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Pentagon Says Not Going to Let Up on Evacuations; U.S. Open to Staying Past 8/31 Deadline Despite Taliban Deadline Demand; Biden Urges Anyone Who Was Holding Out for FDA Approval to Get Your Shot Today; FDA Gives Full Authorization for COVID Vaccine; State Department Gives Update on Afghanistan Withdrawal and Evacuations; 21 Dead, Several People Still Missing in Catastrophic Flooding. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 23, 2021 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

NICK PAYTON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: And a lot of the key questions we still want answers to have not been answered. How many Americans have they taken out? How many Americans are still left? How many special immigrant visa applicants could be potentially in need of evacuation?

I understand these are all very difficult questions to answer but they're pressing because there are American troops in harm's way. There is an operation here with a clock ticking.

We know 31st of August the Taliban want this over and want them gone. President Joe Biden said the same thing himself. He wants troops out.

So, you know, there's a lot still to be answered here. There was some clarity, I think today we saw this morning John Kirby saying finally that American troops seem to be going out to get Americans and bring them back.

That explains what the alternate routes perhaps may have been, but limited detail there. So I think there must be some frustration, possibly.

The good news that the White House has been pushing out of 10,400 can't necessarily be matched by a level of sort of forensic detail as to who they think may have left. It's completely understandable.

But it also informs the decision of how much longer this goes on for. The mere operation of taking 5800 troops that are currently on the base, off that base is going to take days anyway.

I have to say my guess would be you don't want to start doing that when you still got thousands of Afghans wondering what their fate is and seeing the Americans start to depart in front of them. So at some point, if they're going to make that 31st of August

deadline in the next two days or so, they may have start thinking about when they do that.

Jake Sullivan did talk about we want to do the same number tomorrow and the next day. That could potentially mean they clear another 10,000 individuals.

There seem to be 13 or so on the base. So there is a window here maybe for those special immigrant applicants to get on the base but they have to get through Taliban checkpoints on the way up. Taliban filtration around the base.

And then we have to avoid the awful scenes of overcrowding and fatalities that that caused at the main gates.

So a huge challenge ahead here. And I should say, too, there's a lot of concern about possibly thousands of local employed Afghans who work for the U.S. embassy. They're almost certainly eligible for special immigrant visas.

And these are people that U.S. diplomats work face-to-face with day in and day out. They are still, many of them, in Kabul, hoping to get to that airport. And that's a very urgent task certainly in the days ahead.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Absolutely. Absolutely. And we continue to monitor that whenever we can.

I'm not sure if we have with us -- we do -- yes, OK, let's bring in journalist Connor Powell. Because he spent four years working and living in Kabul. Connor, great to see you. So, what did you hear? And have you heard from these press conferences today knowing how it works in Kabul?

CONNOR POWELL, FORMER FOX BUREAU CHIEF, AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN: Yes, thanks for having me. I hear an administration that is continuing to try to have it sort of both ways that they didn't know what was coming and at the same time they're totally prepared.

We have heard that they were negotiating with third countries to take Afghans. At the same time they're still negotiating with countries to take Afghans as part of this process.

And that you know they're negotiating to let more people on at the same time they have issues with getting more people on.

So I think this is an administration that is still trying to come to grips with just the totality of the chaos of this effort. Now, they do deserve some credit. They have moved a lot of people in the last couple of days, in the last couple of hours.

I know a lot of Afghans that I've been talking to, that I've been talking to for the last week or so, you know, about a half of those, a couple dozen Afghans that I was talking to on Monday or Tuesday have now gotten out of the country. But none of them are getting out through any particular process. They

are people who are pushing their way to the gates as Nick just said.

These are people who are finding ways onto the base. That there isn't an official process. And the ones who are waiting for that text message, the waiting for an email that they are sitting in Kabul, they're still waiting, because they're trying to sort of abide by the State Department policies of, we'll tell you when to come and don't come before that.

You know they're the ones that aren't out right now. The people that are pushing their way through the gates, they're the ones who are getting in.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Juliette, as often as we ask the question here and the correspondents there in all of these briefings ask, will the U.S. stay beyond August 31st.

It really doesn't behoove the U.S. or the Taliban to say today that, yes, this will extend beyond the 31st, does it? I mean, the Taliban doesn't want anyone to know that they have given in to, you know, pushing that red line back today, certainly.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right, I think that's exactly right. And I understand the interest in wanting some clarity on the deadline. Especially because there is so much panic as Nick and others have been reporting.

Going to the airport because they think, august 31st is the date. But if you just take a step back, the Taliban is the government of Afghanistan.

[15:35:00]

They have incentives. They have constituencies. Those include trying to convince the Afghans that they are in charge and also countering an internal ISIS threat that wants to make them look destabilized.

So the idea of them saying, yes, we're going to concede to the bad Americans seems not in their interest right now,

But let's think about our interest and the people that are waiting to evacuate. To make that public that the deadline has been extended is actually more dangerous for them because it becomes then a more dangerous place to be over the next ten days.

Because lots of people who don't want us to be there are going to go after us. So I'm -- you know, I'm not -- I'm just an analyst for you, I understand the urge to wan tot know this, but I kind of get why we're getting that kind of grayness from the White House at this stage.

Because I just think, you know, I believe that the deadline will be extended. We will get people out after August 31st. But there will not be an announcement about it. That there will continue to be an effort. And that seems the safest thing for me, for Americans, the troops and the thing that the Taliban wants the most.

CAMEROTA: Kylie, in terms of national security for the U.S., in terms of all this once the refugees come here, Juliette told us before this last briefing about the vetting that is going on, it's being done in third countries.

So after they leave, after the special immigrant visa applicants leave. After some of the Afghan helpers leave, they go to another country, maybe Doha, maybe elsewhere.

They are biometrically screened , they are vetted before they come but it also sounds like, frankly, that you know Jake Sullivan wasn't able to say exactly how many Afghans the U.S. plans on accommodating or accepting in. Do you have any thoughts on that?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean you very clearly heard the national security adviser not put a firm number on that, not put a goal out there for folks to hold this administration accountable when it comes to how many of these Afghans they're going to relocate here in the United States.

And how many of these Afghans are going to be out of the country before the U.S. military withdraws. Now significantly, earlier today, a senior State Department official said that they have every expectation that Afghans are going to be able to get out of the country once the U.S. military leaves the country.

They said that the agreement with the Taliban, for safe passage to the airport has no expiration date. But I think it's hard to imagine how they're going to be able to uphold that commitment by the Taliban.

Once the U.S. military is gone. You know, how exactly are they going to be able to get the Taliban to maintain that for Afghans who are traveling to the airport?

Because we know that the Taliban want the Americans out of the country. That is one of the reasons that they are cooperating right now, allowing the Americans to get through as much as they can, even though there clearly have been issues but they don't want the Afghans to leave the country.

That makes the country weaker. It makes it look like people are leaving because they're scared of the Taliban which, of course, they are.

So, I think that that will be a real area to watch. Can these Afghans actually get out of the country when the U.S. military withdraw? And what kind of leverage does the U.S. have to uphold the Taliban's commitment that they say has no extension date?

BLACKWELL: Connor, let me put that to you, I mean what's your experience there in Afghanistan tell you about the ability for Afghans who want to leave after the U.S. military leaves, that they will be able to continue to leave?

POWELL: Well, I'm not sure any agreement with the Taliban is really worth the paper it's written on. I think one point that we're missing right now is we're talking about the Taliban as if it's a unified group. And there are really two groups.

There is sort of the Kandahar Taliban, traditional Taliban leadership that's the Mullah Omar, the Mullah Baradar.

There's also the Haqqani network which are allied with the Taliban, they're part of the umbrella organization. But they're really thugs and gangsters, the more closely aligned with al Qaeda than they are the Taliban. They sort of have a foot in both camps.

But from what I'm hearing in people in Kabul, there's already sort of a push between these two groups. I've spoken to a couple people who are Afghan officials, they're part of critical infrastructure. They've been asked earlier in the week to stay on by the Kandahar Taliban leadership.

You know go to the office, continue to do your job, you're safe.

And then on the last couple of days, I've heard that they have been told, no, don't go to your office, and that's coming from the Haqqani group.

And then they pick up the phone and they're being told, no, go to the office.

So there is already sort of some factional battles between the Taliban leadership and who controls Kabul particularly.

[15:40:00]

And I think that makes any agreement that you might have with that Mullah Baradar, traditional Kandahar Taliban, you know, really tough to believe because I'm not sure they can enforce can with it with Haqqani group running Kabul right now.

Let alone other parts the country where the Taliban is more in little groups rather than a sort of unified investigation.

CAMEROTA: Connor Powell, Nick Paton Walsh, Kylie Atwood, Juliette Kayyem. Thank you very much for helping us understand what's happening today.

OK, so, we are also following breaking news out of the FDA. It's granting full approval of the Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for people aged 16 and up. This could drive up vaccination rates for those who said they were hesitant about it being just emergency use only. We have much more, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Big development in the fight against COVID-19. The FDA granting full approval for the Pfizer vaccine today, for everyone 16 years and older. President Biden says this is a crucial step in convincing more Americans to get the shot. And has this message for anyone who is waiting for this moment. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me say this loudly and clearly, if you haven't -- if you're one of the millions of Americans who said that they will not get the shot when it's -- until it has full and final approval of the FDA, it has now happened. The moment you've been waiting for is here. It's time for you to go get your vaccination. And get it today. Today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, over the past few days, vaccination rates have ticked up in certain parts of the country. The president says this new approval could mean more vaccine mandates, at businesses, cities and states.

We're already seeing some examples, United Airlines just announced that they will move up the deadline for their mandatory employee vaccines.

And the mayor of New York City says all education employees will now be required to get vaccinated by September 27th.

Dr. Megan Ranney is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and the Associate Dean of Public Health at Brown University.

Doctor, welcome back. This is most significant in which are, the individuals who say, man, I've been waiting for this full approval so I can go and get the vaccine? Or the companies, the cities, local governments?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF PUBLIC HEALTH AT BROWN UNIVERSITY: You know, Victor, I really think it's the latter. This is certainly going to change the mind of some people who said that they were holding out for full approval.

But what this really does, is it opens the door for more businesses, for more governmental institutions, for more institutions of education, to start to mandate the vaccine.

We've seen the University of Minnesota, for instance, a state institution now say that they're going to mandate the vaccine.

And I will say I am saying I am hearing from a lot of people who were like, well, I was on the fence, but now my employer is requiring it so I'm going to show up and get my shot.

It's going to have a big impact there on our population levels of vaccination.

CAMEROTA: It's really interesting, I mean if mandates -- well, mandates will convince people, unless they want to lose their job or not have access to the places they want to go, that's number one.

Number two, it seems like something is already afoot in the country because we're seeing the vaccination rates tick up. There were 1 million shots given several days in a row last week. And

what do you think that's about?

RANNEY: I really think that that's about fear and the reality that this virus can strike any of us, regardless of our age. Regarding of our pre-existing health status.

The delta variant in particular, but really COVID in general does not discriminate. Any of us are at risk.

And the vaccinations help protect us from severe disease, hospitalization and death. And as people see friends and family members getting sick, getting hospitalized. As they see the news stories about these tragic outcomes for young people, they're now stepping up and saying, you know, I'm willing to overlook some of these small fears.

I'm willing to take the risks that indeed these myths or misinformation really are false. And I'm going to get the shot because I recognize that I need it to protect myself and to protect my family.

BLACKWELL: Well, speaking of risk and misinformation, the FDA and Mississippi Health Department now are warning people not to take this anti-parasitic horse and cow, livestock drug ivermectin to treat COVID.

Mississippi, I say specifically, because Mississippi is near the bottom when it comes to vaccination rates. So people will not take the vaccine, but they'll take this anti-parasite drug. Make it make sense.

RANNEY: You know any of us that are medical experts on Twitter have been subjected to this constant barrage of information claiming that ivermectin is some sort of miracle cure.

I want to be really clear there is no data supporting that ivermectin prevents or cures COVID-19. If you want to prevent it, get a vaccine.

If you've already gotten COVID and you're high-risk get monoclonal antibodies.

Those are the only things right now that prevent or help reduce the impact of COVID, unless you get to the point of being hospitalized. And then we do have other treatments.

Unfortunately, this promotion for this drug has spread like wildfire among conspiracy theorists and among honestly people who are out to make a profit and we're seeing folks buy it from vets and take it themselves with really serious consequences.

[15:50:00]

Another example of the very real harm of misinformation.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Megan Ranney, thank you.

RANNEY: Thank you. BLACKWELL: All right, we're getting an update now from the State

Department. This is spokesman Ned Price. Let's listen.

NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: -- forces bravely served alongside U.S. troops and other NATO allies in Afghanistan. And they are now continuing to support the Afghan people by collaborating with our ongoing efforts to evacuate Afghans at risk.

President Biden and Secretary Blinken have personally expressed our gratitude for their continuous support as friends and allies and for assisting in the temporary transit of Afghans to safety.

The temporary transit locations we have established at U.S. or joint bases in Germany, Italy, and Spain have capacity to process at least 15,000 people on a rolling basis.

Significantly expanding our ability to facilitate the relocation of U.S. citizens and at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan.

The first flights from these European transit sites departed from Ramstein Air Base in Germany today.

We are grateful to host governments for agreeing to allow the United States to host at-risk Afghans while we make arrangements to relocate them to the United States or to a third country.

Our embassies have been working with the U.S. military, and our partners in these countries to receive flights and ensure safe transit of passengers to onward destinations.

With that, and with that background, I'd be happy to take your questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I just ask you, Ned, thanks, on the 15,000 on a rolling basis, what is that, over 24 hours?

PRICE: It's 15,000 at any one time. So, as at-risk Afghans, others transit from those countries, others will backfill and be able to take their place. So at any one time, this system of third-country transit sites can accommodate 15,000 people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And that's Italy, Germany, Spain, and that's what the 15 applies to, not to nothing --

PRICE: That's correct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, secondly, also really briefly, are you guys still sending consular and other people to Kabul to work at the airport, or has that now -- have you now reached what you need?

PRICE: Well, so we are always evaluating the situation on the ground to determine that we have the right staffing posture to accommodate a task that we need to take on.

We talked about this last week, but as of late last week, we had doubled the number of consular officers on the ground in Kabul. We had sent additional consular officers to some of those initial transit sites in the Gulf including to Qatar, to Kuwait, and the UAE.

But the broader point I would make is that we have been able to take advantage of consular officers throughout this building and around the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. But I'm not interested in the broader point. I'm just interested in the answer to the question.

Are you still sending people there? And if you're not, which is fine if you are or not, I just want to know if they're still ramping up?

And then on the opposite end of that is that we are approaching the 31st. And if there is no extension in this, you guys are going to have to start thinking and I want to know have you already started thinking about drawing them back down again? If in fact they are going to leave or if you guys think that maybe you can go back to the embassy.

PRICE: Well, we are always evaluating what we have on the ground compared with our needs. If we need more people on the ground, we won't hesitate to do it. We came to that conclusion last week. That's why we doubled the presence of consular offices on the ground.

But you are right, this is a mission with a -- is a finite mission with an end date, whatever that specific date is attached to it.

So of course we are working very closely with the U.S. military to ensure that we are working in lockstep with them on their retrograde plans, so that in addition to what the U.S. military needs to bring back, their people, obviously, we will be working with them to ensure we have a timeline and to ensure that we bring back our people at the right time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Last one. Yesterday, and I didn't see this interview, I saw the first one, I didn't see the second one in the CBS interview, the secretary, according to the transcript that you guys put out, misspoke and said he had spoken of President Karzai.

And I'm less interested in his misspeaking and more interested in knowing whether or not there has been any discussion between the secretary or anyone else like Zal or anyone between the U.S. and former President Karzai or Abdullah Abdullah or the others who are now in discussions with the Taliban leadership.

[15:55:00]

PRICE: Absolutely. As you know, Matt, there continues to be dialogue between the Afghans. That is to say representatives of the Islamic Republic and the Taliban.

For our part, we have been in touch with relevant and key stake, individuals who are taking part in intra-Afghan discussions with the Taliban.

We're not in a position to read those calls out. This has been primarily on the part of our team in Doha, our team on the ground in Afghanistan to make sure that we have a regular line in to those Afghan stakeholders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the secretary has not been in touch with --

PRICE: No. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So how are the talks going? Do you have a line into them?

PRICE: So, those talks, so --

CAMEROTA: You've been listening to Ned Price there, State Department spokesperson, about the ongoing evacuations. Still so many questions about the numbers, how many Americans, how many Afghans who've applied for special immigrant visas, and every day we do get more numbers, but not all of the numbers.

BLACKWELL: And not the numbers that most people are looking for specifically, how many Americans are there and how many Americans have they brought out? That should be a precise number if they're flying them out every day.

CAMEROTA: And how many still need to come out?

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: But we want to get right now to the extreme weather across much of the U.S. this weekend. In central Tennessee, search and rescue operations are still ongoing after devastating torrential rains and floods.

At least 21 people are dead, and more than ten still missing there. 7- month-old twins were killed, when, according to a family member, they were torn from their father's arms in the rushing waters.

More than 17 inches of rain fell on the city of Waverly in just 24 hours on Saturday.

BLACKWELL: and that triggered flash floods that swept homes off their foundations, piled cars on top of each other. This happened so fast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM FLAIR, VOLUNTEER RESCUE WORKER: There's houses moved off their foundation, cars and trees. I mean, this is almost a biblical proportions here like a massive tornado come through here.

BRYANNA COFFEY, TENNESSEE FLOOD SURVIVOR: -- gate literally come in, it came in five minutes, five minutes it was in, it was flooded. It was so much more water than I have ever seen in my life.

CNN's Nick Valencia is in Waverly in Humphries County, Tennessee. Nick, I'll toss it out to you.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, many of those who died were right here in this housing complex. Some are still missing. And we're joined by Jode Stawski, take me inside your home here and show us. You said you almost -- Brandy, come in on in, this is your neighbor, Brandy Lee.

You almost didn't make it.

JODE STAWSKI, WAVERLY, TN RESIDENT: Right. If it wasn't for our little neighbor lady across the street. Ms. Mary banging and banging on my door, we had just a few seconds to get out.

VALENCIA: How high did the water get up? Can you show us just how high, go ahead, Brandy. Go ahead, after you.

My god, there's nothing left in here.

STAWSKI: There's nothing left. It got all the way up to here. I had actually cooked breakfast that morning before this happened and --

VALENCIA: Did you guys have any warning at all whatsoever?

BRANDY, NEIGHBOR OF STAWSKI: No warning, nothing.

STAWSKI: Just a little lady across the street. And by the time I'd answered that front door, the lady next door, Ms. Lisa, was banging at my back door.

By the time that they had told me to get out, we just had enough time to pull the car up here, jump in, and just go.

VALENCIA: And who helped you guys? I mean was there any first responders here? Are you guys just chipping in and helping each other?

STAWSKI: She was the one left behind. Over here her apartment.

BRANDY: I was left behind not meaning to be behind but I was saving my family and wanted to make sure they got to safety before I do. Because they're my family.

I was stuck up on the roof and everything.

VALENCIA: You were stuck on the roof?

STAWSKI: Yes.

VALENCIA: You must've thought you might not have made it.

BRANDY: Yes, I was going to die because the way the foundation was, everything was coming down. There's nothing left.

STAWSKI: If it wasn't for the wall that busted out of the front and for Rico next door, he came in a boat, he saved them.

VALENCIA: I mean people are watching this right now. This is sort of an overlooked tragedy with so much going on in the world. What do you guys need? I'm so sorry Jode. What do you guys need?

STAWSKI: We just need lots of prayers, lot of prayers for the people that are missing.

BRANDY: Everything's just gone, just completely gone. We have nothing.

VALENCIA: You guys saw cars floating down and people screaming for help.

BRANDY: And animals and babies and everything. I couldn't get to nobody because I was stuck myself. And I could have drowned because we were stuck in a room. And thank God for the foundation that had busted through. Because if not I would have drowned, I wouldn't even be standing here now.

VALENCIA: God, just this is what's it, I mean --

STAWSKI: Just to show you how crazy it was --

VALENCIA: Yes, we just got a few seconds left here.

STAWSKI: I had cooked breakfast that morning on the stove in there and look right here. In this door that was shut, there's sits the pan. It's perfectly sitting that came all the way from the kitchen.

VALENCIA: We wish you guys -- you know, we're so grateful for your time here. We have to go. And I'll be here with you after we end here.

But this community clearly is still hurting. And it's going to take a long time for them to recover. Alisyn and Victor, thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, Nick, the devastation there. You can see the water line is above Jody's head there.

BLACKWELL: It's remarkable. The breakfast is still in the pan. That's how quickly that water came in. Nick, thank you for the reporting.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

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