BIDEN: "To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this. We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command."
Biden says he has ordered plans to strike ISIS-K. "We will respond with force and precision, at our time, at a place we choose and a moment of our choosing."
"These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans in there. We will get our Afghan allies out."
In the meantime, Biden says the US won't be "intimidated" and will "continue the evacuation" mission to get Americans and partners out of Afghanistan.
He asks for a moment of silence for those in uniform.
Biden: "We will complete our mission. We will continue, after our troops are withdrawn, to find means by which we can find any American who wishes to get out of Afghanistan — we will find them and we will get them out."
Biden to @KellyO's question about whether he's prepared to add US forces to bolster the evacuation mission: "I've instructed the military whatever they need — if they need additional force, I will grant it."
Biden on the Taliban: "No one trusts them."
"It's not a matter of trust, it's a matter of mutual self-interest," he says, adding that there's "no evidence thus far" that he's received from military officials of "collusion between the Taliban and ISIS."
President Biden says that "millions" of Afghan citizens who are not part of the Taliban, who didn't actively cooperate with US — "if given a chance, they'd be on board a plane tomorrow" to the US.
"Getting every single person out can't be guaranteed."
Biden says he bears responsibility for all that happens on his watch but adds regarding the withdrawal: "The former president made a deal with the Taliban that he would get all American forces out of Afghanistan by May 1" and got a commitment they wouldn't be attacked.
REPORTER: Do you squarely stand by your decision to pull out?
BIDEN: Yes, I do.
Biden says it is wrong to sacrifice American lives to try and set up a democratic government in Afghanistan, "a country that has never once in its entire history been a united country... made up of different tribes who have never, ever, ever gotten along with each other."
"Ladies and gentlemen, it was time to end a 20-year war," Joe Biden says at the end of his press conference on Afghanistan.
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New —> Debt limit standoff intensifies as McConnell says Republicans oppose raising it
"Mitch McConnell is as serious as four heart attacks and a stroke," says one Republican senator. "And I don't think he's going to budge." nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
It's time to take the debt ceiling fight seriously.
The White House expects Republicans to blink on the debt limit. A WH official says @POTUS doesn't believe it should be subject to negotiation, period. He's taking the same position as second-term Obama—no discussion, just raise it—when the GOP did cave. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Biden on Covid vaccine resisters: “A distinct minority of Americans, supported by a distinct minority of elected officials, are keeping us from turning the corner. These pandemic politics, as I refer to it, are making people sick, causing unvaccinated people to die.”
President Biden previewing his vaccine mandates: "This is not about freedom or personal choice. It's about protecting yourself and those around you. People you work with. People you care about. People you love. My job as president is to protect all Americans."
Biden on vaccine mandates: "Some of the biggest companies are already requiring this ... even Fox News."
Debt limit standoffs have become a Capitol Hill tradition under Democratic presidencies. The issue tends to get resolved with little drama when Republicans hold the White House. Partisan asymmetry. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Democrats are considering attaching a debt limit extension to the government funding bill ahead of a 9/30 deadline. @SpeakerPelosi tells me they're weighing "several options." Either way, this will require at least 10 GOP senators to break a filibuster.
President Biden says Trump’s deal with the Taliban for a US exit gave him two choices: withdraw or add thousands more troops to fight the Taliban.
“That was the choice—the real choice: between leaving and escalating.”
Biden, defending his Afghanistan withdrawal timeline, says he wasn’t going to prolong a “forever war” or compound it with a “forever exit.”
“I take responsibility for the decision,” Biden says. To those who argue this could’ve been done in a more orderly fashion, he says: “I respectfully disagree.” He says there’s no way to end a war like this smoothly.
Pollsters have theories for big '20 miss. Did D responses soar during WFH? Did Trump's attacks on polls make his voters ignore 'em? Was there a "hidden" DJT vote of ppl who wouldn't admit? All of the above? Problem is it's hard to isolate variables in rare Covid lockdown context.
So the skepticism of polling is warranted, but the caveats to 2020 are notable: 2021-'22 cycle is a different context. The lockdowns are no more and a key wildcard named Trump is not on the ballot. Last time both those were true—2018—polls were accurate. cnn.com/2018/11/19/pol…
New: Biden's agenda confronts shifting House Democratic power dynamics
Progressive wing is ascendant in the caucus, a shift from ‘09/2010 when Blue Dogs called the plays.
Growing distrust between progressive-centrist factions, which broke open last week. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
“We have a strong progressive majority within the Democratic caucus. It's not progressives who are on the outskirts howling in the wind. It is conservatives who are trying, one way or another, to find their way back into the conversation,” says @RepRaskin. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
What's behind these power shifts from '09 v 2021?
1. Dem voters increasingly self-identify as liberal, fewer identify as moderate/conservative
2. Ds are extinct in rural, culturally conservative areas; new majority relies on suburban, well-educated areas nbcnews.com/politics/congr…