Sen. Cardin Says ‘Few Hundred American Citizens’ Left in Afghanistan: ‘Think Most of Them Probably Have Made a Decision to Stay’

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) predicted over the weekend that a “few hundred American citizens” were likely still in Afghanistan with no intention of departing.

“We want the mission to be successful as possible,” Cardin said in a Saturday interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta. “That means protect our troops, but also get out as many people as possible. We still have a few hundred American citizens that are in Afghanistan. We think most of them probably have made a decision to stay, but we still want to make efforts to make sure we can get every American evacuated from Afghanistan before the 31st.”

The State Department said Sunday that it was aware of more than 200 Americans still in the country ahead of the U.S. military’s departure on Tuesday. The group includes 14 California students and eight of their parents.

“We recognize that many of these people will not be evacuated by August 31st,” Cardin added. “So the questions that we asked [of defense officials] is what steps will be taken, and we received certain assurances that the United States is working on plans to help people leave Afghanistan after August 31st. I know some of that will be with some diplomatic presence either directly or indirectly, and some accommodations we expect from the Taliban, although as I said before, we cannot rely upon their word.”

Watch above via CNN.