Aug. 30, 2021: A breathtaking account from inside the Pentagon
Lara Seligman has a breathtaking account from inside the Pentagon that is based on detailed notes of three classified calls in the hours leading up to Thursday\u2019s terrorist attack outside Abbey Gate at Kabul\u2019s Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed almost 200 people.\nLara documents the Pentagon\u2019s deepening frustration with reliance on the Taliban to provide security in Kabul (and even drive buses for evacuees), as well as Biden officials\u2019 growing conviction that an attack was coming and a fateful decision to keep the airport\u2019s Abbey Gate open in order to process British evacuees.\xa0\nAnd, add Hurricane Ida and North Korea to the list of crises President Biden is facing this week. August was supposed to be devoted to highlighting pieces of the Biden economic agenda that is now being assembled by congressional committees into a $3.5 trillion bill.\nBiden hasn\u2019t held an event devoted to a piece of that bill since the evacuation crisis began.\nRaghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.\xa0Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.