Biden on Afghanistan: "Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home"
CBSN
President Biden took questions from reporters Friday for the first time since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, outside a Wednesday interview with ABC News, pledging that the U.S. will get any American home who wants to come home. The president's address comes as tens of thousands of American citizens, legal residents and their families and vulnerable Afghans struggle to flee the country.
The president started out his speech by touting what the U.S. has done so far — evacuated 18,000 people in recent weeks, and 5,700 people in the last 24 hours alone. Mr. Biden said the U.S will do "everything, everything" it can to evacuate as many Afghans who have aided the U.S. as possible. The Pentagon has said it will be possible to fly 5,000 to 9,000 per day out of Kabul, but that's dependent on multiple factors. "But let me be clear. Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home," Mr. Biden told reporters in the White House East Room.More Related News
A group of House Democrats Tuesday called for action from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, days after CBS News published an investigation which found dozens of law enforcement officials illegally sold firearms, even weapons of war, across 23 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.