BREAKING: Biden Sticks to Withdrawal Deadline, At Taliban’s Request

Breaking news, President Biden caves to the Taliban's red line will keep the August 31st withdrawal from Afghanistan, keeping you informed and engaged.

Now more than ever, this is secular. Taliban has called that date a red line saying that if quote the occupation is extended, it will provoke a reaction. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. Most of the criticism is not of leaving Afghanistan. It's the way that he has ordered it to happen by pulling the troops before getting these Americans who are now stranded.

Does he have a sense of that? First of all, I think it's irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home. No American stranded is the White House's official position on what's happening in Afghanistan right now.

I'm just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan when we have been very clear that we are not leaving Americans who want to return home. We are going to bring them home. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Hey, welcome to Sekulow. There's breaking news right now. So we know President Biden is in the meeting with G7 leaders, a virtual meeting with the leaders of the G7, and he has just told the G7 leaders that the United States is not budging on the August 31st deadline. Now, here's the way the White House is spinning it as that, that they're sticking to their plans. But what we really know is that this is a cave to the Taliban. It's the Taliban who has made this specific date of August 31st, which was something the administration used as a kind of a guidepost deadline. They seized on it and said, OK, you've got to be out by then or else there's going to be consequences.

No wiggle room on that. And even though the rest of the world was coming to the President of the United States today, including our allies, the U.K., these would all be in the G7, would include some NATO allies as well, to announce that they would be keeping a military presence in Afghanistan for a longer period of time. So now we know the President is not going to announce that, is going to state the opposite, which is a cave to the Taliban threats. Because if you weren't worried about the Taliban threats or knew that you could handle whatever threat they would pose, you would just say, listen, you know, August 31st, that's kind of been a goalpost. But again, we'll leave when we're done.

That's it. We'll leave when we're finished, when we're ready, and we'll deal with whatever from the Taliban that we need to deal with. We're the United States of America. Instead of this rush to, we're going to get out before, don't fire at us, don't shoot at us yet, which is what this is setting up to be, which is why I keep saying, and I'll say it again on today's broadcast, it feels like we are an action step away from an Afghanistan part two for the United States. Well, we've increased the troop size that's there right now, so that's one thing.

So let's be clear on that. The troop size has actually increased. Number two, the Taliban set a red line, and that red line was August 31st, and the Biden administration apparently, before meeting with the G7 partners, which is going on right now, said, okay, we're going to abide by that. You can call it what you will, but if we don't have people out by August 31st, we need to get our people out, Wes. And it will take us three or four days just to get the 6,000, 7,000 military troops out and our diplomatic staff there and what equipment we have at the airport there. There is no way we can get all of that out, because that'll take three to four days, experts say, and then still get another 10,000, 12,000, 14,000 civilians out.

Jay, it is impossible to do that by next Monday. No way, Jordan. No, and this is, again, I think the President's going to address the nation later today after the G7 meeting, but I think what you have to understand here is that this feels like, again, the United States caving to the Taliban.

Do you agree with that? If you do or if you don't, if you have different comments, we want to get those in, 1-800-684-3110. If you want to be on the broadcast, it's 1-800-684-3110.

You can get your comments in on Facebook, Periscope, YouTube as well. When we come back, we'll get to Thad Bennett, Washington, D.C., get an update on what is occurring there. There is a classified briefing that was ongoing for members of the House of Representatives, so we're waiting to hear from congressional leaders, too, on that. And we're trying to get out our Freedom of Information Act demand to the Department of Defense and the Department of State is being worked on.

We have comments coming in from some of our senior people, so that should go out, hopefully, by the end of today. Yes, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. We have a matching challenge the entire month of August, so again, if you can support our work financially, it's a great time to do it. They double the impact of your donation, ACLJ.org. Music I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases. How we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists. The ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later. Play on Parenthood's role in the abortion industry. And what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Secular.

So I want to play for you. This is a Taliban spokesperson who sat down with Sky News. Again, just so you understand, this was today when this was released. So obviously there's time differences here. We're talking about Afghanistan. Some of these leaders of the Taliban are in other parts of the Middle East right now as well. But take a listen to his remarks on August 31st so we can put into context now what we know that our President has told fellow G7 leaders.

Take a listen by 39. If the US or the UK wanted to extend the 31st of August deadline in order to continue evacuations out of the country, would you agree to that? No. No.

Why not? This is something you can say it's a red line. President Biden announced this agreement until 31st of August. They would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it, that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that.

First of all, can I say something? Occupation? There was 2,500 troops there. This is not occupation. So they used the language of the Palestinian authority and tried to now transpose it onto Afghanistan.

Doesn't work, number one. Number two, there's a G7 meeting supposedly going on right now. And yet the Biden administration announced before that meeting that in fact as it relates to this whole issue of the deadline being the 31st that they were moving it. They were not going to move it, rather. It's in stone, which is just basically kowtowing to the Taliban. Number three, supposedly at this meeting, Boris Johnson and others were going to encourage President Biden to be flexible on the withdrawal date so that he can get all the international forces out, all of the people that assisted with the United States out.

And at the same time, and this is, I guess, goes back to why would you give your enemy here a date, Wes? I mean, why would you do that militarily? Yeah, why would you telegraph that? It is amateur hour, apparently, and not only at the White House. It's beyond telegraph.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, but it's amateur hour at the White House, but more shocking for me as a retired military guy, it was amateur hour apparently at the Pentagon as well. This is a mess, and Jay, there's not going to be any easy fix for this mess that the administration got us into.

This will be ugly. Likely, Americans are going to be left behind in some number, and the Taliban will complete, you know, a complete takeover of Afghanistan. And this is not a crisis in belief in the U.S. military or its credibility. It is about a crisis of leadership in Washington, D.C., in particular at the White House, the Pentagon, and the Department of State. The U.S. administration, the Biden administration, stumbled into this plan without any contingency plans if things went wrong. It was an unrealistic plan to begin with, and like I said, it is a hot mess that we are not going to get out of without paying a price. You know, I'm still concerned about, well, I don't even want to say it, because there's so many things that the Taliban and ISIS could do on these exits out.

I mean, they're just incredible. We know what's going on in Washington. I mean, I know Adam Schiff has been saying things.

Yeah, so take a listen. This is the head of the Democratic head of the Intel Committee. But he's giving his honest assessment of what he thinks, whether or not this could actually be completed. He made the statement before the statement from President Biden to the other G7 leaders was released that they're sticking with this August 31 deadline.

Take a listen to Schiff. Given the logistical difficulties of moving people to the airport and the limited number of workarounds, it's hard for me to see that being fully complete by the end of the month. And I'm certainly of the view that we maintain a military presence as long as it's necessary to get all U.S. persons out and to meet our moral and ethical obligation to our Afghan partners. So there's not much agreement in Washington, D.C. on anything these days. But it appears then that even we can agree with Adam Schiff on these points that this does not appear likely, that they could actually accomplish what they want to accomplish based off this August 31 deadline. And, you know, let's all be honest and clear with Washington. Even when they say they're going to stick to deadlines, they end up not sticking to deadlines. But the Taliban has said, if you don't, you know, conflict begins and then you're then you get into the real mess. But then we do know that congressional leader House members were being briefed en masse today.

Explain that to people, too. Yeah, well, Washington's not good at deadlines, Jordan, but one thing they are good at is circling the wagon. So when you're President Biden and you've lost Adam Schiff on this, you've essentially lost everyone. What we had so far is two series of briefings. The one that you played the comment from Adam Schiff of that happened last night to the House Intelligence Committee. And actually, Adam Schiff came out and expressed concern over three main points.

The one you play, the concern about the timeline. He also expressed a concern about the airport security. And then also, Jordan, very interestingly, and you had a conversation with Rick Grenell about this earlier in the week. He said this was not an intelligence failure.

This was an execution failure. But then today, Nancy Pelosi called for a house wide classified briefing that members are just coming out of right now. So you'll get some reaction out of that, although it was in a classified setting. And Jordan, for this week, that briefing and then probably later in the week, you'll see a briefing of the Gang of Eight. Those are taking place of the hearings.

And the one piece of analysis I would give you there, Jordan, that is raising the importance, the urgency level of these briefings. It's not an open setting. It's not in a hearing. It's not back and forth. It's behind closed doors and it's classified and it's house wide.

So look, again, I think I would leave you with this. When you're Joe Biden and you've lost Adam Schiff, you don't have anybody else in Washington, D.C. Yeah, I mean, the piling on is substantial. We have not seen a moment like this for the Biden administration where the press is frustrated, angry.

The fellow Democrats at his own party, angry, disagreeing with the White House and of course Republicans as well. Now, we don't know how long that will last, but there is this wide agreement. One, there was a widespread support for drawing down Afghanistan.

Seventy percent of the American people supported that as late as June. So the idea of drawing down, I think there was no explanation on what that meant. That's the problem. It's very rare in conflicts you win, which this was when we had won. The Taliban had lost. They were hiding in the hills. Al Qaeda decimated ISIS, these other outlier groups. They weren't able to use this as a safe haven. They weren't able to operate. They weren't executing people in the streets.

Women were being educated and going to schools and serving in prominent positions, including news broadcast, being in the government, all these different things. So we had won, but when we win, we don't ever leave. We haven't left Germany. We haven't left Japan. It feels like when it's been lost or something like Vietnam, something more similar, that's when we've left. Because we haven't had anything to protect or to keep.

We've been overrun. Yeah, but we do have, I mean I was not in favor of having 50,000 troops or 100,000, but it seems like the 2,500 troops, which I thought maybe they should go to. That's not my call. That's the general's call. But it seems like for 2,500 soldiers there, it was pretty stable and things were progressing. Now their government collapse was unreal, but here's what Alice on Facebook says, which is an interesting point. The Taliban are calling the shots.

This is what she writes. They are well armed with American weapons. This is terrifying. And Alice, you're right. And at the same time, get ready for this.

Western officials say that the Taliban is now seeking official recognition as the valid government for Afghanistan. And we have left, Wes, military armaments of significant proportions in Afghanistan. So when you look at all of this collectively, it doesn't paint a very rosy picture. It's a horrible picture.

It is a horrible picture. The ramifications, we don't even know the full extent of them yet. And there were so many missteps. Whenever President Trump agreed to withdraw and we started the initial negotiations with the Taliban, it was all condition based. There were conditions on every step.

Every step. And there were a few times when the Taliban pushed the envelope a little bit and they got attacked by U.S. air power. All that went away in the last eight months so that they went from province to province and began to take over the entire country, which was part of the conditions we set up.

You can't do that. They started attacking civilians. They were going to overthrow the government. The condition was you don't overthrow the government. You don't attack civilians. And you if you do these things, there is a price to be paid. All of those conditions went out the window now so that they have pretty much swept the country.

And then in the middle of this not reacting to them violating the conditions, what do we do? We leave Bagram Airfield, our largest air base in country, with the 83 billion dollars worth of equipment. Much of it was there and allowed the Taliban to take that airport, which is an hour and a half north of Kabul, so that we are crippled in getting people out.

Ninety minutes. Yeah. It was just one bad decision after another the last eight months. So this guy, three-star admiral John Kirby, served in the Navy. He's this press spokesman for the Department of Defense. He's not a confidence builder, I will tell you that. Listen to this statement of his.

Play it. As we work through this, the daily communication with the Taliban commanders is going to have to continue. That's just a hard fact.

Why don't we really tell the truth? The Taliban, and Thanh, you pointed this out just now, the Taliban aren't just, we're not just talking to the Taliban. The Taliban are setting the conditions upon our relief. Yeah, the United States are no longer setting the conditions. The Taliban are. Three of them we know they've asked for, Jay. Foreign aid, no sanctions on them, and international recognition. So from one of the biggest terrorist organizations in the world to the one demanding foreign aid from the United States and the rest of the world. All right, folks, we come back. Take your calls, questions, comments.

Again, Facebook, Periscope, YouTube. This is breaking news because the President has told other G7 leaders the U.S. is not budging on this. They were actually asking not just for an extended withdrawal period, but for a U.S. troop commitment.

And again, I think you can debate that. What we did see is what we've all learned is that with 2,500 troops, the United States, along with our allies, was able to keep Afghanistan under control and the Taliban out of power. We'll be right back. This is called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.

Welcome back to Secular. Again, we're taking your phone calls and your thoughts as well. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to the phones. Mary Ellen in Illinois on Line 1.

Hey, Mary Ellen, welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Oh, thank you.

And thank you for all you guys do. I understand that they have these special operation forces out there waiting over there by the airport. And I see that French and British got a whole bunch of theirs out successfully.

You know, people being trapped in the countryside. They can't even get to the airport. So what's wrong with activating those troops to get our people out?

Well, listen. One, they're focused on theirs, their people. So they've got to prioritize. If you're the UK, you prioritize the UK.

If you're the French, you prioritize the French. I think the problem that you've hit on, Mary Ellen, is that outside of Kabul, I don't know what the U.S. capabilities are. It doesn't seem like we have a lot of capabilities.

At least we're not telling anyone that we do. And so there's all this focus on getting to an airport. This is a huge country.

We're talking about one city, one airport with one runway. Because our major base there, we closed down Bagram. So the idea, again, I think that there are huge problems with the Pentagon. They are right in the sense that they say, listen, Americans could have traveled to Afghanistan. They don't have to tell us they're there. That's true.

But they do have a sense of who is there on the ground assisting U.S. aid programs, NGO programs that would be carrying out with U.S. funding. So there's that. And then, of course, there is the second point to this, which is that we gave up our embassy already. So we already gave up our embassy. Now we are operating everything out of an airport.

For what reason? This is what I can't figure out in the planning. Why did we not keep – let's say you couldn't secure the embassy, which you could if you had enough troops. But let's say you couldn't. We could have controlled the Bagram air base, which is 90 minutes from Kabul.

So that's number one. Number two, the central intelligence director, William Burns, meets yesterday supposedly secretly – there's no secrets in Washington – with Taliban's top figure, Abdul Baradar, in Kabul on Monday. Today we get that the August 31 deadline is – that's what it is.

We're going to be out by deadline. One of the folks on YouTube said the Taliban didn't request anything. They're demanding ultimatums, and they are, and they're getting them. The CIA, of course, is not commenting. Mary Ellen's question raises an interesting one, and that's this.

The French are able to function to some extent to try to get their people out. We have so pulled back on this. The statements earlier made, and I can't remember which defense secretary it was that said Joe Biden has been on the wrong side of every foreign policy issue.

I don't know if we have that bite. Bob Gates. Bob Gates for 40 years. It's in his book.

For 40 years, Joe Biden has been on the wrong side of every major foreign policy decision. Yeah, and to Mary Ellen's question on there, what we need to realize, not only are the French and British special operations forces going out, and they're doing it mainly in Kabul, which is a city of over 4 million people, but they know where some of the people are just like we do. They're sending special ops teams from the airport into Kabul, getting their people and bringing them back. And the way they're doing it, they're putting the Taliban on notice.

This convoy is leaving this gate. Do not mess with us. Does the United States have the ability to do the same thing? Yes, we do. For whatever reason, we're not. I think perhaps I don't know this, that perhaps part of the reason we're not doing it is that the State Department is leading this mission, and they're still operating as if they have a bona fide agreement with the Taliban, and that somehow or another, they are a good faith negotiating partner. And so therefore, we try to do what they ask, and we don't want to basically hack them off and face those repercussions. And so because of that, we are not doing what the French and British are doing, and that is sending small teams out to grab our citizens.

We could be doing that. Thanh, in Washington, I'm sure we're going to hear from more and more members of Congress as these briefings finish out today. Every House member had the opportunity to join this briefing. So in a sense, do you think we actually are seeing a unified message? It appears that we're seeing somewhat the same messages, at least, whether or not they're unified in structure, but there could be power in Congress unifying here if they were willing to get past the partisanship.

Yeah, I mean, right now there is, Jordan. I fully agree with what you said earlier that you don't know how long that's going to last because at some point, usually they do circle partisan wagons. But let me give you just one more example. This is the Democrat chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith. He just said, I am very confident we will get as many as possible out, but all that is going to be very difficult. And I did ask if the August 31st deadline is still the goal, and I was very specific. We need to have a plan to go past the 31st.

So again, let me just be very clear. You just had the President of his party say, I am not going to go past the 31st. And the chairman from his party of the House Armed Services Committee said that's not good enough.

We have to have a plan to go past. Jordan, that shouldn't be remarkable in a situation like this, but in a D.C. as partisan as this one, it's pretty remarkable. Again, I just think that we're living through a different time in the sense of where Washington is, in the sense of Congress, the American people, but the administration is not budging. What they are betting is that you will not pay attention to this. That's their hope and goal. They will get enough troops out. If there's not any conflict, so if there's not shots fired right now at Americans, while there are Afghans being executed throughout the country as we speak, if the shots aren't fired at Americans and we leave, that suddenly you're going to be paying attention to kids back to school, pandemic issues, COVID issues, regular life issues, partisan politics goes back. That's what they hope, Wes.

Right now the media is not giving them that pass. Right, exactly. But you're exactly right, Jordan. What is going on here by the Biden administration is a political calculation to a very serious evacuation slash military problem. But the calculations are political.

You're right. They do not want to have to say to the American people that we're now exchanging fire with the Taliban. In reality, what we should be doing, we should have a firm stance. We will get our people out. Forget the August 31st deadline. We will leave when our people are out. Put the Taliban on notice and indicate to them, we are willing to use force if you try to stop us.

That message is simply not being sent. You know, the British defense secretary, Ben Wallace, signaled late yesterday that evidently the United Kingdom was pretty much convinced that the Biden administration was going to cave to the August 31st deadline. He said, it's definitely worth all of us continuing to try.

But then he said this, and this is what I want everybody to listen to because he's right. He said the threat from the Islamic State and other militants is increasing as the clock ticks down. And you're going to see when the United States pulls out on the 31st, leaving all of those armaments there, leaving everything in place, you're going to see what happens when you have not done proper planning.

Let me say one thing. Despite this horrible situation that's going on there and the mess that's in Afghanistan, our office in Pakistan has just had a major victory for a family. And in Pakistan, it's family by family, Christian family, basically held in bonded labor in Pakistan. We fought back on that, took years, a couple of years, and we have won their freedom.

So then there they are on the screen. So understand that even in the middle of this, your American Center for Law and Justice and our affiliates around the globe are working to defend freedom and liberty of individuals. For them, for that family, this was as significant as anything could be, getting out of bonded servitude, which is another word for slavery.

Yeah, that's right. You can learn about that too at ACLJ.org. A new piece up there explaining the entire story and how our office in Pakistan has been assisting this family. Again, ACLJ.org, support the work of the ACLJ, our matching challenge extends through the entire month of August, double the impact of your donation.

We'll be right back with our second half hour. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Living freedom. The G7 leaders are meeting virtually, so President Biden is part of that meeting. We know that there was going to be a lot of pressure from those leaders. The UK's Boris Johnson specifically, but the others as well, from NATO allies, to ask not that the US just extend, I think this is an important point, to extend the withdrawal. Because there's breaking news right now, of course, that President Biden said we're sticking to the August 31st. I think that's a capitulation to the Taliban threats because they're the ones who said that's a red line and there's going to be consequences if you go past that. So clearly that's what the President's messaging is out. But I think what has to be made clear is that our allies in this war have asked that the US not just continue at the withdrawal longer period of time, but to rethink keeping a contingency of US troops. And where the American people, I think, learned is what does it mean to end a war and do you completely withdraw every troop?

I don't understand. If we knew we're in a hostile place like Afghanistan with a hostile history of lots of bad actors, and you've got a massive embassy there, and you've got consulates, you've got a big military base, why are you not keeping your base and your embassy? And that doesn't mean you're occupying an entire country, it doesn't mean you've got there, you've got to try to engage in nonstop firefights.

We all know that. It hasn't been the case in Afghanistan. It was the Afghans that were fighting the fights. We were helping and assisting with air power and also on the ground intelligence. Why not declare already that this was over? Well, Wes said something interesting during the break, and I'll get him to repeat in a minute, but I'll set the stage for him, and that is what these 2,500 troops did was allow for on-ground intelligence.

So you knew what was going on, and then if you needed to call in special forces or that capability, you could do it. The problem here is not the drawdown from 200,000 troops to 100,000 troops to 50,000 troops. It's the surrender.

That's what this looks like. The surrender of these armaments to terrorists, bad terrorists. Not that there's good terrorists, but I mean active terrorists, I should say.

Active cell groups, active organizations. And then taking it a step further, if you will, and that is allowing our air bases to be run over. A friend of mine posted on Facebook yesterday, she worked as a civilian at Bagram for like two years, and she said this was an active military base, and we've let it get into the hands of the worst of the worst. And the Biden administration seems to be tone deaf on the consequences of all this.

That's what's so hard for me to understand what's going on here. Yeah, we spent billions of dollars building Bagram Air Base. It is a strategic base, multiple runways, lots of hard facilities. And so we built it up, and then not only did we abandon this base and allow the Taliban to take it, we left billions of dollars worth of weapons, and we left, for example, 40 Black Hawk helicopters, 75,000 armored vehicles across the country of one sort or another. We left all of that there and just simply withdrew. They took a plan that was supposed to be, we would pull back, the Taliban had to meet conditions, and Afghan would remain, even though corrupt and inept, relatively stable. The Biden administration changed that plan so that, you're right, Jay, by removing even the 2,500 troops, we lost our ability for intel, because some of those troops were in constant communication with other Afghans around the country about the movements of the Taliban, about al-Qaeda, about ISIS. We lost our eyes and ears on the ground. And in addition to that, some of those troops were able, when they got good intel, to call in airstrikes or to call in a special ops mission, again, to keep the country stable.

Those are the things that the Biden administration abandoned, and that's why we're in this crisis today. All right, folks, we come back. We'll continue to take your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110, also your comments on Facebook, Periscope, YouTube, and continue as well.

The House Republicans are just out speaking after their briefing on Capitol Hill to all members of the House of Representatives, so we will see what comes out of that as well to get the information that they're able to share out of that classified briefing. Let me encourage you. Go to ACLJ.org. You can learn about our victory out of Pakistan. You've got to understand there are victories. There are positives happening. Our work continues as well at the ACLJ, as you know, through all of this, and support our work at ACLJ.org. Be part of our matching challenge today. That's ACLJ.org.

We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. So before breaking news, we're getting more comments out of the Taliban into the clarification about what they mean by the threat they pose, which they did. There would be consequences if the U.S. didn't finish its withdrawal by August 31st. Now CNN reporting, the Taliban, their statement is that they will not allow Afghans to leave the country. So when they talk about all those Afghans that helped us, the Taliban, who's running the checkpoints outside the airport in Kabul and has basically control of the rest of the country, that's also a threat.

Because if you're saying you're not going to let those people cross through, conflict can erupt very quickly. But that includes all of those people, all of those interpreters, all of the embassy staff are going to be stuck in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Can you imagine their fate? We are abandoning our allies, our associates, because Joe Biden won't move the dates because he doesn't know what's happening. And what are these generals thinking and doing?

Every time they get up, it's like less confidence. But that is horrible. We're going to leave the people that helped us behind here because instead of using Bagram to move these people, which we controlled, we had to do this. There's going to be a plan to get them out. So there's going to be all this discussion about what language you want to use to describe the Americans who are there. So even the Americans, he's not extending that to the Afghans that assist us, but the Americans, fellow Americans, there's no plan to get them out.

But we kind of knew that, right? Because the public message to those Americans was somehow get to an airport, trust the Taliban to let you through. Oh, by the way, today don't come to the airport because ISIS is here.

So that happened this week. So the messaging has been very basic without a lot of specifics on what Americans should actually do. And when they're asked about it, as they have been today, about the number of people who's hiding out, how do we do this? Take a listen.

Jennifer Griffin asked Kirby about this by 41. Given the number of people who are in hiding who were either SIV recipients, some Americans, Afghan allies, why not reopen Bagram Air Base? Why not go get an agreement from the Qataris to come and land in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif elsewhere? Because right now you're just bringing people out from Kabul and it's a choke point.

Well, first of all, the flow, the throughput has improved and increased. And I'm not going to, I don't think it would be a useful expenditure of our time to Monday morning quarterback the whole issue with Bagram. Okay. So let me, let me tell you why this guy really concerns me. You're in the secretary of defense office.

You better be Monday morning quarterbacking because Tuesday's around the corner. So, I mean, this, this, this process denial is outrageous. Now I want to quote again, I quoted him earlier. This is British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace. This is what he said, terrorist groups such as ISIS would like to be seen to take credit or like to be seen to chase the West out of the airport. We are very, very vulnerable should these terrorists choose to do something. And Wes, as you just said, we are in the heels of September 11th, which is a celebration day in the terrorist world. Did nobody think of this?

Did no one in our military say, you know, or in the White House say, September 11th is a day they always try to do something. We're giving this land, this mass of equipment and armaments and military bases to terrorists that we're wearing, I don't know if we still have that picture, are not just wearing robes and turbans right now, they are wearing full military gear. Guess where they got that from?

The United States. We have that picture? There it is. That's the Iwo Jima shot they're trying to do to, you know, rub our nose in this. I'm going to look at that, on radio you can't see it, but it's, they look like American soldiers, but they are Taliban soldiers. And then, and General Kirby says, I don't want a Monday morning, our throughput has improved and increased, our throughput's over within seven days.

Absolutely. This is the thing that is so disturbing. The White House seems to be clueless about this, but the senior... Wes, let me ask you this question. Are they clueless or did Joe Biden just decide we're out of there August 31st come heck or high water? Well, that's the cluelessness of it.

It truly is. He did decide that, but the military leadership is going along with it. And this is going to sound bad for a retired Colonel to say, but it's true because I worked at the Pentagon for several years. When you get to the four star senior leader level at the Pentagon, you somehow aren't the army officer, Marine Corps officer, whatever you used to be, because those appointments are strictly political.

They are appointed by the President. And if you're not careful, it is easy to become a political lackey and to go back on all of your training, your commitment to the troops, your expertise. This is why last week, and I've never done this before, I called on both General Austin and General Milley to be relieved of their duties at the Pentagon because it is that bad. You know, our most important ally, NATO, is indignant and discredited by the Biden administration who campaigned as a foreign relations expert. The incoming next probable German chancellor said that this is a debacle.

Yesterday, the House of Commons in the United Kingdom said this is shameful, cruel, and humiliating. Jay, these are comments from our friends, not our enemies. No, listen, German's foreign minister said this, and this is, Jordan, really troubling. Because of this, this deadline situation, they're trying to work with the United States and Britain to have on scenarios on how to work to take people out of Afghanistan after the end of the military evacuation.

Do you know how difficult that is going to be? Why are we in this situation? It will not happen. No, we don't have to be in this situation. I just want to read the Daily Mail headline because I think this shows you about the U.S. standing in the world right now, how quickly you can devolve into being feared by the world as we were under President Trump.

No question about that. To being almost surpassed, last chance to get out of Kabul, Joe Biden rejects pleas from G7 leaders to extend Afghan evacuation beyond August 31st after Taliban insists there can be no extensions, despite secret meeting with the CIA director and bans Afghans from leaving. I mean, this is, and that's an accurate headline, that's a fully accurate, so if you, our CIA director flew to Kabul yesterday and met with the head of the Taliban at the airport.

And obviously did not negotiate a successful resolution. And they're not scared of us. No, no, they're chasing us out. And you had the head of the Taliban. There's so many ways you would imagine their families' lives, their livelihood, the fact that we assisted some of them from getting out of prisons in places like Pakistan so we couldn't negotiate at all. But, you know, I think the Taliban's played a game so far around this airport, they haven't fired shots, we don't think, or been in major conflicts.

It looks like the only time they've engaged is when they were actually stopping other fighters. But now they're saying no Afghans can leave, which means our allies that work with us can no longer go. Now, I want to go to Washington for a moment here with them because I know they came out of classified briefings so we don't know what's going on here, but there has to be a sense of dread on Capitol Hill right now. Yeah, there's got to be.

I mean, we're starting to get member reaction come out right now. Jay, I actually think a lot of it's going to be on that timeline you just discussed because when an ally like the United Kingdom says, look, we've got to extend the deadline, and the reaction from the United States President is to send the CIA director over to negotiate and then come back and say, oh, we're going to choose the Taliban over our closest ally. That's pretty telling. By the way, Jay, Mike Waltz, who's been on this broadcast in the past, good friend of the program, is speaking now.

But I would tell you two things. I think you're going to hear a lot about two groups of people. One, the White House is fighting about whether or not to use the word stranded, but they admit that there are Americans in Afghanistan that want to get out that can't get out.

Quit fighting about the words and get them out. Two, Jay, all the women and children that are now at the mercy of the Taliban. And at this moment, are we just going to defer to the Taliban saying we're not going to let them out?

Well, it sounds like it. And we don't have to. Here's the thing that just is crazy.

It's mystifying. We have the power to take some significant stances and to actually make the Taliban suffer. They have convoys as we speak moving all over the country. We have the ability to go in and to tell the Taliban we are going to decimate you once again unless you don't negotiate with us and help us get our people out. We have the ability, Jay, to take a firm stand to exert power and to complete this mission. Not only did they screw up the mission, they're not willing to exert power to complete it in an orderly way. I know. It's horrible. Yeah. I mean, so we come back again. We're going to take some of your calls.

1-800-684-3110. Continue to update you. I mean, this is a very live situation as this all unfolds and this information gets out. One from the President's meeting with G7 leaders, the other from the House members who just left this classified briefing for all members of Congress. And so far, we're not seeing a lot of difference between at this point what Democrats are saying and Republicans are saying about the substance of the briefings, about where things stand.

And it just appears that everything gets worse and worse as this develops. So it's not just the Taliban saying, you better get out by August 31st. But now they're saying, we're not going to let any more Afghans out.

So that's – and they didn't say that after August 31st. They're saying that right now. So I think they're begging for conflict. They're begging for a firefight. They're begging to see if the U.S. will engage.

The problem is we put ourselves in a situation where how do you make good on all these promises you made to the world if you just withdraw and run? So again, we'll take your calls, your comments, 1-800-684-3110. I always encourage you to check out ACLJ.org to see all the work that we're doing around the country and around the world.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Hi, this is Kevin McCarthy, the GOP leader. It just happened at the press conference following. So a classified briefing was occurring on Capitol Hill for any members of the House to attend, and now they're doing a press conference about what they can share from it.

Take a listen. Here's Kevin McCarthy. We have all just left the briefing. It is a classified briefing.

We cannot talk about what was said inside, but I'll tell you this. I'm left confident after leaving that briefing. There's no possible way that we can get every American that's still in Afghanistan out in the next seven days. We are just three weeks away from the 20th anniversary of 9-11. At no time should America ever bend or allow the Taliban to tell us when we have to stop bringing Americans out.

So there you go. I think that everyone understands that. It doesn't feel partisan. This is more about America's standing in the world. We're not going to allow a regional, localized group like the Taliban to tell America what to do. End of discussion. That's all Joe Biden had to say. He didn't have to give the Taliban new dates.

August 31st is what we're focusing on, but we're going to finish when we're finished. That's all. But he didn't do it. That statement alone gives some confidence in your allies that you're not just going to run and leave and let the atrocities keep. Which we are. But right now, it appears that's what we are doing. What was astonishing, it was President Biden who originally set September the 11th as the date of the total withdrawal.

How did that happen? Yeah, seriously. Ten years ago, on the 10th anniversary of 9-11, they attacked our embassy in Benghazi. Twenty years from now, what are they going to be doing? They're going to be celebrating. They're going to be raising the Taliban flag over the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan. But why did he pick September 11th as the initial?

Because he thought it was going to be, President Biden got us out, the 20-year war is over, it was going to be a bragging point for him. Not realizing that the symbolic date is a dark date in America. And they like symbolism. I mean, terrorists like symbolism. They like territory and they like symbolism. And dates and holidays and symbolism matters. That's why you attack at the Christmas market. That's why you attack on Easter. They like that symbolism. Well, this is what everybody's worried about.

So we're going to end up back to that. This is Congressman Waltz, you've been on our broadcast before. Take a listen. He's also a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Bite45. One thing that Joe Biden either won't admit or doesn't understand is that what happens in Afghanistan doesn't stay in Afghanistan. It spreads like a cancer.

It will follow us home. And many of us have been very clear about that danger across multiple administrations. This isn't about politics. This is about the fact that America now is less safe. Listen, we all understand that. We've seen radical Islam and the effect of these terrorist attacks on our own country. We're quick to move on in our country.

But this is something, again, you can just see all playing out once again. Which would be, we look weak right now as a country. Everyone can agree on that. That's not a partisan statement or attack on Democrats.

Because Democrats agree as well that this is, again, an administration that is quickly letting the United States reputation devolve. Let's go to John in Ohio Online One. Hey John, welcome to Secular.

You're on the air. Yeah, Jordan. Unlike many of your counterparts and even the conservative media, I agree with you folks that we should be keeping a military presence as we have for the past 20 years. I mean, it's plain to see. It provided government stability and a military deterrent to the Taliban. You look at other countries like Germany and Japan, where we've had a presence since World War II. And you see that they want us there, they need us there, because we're the strongest military in the world. And our presence ensures their safety. And then you look at South Korea, how we enabled them to establish free market capitalism based on democracy. And their manufacturing, they're a major competitor in the world market in automobiles and other items as well. And we did that.

No, I totally agree, John. I think that when you look at where we've had success militarily in the United States, we've always kept a presence. And you look where we have not had success, we've cut and run. Now, the difference between Afghanistan and Vietnam is that we had won Afghanistan. The Taliban was gone, we got to pick the government.

They were hiding in caves somewhere. We were in, but you know, we all know that these kind of governments in these kind of places, 20 years, sounds like a long time, it's very short. You know, there's a lot of blame being cast on the military in Afghanistan and the former President, that his leaving created this. But what created his leaving is what we should be looking at.

Eileen on Facebook says somebody needs to start doing Monday morning quarterback. This is not a game, it's real life and lives of people are at stake, which is true. And they've got to get their act together. But you've got to ask yourself, why did the President of Afghanistan flee the country? Why did the military collapse?

And why did they do that? Because Joe Biden and his administration said, this is the date, we are out, good luck, we're done. Yeah, exactly. You know, and I agree with the caller, you can leave enough of a force there to maintain stability and give us important intel, especially anti-terrorism intel. But if you are going to leave, if that's your decision, then do it correctly.

Get your civilians out first, get your military equipment out first, let the troops leave last, if you're going to do that. Either one of those two choices, this administration is completely bungled. So Thanh, I know that we're not, you know, obviously it was a classified briefing, so we're not going to know the details of that, which is perfectly understandable. But the sense that I'm hearing, Republicans and Democrats, is really serious concern on the way the whole foreign policy leadership team and the generals advising the President have done this. And Admiral Kirby certainly doesn't add to any sense of confidence. I mean, this is pretty remarkable to say, Jay, but if you look at the comments that you just played from Kevin McCarthy, and then you look back to the comments that Jordan read from Adam Schiff earlier in the broadcast, Jay, they're the same thing.

Both Kevin McCarthy. Who would be quoting Adam Schiff on this broadcast? Well, I think that shows just the extent of this failure. This is not about partisan politics, it's not about blaming, it's not even just attacking Joe Biden. It is, we're trying to deal with America's reputation in the world. Well, that's what I was going to follow up, so Thanh, so what's your sense of where this goes?

I mean, they can come out and make press statements, they've got to be very careful what they say, it was a classified briefing. So where does this whole thing play out? I think there's two things, and one is on the topic we were just talking about. This is ongoing. I mean, so look, we've got a week left, and there's more than a week, there's two and a half weeks before the 9-11 deadline that President Biden gave, and then pulled the rug out from those Americans who were there.

Think about that. That deadline wasn't just for the Taliban, it was also for the Americans there, and then suddenly the security has gone. That's number one. Number two, Jay, where this is going, look, there has got to be a pivot at some point on how we're going to operate. The United Kingdom and France have already done this.

It's not Monday morning quarterback, we're in the fourth quarter right now. There is something the United States can do about this right now. President Biden is going to have to change his mind, and Jay, I think it's going to take people in his party staying consistent. I go back to what Jordan talked about earlier.

How long will this last? That's my concern. I do want people to think about this as we close this broadcast out, Jordan. They picked September 11th, we did, as the original target take.

I mean, let that sink in for a moment. The President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, who's been serving in government his entire professional career, picked September 11th as the date we are going to pull out of Afghanistan as if that was going to be a celebration. The terrorists were going to say, oh, this is the terrorists winning.

But this is right out of the playbook of this whole group in Washington, D.C. It's always been about events, celebrations, points, not actual facts on the ground. It was about saying we got a deal with Iran. It didn't matter what the deal was. Remember that. I mean, this is the same people.

It's Jake Sullivan. They didn't care. It was bullet points that looked like they were written by an intern with no signatures. That was their Iran nuclear deal. And this is their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Same people in charge rushing our CIA director to meet with the head of the Taliban. And guess what the head of the Taliban said? Well, you know, we'll see you August 31st. But there will be consequences. We should not care about what the Taliban has to say. You take that information and you utilize it the best.

But again, it's not good for America. Continue to stay updated with us at ACLJ.org. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Thank you.