Biden Speaks on Afghanistan Evacuations: Would Have Been ‘Hard and Painful No Matter When It Started’

President Joe Biden spoke Sunday afternoon on tropical storm Henri and the continued evacuations of Americans and U.S. allies in Afghanistan.

With thousands of people still in Kabul who need to be evacuated, the president said this weekend they’ve evacuated 11,000 people.

“Our first priority is getting American citizens out of the country as quickly and as safely as possible,” he said.

The president said the United States is executing a plan to get Americans in other parts of the country to the airport for evacuation.

One thing Biden addressed was the chaos and many disturbing scenes in Kabul over the past week since the Taliban took over.

The evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful, no matter when it started, when we began. It would have been true if we started a month ago. Or a month from now. There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss of heartbreaking images you see on television. It’s just a fact. My heart aches for those people you see. We are proving that we can move, though, thousands of people a day out of Kabul.

You can watch above, via CNN.