Hello and welcome to the 538 Politics Podcast.

I'm Gailin Drouk.

We're back after a week off and we've got plenty to discuss today.

President Biden's deadline for withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan is tomorrow, Tuesday,

August 31.

The run-up to that deadline has involved a chaotic effort to try to evacuate Americans

and Afghan allies from the country.

And the Biden administration has weathered some pretty heavy criticism for how the withdrawal

effort has been conducted from Republicans, the media, and to some extent Democrats.

As the US officially leaves Afghanistan, we're going to talk to a historian about how we got

to this moment and what might come next.

We're also going to look at how Americans are reacting.

Biden began this month with a net approval rating about 9 points above water.

Significantly, more Americans approved of the job he was doing as president than disapproved.

He's closing out the month basically even between the number of Americans who approve

and disapprove.

So how much of that decline has to do with the Afghanistan withdrawal?

Here with me to discuss all of this is politics editor Sir Frostensen, hello Sarah.

Hey Gailin.

All's here with us is senior elections analyst Nathaniel Raikert, chain of fangirl.

Hey Gailin.

And also here with us for our first segment is History Professor at Stanford University,

...