Biden announced during the speech that the U.S. has evacuated 13,000 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, when the effort began, and 18,000 overall since July. Despite a “pause” in evacuation flights from the Kabul airport to “make sure we could process the arriving evacuees at the transit points,” outbound flights have resumed departure, Biden said. He said that 5,700 people were evacuated on Thursday despite the temporary halt.
The U.S. was still attempting to confirm how many Americans were still in the country, Biden said. It is also unknown exactly how many Afghans who assisted the U.S., as well as their families, have yet to be evacuated from Afghanistan.
However, he made a pledge to not leave any Americans behind in Afghanistan and announced a similar commitment to the Afghan aides.
“We’re going to do everything, everything that we can, to provide safe evacuation for our Afghan allies, partners and Afghans who might be targeted because of their association with the United States,” he said.
Biden again defended the U.S. withdrawal during his address, stating that NATO allies and fellow leaders at the G7 Summit “knew and agreed with the decision I made to end — jointly end — our involvement in Afghanistan.”
He also claimed that the situation in Afghanistan would be a “very different story” if the Afghan forces had “continued to fight” against the Taliban’s campaign to gain control.
“But the overwhelming consensus was that they were not going to collapse-the Afghan forces. They were not going to leave. They were not going to just abandon and then put down their arms and take off,” he said.
“So, that’s what’s happened,” he concluded the press conference.
The live updates for this event have ended.
“But the overwhelming consensus was that they were not going to collapse-the Afghan forces. They were not going to leave. They were not going to just abandon and then put down their arms and take off,” he said.
“So, that’s what’s happened,” he concluded the press conference.
“We want you to be able to get to the airport. Contact us, we’ll see whatever we can do to get you there. We are committed to deal with you, your wife, and your child to get all three of you out of Afghanistan. That’s the commitment,” he said.
Biden also said during his remarks that the U.S. was “considering every opportunity and every means by which we can get folks to the airport.”
He said that he “told them all, every one of them knew and agreed with the decision I made to end — jointly end — our involvement in Afghanistan.”
“This is about America leading the world, and all our allies have agreed with that,” he said.
“If we had decided 15 years ago to leave Afghanistan would have been really difficult, if we decided five years ago, if we continued the war for another decade and tried to leave,” he said.
“But what we’ve done so far is we were able to get a large number of Americans out, all our personnel at the embassy out and so on. And thank God, so far, knock on wood, we’re in a different position,” he added.
“And for what? So, the only rational thing to do in my view was to setup and preposition American forces for the purpose of evacuation,” he said.
He said that there’s nothing more important than evacuating American citizens, but the Afghans were “equally important almost” in their priorities.
He commended the work of the troops in securing the Kabul airport, saying that “they’re performing to the highest standard under extraordinary difficult and dynamic circumstances.”
He added that he communicates with commanders on the ground in Kabul frequently, and asked the American people to pray for the troops.
“It’s time to end this war,” he said.
“As commander in chief, I can assure that that I will mobilize every resource necessary,” he said.
It remains unclear how many Americans needing evacuation are still in the country.
“This is one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history,” he said.
