0 welcome to msnbc on a busy friday afternoon. president biden giving an update on the chaotic situation, the evacuation of americans and afghans as the white house continues to deal with the fallout from the crisis unfolding in afghanistan. the president says evacuation flights have resumed. that is of being paused for several hours. sources tell nbc news the flights stopped temporarily because qatar, the first batch of evacuees were taken, didn't have the capacity to take any more people. this has its situation outside the airport gets more desperate. thousands of afghans hoping for a chance to get inside and get on a plane out of the country. the president defended his situation to get out of afghanistan in a report that nearly two dozen diplomats at the u.s. embassy in kabul sent a cable to tony blinken warning of a possible taliban takeover and urged an airlift operation. >> i made the decision, the buck stops with me. i took the consensus opinion. it would not occur if it occurred until later in the year. it was my decision. >> as we wait for the pentagon briefing on afghanistan to begin here, i'm joined now by nbc news white house reporter josh letterman. "wall street journal" national security reporter vivian sala many:i want to start with you on this. today was the second time this week we heard from president biden on afghanistan. is he striking different tone today? >> the tone from the president was similar. very defensive of his administration's handling of this debacle over the last week and a half or so. there did seem to be some good signs of progress in the numbers. in terms of the through put they're getting people out of afghanistan. the president saying that in last 24 hours or so they have been able to get out 5700. that's an increase and more in line with the 5,000 to 7,000 or 9,000 or so figure that we heard from white house and pentagon officials that they wanted to be able to get to. but we also interestingly heard the president seeming to open the door in these remarks to a slightly broader mission set here, more ambitious goals. not only pledging that he will get all americans who want to get out of the country out of the country but then when asked by a white house reporter whether that pledge also applied to afghans who might be in danger or who work with the u.s., the president said, yes. he would extend that commitment at least to those who are applying for that special immigrant visa program. that's going to create a really large challenge particularly if we get up against this deadline of the end of the month and there are still afghan who's need to be evacuated there. we also heard the president slightly opening the door to u.s. capabilities trying to go beyond the airport to actually get folks who might be trying to get to the airport in kabul but have not been able to get there because of taliban checkpoints or other challenges there. the other thing that was so interesting to hear from the president was this slight distance between what the president is describing as the situation and what we are all seeing and hearing from our colleagues on the ground there. he suggested no military citizens are having trouble getting to the airport. that is certainly not consistent with some of the reports that we're all hearing about the chaos and desperation at the airport. the president also saying in response to a question about the criticism from our allies, he's heard nothing from our allies questioning u.s. credibility when in fact we heard just in the last 24 hours from the former nato secretary-general saying he was ashamed after nato countries came to our aid in the days after 9/11. certainly a lot of other foreign leaders the president has been speaking to in the last few days have also been speaking publicly to say how displeased they are with the way the u.s. is handling the last week or so in afghanistan. >> i want to bring you in this here, tia, and reference something that josh brought up. the president addressed as well. the u.s. embassy in kabul did put out a statement today. it says that the gates to the airport may open or close without notice. and "the u.s. government cannot ensure safe passage to the airport." the you're talking to people in afghanistan. it seems like the mission there from the embassy. what is happening outside the airport right now? >> well, what i can tell you is that from inside the airport from the united states of america, there are diplomats, former diplomats, former u.s. service members would are trying to connect to people on the ground. they're talking to their contacts and former interpreters. people they had green tea with and laughed with and made promises to on behalf of the u.s. government that they're trying desperately to get them in and get them on a plane. it's no the happening. some of those afghans are making it to the airport. but then they're out there for days. with he no he that there have been some women who have been out there for three dawes now. just to mention the sanitation part of it. where would they go to the bathroom? how do they eat? it's a desperate situation for a lot of people. when we talk about leaving afghans behind, we're not only letting this them down, we're letting down the diplomats who serve there. those are people. i'm going to add right now, it doesn't matter if they also some of them thought maybe the mission should be over. all of them will agree it should have been better than this. >> you paint a reality on the picture there. we want to go to a briefing with john kirby here, the pentagon press secretary. and also army major general william taylor. >> good afternoon, everybody. thank you for being here. and for really the important work that you're doing. we're working. i know it's not easy. i'm glad that absolutely we're in this together. the through put increased. we continue to observe steady progress in kabul. i'll run through some of the specifics here during that update. first, the military footprint in kabul is approximately 5,800 total troops on the ground. >> our mission to defend kabul airport and evacuate people from afghanistan as quickly and safely as possible continues. we're doing everything we can to maximize safe evacuations. and the past 24 hours, 15 c-17s arrived with several hundred more troops that allowed us to get to that 5,800 number and also some supplies. this morning for the previous 24 hours, 16 c-17s and one c-130 departed kabul. these flights contain nearly 6,000 passengers including a couple hundred passengers. as the president noted earlier today, we have airlifted approximately 13,000 total evacuees during the operation. in total, since the end of july, the number of people moved out of afghanistan is greater than 18,000. 18,000. there are siv applicants at risk afghan who's worked alongside us throughout our time in afghanistan. and other vulnerable afghans including women and childre many of the flights stopped in staging bases in qatar and other and military personnel are active will i processing passengers for their follow on flights to other destinations. we did pause flights earlier today leaving kabul. why we adjusted resources and personnel to ensure a temporary capacity issue at one of our stopover locations. although flight operations have resumed. and u.s. military flights to qatar and other locations departing and departing kabul as we speak right now. we're looking at addition allocations for these initial flights to land. we're grateful for our allies including germany where flights will land today who are cooperating with us in this global effort. aircraft availability is not an issue. we continued to maximize each plane's capacity. we're prioritizing evacuation of people above all else. and we're focused on doing this as safely as possible with a great sense of urgency. we have not experienced any hostile acts since my last update. the troops on the ground are steadfast and extremely dynamic environment. we see a tremendous amount of discipline, humanity and professionalism in their mission. we continue to assess the operating environment and will aggressively address any threat to the mission. the safety and security of american citizens and service members are partners who remain in kabul alongside us in the afghan people is absolutely our top priority. i want to reinforce we're focuseded on the mission of this great national importance. the massive effort is the result of team work and the tireless commitment of u.s. military to supporting the u.s. government around the world. >> okay. bob, there you are. you're not in your normal seat. >> thank you. president biden in his remarks earlier today made a reference to having, i forget what word he used, essentially rescue 169 americans outside, beyond the perimeter. can you explain how that happened? >> yeah. he's referring to small number of people that our troops -- they were very close to the perimeter. the perimeter of the airport. very close. and in a short amount of time with a short amount of distance, some of the troops were able to go out there and retrieve them and bring them in. >> okay. that's 169 americans or do you know the breakdown? >> i don't have the breakdown of everybody. >> related question would be are they going beyond the perimeter to do that? they rescue americans and our afghan partners in need. one way or another potential future operations the main focus is and making sure that as the general said that air operations resume and continue as unimpeded as possible. but clearly, we will be prepared and postured if we have to do something additional. i won't speculate right now. >> did the u.s. troops have to go through any taliban checkpoints? >> no. >> and then can you, general, can you talk a little bit more about this flight pause? how long did it last? and can you -- can you say when it started? >> yeah. early this morning. lasted about six to seven hours. it was allowed to ensure that flights at or intermediate staging basis could receive more personnel. they are ready to fly in kabul to leave. >> this is qatar, sfligt. >> were there any other locations. >> do you have permission to fly afghans from kabul to the united states or only to a third country? is that what the holdup was? >> that was not what the holdup was. that was capacity. that was just the room to fly in additional people. that fwhaz that process. they go back to the united states and we did this at fort lee. fort bliss will be able to receive additional siv applicants. for those that are not in the siv applicant process, there has been no final determination about whether they will be able to come right back to the united states again or in what timetable. that's a different category. people are not part of that technically part of that process. that is something we'll be working out. i haven't seen an estimate. i don't know that we have an exact estimate. >> military intelligence estimates about how many al qaeda remain. we know that al qaeda is a presence as well as isis in afghanistan. we talked about that for quite some time. we do not believe it is high. we don't have an exact high figure for you. they register somewhere. we don't have a perfect picture. and our ability our ability. they're there the same numbers that we have to be. there is no al qaeda presence. what i don't think is what we believe is that there isn't a presence that is significant enough to merit a threat to the homeland back on 9/11. i'm confused by that. of can you explain why there is no national interest in afghanistan? why did we have troops there for 20 years if there is no national interest? >> we is a significant and you heard the president talk about this. the goal was to to defeat al qaeda. and it was to prevent al qaeda from launch ago tacks. we did that and a lot more. it includes the helping with social political economic and progress in afghanistan. the president decided that it was time to end that there was really only two choices. and there was a deadline. because after may 1st, we could come under attack by the taliban. and we hadn't since the doja agreement had been signed or go ahead and complete the drawdown. and the decision was made to complete the drawdown. obviously, we're still going to maintain an overwatch vigilance with respect to the counter-terrorism threat emanating out of afghanistan. and if -- and in we need, to we'll take action to eliminate and defeat that threat. >> you just said you don't have intelligence on the ground in afghanistan anymore. how are you going to have overwatch? you still have al qaeda in the country? >> jen, what i said is we don't have the degree of dexterity intelligence to give you a head count, a nose count of exactly how many al qaeda fighters are in afghanistan. nobody's walking away from the fact that they are not there. and we're certainly going to maintain as much vigilence as we can absent a presence on the ground. the other thing is our intelligence capability certainly is -- it's more difficult if you don't have bootsen on the ground swrecht come a long way since we distribute intelligence information. a long way in the last 20 years. and while it's never perfect, we do believe that we will be able to have appropriate warning, should there be that kind of level threat coming from afghanistan towards the homeland. and we have also the capability in the region to deal with that. >> thank you. >> thank you. the president also suggested that extending the perimeter outside of al qaeda might put u.s. troops at too great a risk. it was no the clear if the risk is with the taliban or with groups like al qaeda or isis. can you talk about that risk and is it because there was some sort of agreement with the taliban that u.s. troops will not be on the streets of kabul? >> i don't think there was any agreement that we wouldn't be anywhere in particular. risk is a big part of managing any mission. there are other threats in afghanistan and in kabul than those that might be posed by the taliban. and we have to be mindful of. that we talked yesterday about you overwatch flights. any -- i'm not going to get into potential future operations. i'm not going to speculate about when or under what conditions we might expand the security per umter to that we're working with. but the president is absolutely right. an expansion does incur extra risk. you have to balance risk versus gain in every particular military operation you're conducting. and that will be no for this one. >> can i fall up on we're also seeing reports that there might be food, water, sanitation shortages for the evacuee that's are there. so i wonder, general taylor, are you making plans to flow in more supplies? >> absolutely. so as understand that that requirement to increase that through put is there. so to ensure that we have food, water, health care and all those things, absolutely. those are part of the other flights. the supplies are being in there to make sure that we can take care of that. >> okay. >> a follow up on expanding the mission and the risk to americans. apparently the germans are sending helicopters out throughout kabul to pick up their citizens and bring them to the airport. the reports of the french doing something similar, getting their people out. commandos going in. so, you know, why can't the americans do that? is it too risky for that kind of operation? >> i think the president is clear we'll do whatever we have to do to rescue as many -- to rescue as many americans as want to leave afghanistan. and the secretary is not going to rule anything in or out. i would also note, tom, though there have been spore at addic reports of some americans not being able to get through checkpoints, i fully admit that. by and large, what we've been teeing is that americans are able to get through the checkpoints and are able to get on to the airfield. so we are not seeing -- we're not aware of indications that there is that big a need for that. the secretary is going to keep as many options open to him as available. >> the president is doesn't want to risk american lives to say afghans who helped americans for the past 20 years. >> i didn't hear that same way. the president was very clear in his remarks that he knows we have an obligation in the afghans that helped us over the last 20 years. tom, the numbers belie that impression. if you look at the numbers of -- the general briefing, 13,000 since august 14th, 18,000 total. the vast, vast majority of that number are afghans. >> some are saying 35,000. others are saying is 00,000. >> in terms of what is left to get. >> right. >> i couldn't give you a perfectly predictive about what that is going to look like. we are moving and have been moving a lot of family members. but, i mean, just to give you an example, the general noted nearly 6,000 kaum out in the last 24 hours. 5,000 of them were afghans. i don't accept the premise this administration and this government and our military is not prioritizing moving them out of the country. the numbers don't say that. >> can we go back to the 169 please? there are several follow up questions. first of all, the president said it was 169 americans. you say americans are having no trouble getting through checkpoints to the best of your knowledge except for any anecdotes that may be out there. >> thank you. >> my questions are this. first of all, what was the situation of these 169 americans that required u.s. troops to go outside the perimeter and get them? why these 169 americans? when did this happen? how long did the mission last? was it 169 americans all together? did you feel you had safe passage from the taliban? tell us more about this. >> i don't have that level of detail. general, do you? >> no. not that detailed. >> i'm sorry. u.s. troops went out sued the wire at the airport to rescue 169 americans and -- that's what the president said. and neither of you have any additional information about that? >> barbara, i'm happy to take the questions that you ask back and try to provide additional context. i don't have that level of tactical detail here today. but i'm happy to take those questions and i'm happy to take a look and see if we can find answers for you on that, absolutely. my understanding of what happened was they were really just outside the wall. it wasn't very far to go. it wasn't so much assessing them on to the field. so i think that's the context in which i understand the incident. your questions are fair. i'll go back and see if we can provide additional context. >> you also tell us then, just for the record, have american troops in any other instance or circumstance gone outside the wire at the airport going into the city to get people? have american troops at all left the airport to go get people? and do you -- you said you had extended capacity. so do you -- the secretary said the other day you didn't have the capacity to really go get americans. so do you now have the capacity to do that? and is there any other circumstances in which you've done it? >> i don't know of any other circumstance. since wednesday, we have flown n you heard the general update you every day. we have flown in additional capacity, additional forces. security is in a more stable position at the airport. so if there would be a need to do something additional to help americans or other people at risk that we need to get to the airfield, we would examine those options. tee them up. weigh the benefits versus the risks and then offer up opportunities to the secretary to make a recommendation and we would go from there. >> so now, just to make sure i understand what you're saying, for the first time this many days into the operation, the u.s. military has the capability and capacity to go into kabul and get americans for the first time? >> we have additional capacity now as we have flown additional forces in. but as i said earlier, i'