| Welcome to The Daily 202 newsletter! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1814, British troops set fire to the White House and the Capitol during the War of 1812. Looking to blunt bipartisan criticism of President Biden's handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan and soothe public worries, his administration has started sharing numbers from what he has called "an incredible operation." They've given the number of military flights and types of aircraft, number of flights by American allies and partners, and the total number of people evacuated since the U.S. military started operating out of the airport in Kabul Aug. 14. This morning, for instance, the White House said that over the past 24 hours, about 21,600 people were evacuated from Kabul aboard 37 U.S. military flights (32 C-17s and five C-130 cargo planes) carrying approximately 12,700 people, as well as 57 other flights carrying 8,900 people. That brought the total number of evacuees since Aug. 14 to about 58,700. White House officials like to share this kind of information (as well as the lists of presidential meetings and aides in attendance, and phone calls to world leaders) to convey that they are actively confronting a crisis. Senior Biden aides have highlighted the logistical complexity of the unprecedented operation, which has evacuated increasingly large numbers over time. But there are three numbers the administration isn't making public, and they're pretty central to assessing the success of the ambitious extraction effort. They also will foreshadow whether the U.S. might push past the Aug. 31 deadline Biden set for withdrawing, or risk stranding Americans and Afghan allies in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. So far, the gap is high between the number of Americans reported to have been evacuated, according to congressional sources, and the overall number of evacuees. The prospect, however remote, that Americans might be left behind in a country run by the Taliban and where al-Qaeda and ISIS operate is a national security and political nightmare.  Families evacuated from Kabul walk through a terminal at Washington Dulles International Airport before boarding a bus on Aug. 23. (Jose Luis Magana/AP) | What you won't get from the briefing room at the White House, the State Department or the Pentagon are precise estimates of how many Americans have been evacuated. You also can't get precise public assessments of how many Americans are still in that war-torn country. And you won't hear officials put a number on how many potential security risks have been turned away at any of the multiple steps that make up what Biden aides describe as an unprecedented vetting effort to ensure only qualified Afghan citizens and their families benefit from the airlift. Biden himself seemed to confirm last week that the government estimates 10,000-15,000 Americans may have been in Afghanistan when the operation began. On Monday, the administration told Congress it had evacuated an estimated 4,000 Americans since Aug. 14, according to congressional sources. Administration officials did not dispute that number, but didn't confirm it on the record. On Saturday, the Pentagon had placed that figure at 2,500. "We've been able to evacuate several thousand Americans and I'd be reticent to get too more — more specific than that," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday. "But since the 14th we believe we have been able to evacuate several thousand Americans." Pressed on why he wasn't sharing a more precise number, Kirby replied: "Because I think the number is very fluid, and it literally changes nearly by the hour." (It is not, as a reporter pointed out, much more fluid than the number of flights.) "We're not trying to hide the ball," State Department spokesman Ned Price assured reporters at his briefing yesterday. "What we're trying to do is to avoid giving you information that may be rough, that may be outdated." In a briefing at the White House, Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan said "we've helped thousands of Americans leave Kabul already" and promised "we can get you the precise number on that." But a precise number was not forthcoming. Administration officials describe a range of challenges and obstacles to providing it: Travelers in a complex, multi-country, aviation hopscotch evacuation, some travelers without papers to prove they're U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, the need to avoid double-counting, agencies that count flights and evacuees differently, etc. It's even more complicated when it comes to confirming the identity of Afghan citizens who are eligible for special visas by virtue of the help they rendered the 20-year war effort or credible fears of persecution. That effort also involves some people who cannot read or write and requires interpreters who speak Dari and Pashto. As for not giving an estimate of Americans still in Afghanistan, Sullivan and Price, in separate briefings, described an ambitious effort to figure out who and how many remain but did not give a precise accounting. "Hundreds of consular officers and locally employed staff members, both here in D.C. and at our embassies around the world, are placing personalized phone calls to the U.S. citizens who may be in Afghanistan to determine their whereabouts, collect information that will guide their next steps, and offer them that tailored advice," Price said. "Our team made several thousand calls over the weekend and those efforts continue." The challenge, as Sullivan has been saying for days, is Americans aren't required to register with the local embassy or consulate when they arrive, and don't bother to notify U.S. missions when they leave. "Many have left without de-registering. Others never registered at all. That is their right, of course, and it's our responsibility to find them, which we are now doing hour by hour," Sullivan told reporters. "We've contacted Americans still in Afghanistan by e-mail, by phone, by text to give them specific instructions," he said. "We have developed a method to safely and efficiently transfer groups of American citizens onto the airfield." Sullivan was not asked for, and did not offer, a sharper estimate of how many Americans had successfully been contacted. He also described the vetting of refugees: "We are running biometric and biographic background checks on Afghan evacuees before bringing them to the United States or having them relocated to a third country." But U.S. officials won't say how many people had been turned away or stopped somewhere in transit. It's not an idle concern. "Six people deemed a 'direct threat' to the UK have been flagged up in security checks of would-be evacuees from Kabul," the Guardian reported yesterday, while noting that was a tiny proportion and they aren't necessarily extremists. And French authorities are reportedly questioning an Afghan citizen suspected of Taliban ties, while four others are under special police supervision. Despite the absence of hard numbers, Sullivan said, "we believe that we have time between now and the 31st to get out any American who wants to get out." | | | What's happening now "Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, said he estimates that about 20 percent of the U.S. population that is eligible for a shot but has yet to get one — a group of about 90 million — may be nudged by the" FDA's approval of the Pfizer vaccine, Bryan Pietsch, Adela Suliman and Derek Hawkins report. "I believe that those people will now step forward and get vaccinated," he told NPR's "All Things Considered." To start your day with a full political briefing, sign up for our Power Up newsletter. | | | Lunchtime reads from The Post - "Tennessee floods show a pressing climate danger across America: 'Walls of water,'" by Sarah Kaplan: "Tennessee's flash floods underscore the peril climate change poses even in inland areas, where people once thought themselves immune. A warmer atmosphere that holds more water, combined with rapid development and crumbling infrastructure, is turning once-rare disasters into common occurrences. Yet Americans, who often associate global warming with melting glaciers and intense heat, are not prepared for the coming deluge."
- "Vaccine mandates ordered in New York City, New Jersey schools as masking battle escalates in Florida," by Valerie Strauss: "In California, the 7,000-student Culver City Unified district near Los Angeles is what may be the first school system in the country to require that students eligible for the vaccine must be vaccinated as well as staff. ... Chicago Public Schools is also requiring all staff members to be vaccinated — as is the San Antonio Independent School District in Texas ... [But] Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his administration pressed their war against districts that defied him by requiring masks be worn in schools."
- "Report on Arizona ballot review is delayed after Cyber Ninjas chief and colleagues test positive for coronavirus," by Rosalind Helderman: "Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R) announced the delay Monday, saying that Doug Logan, chief executive of the Florida firm Cyber Ninjas, and two other members of the audit team had been infected and were 'quite sick.'
- She did not indicate whether Logan and the others had been vaccinated. An audit spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment."
| | | … and beyond - "Even amid a crackdown, the Proud Boys are still agitating," by the New York Times's Sergio Olmos, Mike Baker and Alan Feuer: "Despite the intensifying scrutiny, an organization that built itself as a band of brothers ready for violent confrontation over what its members see as an assault on Western culture shows no sign of going away. Members have begun regrouping online and joining rallies. On Saturday, several Proud Boys participated in a demonstration against measures to control the coronavirus in South Carolina — one of many forays the group is making into local politics. Then on Sunday, dozens of activists wearing the group's yellow-and-black colors rallied in Portland, Ore., where they fought in the streets with antifascist counterprotesters, shooting paintball guns and smashing windows."
- "Biden urges employers to require Covid vaccination," by Politico's Sarah Owermohle: "Biden on Monday pressed businesses and public leaders to implement vaccine mandates after the federal government issued its first full approval of a Covid-19 vaccine. ... But the president's call for schools and business to require vaccination — especially as the Delta variant fuels an increase in hospitalizations — comes amid stiff resistance to mask and vaccine mandates by some Republican governors and lawmakers who say they are unnecessary."
| | | More on Afghanistan Biden may decide as soon as today whether to push back the Aug. 31 deadline for the U.S. departure from Afghanistan. - "The military has reportedly told the White House that a call must be made by Tuesday to have enough time to plan the withdrawal of nearly 6,000 U.S. troops securing the Kabul airlift. Although the pace of evacuations has quickened in recent days, Biden faces mounting pressure from allied nations to extend the mission and allow for more vulnerable people to flee," Rachel Pannett, Ellen Francis and Adam Taylor report.
- Leaders of Group of Seven nations are meeting today to discuss coordination and evacuation plans.
- The Taliban continues warning that, if foreign forces remain past Aug. 31, they would be crossing a "red line." "Ultimately, it will be the president's decision how this proceeds — no one else's," Sullivan said.
- "The European Union has completed the evacuation of its staffers and diplomats from Afghanistan, a milestone that comes as the delicate multiday mission nears its end, a bloc spokesperson said on Tuesday," Reis Thebault reports.
The Taliban said women should stay home temporarily and that Afghans must not leave the country. - "At a wide-ranging news conference in Kabul on Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid offered a set of reassurances, calling on rebels against the former insurgency to lay down their arms, praising foreign diplomats and aid workers who had stayed in the country, and suggesting that any restrictions on women in the workplace were only temporary," Adam Taylor reports.
- "We are asking the Americans [to] please change your policy and don't encourage Afghans to leave," he said, adding that U.S. forces were acting dangerously and using gunfire to control crowds.
- "Asked about restrictions on women, Mujahid said that the problem should be resolved once security forces are trained. Taliban fighters were 'not trained on how to deal with women, how to speak to women' and so women were told to stay at home for the time being. He said that women will still receive their salaries and will be asked to come back 'when we have a system in place.'"
- "Dismissing accounts of retaliation in parts of the country controlled by the Taliban, such as those raised by the top U.N. human rights official on Tuesday, Mujahid denied reports that the Taliban was seeking out those who worked with the former government or the United States. 'We want [people] to have peace of mind. There is nobody being followed. There is no list.'"
CIA Director William Burns held a secret meeting in Kabul with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar. - "Burns held a secret meeting Monday in Kabul with the Taliban's de facto leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, in the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the Taliban and the Biden administration since the militants seized the Afghan capital," John Hudson reports. "Biden dispatched his top spy, a veteran of the Foreign Service and the most decorated diplomat in his Cabinet, amid a frantic effort to evacuate people from Kabul international airport."
- "The CIA declined to comment on the Taliban meeting, but the discussions are likely to have involved an impending Aug. 31 deadline for the U.S. military to conclude its airlift of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies."
- "For Baradar, playing the role of counterpart to a CIA director comes with a tinge of irony 11 years after the spy agency arrested him in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation that put him in prison for eight years."
The Qatar air base where the Biden administration is housing thousands of evacuees is "a living hell," a U.S. Central Command official wrote. - "The email by supervisory special agent Colin Sullivan — with subject line 'Dire conditions at Doha' — went to officials at the State Department and the Pentagon. It described 'a life-threatening humanitarian disaster … that I want to make sure all of you are fully tracking,'" Axios's Jonathan Swan reports.
- "While not in any way downplaying the conditions in Kabul nor the conditions the Afghanis [sic] are escaping from, the current conditions in Doha are of our own doing," Sullivan wrote.
A top U.N. official said there are "harrowing and credible reports" of abuses of civilians in Afghanistan. - "Speaking at a special meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Michelle Bachelet said that reports of life in Taliban-controlled areas included allegations of 'summary executions of civilians and 'hors de combat' members of the Afghan national security forces' — a term meaning out of combat — 'restrictions on the rights of women, including their right to move around freely and girls' right to attend schools; recruitment of child soldiers; and repression of peaceful protest and expression of dissent,'" Taylor reports.
- "[Bachelet] said there were fears of reprisals among those who had worked with the government or the international community, while women and journalists had their own fears under the Taliban."
| | | Quote of the day "How does it feel to be in the U.S.?" a TV news reporter asked refugees arriving to Dulles Airport. Most ignored her. One man responded: "It feels great. We are finally safe." | | | On the Hill House Democrats are struggling to round up the votes to pass their $3.5 trillion budget blueprint. - "Democratic leaders hope to resolve a bitter internal dispute and muscle their $3.5 trillion budget blueprint through the House on Tuesday, after they failed on Monday to pacify a group of moderates who have vowed to block the measure until a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure measure is passed," the New York Times's Emily Cochrane reports. "The fate of the blueprint was in doubt as a faction of conservative-leaning Democrats jockeyed with the party's progressive majority for leverage."
- "The House was scheduled to return at noon, with up to an hour of debate on the measure set to begin shortly after. [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and her top deputies were still working on Tuesday morning to scrounge together the support needed to adopt the measure, after a frenzied day of negotiations with the conservative-leaning holdouts failed to produce an agreement."
- "Ten centrist Democrats have publicly refused to move forward with the budget before the infrastructure package passes the House, arguing that the broadly supported bipartisan compromise that passed the Senate this month — which omitted many of the party's top priorities — should be enacted immediately. But progressive Democrats, backed by Ms. Pelosi, have said they do not want to move forward with the infrastructure measure until the Senate approves far-reaching legislation to implement the broader budget plan."
- "One potential solution under discussion would see Democrats proceed as planned on the budget while guaranteeing a vote by September 27 on fixes to the country's roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections, according to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to describe the private talks," Tony Romm reports. "While some moderates appear supportive of the idea, it remains unclear if the compromise is enough to assuage the full group led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), without whom Pelosi does not have the votes to advance the budget given Democrats possess only a slim advantage in the House."
- "Neither Pelosi nor Gottheimer immediately responded to a request for comment. Speaking privately to the caucus, the speaker told lawmakers she felt they are 'close to landing the plane,' the sources said."
- "Even success, however, may portend additional political heartburn. The debate this week has illustrated the fragility and fractiousness of the Democratic caucus, where moderates and progressives at times have found themselves at odds over their priorities and how to achieve them. The near-collapse of the budget vote may foreshadow similarly perilous battles to come as lawmakers get to work in turning the blueprint into fuller legislation."
| | | Hot on the left Conservative Bill Kristol will endorse Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race for Virginia governor. "Kristol is just like all the other disaffected Virginia Republicans whom gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin needs to win over, only famous," Laura Vozzella reports. "With Trump out of the White House, Kristol says he's ready to support 'non-Trump Republicans.' But Kristol does not put Youngkin, a former Carlyle Group executive, in that category. On Tuesday, he will formally endorse McAuliffe, a former governor seeking a comeback. 'He's a moderate Democrat, and he's not going to shut down Virginia's business success, economic success and so forth. He's the kind of Democrat I'm comfortable supporting,' Kristol said." | | | Hot on the right Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is a "canary in a coalmine" in relation to the GOP's relationship with Trump. The Republican governor and representative who turned on Trump said "he watched in horror as Trump seized the Republican party in 2016 and politician after politician sacrificed their principles and bowed before this bully who gave the perception of strength," the Guardian's David Smith reports. "He points to the example of his friend, fellow South Carolinian Lindsey Graham, a senator who at first denounced Trump but is now his regular golf buddy. ... 'I would use him as a canary in the coalmine and the degree to which he has doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on Trump says everything. Whether you like him or not, he has a good political nose for his base. He knows South Carolina well and his reading the tea leaves is not to be dismissed.'" | | | Corporate America's $50 billion promise, visualized To date, America's 50 biggest public companies and their foundations collectively committed at least $49.5 billion since George Floyd's murder last May to addressing racial inequality — an amount that appears unequaled in sheer scale. Only $4.2 billion of the total pledged is in the form of outright grants. | | | Today in Washington Biden will deliver remarks on Afghanistan today at noon. Vice President Harris, who is still in Singapore, will travel to Vietnam today. | | | In closing Kathy Hochul was sworn in as the first female governor of New York. Hochul will serve as the Empire State's 57th governor. "Hochul, a Democrat, has vowed to lead the state through a still surging pandemic and economic uncertainty, while ushering in a new era of civility and consensus in state government," the Times's Luis Ferré-Sadurní reports.  New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore swears in Kathy Hochul as the first woman to be New York's governor (Hans Penniknk/AFP) | | And Seth Meyers explained why Donald Trump may not convince his followers to get the shot:  | | | | | | |
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