” rocker has announced a new album with his backing band titled The Future, due out November 5. You can listen to the first single, “Survivor,” now via digital outlets.
The Future is the first Night Sweats album since 2018’s Tearing at the Seams, which spawned the single “You Worry Me.” Following that, Rateliff returned to his solo roots for a new record on his own called And It’s Still Alright, which dropped last year.
Here’s the track list for The Future:
“The Future”
“Survivor”
“Face Down in the Moment”
“Something Ain’t Right”
“Love Me Till I’m Gone”
“Baby I Got Your Number”
“What If I”
“I’m on Your Side”
“So Put Out”
“Oh, I”
“Love Don’t”
Last month, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood told The Times of London that he and Mick Jagger had been working on tracks that will be featured on an upcoming reissue of the band’s 1981 album, Tattoo You, and now it appears that details of that release will be announced on Thursday.
The Rolling Stones have posted a somewhat cryptic message on their socialmediasites that features a poster with cartoonish drawings labeled with various songs titles from the album, along with a note that reads, “‘Tattoo You’ 2021 Flash Sale…August 19th, 2PM BST/9AM EST…RSVP Now!…Get Ready to Be ReInked.”
The message is captioned, “Which would you get? Thursday 2pm BST/9am EST,” and includes a link to a webpage that let’s fans sign up for The Stones’ mailing list “to be the first for all future news & updates!” and asks for a first name and an email address.
So, judging by the posts, it looks like The Rolling Stones plan to announce official information about a 40th anniversary Tattoo You reissue at 9 a.m. ET tomorrow.
Tattoo You was released on August 24, 1981, and featured such hits as “Start Me Up,” “Waiting on a Friend” and “Hang Fire.” It spent nine straight weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and went on to sell over 4 million copies in the U.S.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 623,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.4% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:
Aug 18, 6:50 pm
J&J looking into booster of its single-dose vaccine
Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday it is “engaging” with the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health authorities on a booster of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
The company said it “will share new data shortly regarding boosting” with its vaccine, which one study suggests provides immunity for at least eight months.
The statement comes after the Biden administration said Wednesday it is preparing to roll out booster shots of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines to more Americans next month.
Aug 18, 6:29 pm
California to require proof of vaccination or negative test for large indoor events
People attending large-scale indoor events in California soon will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test, state officials announced Wednesday.
The new rules apply to indoor events with more than 1,000 people beginning Sept. 20. Tests must be administered within 72 hours of the event.
Currently, attendees have to self-attest to either having the vaccine or a negative test to attend events with more than 5,000 people.
Health officials pointed to the highly transmissible nature of the delta variant in updating the rules.
Aug 18, 5:11 pm
Biden will issue memo to block Republican anti-mask efforts in schools
President Joe Biden plans to issue a memo to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Wednesday to counter the Republican governors who have blocked mask mandates in their states.
“Some state governments have adopted policies and laws that interfere with the ability of schools and districts to keep our children safe during in-person learning, with some going as far as to try to block school officials from adopting safety protocols aligned with recommendations from the CDC,” according to a fact sheet released by the White House Wednesday.
Biden’s memo will ensure the department of education “is doing everything it can to prevent anything from standing in the way of local leaders and school leaders taking steps to keep all students safe in full-time, in-person learning, without compromising students’ health or the health of their families or communities,” the fact sheet continues.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Aug 18, 5:16 pm
Biden to announce nursing homes must require employee vaccination to get federal funding
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to require nursing homes participating in Medicare or Medicaid to have all workers be vaccinated for COVID-19, a Biden administration official confirmed to ABC News Wednesday.
The new rule, which will impact more than 15,000 nursing homes and 1.3 million workers, will go into effect in late September. Nursing homes that don’t comply could lose federal funding.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Aug 18, 2:33 pm
NYC restaurant owners sue city over indoor vaccine mandate
A group small businesses in New York City is suing the city on the grounds that its new indoor vaccine mandate will severely impact their “business, life savings, and livelihood,” according to a lawsuit filed in Richmond County Supreme Court Tuesday.
The plaintiffs also took issue with the fact the the mandate does not permit medical or religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination.
New York City’s first-in-the-nation mandate, which went into effect Tuesday, applies to everyone 12 and older and includes nearly every public indoor activity, from gyms to bowling alleys to movie theaters to concert venues and more, according to the city.
The plaintiffs include Deluca’s Italian Restaurant in Staten Island, Pasticceria Rocco in Brooklyn and Staten Island Judo Jujitsu.
Aug 18, 12:36 pm
All but 2 states reporting high community transmission
All but two states — New Hampshire and Vermont — are reporting high community transmission, according to federal data.
U.S. hospitalizations are now at the highest point in over six months, with more than 91,000 COVID-19 patients currently in hospitals, according to federal data. More than 11,200 patients are being admitted to the hospital each day, the most since January.
Pediatric COVID-19 related admissions per capita have climbed to the highest point of the pandemic and are now nearly six times higher than on July 4.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Aug 18, 11:53 am
Delta likely contributed to vaccine’s waning protection: Murthy
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy announced at Wednesday’s White House briefing, “Having reviewed the most current data, it is now our clinical judgment that the time to lay out a plan for COVID-19 boosters is now.”
Murthy said protection against mild disease has decreased, likely a combination of waning vaccine protection over time and the strength of the delta variant, and that the administration is “concerned” that protection could continue to erode.
“Even though this new data affirms that vaccine protection remains high against the worst outcomes of COVID, we are concerned that this pattern of decline we’re seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to reduced protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death,” Murthy said.
“That is why, today, we are announcing our plan to stay ahead of this virus by being prepared to offer COVID-19 booster shots to fully vaccinated adults 18 years and older,” Murthy said. “They would be eligible for their booster shot eight months after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Modern mRNA vaccines.”
The boosters are set to begin Sept. 20, but Murthy emphasized that this is pending FDA authorization and also reiterated that does not yet apply to J&J recipients.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslet
Aug 18, 11:27 am
How New York City botched COVID-19 response: Report
New York City botched its COVID-19 response, according to an investigation conducted by Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller, who released findings from his inquiry Wednesday.
According to Stringer, key emergency response agencies, including the health department and the NYPD, were intentionally excluded from communications and decision-making “when time was of the essence.”
The comptroller also described persistent confusion about the chain of command between agencies and a significantly delayed response to the pandemic.
Officials waited until late February to even begin planning for a worst-case scenario, despite knowing about the impending crisis in January. Stringer called on the mayor, as well as the future mayor, to conduct a thorough review of the city’s emergency planning process.
“We cannot erase the mistakes of the past,” he said. “But we can make sure we are prepared for future emergencies.”
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Aug 18, 11:14 am
mRNA vaccine efficacy dropped ‘significantly’ among nursing home residents: CDC
A new CDC analysis found that Pfizer and Moderna vaccine efficacy dropped “significantly” among nursing home residents from March to July, as the delta variant became the predominant strain in the United States.
Researchers analyzed weekly reports from thousands of nursing home facilities in the U.S. and found that mRNA vaccines were roughly 75% effective against preventing any infection in late winter/early spring of 2021, early in the mass vaccination rollout and prior to the emergence of the delta variant. By summer of this year, effectiveness against any infection had dropped to 53%.
Crucially, this doesn’t mean vaccines aren’t working for nursing home residents, but the significant drop in effectiveness from March to July may support the use of booster doses for them, according to the CDC report.
A second analysis found that the mRNA vaccines are holding up well against hospitalizations for COVID-19. The research, which was conducted across 21 U.S. hospitals, found that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines remained between 84% and 86% effective against potential hospitalizations from March to July of this year. A third analysis, conducted in New York State, found that all three authorized vaccines remained more than 90% effective at preventing hospitalization from early May to late June.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman, Eric Strauss
Aug 18, 11:06 am
Leading public health officials lay out plan for boosters
The U.S. is prepared to offer booster shots for all Americans beginning the week of Sept. 20, top health officials announced Wednesday. Starting eight months after a person’s second dose, they are eligible for a booster.
“At that time, the individuals who were fully vaccinated earliest in the vaccination rollout, including many health care providers, nursing home residents, and other seniors, will likely be eligible,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC; Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner; Dr. Vivek Murthy, surgeon general; Francis Collins, director of the NIH; and Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID, said in a joint statement.
The data behind the decision is expected to be released at 11 a.m. EST during the White House COVID briefing, but public health officials said it’s clear that vaccines are waning over time and “we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease.”
With regard to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, officials stressed that more data will be released in the next few weeks. “We will keep the public informed with a timely plan for J&J booster shots,” they said.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Aug 18, 10:09 am
El Paso mask mandate goes into effect after judge blocks Abbott
A mask mandate in El Paso, Texas, which, took effect at 12:01 Wednesday, requires people 2 and older to cover their faces in indoor public spaces. Failure to comply with the new rule is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of $500.
The mandate comes after a judge blocked Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order late Tuesday night, which had forbid masks mandates in the state of Texas. The news comes also within hours of Abbott, who is fully vaccinated, testing positive for COVID-19.
Aug 18, 8:33 am
CDC advisory committee to discuss extra vaccine doses, booster shots
An advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet next week to discuss additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including booster shots.
The meeting is scheduled for Aug. 24.
Aug 18, 5:21 am
New Zealand confirms 1st case of delta variant in growing cluster
New Zealand’s first instance of COVID-19 transmission in six months has been identified as the highly contagious delta variant.
“We are dealing with a delta variant,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced during a press conference in Wellington on Wednesday. “Our case has originated in Australia.”
The case, which was detected in the community on Tuesday, prompted New Zealand to immediately impose a nationwide lockdown. More community cases have emerged since then, with the cluster growing to 10 by Wednesday afternoon, according to data from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health.
Ardern said genomic sequencing has linked the initial case to an outbreak of the delta variant in neighboring Australia’s New South Wales state.
“Now, the job we have is to work through how and when it got here,” she said.
It’s the first time that the island nation of 5 million people has confirmed the presence of the delta variant, which was initially identified in India last October. At least 148 countries around the globe have reported cases of the delta variant, according to the World Health Organization.
It’s also the first time in more than a year that New Zealand has had a snap level four lockdown, the highest level of restrictions.
In total, the country has reported 2,936 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including 26 deaths, according to health ministry data.
Aug 18, 3:55 am
Chicago reinstates indoor mask mandate amid rising cases
Everyone in Chicago who is 2 years of age and older must wear a face mask indoors starting Friday, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Chicago health officials announced the reinstatement of the indoor mask mandate on Tuesday, after the Windy City saw its daily average of newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases surpass 400 — a metric that moves the city from “substantial risk” to “higher risk.”
“With the highly transmissible delta variant causing case rates to increase, now is the time to re-institute this measure to prevent further spread and save lives,” Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “We continue to track the data closely and are hopeful this will only be temporary and we can bend the COVID curve, as we’ve done in the past.”
During a press conference Tuesday, Arwady noted that other COVID-19 metrics, such as the city’s test positivity average and hospitalizations, remain at “lower risk.”
“A high case count does not automatically translate to a high hospitalization count and a high death count,” she told reporters, “and we’re hopeful that having the mask in place for everybody will get us through delta while we keep working on getting folks vaccinated.”
Masks will be required citywide in all indoor public settings, including bars, restaurants, gyms, hair salons, private clubs and common areas in residential buildings. As with previous mask mandates, the face coverings can be temporarily taken off for certain activities that require their removal, such as eating and drinking or for facials and beard shaves.
Masks can also be removed by employees in settings that are not open to the public, such as office cubicles, so long as the individuals are static and maintaining at least 6 feet from others. The face coverings remain mandatory on public transportation as well as in educational, health care, correctional and congregate settings.
The new mandate does not include capacity limits at public places, and masks will remain optional in outdoor settings.
“We are not anticipating, at this point, adding additional business restrictions. However, we’re watching what happens with these metrics,” Arwady told reporters. “Our goal is to remain open but careful.”
Aug 17, 11:40 pm
‘What we’re dealing with now is completely different,’ says pulmonologist who lost 3 patients in week
An Alabama doctor is seeing young, healthy patients die from COVID-19 amid the surge of the delta variant.
Dr. Jenna Carpenter, a pulmonary care physician at Marshall Medical South in Guntersville, Alabama, has lost three patients under the age of 40 in the past week from complications related to COVID-19, she told ABC Huntsville, Alabama, affiliate WAAY.
“The young man I lost this week was perfectly healthy,” she said. “He wasn’t overweight. He did not have any known medical issues and that was a tragedy.”
The worst phone call the physicians have to make is to inform family members that their loved one has taken a turn for the worst, Carpenter added.
“In our heart we know this is going to be the last time these folks talk to their families,” she said.
The state currently has more ICU patients than beds, and frontline workers are also getting sick from the highly contagious variant, WAAY reported.
“Last week we were down to 35 or 40 ICU beds. Now we are down at the single digits,” Dr. Don Williamson, a former state health officer who is now the president and CEO of the Alabama Hospital Association, told the station. “It doesn’t matter if it is six or two, we could even be negative ICU beds.”
Aug 17, 9:26 pm
Mass vaccine site for booster shots opens in Detroit
Detroit has opened a mass vaccine site for boosters at its convention center.
The TCF Center has played an integral role for Detroit residents during the pandemic, first acting as a mass testing site, a field hospital and eventually a mass vaccination site.
It is currently the only location in the city to get a third booster shot.
Common is returning to music after a two-year hiatus.
“I’m excited to announce the release date of my latest musical project, A Beautiful Revolution Part 2, coming out September 10,” he tweeted Wednesday. “Pre-order and pre-save it here.”
This will be the Oscar- and Grammy-winner’s 13th studio album following Let Love in 2019.
The 49-year-old entertainer has been extremely busy with several upcoming acting projects, including a role in the forthcoming thriller Alice, starring Keke Palmer as an enslaved woman who believes it’s the 1800s but escapes her captors and discovers it’s actually the 1970s.
As previously reported, “The Light” rapper also will appear with Stevie Wonder and several more stars at the seventh annual Stand Up for Cancer telethon airing this Saturday on all major networks, including ABC, as well as major streaming platforms, starting at 8 p.m. ET.
Common is also executive-producing a new documentary series Justice, USA that will take an “in-depth and unflinching look at the U.S. criminal justice system.” He says he is “proud of this series because it takes an honest look at the criminal justice system and highlights its need for reform.”
Jimmie Allen has a new creative project in the works. The singer will serve as executive music producer for an upcoming Netflix series, Titletown High, a sports reality show that follows the ups and downs of a high school football team.
The theme song for the show is Jimmie’s unreleased “Big in a Small Town,” a track that he says speaks to his own roots and teenage memories.
“I grew up in a small town. Whether it’s football or a dream you have, everything you do in a small town is a big thing,” Jimmie explains in a teaser clip he posted to social media this week.
“Everybody can relate to going to school. Being in a relationship. Playing football. Everything is the end of the world or the start of the world,” Jimmie goes on to reflect. “So I think people connect to the realness of it.”
Titletown High will debut on Netflix on August 27.
Tonight on Comedy Central, the acclaimed comedy Awkwafina is Nora from Queensreturns for its second season with two episodes airing back to back at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.
The comedy, loosely based on the life of the Raya and the Last Dragon and Shang Chi star, centers on her character and her friends and family in the New York City borough.
Bowen Yang plays Nora’s bestie Edmund. He tells ABC Audio that learning the show was renewed was a thrill.
“For sure,” the Saturday Night Live cast member says. “I mean…it’s always sort of a big question mark as you come out with something for the first time and the initial sort of stage of what the audience responds to. But then, there’s not only a comfort going into this season, but also just…a relief and an emotional aspect to returning to the season after being off for almost a year and a half.”
Yang adds that returning to set “was just…a nice, nice, nice feeling.”
Stage and screen legend Lori Tan Chinn steals nearly every scene she’s in as Nora’s outspoken grandmother. She tells ABC Audio that it’s been funny feeling fans’ love. “I’m surprised at the comments and the reaction,” she says.
“I get a lot of people who want to carry my dirty laundry to the laundromat,” Chinn adds, laughing. “People who congratulate me. So a lot of feedback.”
Law & Order and Jurassic Park series star BD Wong plays Awkwafina’s dad, Wally. He says of his onscreen daughter and show co-creator, “Special people, stars, bring special energy to all sorts of situations. And Awkwafina is definitely one of those people.”
Courtney B. Vance is headed back to the courtroom for a brand new role.
AMC has announced that Vance will play a public defender in the upcoming courtroom drama 61st Street. The series, which comes from BAFTA winner Peter Moffat, follows Tosin Cole as Moses Johnson, a “promising Black high school athlete who is swept up into the infamously corrupt Chicago criminal justice system.” Vance will play Franklin Roberts, the attorney who takes up Johnson’s case and hopes to “upend the entire Chicago judicial system.” A premiere date for 61st Street has not been announced.
In other news, Morgan Freeman is staying booked and busy. The History Channel has unveiled the first trailer for Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman, a new series hosted and executive produced by the Academy Award-winning actor. The eight-episode series profiles some of history’s greatest prison escapes, including escapes from Alcatraz; Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York; and the HM Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman premieres Tuesday, November 9, at 10 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, Freeman has landed a role opposite Cole Hauser in the upcoming action-thriller Muti, Deadline has learned. The film follows Hauser as Detective Boyd, a man still processing the death of his daughter while embarking “on a hunt for a serial killer who murders according to a brutal tribal ritual: Muti.” Freeman will play Professor Mackles, the “only man who can help Boyd.” A release date for Muti hasn’t been announced.
Finally, Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance’s Bassett Vance Productions have teamed up with MTV Entertainment Studios for One Thousand Years of Slavery, a new docu-series exploring the “legacy of slavery” that centers on personal Black experiences. The four-part series will air at a later date on the Smithsonian Channel.
(WASHINGTON) — In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, and the president’s first since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, President Joe Biden stood firm in his defense of the United States’ withdrawal, but asserted for the first time that he believes the chaos was unavoidable.
“So you don’t think this could have been handled — this exit could have been handled better in any way, no mistakes?” Stephanopoulos asked Biden.
“No, I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that, we’re gonna go back in hindsight and look — but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens. I don’t know how that happened,” Biden replied.
“So for you, that was always priced into the decision?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Yes,” Biden replied, but then amended his answer.
“Now exactly what happened, I’ve not priced in,” he said. “But I knew that they’re going to have an enormous — Look, one of the things we didn’t know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out. What they would do. What are they doing now? They’re cooperating, letting American citizens get out, American personnel get out, embassies get out, et cetera, but they’re having — we’re having some more difficulty having those who helped us when we were in there.”
Biden’s decision to withdraw has led to scenes of pandemonium in Afghanistan, with as many as 11,000 Americans and tens of thousands of endangered Afghans scrambling to evacuate the country. Scenes of civilians swamping planes on the runway at the Kabul airport, desperate for escape, have triggered bipartisan criticism that the Biden administration handled the hasty exit poorly.
Biden grew defensive when Stephanopoulos referred to the scenes of distress.
“We’ve all seen the pictures. We’ve seen those hundreds of people packed in a C-17. We’ve seen Afghans falling –“
“That was four days ago, five days ago!” Biden interjected, although the photo Stephanopoulos referred to, of hundreds of evacuees packed into a C-17 cargo plane, was taken Monday.
“What did you think when you first saw those pictures?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“What I thought was, we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did,” Biden said.
The U.S. said late Tuesday it has successfully evacuated 3,200 people from Afghanistan, including all U.S. Embassy personnel, except for a core group of diplomats at the Kabul airport. Officials have said they hope to ramp up to being able to evacuate 9,000 people each day.
But the U.S. government is not currently providing American citizens in Afghanistan with safe transport to the airport, and it remains unclear how many will be able to safely reach the airport, as Taliban checkpoints continue to harden.
Despite the reality in Afghanistan, Biden was adamant in defending his decision.
“When you look at what’s happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution or judgment?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Look, it was a simple choice, George,” Biden said. “When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government, get in a plane and taking off and going to another country; when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, up to 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off — that was, you know, I’m not, that’s what happened. That’s simply what happened. And so the question was, in the beginning, the threshold question was, do we commit to leave within the timeframe we set, do we extend it to Sept. 1, or do we put significantly more troops in?”
Biden noted that violent attacks in Afghanistan had paused in recent months due to a deal negotiated by the Trump administration with Taliban leaders that was predicated upon an eventual U.S. withdrawal.
“I hear people say, well you had 2,500 folks in there and nothing was happening. You know, there wasn’t any more — but guess what, the fact was, that the reason that wasn’t happening, was the last president negotiated a year earlier that he’d be out by May 1st and that the return, there’d be no attack on American forces. That’s what was done. That’s why nothing was happening,” Biden said.
“I had a simple choice. If I said, ‘we’re gonna stay,’ then we’d better be prepared to
