Biden: 70,000+ people evacuated from Afghanistan in 10 days

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

3.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2021

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Joe Biden said the U.S. is on track to complete its evacuation mission by August 31 and doesn’t plan to have troops stay in the country past that date. The President also said the U.S. has helped more than 70,000 people evacuate Afghanistan in the last 10 days. Leon Panetta is the former Defense Secretary under President Obama. He tells Anderson Cooper we made a promise to U.S. citizens who are in Afghanistan and to Afghans who helped us that “we would do everything we could to evacuate them. I think we’ve got to still keep that promise.” Plus, a new Quinnipiac poll shows Floridians largely support mask mandates and oppose Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to block them in schools. Dr. Aileen Marty is an infectious disease expert at Florida International University and a Miami-Dade County Public Schools medical task force member. She joins AC360 to discuss the important of masks in schools and says “the governor” and “all leaders should be working with us to do everything possible to slow down transmission.” Airdate: August 24, 2021 Guests: Leon Panetta Dr. Aileen Marty To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good evening tonight, a live update on the accelerating race to evacuate Americans, European
0:05.0	allies, and allied Afghans from Kabul.
0:07.4	Today, President Biden said that as of this afternoon, more than 70,000 people have been
0:11.9	airlifted out in just the last 10 days.
0:14.7	That is an extraordinary number and a far cry from how this began in utter chaos.
0:19.9	By the same token, it's also just seven days from the president's self-imposed deadline
0:23.3	which he recommitted to this evening.
0:27.0	We are currently on a pace to finish by August 31st.
0:31.7	The sooner we can finish the better.
0:34.3	Each day of operations brings at risk to our troops.
0:38.8	But the completion of August 31st depends upon the Taliban continuing to cooperate and
0:44.6	allow access to the airport for those who were transporting out and no disruption to
0:50.1	our operations.
0:51.1	In addition, I've asked the Pentagon and the State Department for contingency plans to adjust
0:57.4	the timetable.
0:58.8	Should that become necessary?
1:00.7	As for what would make that necessary to stay longer, the president did not elaborate.
1:04.6	He did, however, warn that each additional day on the ground increases the risk to Americans
1:08.8	and American forces, as well as civilians, especially from ISIS-K militants, which
1:13.2	he said are targeting the airport.
1:15.3	He did not, however, address the Taliban's announcement today that it was blocking Afghans
1:19.4	wanting to flee from actually getting to the airport, cutting off the road.
	...

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