0 operation, which says you have some fidelity on the intelligence. that's different than a lot of what i saw. bottom line, if they had that fidelity, eventually they will find these guys. all right. our coverage continues now with wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >> this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome to our viewers here around the united states and around the world. the horrific attack outside the kabul airport. moments ago, president biden honored the heroes of the mission in afghanistan, the 12 u.s. service members killed and 15 wounded in suicide bombings. the president making a solemn vow to the isis-k terrorists responsible for the attack, and i'm quoting when he said we will hunt you down and make you pay. the loss of life even greater among locals so desperate to flee the country. the health ministry in kabul now says more than 60 afghan men, women and children were killed and 140 were bounded. now we're standing by for a white house briefings. we'll have live coverage of that coming up. let's start with kaitlyn collins. you were there. you were in the room. the president was very determined to make it clear the u.s. is getting out, but the effort to find americans and afghan allies will continue. >> yeah, wolf. the president essentially argued that was part of the reason why they are maintaining that august 31st deadline, because he said there are still american citizens, green cardholders, permanent residents and special immigrant visa applicants that have to get out of the country and have a desire to do so. he echoed that this mission is going to continue. but, of course, talking about that grim attack today that left 12 u.s. service members dead, the president did vow retribution. he vowed to hunt down those who are responsible and said he believes he knows where some of these leaders of isis-k, that offshoot of the islamic state may be hiding. he didn't say where. but he has instructed the pentagon, according to the president, to develop plans to strike isis-k assets. that is obviously in response to what happened today. a big question going forward is how that airport and these evacuations are going to continue over the next several days, given you heard the vent gone say earlier they do still believe there are active threats happening right now and thousands of u.s. troops on the ground at that airport working on these evacuations. the big question is how long those evacuations are going to continue because we have heard the pentagon say they will need several days to actually draw down their forces and their weaponry and their resources that have been brought in to help with this evacuation. one other big aspect of this, wolf, is the taliban, which is responsible for the security outside the airport and allowing people into the airport, which has been a tenant, essentially of this evacuation plan from the white house. the president said he does not trust the taliban. he does believe it is in their self-interest to let this evacuation continue and let the american forces leave on august 31st. >> we're standing by. you are in the briefing room. there will be a white house briefing with the press secretary; is that right? >> yeah. that's right, wolf. this will be the first time we have seen the press secretary jen psaki. initially before this attack happened, this was scheduled for noon. but obviously the day's events disrupted the schedule here. we did hear the president a few moments ago. we will now have questions for the press secretary about the decision the president made to maintain this deadline. the question had been whether they were going to pack up and wrap up this mission earlier than expected given what happened and given the attack on u.s. service members today. right now they are maintaining that. >> all right. live coverage of that coming up. thank you very much. i want to bring in phil mattingly right now. he's also at the white house. phil, first of all, tell us what you are hearing from your sources about the message that the president had for the terrorists who carried out these brutal attacks. >> the president wanted to be unequivocal. and when you saw or heard which he had to say, he most certainly was. there will be retribution and the president has ordered his top military leaders to strike isis and leaders responsible for those dual suicide bombings today. this is how he framed things. take a listen. >> to those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes america harm, know this: we will not forgive. we will not forget. we will hunt you down and make you pay. >> and, wolf, pentagon officials made clear earlier today they had the capability to do just that or in the midst of a 24/7 for those responsible for the attacks. one question would be the time line. obviously u.s. troops are withdrawing by august 31st. while the president said it might not be a large military footprint, in fact, it would not, the effort to find and bring those to justice who perpetrated the attacks here today would most certainly continue. wolf? >> yeah. big question also remains, phil, about how the evacuation efforts will continue. there are still hundreds of americans, thousands of afghan allies, friends of the united states who are so desperate to get out of that country right now. what are you hearing? >> and a quickly shrinking time window. i don't think there is any question about that. everything got significantly more complicated after this morning in terms of getting people inside the perimeter and on to planes. one thing to note, the president made clear in the last 12 hours, 7,000 additional individuals have been evacuated and made clear his result to complete the mission hazardened. take a listen. >> here's what you need to know: these isis terrorists will not win. we will rescue the americans in there. we will get our afghan allies out. and our mission will go on. america will not be intimidated. and i have the utmost confidence in our brave service members who continue to execute this mission with courage and honor to save lives and get americans, our partners, our afghan allies out of afghanistan. >> wolf, u.s. officials are fairly confident they can get americans who want to leave out over the course of that compressed time window. the biggest question is something the president eluded to. afghan allies, is there the time to get the sheer number of them which most people say on capitol hill is in the thousands right now out of the country given all the security dynamics at play. plus the urgency. the president, if you noticed, continuing what officials said starting yesterday that they would try to maintain some ability to get people out of the country even after u.s. forces depart. they believe they have leverage to get that done. there are questions as to if that's possible. but the president making clear evacuations will continue. the mission will continue, wolf. >> and they're also bracing and we're standing by for the jen psaki white house briefing that's supposed to begin any minute now. you are looking at live pictures from the u.s. briefing room. but the president and other officials are making it clear in the next few days until the complete withdrawal, they're bracing for more potential terror attacks. hold on for a moment. here is the press secretary. >> i know you all have heard from general mckenzie today, as well as the president. but obviously i wanted to provide the opportunity to answer additional questions from all of you. one thing to note at the top, as a mark for respect, the united states flag will be stone at half-staff and upon all public buildings and grounds at all military posts and naval stations and on all naval vessels of the federal government and the district of columbia and throughout its territories until sunset on august 30th, 2021 in honor of the victims of the senseless acts of violence in kabul, afghanistan. >> one of my colleagues asked a question about what the president would say to afghans who fear they won't get to leave. the president said getting every single person out can't be guaranteed of anybody. was he lowering expectations for smaller but still significant populations that are still trying to get out? >> that wasn't his intention. i think what he's conveying is that at a time when the taliban is taking over the country, certainly not our preference, as you all nknow well. it is not going to be possible for every single afghan to be evacuated. at the same time, i think you also heard the president made that there is not a -- there is not an end to our commitment to getting american citizens out who don't -- who are not ready to leave and to getting partners out and those who are served alongside the united states over the last 20 years. >> real quick. on the taliban, they are in charge of the perimeter for the suicide bomber to get in, they would have to be on the taliban guard. so why isn't the taliban in part responsible for what happened today? >> well, i think general mckenzie addressed this earlier this afternoon, and he made clear -- and i understand your question slightly different from that, but i think it's worth repeating and important to repeat. that we don't have any information at this point in time to suggest that the taliban had knowledge of or was engaged in or involved in this attack. obviously, what happened today and the loss of lives of the u.s. service members, of afghans is a tragedy, is horrific, is one of the worst things we have experienced during president biden's time in office. but, again, we don't have any additional assessment at this point in time. go ahead. >> just a few things to clarify, jen. thank you. he talked about the ongoing mission to get people out after the 31st. but to be clear, as of tonight, is it still the plan to get all u.s. forces out by august 31st? >> nothing has changed on that time line. >> okay. did the president, based on his public comments over the last few days, did the president see this coming? >> i think what you have seen the president say and many members of our military and our national security team say is that we have been closely watching and assessing the threat of isis-k, and we have had increasing concern about that threat growing over the last couple of days. so this has been a concern that we have been watching and we saw, of course, the tragic events happen today. >> and does -- what does today's attack say about the u.s.'s ability to keep the terrorist threat in check once the u.s. pulls military forces out of afghanistan? because this is something he talked about in july when he reiterated what the plan was. >> you're right. i think it is important for people to know and understand that the threat that is posed by having thousands of u.s. military on the ground, still currently on the ground implementing a mission, committed to a mission as you heard general mckenzie and the president also say that is a threat. they are a target. people gathering around the target, that is a threat. that is a target. but isis's ability to target individuals on the ground in afghanistan is very different from isis's ability to attack the united states and attack the homeland. and we will maintain and continue over the horizon capacity with the president and in partnership with the countries in the region to make sure they don't develop that ability. >> do you know yet if he would go to dover to greet the caskets of those who were killed? >> i'm sure the president will do everything he can to honor the sacrifice and the service of the lives who were lost today. i will note -- you didn't ask this question but others asked it. let me answer it to provide you an update. i know some asked you about whether he has called the family members. for those of you who have covered this, you know the process. but for those of you who have not or those of you watching at home. the process would first go through the pentagon. there is a next of kin process. that is the process still underway at this time. until that process concludes, the president would not make a call because that's the first step in the process. and then in terms of additional steps just as dover, of course, you know he would consider and want to be a part of any means of honoring the lives that were lost today. >> general mckenzie described one of the explosions at the abbey gate happening at a point after someone had been searched by the taliban. how is the united states still going to work with the taliban the way that the president is describing or considering his remarks to get american citizens and afghan allies out if that is what we're working with? >> look, i'm not trying to sugar coat what we think of the taliban. the taliban is not -- they're not a group we trust. they are not our friends. we have never said that. it is also the reality that the taliban controls large swaths of afghanistan. and to date, because of coordination with the taliban, we have been able to evacuate more than 104,000 people, save 104,000 lives. and that coordination is necessary in order to continue our evacuation measures. now, i understand your question, peter, and the questions of others on what they knew or what their role was. there is no assessment we have at this point in time of their involvement in this. obviously that's at this time. if that changes, we will let you know. >> does the president think they will be reliable partners if we're already getting reports that they're not letting afghans to the airport and the u.s. is still at the airport. >> well, i think -- you mean after the 31st or moving over the next couple of days. >> we heard it's already happening. >> i note also that as the president said, more than 7,000 people have been evacuated over the course of the last 12 hours. that was while there were active attacks that were happening. those were individuals who were let on to gates, let on to planes. again, this is not about trust. this is not about relying on the taliban as in equal partner. no one is suggesting that. but because they control large swaths of the country, including a lot of security perimeters around the airport, we have to coordinate with them in order to get people out. we will continue to do that. one more thing i would say is that we have an enormous amount of leverage. this is our view over time. that includes economic leverage, leverage that we will make clear to the taliban as it relates to coordination to continue to get american citizens and our partners out. >> there have been reports of explosions happening throughout the afternoon in kabul and reporting to indicate this is the beginning of a process of the u.s. military beginning to destroy equipment on the ground. >> i would defer you to the u.s. military on specific steps of their retro grade process which we know would have to take place in advance of a departure. >> in terms of what we heard from the pentagon, this confidence they have enough troops on the ground at this time to continue to facilitate the mission, how can that be the case given what we saw today, the tragic loss of life? and doesn't that call for additional troop levels needed on the ground? and what is the concern for the ongoing threat that isis-k poses? >> there is an i don't think going threat and every day our troops are on the ground, they're at risk, and that's a re reality. as you saw the pentagon brief out today, these were attacks that we obviously had intelligence in terms of over the last several days of our rising concerns. but i will tell you as it relates to your first question, mike, i have been sitting in these meetings as well, every meeting the president asks the pentagon, is there anything else you need to conclude your mission? do you need equipment? do you need troops? do you need resources? he asked them that today as it relates to completing their mission over the next days and going after the individuals, the terrorists who killed service members today as well. go ahead. >> thank you, jen. you just noted you were in some of these meetings today. was there ever a point where the president was reconsidering this deadline of having all u.s. forces out by august 31st? >> no, and here's why. the president relies on the advice of his military commanders and they continue to believe that it is essential to get out by the 31st. that is their advice. there are several reasons for that. one is the ongoing threats. and the second that that we want to be able to have the ability to get individuals out who have been partners of ours after the 31st. and they believe the best way to do that is to stay on that time line at this point in time. >> and does the white house still anticipate those flights of mass evacuations will end before the actual 31st? >> i'm not going to get into an operational time line of when the last evacuation flight will be and i don't expect the department of defense will do that either. we will let you know, as we have twice a day, as we have updated numbers. >> is there an alternative plan being discussed for how to get these people who are seeking to leave to the airport given it is potentially perilous to go wait outside the gates right now? >> there are a range of operations that our commanders and military on the ground have been utilizing over the course of several days, if not more. i will not outline those from here, but that is why they're in touch with american citizens and partners to evacuate to get them safely to the airport and evacuated at the appropriate time. go ahead. >> is it your opinion that the president has the authority he needs from congress or wherever else to continue operations beyond august 31st? he kind of talked about pursuing isis-k whenever, wherever he needs to. is there any about expectation he'll need any authority to do so? >> i don't think there is expectation of additional authority needed? >> will commanders on the ground need to come back in order to do anything of the sort? >> again, as the president just said in his remarks a little while ago, he's asked them to draw up plans. the president was -- i don't think he could have been more clear about the fact that he believes we will not forgive. we will not forget and we will hunt down these terrorists and kill them wherever they are. he's asked them to draw plans. whatever they need for those plans, he is committed to delivering on. i don't have anything to outline for you today on that. >> is it possible to do that with no military troops and bases in the surrounding countries around afghanistan? >> i would note for you, as you know. you have covered these issues quite closely, we have a range of counter for errorism capacities and a number of countries around the world we don't have military bases. i will not outline what their approach will be for the military. i will leave it to them to take and leave it to them to outline anything on their time line. >> you mentioned about the increasing concerns about this terror threat. the president two days ago said each day of operations brings added to risk to our troops. if the risk grows tomorrow and keeps growing the next day and beyond that, how should americans feel about this operation continuing right now for the coming days? >> well, i would say, first, you heard general mckenzie convey clearly that we had every intention, they had every intention of continuing this evacuation mission over the coming days and that they planned for incidents of these kind. i mean, to the degree that they can. they have every intention to continue. the president has regular consultations every day, multiple times a day on days like this about how they see the circumstance on the ground. but that is our expectation at this point in time that it will actually continue over the coming days. >> can you give us details about how the president spent his day? >> sure. >> he was scheduled to get