This is Brian Lair's daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Monday, July 12th.

I'm Bridget Bergen from the WNYC in Gothamist Newsroom, filling in for Brian Lair, who is on vacation this week.

The United States is moving out of Afghanistan after President Biden ordered a complete withdrawal

after two decades of American military involvement.

Today, the top U.S. general there will step down while security concerns are on the rise.

Here at home, President Biden's chief

medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, made the rounds on Sunday morning shows yesterday as the nation

hits a vaccination roadblock, with only 48 percent of Americans fully vaccinated, according to the

Associated Press, and a growing risk from the more transmissible

delta variant. And with gun crimes on the rise, President Biden is set to meet with leaders

from across the country in Washington, D.C. today to discuss strategies for combating this violence.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who just locked in the Democratic nomination for

New York City Mayor last week, is expected to attend that meeting at the White House. And then tomorrow,

the president will deliver a major speech outlining the Democrats' plans to defend voting rights

and issue Republicans have been seizing on since the election. To talk about all of this in our Monday

morning politics segment, we are joined by White House reporter for the AP Jonathan Lamere. Jonathan,

welcome back to WNYC. Hey, good morning. Great to talk to you. Always glad to be here. Let's start with

Afghanistan. President Biden made the call to withdraw U.S. troops back in April, but he's been forced to defend this policy decision, including remarks he made just last week.

Here's a little bit of what he said.

The United States did what we want to do in Afghanistan, to get the terrorists to attack us on 9-11 and deliver justice

to Osama bin Laden, and to degrade the terrorist threat to keep Afghanistan from becoming a base

...