tracking them. velshi starts now. good morning. it s saturday, august 21st. ali velshi is taking much deserved time off. we begin with breaking news on the situation unfolding in afghanistan and the fallout here in washington, d.c. just moments ago, the u.s. embassy in kabul issued a warning to american citizens, not to travel to hamid karzai international airport until specifically told to. it comes after a president biden press conference, the first time he spoke to report ners ten days since afghanistan fell to the taliban during the biden administration has said quote they have no indication that americans have not been able to get to the airport due to taliban checkpoints. the president revealed that the united states has 6,000 troops
what do you imagine is happening to those afghan men and women who you met along the way? i can tell you, they are desperate to leave. they are the ones getting trampled outside the airport. they re the ones messaging me all hours of the night. weeping. desperate to get them and their families out. no one trusts what the taliban regime will bring. this is not elected. they were not elected. this is not, you know, what a lot of afghans want. and they re desperate to leave. they re desperate to leave. do you think americans are ready to take them in? i think there s a bit of logistical problem we re seeing right now. i think obviously, the u.s. embassy just warned all americans not to come to the gates, there are a lot of afghans who are risking their lives who worked with americans, like myself, like the military, who are making that very dangerous journey to the airport. and what will they do? i meantime is running out.
now heading to countries other than qatar, including to the air base in germany. earlier this morning, a spokesman tells in nbc news that aircraft, has come in carrying 1,550 political refugees. joining me is a political correspondent for national public radio and co-host of the npr politics podcast. thanks for coming on the show this morning. there seems to be a disconnect of sorts between the rhetoric coming from the president and the reality of the situation on the ground in kabul. and other cities in afghanistan. which we continue to see play out in front of us on our screens day by day. the polls show more americans continue to support this withdrawal than oppose it, but those numbers seem to be falling by the week. that s right. as you were speaking about this, there is such a disconnect about the way the president described the safety and security, being
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on the ground aiding evacuation efforts, although he doesn t have an exact number of how many americans still remain in afghanistan. he also said this administration is committed to evacuating all americans out of the country by august 31st. although that date should be viewed more as a goal than a firm exit date. and that he views evacuating all of the brave afghans who aided americans during the two decades long war, as almost equally important. meanwhile, in afghanistan, and especially in kabul and in and around the airport, the hamid karzai international airport, chaotic scenes continue to play out as the taliban surrounds the afghans who continue to amass around the airport gates trying desperately to get on board, evacuating american planes. and yesterday, for at least an eight-hour span, no evacuation flights were able to take off, because qatar which had been receiving them reached its own capacity due to the thousands of people it already took in, in recent days. evacuation fl