0 these are known passport holders. >> okay. but have -- have lprs also been contacted? >> yes. >> and what about siv applicants, people who are -- we're in contact -- >> will we get -- >> i'm sorry. >> i don't expect you to have all of it, but then, you know, since this whole thing began there's been a lot of criticism of the administration over how it handled it and there's been a lot of pushback from people within the administration about the hand that you were basically dealt or what you say you were dealt by the previous to deal with the taliban in terms of the siv program in terms of the broader refugee program. you guys have been in office for eight months. it's been five months since the president's decision was made. is there anything about the shortcomings have about been so readily identified by all sorts of people that you are actually willing to take responsibility for yourselves? >> thanks, matt. let me say two things. with regards to numbers in these different categories, as you've seen by as how i get to a number of americans, this is both incredibly complicated and incredibly fluid. any number i give you right now is likely to be out of date by the time we leave this briefing room so what we're doing is very carefully tabulating everything that we have and cross-checking it and using different databases. we'll have numbers for all the different categories in the days ahead and after this initial phase and effort to bring people out of afghanistan, and with regard to the second part of the question about taking responsibility. i take responsibility. the president said he takes responsibility and i know all my colleagues across government feel the same way and i can tell you that there will be plenty of time to -- to look back at the last six or seven months, to look back at the last 20 years and to look to see what we might have done differently, what we might have done sooner what, we might have done more effectively, but i have to tell you that right now my entire focus is on the mission at hand, and there's going to be, as i said, plenty of time to do an accounting of this when we get through that mission. >> thank, mr. secretary. could you speak today about the future of the u.s. embassy in kabul, whether it will remain or american diplomats will remain in kabul after the military withdrawal on 391st and also more broadly we're already seeing women being repressed by the taliban and people being attacked and intimidated and being kept from getting to the airport. i'm wondering if you can give us any concrete examples of steps that the united states is going to take to assure siv applicants and other high-value -- high-target and high-risk afghans, that they are not going to be forgotten when the united states. regard to our diplomatic engagement we're look at a series of options and i'm sure we'll have more on that in the coming days and weeks, but we're looking at a variety of options, and as i said earlier, particularly because the effort to bring out of afghanistan those who want to leave does not end with the military evacuation plan on the 31st, we are very focused on what we need to do to facilitate the further departure of people who wish to leave afghanistan, and that is primarily going to be a diplomatic effort, a consular effort and international effort because other countries feel exactly -- exactly the same way, and the second part of your question. >> will there any concrete steps about whether they will be for then, left behind and disappeared once the united states withdraws their military and can no longer ensure their safe passage to the airports and other livelihoods. >> the short answer is they will not be forgotten, and as i said we will use every diplomatic, economic and assistance tool at our disposal working hand in hand with the international community first and foremost to ensure that those who want to leave afghanistan after 391st are able to do so as well as to deal with other issues that we need to be focused on, including counterterrorism and humanitarian assistance and expectations of a future afghan government. i mentioned a few moments ago that we got 114 countries around the world to make clear to the taliban, the international expectation that people will continue to be able to leave the country after the military evacuation effort ends, and we certainly have points of incentive and points of leverage with a future afghan government to help make sure that that happens, but i can tell you, again, from -- from my perspective and from the president's perspective this effort does not end on august 31st. it will continue for as long as it takes to help get people out of afghanistan who wish to leave. >> what's your level of confidence today that the taliban will actually abide by some of these, you know, requirements and expectations that the international community has put on it? >> i'm not going to put a percentage on it. i'm telling you the taliban have made their own commitments and made them publicly and made them privately and, again, i think they have a -- a very strong self-interest in acting with a modicum of responsibility going forward, but they will make their own determinations. >> mr. secretary, thank you. but the taliban right now focusing on the mission right now are not living up to their commitments. people are being stopped trying to get into the airport. i'm talking about, you know, women, sivs, others, afghans, people with papers and they are being stopped outside the airport now. there are total bottlenecks which rise to the level of what the president said were the contingencies if the taliban is not complying if the flow can't continue. we're loading planes but some planes are leaving without and some people who have private planes are waiting for them with landing rights but can't get into the airport as well as beyond the sivs there are law, there are judges, women lawyers, judges, educators. we told them for 20 years you can live up to your potential and now they feel abandoned and i would finally like to ask you about the local hires. we evacuated our embassy and there have been abilities back that i know you must be fwam or your teams are of people who feel completely betrayed, and these are thousand of people that we rely on in embassies around the world. the message is going forward that we will not be loyal. they were not told about the evacuation. they were not put on those choppers with our american staff, and they were forced, many of them, to find their own way through the taliban checkpoints and get turned away at the airport. some even got turned away once they were inside. so what is the message to people working for the u.s. government, veterans groups are angry the sivs and there's the millions of a gan women who have told their daughters who have been raised under this promise of a future which the taliban alreadyings according to the ambassador today, are denying. there are horrifying examples from provinces and from inside kabul of people being targeted door to door, people in safe houses being sought out, and all this promise of you will be safe, the taliban spokesman said, you know, stay in your homes because we haven't told all of our people how to treat women. how to respect women. they also say you can go to school. can you work as long as you comply with sharia law which under their interpretation is the most extreme example of the islamic code that is seen anywhere in the world. >> andrea, a few things. of the 82,000 people who have so far been evacuated, about 45%, 46% have been women and children and we've been intensely focused particularly on making sure that we can get women at risk out of harm's way. second, with regard to women and other afghans at risk going forward, we will use, i will use every diplomatic, economic, political and assistance tool at my disposal working closely with allies and partners who feel very much same way to do everything possible to uphold their basic rights and that's going to be a relentless focus of our actions going forward. locally employed staff, along with american citizens, nothing is more important to me as secretary of state than to do right by the people who have been working side by side with american diplomats in our embassy and i can tell you, andrea, that we are relentlessly focused on getting the locally employed staff out of afghanistan and out of harm's way and let me leave it at that for now. >> mr. secretary, thank you. i want to ask a more fundamental question about the taliban. your spokesperson indicated in recent days that de facto the taliban are in charge in kabul, but but there is no legal recognized government by the united states at this moment. and it kind of begs the question why does the united states even have to pay attention to what the taliban want? it's an segt. it's sanctioned by many organizations. it's already losing access to afghan government resources because of its past and current behavior. why should the united states even care what the taliban wants to be done at the airport or frankly anywhere else in the country since they are not in the u.s.' eyes a legally recognized government? thank you. >> thank you. >> our focus right now is getting our citizens, our afghan partners, third country partners who have been working in afghanistan with us out of the country and to safety, and for that purpose, first, the taliban whether we like it or not is in control, largely in control of the country, certainly in control of the city of kabul and it's been important to work with them to try to facilitate and ensure the departure of all those who want to leave, and that has actually been something that we've been foege yusd on for -- from the beginning of this operation because as a practical matter it advances our interests. second, we've been engaged diplomatically sometimes years and trying to have a settlement of the conflict in afghanistan. there are still talks and conversations under way even now between the taliban and former members of the afghan government with regard, for example, to a transfer of power and some inclusivity in a future government, and i think it's in our interest where possible to -- to support those efforts. going forward. we will judge our engagement with any taliban-led government in afghanistan based on one simple proposition, our interests and does it help us advance them or not. if engagement with the government can advance the enduring interests we'll have in counterterrorism, the enduring interests we'll have in trying to help the afghan people who need humanitarian assistance and the enduring interest we have in seeing that the rights of all afghans, especially women and girls are upheld, then we'll do it. but fundamentally the nature of the relationships depends on the action of the taliban. if a future government upholds the basic rights of the afghan people, if it makes good on its commitments to ensure that afghanistan cannot be used as a -- as a launching pad for terrorist attacks directed against us and our allies and partners and in the first instance if it makes good on its commitments to allow people who want to leave afghanistan to leave, that's a government we can work with. if it doesn't, we will make sure that we use every appropriate tool at our disposal to isolate that government and as i said before afghanistan will be a pariah. >> what will happen on september 1st? will the u.s. keep any diplomatic and/or any other kind of presence in kabul at all and who will run the airport? is there any discussions with the turkz or any other measures being taken? >> there are active efforts under way on the part of regional countries to -- to see whether they can play a role in keeping the airport open once our military mission leaves or as necessary reopening it if it closes for some period of time and that's happening very actively right now. the taliban have made clear that they have a strong interest in having a functioning airport. we and the rest of the international community certainly have a strong interest in that, primarily for the purpose of making sure anyone who wants to leave can leave past the 31st using -- use an airport and so that's a very active effort that's under way as we speak, and, again, with regard to our own potential presence going forward after 39 -- after the 31st, we're looking at a number of options. thank you all investment. >> good afternoon, everybody. i'm aaron gill grist crist in for ayman mohyeldin. we just heard an update from secretary of state tony blinken on the evacuation effort in afghanistan. also this hour, we do expect to get more updates on the situation in that region. any moment now the white house press secretary jen saccy will do her daily briefing. we'll dip in when she takes questions on afghanistan and the p pentagon press secretary john kirby set to hold another briefing as well. we'll bring you that when it begins. here to start this hour, pbs newshour national correspondent and colonel christopher colenda who negotiated with the taliban in peace talks and the author of "sero sum victory, what we're getting wrong with war" and hopefully joining us in a moment here as well nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. amma want to start with you at this point. we're seeing -- we heard a lot of detail from the secretary of state in that briefing. we're also at the same time seeing a lot of frustration in the cia and the pentagon and congress about the thousands potentially of a gains who could be left behind when this operation is finished in its -- in its -- in its most earnest forms. what were your takeaways from the secretary's briefing today? >> credit to the administration for regularly coming out and providing the information that they do have but there is a bit of a disconnect between the messaging that they are going and many of us in contact with people on the ground who are inundated every day with requests and desperate pleas with people trying to flee and what we are hearing is unfolding there. i do have to say what we heard from the secretary of state there was probably the most conciliatory we've heard any white house official so far in terms of acknowledging that there are many people who will not be helped in the days ahead, these final days before the u.s. final withdrawal. the important number i know a lot of people were looking for is how many americans remain. we now know that the u.s. governments estimates there were around 6,000 total americans in afghanistan, about 4,500 evacuated so far and 500, they have made contact with, that leaves about 1,000 or so they are still trying to find. the big question, of course, is along these categories of people who are trying to leave, there are in the priority list american citizens, passport holders. you heard that from the secretary of state there. after that there are the local staff that people who have been working with them, but there are many, many tens of thousands more, people who are applying for what is called p-1 or p-2, priority 1 or 2 protection status and many more without protection status. not in the pipeline but are considered at risk because of their work tesh airlie with the u.s. government. the u.s. thought the taliban won't come back into power and now they have no way out and with a few days left before the u.s. withdrawal i think it's fair to said vast majority of them will be left behind. >> i want to ask you to pick up from that point, courtney. the evacuation pace has increased in the past couple of days. 82,000 taken out since the 14th of this month. what's the calculus here? give us a reality check given what we've just heard from the secretary about how many people could potentially be left behind here successfully think ama hit the nail on the head here. it depends on what category you're talking about. if there are americans who want to get out, they have the capacity, the u.s. military, has the capacity to get them all out. the question is do they have the ability to actually get to these people and i'm talking specifically about the ones not inside of kabul and that's what we still don't have a good sense of, aaron, are there actually going to be efforts to go outside of kabul to pick some people up? we know there are people not in the capital, but the larger question remains what about these many afghans? so we're hearing about cases, people who are in these special immigrant visa process, so these are people who have worked for the state department or the military during these two decades. they are in the process but they haven't yet been approved and they may not be very far along in it. they seem tonight ones most vulnerable and have the most difficult time getting through, the taliban checkpoints getting into the gate at the airport and getting on the evacuation flights and there are potentially thousand of them and that doesn't even speak to the ones that ama is mentioning, the ones who may be at risk because what have they have been doing, because of the efforts and the work they have been doing over the last 20 years that will make them a target for the taliban going forward. they may not have any real place, like a diplomatic place with the united states that they would have a reason for the u.s. to be taking them out. so that's one of the questions and i think, again, this all comes in the backdrop of the u.s. is still working towards this august 31st deadline. that's just in one week, and when you backtrack that from what it will take to get the u.s. military out, we're only talking a couple of days left here. if the u.s. can maintain this pace that they have set the last three days or so which in the last 24 hours there was a flight, more than one every sickle hour taking evacuees out, if they can maintain that pace they will get tens of thousands more people out before friday or saturday when the flights slow down but the reality is there still will be many more afghans who won't be able to get out who will want to, aaron. >> i'm going ask you all to stand by, if we can. we want to go to the white house and the daily press briefing has started. here's jen psaki. >> to ensure that state and local grantees can further accelerate the distribution of e.r.a. funds to struggling landlords and renters at risk of eviction. they are providing specific permission for grantees to use self-attestation without further documentation of their economic circumstances in order to speed the delivery of assistance to households in need during the public health emergency. there are also a number of steps that are being taken by usd a, hud, the va and hhs, including the usd a is working with owners of 400,000 rental usd a gkd properties. hud will maintain evictions in public housing and have the rental assistance money before facing eviction and hud lex tend the notification period for 14 to 40 days and the va will expand rental support to at-risk veterans and their families from just seven states to now all 50 states and the u.s. territories. so this is just some of the examples of steps that we're taking. go ahead. >> on afghanistan, there seems to be a disconnect from what advocates are saying that afghans with visas are risk death and taking beatings at the airport and i hope i'm framing this right but there's been the sense that i've heard i think from you and others in this administration that the taliban is by and large met its commitment to allow people with the right papers on to the airport. can you try to help americans that are seeing and what seems to be a disconnect between these two different statements of what is happening there. >> well, first let me say i wouldn't see it as a disconnect and let me explain to you why. i noted earlier that we put out earlier today that 19,000 people were evacuated. the vast majority -- in a 24-hour period. th