President Joe Biden will address the nation on Sunday over the growing crisis in Afghanistan and Tropical Storm Henri, which hit the east coast earlier in the day.
Biden has been under increasing pressure since he ordered U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan after a 20-year occupation, prompting a rapid capture by the Taliban and trapping thousands of U.S. citizens and U.S. allies. at Kabul airport.
On Sunday morning, Biden met with national security officials to learn about the situation, the White House said in a statement.
“They discussed the security situation and counterterrorism operations, including ISIS-K,” he said. “The national security team discussed the intense and intense diplomatic and military efforts to facilitate traffic in third-country transit centers, affirming the importance of the contributions that more than two dozen partner countries are making to this global effort.” .
Government officials said 7,800 people had been evacuated from the Afghan capital’s airport in the past day. Military officials said earlier that 17,000 had been evacuated last week, including 2,500 U.S. citizens.
However, thousands remain in Kabul desperate to flee the Taliban, including U.S. citizens and Afghans who helped during the two-decade military presence.
Earlier Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Loyd Austin told ABC on “This Week” that there had been no “good options” once the decision was made to withdraw.
Austin said estimates had been that U.S.-trained Afghan forces would last up to two years, but collapsed within days.
Meanwhile, Biden will also have to deal with the impact of Tropical Storm Henri.
States of emergency were declared in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island before the storm, which struck the northeast on Sunday.
Henri, which fell off the coast of Montauk as a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday afternoon, arrived in Rhode Island as a tropical storm shortly after noon on Sunday with sustained winds of 60 mph and gusts of up to 70 mph, said the National Hurricane Center.
The storm hits the region with heavy rains and storm surges.