Biden says US is ‘determined to complete this mission’ as Afghanistan evacuations pass 70,000 – live | US news

“Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops,” Biden said, before ending his statements. “They’re real and significant challenges that we also have to take into consideration. The longer we stay starting with the acute and growing risk of an attack by a terrorist group.”

The Taliban has said there will be “consequences” if US troops remained after the 31st.

Biden says the US’s completion of evacuations by 31 August is contingent on the Taliban allowing access to the airport. “We are determined to complete this mission,” he said.

But the president said there are going to be contingency plans to stay past the 31st deadline to finish evacuating Americans and Afghan allies.

The Taliban said it is opposed to letting Afghan nationals leave. “We are not in favor of allowing Afghans to leave,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters.

“They [the Americans] have the opportunity, they have all the resources, they can take all the people that belong to them but we are not going to allow Afghans to leave and we will not extend the deadline,” he said.

The US has now evacuated 70,700 people since 14 August, the president said.

“We will continue our close cooperation to get people out as quickly and efficiently as possible,” he said. “The sooner we can finish, the better.”

Biden said the aim is to finish evacuations by the 31st.

The president has begun his much-delayed remarks by speaking about his domestic agenda.

Watch here:

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Joe Biden will soon deliver his (much delayed) remarks on the situation in Afghanistan, as evacuation efforts continue in Kabul. The US has helped evacuate more than 20,000 people out of Afghanistan since yesterday morning, according to the White House.
• Biden held a virtual G7 meeting to discuss the evacuation mission. The meeting came as some of America’s most powerful allies have criticized Biden’s handling of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson indicated he failed to convince Biden to extend the August 31 deadline to complete the evacuation mission. Johnson had been pushing for the evacuations to continue into September, but the prime minister sounded resigned to the current timeline after the G7 meeting. “You’ve heard what the president of the United States has had to say. You’ve heard what the Taliban have said,” Johnson told reporters. “We’re confident we can get thousands more out, but the situation at the airport is not getting any better.”
• CIA director William Burns reportedly met secretly with the head of the Taliban yesterday in Kabul. The meeting marks the highest-level diplomatic encounter between the US and the Taliban since the militant group took control of the capital city.
• The House approved the framework for Democrats’ $3.5tn spending package and set a September 27 deadline for passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The party-line vote came after days of tense negotiations between House leaders and moderate Democrats, who argued their party should prioritize the infrastructure bill over the spending package. But Pelosi’s concession to moderates is already causing tension with the more progressive members of her caucus.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Well, there it is: the Congressional Progressive Caucus has released a statement saying its members will not support the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the House passes Democrats’ $3.5tn spending package.

CPC chairwoman Pramila Jayapal said, “As our members have made clear for three months, the two are integrally tied together, and we will only vote for the infrastructure bill after passing the reconciliation bill.”

That could create a major problem for House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has just promised moderate Democrats that the lower chamber will vote on the infrastructure bill by September 27.

So moderates are demanding that the infrastructure bill take priority, and progressives are holding firm that the spending package must be approved first. It’s going to be a very long September on Capitol Hill.

Congressman Josh Gottheimer, who led the group of moderate Democrats pushing for an earlier vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, celebrated after reaching an agreement with House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“With roads and bridges crumbling across our nation, this agreement does what we set out to do: secure a standalone vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, send it to the President’s desk, and then separately consider the reconciliation package,” Gottheimer said in a statement.

“This is a big win for America and will help get people to work and shovels in the ground. We have established a path forward that ensures we can pass this once-in-a-century infrastructure investment by September 27th, allowing us to create millions of jobs and bring our nation into the 21st century.”

But again, the deal between Pelosi and Gottheimer’s group will almost certainly cause tension between House leaders and progressives, who have consistently demanded that Democrats’ $3.5tn spending package be given legislative priority.

Shortly before the House formally approved the budget framework, speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement saying she is “committing to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill by September 27”.

“Passing an infrastructure bill is always exciting for what it means in terms of jobs and commerce in our Country. Now more than ever, it also has to be a part of protecting our environment,” Pelosi said.

The speaker added, “We must keep the 51-vote privilege by passing the budget and work with House and Senate Democrats to reach agreement in order for the House to vote on a Build Back Better Act that will pass the Senate.”

The September 27 deadline for passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which was a concession to moderate Democrats, will likely cause tension between Pelosi and the more progressive members of her caucus. Stay tuned.

After days of tense negotiations, House Democrats approved the framework for the party’s $3.5tn spending package, formally kicking off the reconciliation process for the legislation.

The final vote was 220 to 212, and it fell exactly along party lines.

More specifically, House Democrats approved a “rule” that deems the budget framework to have passed and sets a September 27 deadline for voting on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

That second component of the rule represents a concession from House speaker Nancy Pelosi to a group of moderate Democrats who called on party leaders to prioritize the infrastructure bill.

There are still more hurdles ahead for the $3.5tn spending package, and Democrats need to hammer out the (many) details of the legislation, so Joe Biden can’t take a victory lap just yet.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki pushed back against Republican criticism that Joe Biden had capitulated to the Taliban’s demands by sticking to the August 31 deadline for Kabul evacuations.

“The Taliban’s deadline was May 1st, struck in a deal with the prior administration. The president’s timeline was August 31st,” Psaki said.

“That’s the timeline he set and a period of time he needed in order to operationalize our departure from Afghanistan.”