After 20,744 American servicemen and women injured, and the loss of 2,461 American personnel,

including 13 lives lost just this week, I refused to open another decade of warfare in Afghanistan.

We've been a nation too long at war.

One day after the last United States troops left Kabul,

President Biden defending his decision to end America's longest war

and pushing back against the notion his administration did not do everything it could to get

every United States citizen out of the country, despite the fact many of them still are in the

country. Plus, hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana still without electricity or

running water in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida as temperatures soar there. We'll have the very

latest. Plus, we are following

the continued battle in Florida over the governor's ban of school mask mandates. A judge ruled

the governor's order was unconstitutional, but the state still has gone ahead with financial

penalties against school districts. We'll have an update on that story. Good morning. Welcome to

Morning, Joe. It is Wednesday, September 1st. I'm Willie Geist. And we will start with President Biden's

address to the nation yesterday afternoon one day after the final American troops left Afghanistan,

officially ending our country's role in that war. NBC News Chief White House correspondent, Peter Alexander,

takes us through the president's defense of that decision.

With the Taliban declaring victory in Afghanistan, President Biden at the White House marked the end of America's longest war.

Leaving August the 31st is not due to an arbitrary deadline.

It was designed to save American lives.

Facing bipartisan backlash, the president at times angry and defensive standing by his decision

to end the mission with up to 200 American citizens still stranded.

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