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tv   CNN Newsroom With Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto  CNN  August 20, 2021 6:00am-7:00am PDT

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homecoming concert, tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern exclusively on cnn. and cnn's coverage continues right now. ♪ ♪ very good friday morning to you. i'm jim sciutto. >> i'm poppy harlow. more evacuations, but with that violence and chaos. the white house announcing approximately 3,000 people, nearly 350 of them u.s. citizens, were flown out of kabul's airport in the last 24 hours. but outside of the airport, thousands of afghans still desperate for a way out. taliban militants firing shots to keep the crowds at bay.
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>> as just gut wrenching scenes like this emerge, video showing an infant being passed over barbed wire, handed over the kabul airport wall to u.s. troops. as these desperate scenes play out, we are learning new details about an urgent classified cable that u.s. diplomats sent to the state department in mid july warning that swift action needed to be taken or they feared possible catastrophe. this morning president biden will be breesed on the latest from afghanistan and he will then address the nation a few hours from now. we'll have more from cnn's clarissa ward on the ground at kabul airport in a few moments. right now the u.s. is warning embassy allies to escape afghanistan. their safety just in terms of getting to the airport is uncertain. >> officials say the kabul airport, quote, may open or close without notice. cnn's kylie atwood is live this morning from the state department. kylie, it's clearly a very fluid
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situation there. u.s. diplomats and u.s. military reacting to the latest on the ground. what do we know? >> reporter: well, kind of a shocking, but perhaps blunted mission from the u.s. embassy in kabul this morning. a security alert to all americans in afghanistan, telling them as they have told them in recent days, that they can't ensure safe access, safe travel to the airport. but then the new thing that they are telling the americans this morning, as you said, jim, is that the gates into the airport may close or open unexpectedly because of the crowds outside the airport, because of the security situation. but they're also telling them, and i want to read you this line, please use your best judgment and attempt to enter the airport at any gate that is open. essentially telling americans, listen, we're trying to get you on flights. we're trying to evacuate you. but it is up to you to use your best judgment to get into the airport. a pretty stunning admission. and we should note the state department has said they don't
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have the capacity to do anything beyond the footprint of the airport right now. the military has said that that is where their mission is focused right now. but we should note that that is a policy decision based on the biden administration not wanting to go beyond that footprint right now. so this is something to watch very closely, particularly as the situation could put more americans in "jeopardy." jim and poppy? >> kylie atwood reporting at the state department, thank you very much for your updates on this throughout. clarissa ward is in kabul, again, on the ground with her team and filed this report on what the situation has been like for them inside the airport. watch this. >> reporter: i have to say this is the least chaotic part of the whole process. this is the final furlong when you're almost about to get on one of those military aircraft carriers, when you can probably see behind me, i'm trying not to move too much because our signal is pretty weak. there are a lot of people who
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have been standing out in that scorching sun for many hours. and as i said, this is the last stage. it begins at the front barriers with the taliban. we went through one gate this morning. a crush of people pushing, shoving, screaming, children crying out. i can honestly say it was one of the more harrowing things i have experienced. then for the lucky people who do get in, you go to the next phase where you sit and wait for several hours. i have talked to people here who have been waiting for two days -- two days, and it's such a bottleneck trying to get all these people processed and all these people through. and the problem is that at these bottlenecks, you have these very dangerous situations where you have a crush of people and crowds. and one soldier was telling me that yesterday, two women actually threw their babies over the fence trying to throw them
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to the u.s. soldiers. one soldier actually caught the baby in his arms. he went and found the woman afterwards to give the baby back. but honestly, what kind of desperation does a parent have to be in where that's your best hope is to try to throw your baby to a soldier to get them out, to save them from being crushed, to give them a better future. and i think there is nothing that illustrates better the panic, the chaos, the fear than that description. i talked to another british soldier who started talking to me and he just started weeping. he said, i've done two tours in ireland, but the ptsd i will have from this last week is worse than either of those deployments. because people are get being trampled. you have to remember, there's a huge amount of people, thousands and thousands and thousands if not tens of thousands. there are multiple gates at entrances.
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you have the americans. . r you have the brits. you have the italians, you have the french. you have the hungarians. we have seen pretty much every nationality you can conceive of who had a presence here in afghanistan. so you have a lot of -- and you have the state department and you have the marines and you have special forces. it is very hectic and very difficult. you know, you see people looking for vehicles, traffic jambs building up inside the base. people trying to squeeze around blast walls. there just isn't a coherent mechanism yet in place to process these people. you know, even something simple like tents. please, get these people from tents, okay. i'm okay. but the women with their babies, they can't be standing out in the 95-degree sun for eight hours. they just can't. they're getting water. they're handing out mres,
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military meals ready to eat, and they're doing the best they can. but it is still a really, really, really tough situation here. >> tough to say the least, clarissa ward there at the kabul airport. thanks very much. we have what's really a heartbreaking update today about one of those first chaotic flights out of kabul airport. you may remember the images of a crowd of people trying to cling to the side of the landing gear of this c-17 on monday as it taxied down the runway. later sadly we saw video that at least two bodies falling from the plane as it was up in the air. >> and what we have now learned is one of the people who fell to their death was zaki anwari, 17 years old, a member of afghanistan's youth soccer team. a spokesman for the sports federation told "the new york times" the young man came from a low income family in kabul and saw the arrival of the taliban, the takeover of the taliban as
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the end of his dreams. >> goodness. if that is not an indictment of the future of that country, a 17-year-old choosing that over life in effect. well, this morning cnn is learning u.s. diplomats warned last month that urgent action was needed in afghanistan. the diplomats said in a classified cable they believe the country could rapidly deteriorate and they feared a catastrophe when u.s. troops pulled out at the end of august. joining me now to discuss this, douglas london, a retired senior c.i.a. operations officer in the region. he's also author of the book "the recruiter, spying and the lost art of american intelligence." douglas, thanks so much for taking the time this morning. >> thanks for having me on the program. >> so, you've heard as you often do when situations go in a bad direction that, well, the intelligence was wrong. we didn't know how bad it was going to get and how quickly. was this actually, in your view, an intelligence failure? >> not an intelligence failure.
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i think we can point to 9/11 as either we're not aware of the events that are likely to unfold or we don't do our job making sure people are aware of that. general milley's comments about he didn't see any estimates about the country collapsing in 11 days makes for a nice sound bite but it's rather disingenuous. the estimates going back for some years noted that under the conditions we have seen over the past few months -- not weeks -- would lead to a rapid collapse of the government and fighting forces which could occur in weeks or in fact days. that clock was hardly 11 days. the president was committed to pulling out the troops, the message was clear. when we began to close our bases, military and platforms in kabul between may and july 1st, july 1st was when bagram closed. that was the last platform the military or intelligence professionals could operate outside. and we saw the developing events and it was clear to us that that time line of 11 days, i'm sorry, it really started at least in may, if not before.
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and they had the opportunity to take the moves they did. >> let me ask you this. would it have been different at any other time? you heard the president apartments comments yesterday that had the u.s. pulled out 15 years ago or 15 years from now, you would have a similar outcome. in effect, regardless of when the u.s. withdrew its troops, you would have a crisis in confidence like this and a collapse like this. do you believe that that's true or could there have been a better way? >> i think that's a fair point. i think the strategies that the united states was pursuing in terms of the political military intelligence were not going to make a change. we could sort of maintain the status quo and we could have, had we maintained a presence, but we would have also had to change our approach to afghanistan. and perhaps step away from this idea of the american blueprint of a centralized government and a nationally integrated army. >> okay. let's talk now about what follows.
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is afghanistan likely in your view to become a terror haven once again as it was before 9/11? we know that al qaeda militants were fighting alongside the taliban in some of these battles around the country. is the taliban going to give al qaeda free reign to plots and plan attacks on the u.s. from inside? >> defense secretary austin fielded this question a couple days ago. he referred to an estimate which is true. the intelligence community projected upon the withdrawal of the united states military from afghanistan, we could see al qaeda reconstitute in one to two years and pose a homeland threat. that estimate, however, was based on the continued presence of an afghan government which would be partners on the ground and continue collecting intelligence on al qaeda. the taliban and al qaeda are integrated. those bonds are sustaining and they're deep. and the taliban is going to allow al qaeda and other groups
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to operate from there, and their idea of the agreement they signed says, well, we're committed to preventing them from conducting terrorist operations. we're not required to expel them from the country. al qaeda is resurging. bagram saw the release of a number of al qaeda and high value prisoners. there are a number of well experienced al qaeda operatives in iran making their way, and i do see that threat accelerating much faster than imagined. >> the united states us plan is to keep a lid on al qaeda from outside the country. fly counter terror missions from places such as qatar and kuwait, do uav missions, drone missions from outside the country as well, but c.i.a. director has acknowledged, you know, you just don't have the same capability. i wonder can the u.s. keep a lid on al qaeda from outside? >> yes, it can collect intelligence. it is different expectations have to be managed. all the drones and technology in
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the world have to require intelligence operatives on the ground where to look, for whom to look and what is going on. without the united states case officers on the ground, those who handle and recruit the agents, we're going to be doing it remotely, by proxy, indirectly depending on agents to aclike our handlers, operating people from the ground. that is going to impede the timeliness of the intelligence, certainly the quality of the intelligence, much harder to test that information when you don't have an american handler in the process. >> well, it's a sobering assessment. let's be honest. douglas, thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. still to come, a covid crisis in the nation's i.c.u.s. reports of people dying as they are waiting for an open i.c.u. bed. the doctor in the midst of this in alabama will join us to talk about what it is like firsthand. plus san francisco is now requiring proof of vaccination for anyone 12 and up to do a whole host of activities such as go in restaurants. we'll take you there live.
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the delta variant is now fueling a shortage of intensive care beds in states specifically with low vaccination rates. experts in austin, texas, saying hospitals there are, quote, at a breaking point due to a surge in covid patients. >> a doctor in oregon is asking the public for help, grace and kindness, their words, after a patient died waiting, just waiting to get into the i.c.u. our tom foreman is with us. tom, good morning. >> good morning.
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>> it is important to note the crisis, for sure. it's also notable that it's not everywhere, right? talk about where it is happening and why. >> it is happening most where you would expect it to happen most, where vaccination rates are low and where politically leaders are resisting all efforts to mask and take basic common sense measures to protect the population. look at the i.c.u. bed utilization by state, and everywhere that it's red, they're above at least 70%. and when you get to the dark red ones down here, six states, florida, georgia, alabama, mississippi, kentucky, and texas, that is right in a cluster down here of the states that as a group have the lowest vaccination rates. alabama and mississippi here, only about a third of the people there have been vaccinated. when you move past that and look at the covid relationship to this, this is where they are being used for covid purposes the most. everywhere that's red here is at least above a quarter of those
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beds being used just for covid. remember, that's all the heart patients, all the people with breathing problems, all the people that have been involved in accidents, brain trauma, all of that. they are there. but 25% is just covid, and the dark red states, that's more than 50% covid. again, florida, alabama, mississippi, louisiana, tremendous pressure there just because of covid. and if you look at the raw numbers, it looks terrible. look at this. 468 beds available in all of florida. zero in alabama. 60 in mississippi, 17 in arkansas, 175 in louisiana, oklahoma 111, texas, 417. florida and texas alone about 50 million people, something like that. so for all the people in all these states, add it up, you get somewhere around 1100, 1200 beds available for everyone there. that's the problem. it keeps running away. there is still a political push against it. and yet if you're driving
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through that state and you have a car crash, you better hope you're near the line to somewhere else because there is not much to help you out. >> right, it's not just i.c.u. beds for covid patients. it's for any emergency that might happen. tom, thank you for literally mapping it out for us. we appreciate it. an i.c.u. doctor in the state of baalabama where tom shared, said, i have held more hands before i put patients on the ventilator. i know it is the last time they will see or speak to their loved ones. i held onto young family members who lost their spouse. they screamed, i have come home and sobbed in the shower because i am emotionally worn out. >> it seems like from the very beginning of the pandemic. joining us now to discuss is the doctor who wrote that piece, dr. janet carpenter. a pulmonary critical care doctor. so good to have you on this morning. we know you're busy where you
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are. you told al.com that all of the i.c.u. beds are completely full. i wonder sadly the politics have always clouded public health information from the beginning here. are you finding where you are that this crisis is getting the message through, right, that vaccination works, that people have to take simple public health measures or not? >> absolutely, jim. you know, as i said, it's just been a devastating week here for us locally. i know good and well that other facilities across the nation are experiencing the same thing that we are. and i just felt in my heart it was time to get that personal message out to just try to do what we can to encourage vaccination. it's just -- it's just been devastating with the age of patients that we are seeing in the i.c.u. now.
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much different from december, january. these patients are in their early 40s, you know, our average i.c.u. census this week held on has been anywhere from the age of 47 to early 50s. those numbers are quite disturbing, and these patients are not doing well. we have had in the past week, at least one death a day. it's tragic. >> so, what can you do? i mean, when we saw that map with the number zero in terms of i.c.u. beds in alabama, what can you do? can hospitals, makeshift hospitals like we saw at the beginning of the pandemic? do you need more federal resources? or is this just what's going to be? >> you know, unfortunately this is, this is just what we are seeing right now because the medical system here, we are just completely inundated and overwhelmed. where i work, we have two very small community hospitals. unfortunately we very easily run out of room.
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we have already opened up our post anesthesia care unit where the surgery patients normally go. as a non-covid i.c.u., because our covid i.c.u.s are completely full so we are having to shift patients around, make room the best that we can, and, you know, like everyone else, we are short staffed. medical staff is working extra. they're working overtime. i think the big message here is we just got to get out to encourage patients to get vaccinated. at this point that is the only thing that we have that we know that consistently works. i think that's the big take-home message we're trying to get out here. >> so, i want to give you a chance here to speak to folks, listening, watching right now to convince them if they haven't been vaccinated. because part of the message, of course, right, it not only protects your self, it protects others. you note for instance you're worried about your children. your two young sons are too young to be vaccinated. so speak now to folks who have
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decided or still hesitating to get the vaccine. what would you tell them? >> you know, from the bottom of my heart, we as the medical community are completely exhausted. we are trying to care for you the best that we can. it is a tragedy. now the young age of patients we are seeing that we are losing, the numbers i really want to focus on, jim and poppy, are the percentages that we're seeing because this is telling us vaccination works. between 86% of patients right now that are in the hospital, covid patients, rather, are unvaccinated. at least 20% of our inpatients are on ventilators right now. this can be avoided. and i don't want to have to look another family member in the eye or hold another hand when this could have been prevented. so i just feel like sharing that personal aspect of it. i hope we'll maybe reach some folks that have been undecided or have not, you know, made that
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decision and just that personal plea. that's part of what just prompted me to put that post on facebook. that was really just me sharing my heart and it's really gone beyond what i ever expected or could have imagined. and it's really resonated with folks. it's already making a difference. i can tell you, i've had numerous people personally reach out to me and inquire about vaccination. locally we are starting to see vaccination rates pick up. so it's just, i think, trying to get to people to connect with the personal aspect of what we as the critical care physicians who are in there every day, what we are personally seeing and sharing our story. >> well, listen, we hear it in your voice, right, the sincere struggle you're going through. we hope the message gets through. we really do. we just want to express our appreciation for all the work you're doing there. >> thank you so much. >> dr. janet carpenter, thank you so much. >> thank you. well, officials are working to figure out charges against
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the man of a bomb scare near the u.s. capitol. we'll have new details, what he said while he was facebook living while he stood out there yesterday. more to come. eep, uninterrupted sleep. and now save up to $700 on adjustable mattress sets. at philadelphia, we know what makes the perfect schmear of cream cheese. the recipe we invented over 145 years ago and me...the world's best, and possibly only, schmelier. philadelphia. schmear perfection. ♪ ♪ life is full of surprises when you least expect it. (woman laughs) and open. what happened to all your things? i know you needed a place to study, so... and other times, it pays off knowing what to expect. at university of phoenix, you can count on fixed, affordable tuition from the moment you enroll to the day you graduate from your program. learn more about our tuition guarantee at phoenix.edu
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that's what authorities said his motive this morning is unclear. >> it prompted an evacuation of multiple buildings in the area. as police and the fbi responded to the threat, cnn law enforcement analyst whitney wild has been covering it. one of the things i find most amazing is he was live streaming on facebook 30 minutes as he was carrying this out. what more do we know about him and his motive? >> reporter: what we know is he made these past facebook posts that indicate he was a donald trump supporter, that he said repeatedly he wanted to make a change. and in these videos he posted, these ramblings he posted on thursday, he made a list of statements, including that he didn't care if donald trump was ever elected again. so in the press conference, at the end of the day once police had finally been able to apprehend the suspect, they were reluctant to describe a political motivation, didn't describe a motivation at all, jim and poppy.
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they said the person suffered family trauma, excuse me. the recent death of his mother may have played a role. basically suggesting there were personal challenges he was facing that were burdening him that day and affecting his emotional state. however, it's impossible to ignore the political themes here because he made so many political statements in those facebook live videos and in his past posts. right now law enforcement is still trying to assess what these charges might be. still trying to assess whatever evidence was recovered from his vehicle. what we know is this started around 9:15 thursday as he drove his vehicle up onto the sidewalk, claimed he had a bomb, again, started facebook live videos throughout the morning. eventually, though, law enforcement was able to convince him to come out of the vehicle. in the end they found he did not have a bomb. cnn was able to reach out to his son. here's what the son told anyone. since biden got elected he's been like, man, he doesn't change, i reckon. i tried to hill him who cares what goes on in d.c. worry about what you've got down
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here. i tried to tell him that and he's like, no, i'm sticking up for my country. we need to get the country back to the way that it was. this highlights a theme that law enforcement has been grappling with, which is trying to find out where the threat lies among people who are sounding off on facebook, in addition to recognizing we remain in this heightened threat environment. so those statements made coupled with the fact he was saying, jim and poppy, he had a bomb elicited this enormous law enforcement response. fortunately no one was hurt. >> whitney wild, thanks so much. texas house democrats' hiss or i can quorum break came to an end. three democrats returned to the floor clearing the way for republicans in that state to pass this new restrictive voting legislation. >> so this marks the first time the texas house has reached a quorum, meaning the number they need on the floor to move forward with something. democrats shall, as you will remember, fled the state 38 days ago. that held up legislative
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business, really all legislative business in the chamber. national correspondent diane gallagher joins us. good morning. you have been on the story since they fled and covering this legislation far before that. the month long hold out prompted the house speaker to sign arrest warrants for the 52 house democrats who fled the state. now three at least are back on the floor. what does this all mean for them and much more importantly this bill? >> reporter: yeah, and so, poppy, jim, those 52 civil arrest warrants are now cancelled even though it was just those three additional democrats who showed up on the floor last night. the statehouse just barely made quorum. they got the exact number they needed with those three new democrats. some had already come back after they returned from their trip to washington, d.c., but this had been this group holdout, because this truly is the only option that the democrats have to prevent some sort of legislation that will overhaul elections from eventually passing.
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we are in the second call, special session in the texas legislature right now. and the governor was pretty adamant about the fact he was going to keep calling special sessions until the agenda that he set forth passed and it was handled. the democrats had been in this sort of stalemate, this standoff that ended last night. they issued statements, in part, they were prompted by the surge in covid-19 in the lone star state. they, though, also said that they were proud of what they had accomplished, noting, quote, our efforts were successful and served as the primary catalyst to push congress to take action on federal voter protection legislation. now we continue the fight on the house floor. i can tell you that the texas democrats who have not returned have been very upset, noting that already that legislation that passed the texas senate last week is set to have a public hearing in a committee on saturday.
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so it's moving quickly through the texas house already. jim, poppy? >> as it was expected to do. diane, thanks very much for the reporting on this. up next we will speak with the photo journalist who captured remarkably powerful images like the one you're looking at, of afghan women over the past two decades. now she is calling for action and has written a new piece with a crystal clear message. the taban's return is catastrophic for women. she joins us. at philadelphia, we know what makes the perfect schmear of cream cheese. you need only the freshest milk and cream. that one! and the world's best, and possibly only, schmelier. philadelphia. schmear perfection.
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women living in afghanistan saw huge strides of progress in the past two decades after the taliban fell. they went to school, they worked outside their homes, they trained as police officers and journalists, even elected members of parliament. but now with the taliban back in power, the huge question and the critical question is do these gains evaporate? while the taliban say they are committed to peace and willing to maintain some rights for women, reports of abuse and human rights violations suffered by women and girls, even in recent days and weeks, are surfacing. here is president biden on protecting women in afghanistan. listen. >> there are afghan women outside the gate. i told them get them on the planes. get them out. get them out. get their families out if you can. here's the deal, george. the idea that we're able to deal with the rights of women around
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the world by military force is not rational, not rational. look what happened to the uighurs in western china. look what's happening in other parts of the world. look what's happening in the congo. i mean, there are a lot of places where women are being subjew gated. the way to deal with that is not with a military invasion. the way to deal with that is putting economic and diplomatic and pressure on them to change their behavior. >> my next guest has been ambushed by the taliban while hiking with u.s. troops six days in the valley in afghanistan. the taliban then surrounded them. she has spent the last 20 years covering women in afghanistan and has won a pulitzer for her remarkable work. joining me is lyndsay, author of that's what i do. we thank you very much for joining us. >> hi, poppy. thanks for having me. >> your images, your pictures say it all so we're going to show a lot of them as we speak. but i mean, what you capture is
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really the inner lives of afghan women, side by sides of schools in kandahar in 2001, you know, versus 2010 when they were learning freely in the classroom, dramatic improvement in maternity wards when it comes to maternal health after the taliban fell. women voting, women becoming police officers, the list goes on. women wearing makeup, the list goes on and on and on. now that you see this fall, this rapid fall, how do you process it as you your self are working to get your own interpreters, people that work side by side with you in the country, out of afghanistan safely? >> i mean, it's really hard to process. i think since sunday, even saturday, i've been sort of in overdrive writing that atlantic piece, trying to get the word out that this is critical. i think that, you know, with every day the window seems to be closing, i think we have been very lucky that the taliban has even let people get to the gates.
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even though it hasn't been without violence, but that could change. that can change in a minute, you know. i was just getting a message from my translator that i'm trying desperately to get into the gates and onto a plane. and there was a huge explosion. she just said, my house just shook. i mean, that was 20 minutes ago. and so how -- it's not only can we get them a spot on the plane. can we actually get them to the airport, can we get them in the gates. one of them has a 2-year-old. they have children. >> of course, we saw that image that i think will just really mark history here and that we will see for decades to come of afghans passing over an infant to troops on the other side of the kabul airport. you wrote in the atlantic in this piece that was so compelling and really made us want to speak with you that when the taliban fell, women quickly proved themselves to be invaluable to the work of rebuilding the country. and you talked about the silence of life under the taliban that
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sits with you more than anything. do you believe the taliban is that dramatically different now, or do you expect a return to the same? >> i would love to believe that they're dramatically different. i obviously -- they are on a great p.r. campaign. they're trying to show the international community that they have changed, that they will allow women to go to school. but i was there. i was there three times when they were in power. in 2000, 2001, i saw what it was like for women. i saw firsthand. women couldn't leave their homes. educated women stuck at home serving tea and cookies. you know, music was illegal. television was illegal. all forms of entertainment were illegal. girls couldn't be educated. women couldn't be educated. it was devastating. the only women on the streets were widows, who were begging because their husbands were dead and they couldn't work. so that, you know, i don't know. i would love to believe they will allow women to continue
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working, but we've already heard that a family member of a german press member was killed. we've heard that the taliban is going knocking door to door. my phone is blowing up with messages waiting for the knock at their door. i mean, we should not have left people like this. >> as you covered going back over and over again, i wonder what it was like for you personally and professionally and then as you became a mother in the middle of all of it and, you know, i can't even imagine trying to explain this to my children. what was it like for you to see the progress that was made? and did they believe, the women of afghanistan that you covered so intimately, that this could all reverse course for them? >> no, i think no one wanted to believe that they would ever go back to taliban rule. it was so beautiful to watch the progress being made. i was there, you know, when the taliban fell in kandahar.
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i went back in 2002, and then 2005, '6, basically have been back almost every year in the last 20 years. and to see women running for parliament, working as lawyers, working as teachers, really out there in part of the society was incredible. but i don't think anyone ever imagines in their lifetime that they will go backward. i think everyone always strives to go forward. and so none of these women ever thought they would suddenly be stuck at home. but all of the women i know are too terrified to go outside. >> lyndsay adario, your work is so compelling, it's so important. thank you for doing it, as you said, year after year after year. no doubt you will come back and be back and share those messages. thank you, lyndsay. >> just some powerful stories there. anyone in san francisco who wants to eat, drink or exercise indoors must show proof they're fully vaccinated. could other cities soon follow suit?
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so there is a new vaccine mandate in san francisco. it takes effect this morning like what we have here in new york. >> exactly. anyone 12 and older getting inside of restaurants and gyms now requires you showing that, proof of full vaccination. dan simon is live in san francisco with more on this. and businesses in effect have to police this. restaurants in new york are saying, hey, show me your card. is that how it is going to work there. >> reporter: i think so. and this is a city from the very beginning widely embraced both masks and vaccines. nearly 80 percent of the population in san francisco, eligible population has been fully vaccinated. so all indicators that
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businesses and people are embracing the new rules. so now let's go over the rules. businesses need to obtain your vaccine card when you walk into that business. you could either show your physical card or a picture of it. now what businesses are we talking about. bars, restaurants, clubs, theaters an gyms and of course children under the age of 12 are exempt. now many restaurants and bars in san francisco have already done this independently for several weeks. they took it upon themselves to do this. now it is a far different thing now to have the city mandating it and this is something of the early reaction we've gotten. take a look. >> i think that everybody needs to help each other out and get vaccinated and this is a wonderful way to do that. and also we've had support the bar and restaurant industry for a very long time through the pandemic and it is the least we could do. >> i think a lot of people will have a stink about it but you think a lot of people will be in an environment with like minded
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people to take yall of the precautions they could to stay safe. >> reporter: employees will have more time to come into compliance with this october 13th, the city didn't -- and new york already has this but there is one key difference between new york and san francisco and new york requiring just one dose, san francisco you have to be fully vaccinated. jim and poppy. >> that is a significant difference. good point. thank you for the reporting. speaking of new york, something very special happening here tomorrow night. you you'll only see it on cnn so join us for the we love new york city, the home coming concert starting tomorrow at 5:00 exclusively on cnn. we'll be right back. you need only the freshest milk and cream. that one! and the world's best, and possibly onlnly, schmelier. philadelelphia. schmear perfection.
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good morning, everyone. so glad you're with us. it is the top of the hour. i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm jim sciutto. they're stepping up the pace of evacuation from kabul as this hope they are among those making it out country. 3,000 people, nearly 350 of them u.s. citizens were flown out of kabul in just the past 24 hours. you could see some of them there. but outside of the airport, still scenes of disarray, at times taliban militants fired shots into the air to control the crowds. many of them families. here is a sign of their desperation. a child, an infant being passed

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