Appreciate it, Coup. I am Chris Cuomo and welcome to Prime Time. The president says our withdrawal

from Afghanistan was, quote, an extraordinary success. Why? Because America airlifted over 120,000

people in just a few weeks. And that is impressive. In fact, it has never been done before.

But perception is often reality in politics. And President Biden's assessment must compete with

the fact that the evacuation was forced because why? Because the way America exited through the

place into chaos. Still, Biden says naysayers missed the main point.

Some say we should have started mass evacuation sooner. And couldn't this have been done,

had been done in a more orderly manner? I respectfully disagree. Imagine if we've begun

evacuations in June or July, bringing in thousands of American troops and evacuating more than 120,000

people in the middle of a civil war. There still would have been a rush to the airport.

There is no evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities,

challenges, threats we faced, none.

Compelling. And yet, there were months to prepare. And reportedly, there was intelligence to

suggest there could be a quick collapse. And reportedly, we did not prepare for that,

or to get our machinery and weapons out. So they wouldn't end up in the enemy's hands.

And we weren't prepared to retake control of Bogram Airport to speed up the evacuation ever.

And a big reason is because we were playing to a deadline that the administration decided had

to be honored. And this is a point that Biden insists on.

Leaving August 31st is not due to an arbitrary deadline. It was designed to save American lives.

I was not going to extend this forever war. And I was not extending a forever exit.

This is going to be a pivot point in terms of perception and reality. And the ultimate story of

what this means for President Biden's fate and administration. Kabul fell just two and a half

...