| Welcome to The Daily 202 newsletter! Tell your friends to sign up here. We're going to be a little light for a few days, as the mighty Mariana Alfaro is out. And we go dark all next week, but look forward to our return. President Biden last night defiantly defended his reliance on Taliban help to get Americans and others out of Afghanistan, an uneasy cooperation that may prove crucial as the mission stretches past his Aug. 31 military withdrawal deadline. After that, he promised, any remaining U.S. citizens, green-card holders and Afghan partners will still be able to evacuate, "either through means that we provide and/or are provided through cooperation with the Taliban." Sticking with his timetable will almost certainly ensure the United States will need help from the Islamist militia to get any Americans out after U.S. troops are gone, a significant gamble for which Biden could pay a steep political price. In the aftermath of what the Pentagon said Friday was one bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghans, Biden was asked whether he thought it was a mistake to entrust the militia with securing a perimeter around the airfield. "No, I don't," said the president, who told reporters in the East Room that the Islamist militia was "by and large" going along with American security requests.  President Biden speaks about the escalating situation in Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) | Republicans and even some Democrats in Congress have denounced the decision to have the Taliban — which controls Afghanistan — man the perimeter, noting the suicide bombers who struck Thursday slipped past their fighters. My colleague Paul Kane reported yesterday: "The most vocal Democratic criticism came from Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who questioned whether Taliban guards had failed in letting the ISIS bombers get so close to the Kabul airport. 'I understand that American personnel were among the casualties and my prayers are with the victims of this cowardly attack and their families. As we wait for more details to come in, one thing is clear: We can't trust the Taliban with Americans' security,' Menendez said in a statement, before the full details of the death toll had been officially announced." In his remarks, Biden promised "to get as many Americans out as possible," but allowed for the possibility some U.S. citizens, green-card holders and Afghans who helped the 20-year war effort might not make it out before his deadline. "We will continue, after our troops have withdrawn, to find means by which we defined any American who wishes to get out of Afghanistan. We will find them and we will get them out," he said. As he has several times since the operation began Aug. 14, Biden said he did not trust the Taliban, but was counting on it seeing its self-interest entwined with America's as it shifts from reconquering Afghanistan to governing it. "They're not good guys, the Taliban. I'm not suggesting that at all," he said. "It's in their self-interest that we leave when we said and that we get as many people out as we can." It's unclear just how many American citizens remain in Afghanistan and whether the official numbers are accurate. The State Department said Thursday "roughly 1,000 Americans" were there, more than two-thirds were taking steps to leave and "many, if not most of these individuals are nearly or already out of the country." "We know that dozens more do not wish to leave Afghanistan for a range of reasons," it said. "There's not many left that we can assess that want to come out," Biden said. Some are dual nationals, who may never have lived in the United States and refuse to leave without their extended families, while "there's others who are looking for the time" — an apparent reference to Americans who have decided to hunker down and try to evacuate later. Working with the Taliban will remain a reality as U.S. troops at Hamid Karzai International Airport anticipate more attacks, Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters earlier in the day. The Taliban has searched people heading to the airfield, he said. "Sometimes those searches have been good and sometimes not. I will simply note that before this attack. We have passed 104,000 people through." The fact a suicide bomber was able to pass through security checkpoints and kill Americans means "there's a failure somewhere," McKenzie said. "The Taliban operate with varying degrees of confidence. Some of those guys are very scrupulously good; some of them are not." All of this weighs on Biden and his presidency. My colleagues Sean Sullivan and Anne Gearan reported: "The killings clearly marked a pivotal moment in Biden's presidency and an episode that is likely to be part of his legacy. Biden keeps a tally of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan on a card in his breast pocket, and now, for the first time, that tally will include some who lost their lives on his watch." | 
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