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Soon: Biden Addresses Nation on End of Afghanistan War; Hospitals Feel COVID Strain as ICU Beds Dwindle; Caldor Fire Forces Tens of Thousands to Evacuate Lake Tahoe; Child COVID Cases Rise Sharply after Early Summer Declines. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired August 31, 2021 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:33:42]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: We're expecting to hear from President Biden any minute now after America's full withdrawal from Afghanistan.
And although all U.S. forces are out, there are still between 100 to 200 Americans who are still in the country who want to leave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We've gotten many out, but many are still there. We will keep working to help them. Our commitment to them has no deadline.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Joining me now is Connor Powell. He lived and worked in Kabul as a journalist at the height of the war.
I want to get into those still in Afghanistan.
Thank you for being with us, by the way.
First, let me start with a broad perspective here. For the first time in close to 20 years, there are not a single American service person there in Afghanistan.
From your perspective, having covered the height of the war, what does that mean?
CONNOR POWELL, FORMER FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: It is a huge transformation not only for the United States but also for the Afghan people, but also for the international community.
I mean, one of the things that always is important to keep in mind is what a global effort this was. This wasn't just the U.S. and NATO. There were countries from the Middle East, Qatar, Turkey, that were all part of this effort to rebuild this country.
[14:35:01]
And for literally 20 years, there were promises made day in and day out from every official who never visited that country saying, we're not going to abandon the Afghan people, we are here for however long it takes.
So I think for me having been there, having covered this story, that's still the amazing thing, is that I had heard so many U.S. officials, politicians, diplomats, military officers, make this promise, and to see no U.S. soldiers, to see no embassy staff, to see no international presence there anymore is really just a stunning turn of events.
On promises, the president in his statement released, before we hear from him in a few minutes, he reiterated, reasserted the promise to those Afghan civilians who helped the U.S. over the last 20 years that the State Department will continue to work to get them out.
I understand you have been in contact with some Afghans who have not been able to get out. What is their status? What is the next step?
POWELL: Yes, there's really two different types of Afghans we've been communicating with. There are Afghans that lived in the U.S., in the west in the '80s and '90s. And after the fall of the Taliban they went back to help rebuild their country.
A lot of them might have had children in the U.S. But they never got their U.S. citizenship but they were part of, like, the U.N. or working for NATO or different embassies.
And they're stuck in Kabul largely because they own houses, their money is in the banks there, which has been all frozen.
They're scared to be there but they don't really have a place to go next.
Obviously, there are Americans who want to leave, a lot of Afghan Americans who want to leave, a couple hundred. But there's a lot of these Afghans who have connections to the West through children, from having lived in the West, but they aren't sort of able to go. They're confused. They're scared.
There's also a lot of Afghans I have spoken to who grew up in Afghanistan in the last 20 years, who went to school there. They became lawyers. They became activists. They own small businesses.
They were the ones who bought into these promises of, you know, international help for generations. And they don't have any way of getting to the U.S.
But they're scared to death of being in this new Afghanistan. You know, we have spoken to some Afghan female lawyers who have -- you know, they've been promoted by the international community as sort of the next generation. They've been put on social media feeds by embassies, by the U.N..
Their pictures are up there with western officials. But they're now stuck in Kabul with really nowhere to go. They're terrified.
So let me ask you this. I want your reaction to the breaking news. I mean, you were critical of the decision to -- the potential that names, lists were handed over to the Taliban to help facilitate getting through the check points.
What is your reaction to this reporting from Barbara Starr that there was a secret deal between the U.S. military and the Taliban in which they actually escorted groups of Americans to the gates at the airport?
And does that give you any more confidence that the Taliban can be -- I don't want to say trusted -- relied upon to allow those Americans those at-risk Afghans to get out?
POWELL: Yes, the optimist in me wants to believe that that is a sign of a more practical, as we've heard time and time again in the last couple of days, Taliban.
The realist in me says that, you know, the Taliban have killed thousands of people and they're a brutal group that have used violence against civilians, suicide bombings and things like that, for 20 years now.
So I don't know what to believe. I don't know if anyone does.
I know for a fact that the Taliban worked and let some people get to the airport. I have talked to people who went through checkpoints and they were told they could go.
Often, the Afghans I spoke to, they said the hardest part of the process of getting out was the gate at the airport, getting past American soldiers and British soldiers and getting into the Hamid Karzai Airport.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
POWELL: There's evidence that the Afghans worked with the international community. I hope that continues. I think a lot of people hope that continues.
I also know the Taliban are going door to door throughout Kabul and the country taking people's valuables, taking their cars, and have a lot of people under guard at this point.
So there's two sides of this Taliban, and history says it is a violent organization. I think that's the one that we should probably be focused on.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
POWELL: And then, where the U.S. can and where the international community can, probably, you know, work with them if they can. But let's not kid ourselves. This is a violent organization.
BLACKWELL: Yes. As you reminded us, several times, the Taliban is not monolithic. There are factions and facets that are often conflicting.
Connor Powell, always good to have your insight.
POWELL: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
[14:39:38]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: OK. Now to this story. Wildfires are raging across the west. Tens of thousands of people scrambling to escape. So we're live on the ground in Lake Tahoe, next.
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CAMEROTA: Extreme weather and wildfires plaguing the western U.S. The entire city of south Lake Tahoe in California is under a mandatory evacuation right now.
You can see drivers stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours as tens of thousands of people in El Dorado County scrambled to leave.
In just the last two weeks, the fast-moving Caldor Wildfire has scorched more than 191,000 acres, and it is currently only 16 percent contained.
BLACKWELL: CNN's Dan Simon is there in south Lake Tahoe.
Dan, how much time have these people been given to get out? Bumper-to- bumper traffic, it seems like it has been a rush.
[14:45:05]
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they were told yesterday afternoon they needed to evacuate. And to borrow an expression from another kind of natural disaster, right now, it is really the calm before the storm.
You can see just how empty it is. And this is a popular tourist destination, popular both in the summer and in the winter. You have restaurants and hotels and stores and everything, of course, has just emptied out.
But take a look what it looked like yesterday. You had this bumper-to- bumper traffic with tens of thousands of people fleeing the city, trying to get to safety, people going to nearby Reno or Carson City or some other communities.
We spoke to one resident as he was packing up his belongings and getting ready to hit a road. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NAT LAWRENCE, SOUTH LAKE TAHOE EVACUEE: I try to stay calm but, like, there's some panic now, of course, because the fire is threatening our community, which we never thought was going to -- we thought they were going to get it under control, but Mother Nature suggested otherwise.
Now we're looking at, you know, our -- whatever little precious belongings we have packed up and we're relocating. And hopefully, we have a home and a community to come back to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: Well, we are looking at a potential disaster if this fire actually makes its way to south Lake Tahoe. This would be a worst-case scenario.
This Caldor Fire has been so stubborn. It broke out two weeks ago and fire crews just have not been able to get really a handle on it. Right now, it is only 16 percent contained. And, of course, where it is coming from not really contained at all.
This fire has really been pushed by the wind. And, unfortunately, it is supposed to be very windy this evening. This area is under a red- flag warning until Wednesday night.
Right now, the race is really on for firefighters to do whatever they can to try to protect Lake Tahoe and the surrounding communities. But it is going to be quite a fight in the next 24, 48 hours.
CAMEROTA: My gosh. Just looking at the landscape behind you, how little visibility there is, Dan, is incredible.
Thank you very much.
BLACKWELL: New sobering numbers tied to COVID in kids. There are more concern in hospitals with COVID than ever before in the pandemic. Now, alongside that reality, people are fighting. Sometimes literally, over masks
CAMEROTA: First, a look at what to watch later this afternoon.
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[14:52:32]
CAMEROTA: Now to coronavirus. The standoff over COVID safety protocols in schools is escalating and so is the number of children contracting COVID.
BLACKWELL: The American Academy of Pediatrics says the rate of kids testing positive in early August reached highest levels since last winter.
CNN's Athena Jones has more.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hospitals are saturated everywhere.
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With new COVID cases battering the country, particularly in the less-vaccinated south, overwhelmed hospitals reaching a breaking point.
Mississippi, the hardest hit state, has just nine intensive care unit beds available. And in five southern states, less than 10 percent of ICU beds are free.
Kentucky hospitals are seeing a record number of COVID patients and critical staffing shortages.
GOV. ANY BESHEAR (D-KY): We're living in reality where some COVID patients that are sick are being treated in their cars when there isn't room for them inside the E.R. or in the hospital.
JONES: COVID cases in Louisiana had begun to decline but ICUs are still almost 90 percent full. COVID patients occupying nearly half of those beds.
DR. CATHERINE O'NEAL, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, OUR LADY OF THE LAKE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: Hopefully, we're in the down swing but the down swing is still seeing record highs in our hospitals today. And 170 patients admitted with COVID-19 in our hospital already on the ventilator.
JONES: New COVID cases nationwide average nearly 160,000 a day. More than 100,000 people are hospitalized. Nearly all of them unvaccinated say health officials.
It's a message that finally be reaching people. A new AXIOS/Ipsos poll shows just one in five people say they aren't likely to get the vaccine, down from 34 percent in March.
Experts say vaccination is key to prevent the spread of new variants. But the CDC says less than half of children ages 12 to 15 have gotten at least one dose, even as COVID cases in kids skyrocket.
More than 200,000 testing positive last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, up fivefold from a month ago.
DR. RICHINA BICETTE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, BAYLOR ST. LUKE'S EMERGENCY CENTER, MCNAIR CAMPUS: It's actually the trend that's frightening. When you look at the direction things are going, the number of pediatric cases are increasing and they will keep increasing.
JONES: All of this raising the stakes in the debate over making in schools.
The U.S. Department of Education now investigating whether policies banning mask mandates in five states discriminate against students with disabilities.
Meanwhile, Florida officials following through on the governor's promise to withhold the salaries of school board officials in Broward and Alachua Counties after they implemented mask mandates. [14:55:05]
While in Lee County --
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: OK, right --
JONES: -- the battle over mask got physical.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: So as you can see, fists are now flying. All this on live television.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: When it comes to those overwhelmed hospitals, one Texas doctor telling us the intensive care unit in his hospital is so strained, they had to downgrade two ICU patients that were still sick enough to need intensive care because there were two other patients that were sicker and needed the beds more.
So they're making decisions they've never had to make before -- Victor, Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: Yes. The repercussions of all of this.
BLACKWELL: Athena Jones, thank you.
CAMEROTA: Any minute now, we expect President Biden to address the nation on the end of America's 20-year war in Afghanistan.
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