The secretary of state said the effort to ensure safe departure from Afghanistan will continue past the self-imposed August 31 deadline. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks about Afghanistan during a media briefing at the State Department in Washington on Wednesday. The Biden administration's deadline to get U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans out of the Central Asian nation is now an un-deadline, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowing Wednesday to keep evacuating people after the August 31 cut-off date.

"Let me be crystal clear about this," Blinken told reporters at the State Department. "There is no deadline on our work to help any remaining American citizens who decide they want to leave to do so. That effort will continue every day past August 31." Blinken said the administration was developing "detailed plans" to get people out of the county after the self-imposed, end-of-the-month deadline, and that the expectation of both the U.S. government and the international community is that "the people who want to leave Afghanistan after the U.S. military departs would be able to do so."

Blinken's comments were a more definitive and expansive commitment than President Joe Biden gave Tuesday. Then, the president stuck firmly by the August 31 deadline – despite widespread calls domestically and internationally to extend the time period to ensure the safe departure of both Americans and Afghans facing threats – but said he was having "contingency" plans drawn up in case the mission was not completed by that date. Biden said the U.S. was "on pace" to finish the job in time, and added that he was concerned about possible threats from ISIS-K, an Afghanistan-based affiliate of the Islamic State group.

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