Facing the prospect of a Taliban takeover within a year — accompanied, most likely, by devastation and suffering — Biden hopes to convey continued support for the country. White House officials say he will detail US security and humanitarian assistance that will carry on once the troop presence ends.
Biden has vowed to allow those who helped the US effort to come to the United States, but the visa process has been slow, leading officials to develop plans to relocate them to a third country. Officials said Biden will discuss plans to begin relocating those Afghans in August.
The President’s aides have said the relocation for those waiting on visas will be finished before the drawdown is complete at the end of August, without specifying how many people they plan to move or confirming where they will go while they wait.
One administration official told CNN the first flights for the interpreters could begin in two weeks.
The morning briefing from members of his national security team in the White House Situation Room will come ahead of public remarks from the President about the US role going forward in Afghanistan. He will deliver them from the East Room.
“It’s a rational drawdown with our allies — there’s nothing unusual about it,” Biden said on Friday of the pace of withdrawal, which has caught some in Washington by surprise.
“I am concerned that they deal with the internal issues that they have to be able to generate the kind of support they need nationwide to maintain the government,” Biden said.
The withdrawal has proceeded quickly after Biden announced in April he would wind down America’s presence in Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks that prompted the war.
Officials recently began citing an earlier date — late August — by which the last remaining troops would exit the country, with a small contingent left behind to protect diplomatic facilities.
Some Afghan soldiers told CNN they only found out the Americans were leaving that very day. And Afghan officials accompanying CNN on a tour of Bagram on Monday confessed they were only then getting access to much of the base and working out what had been left behind.
US intelligence services, military commanders and members of Congress have all warned that the Afghan government won’t be able to stand up to the Taliban without the backing of American firepower. The Taliban are already moving rapidly to take over districts in the northern parts of Afghanistan, leading US military commanders to raise the prospect of a civil war once US troops are gone.
Other big decisions have yet to be made, including whether and how the US will use drones in the future to target suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and how to secure the civilian airport in Kabul.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Barbara Starr and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.