Amid criticism of his administration’s efforts to get Americans and Afghan evacuees out of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden made a promise Friday: “We will get you home.” The raw video above shows clips from remarks Biden made at the White House.

His promise applies to all Americans in Afghanistan who want to come back home, as well as Afghan allies. “There’s no one more important than bringing American citizens out. I acknowledge that,” Biden said.

Thousands of people are awaiting evacuation ahead of Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw the remaining U.S. troops. In Washington, some veterans in Congress were calling on the Biden administration to make clearer that the deadline is not a firm one. The deadline “is contributing to the chaos and the panic at the airport because you have Afghans who think that they have 10 days to get out of this country or that door is closing forever,” said Rep. Peter Meijer.

Part of the criticism Biden has received is related to videos and news reports that show the pandemonium and occasional violence seen outside the airport in Kabul. “The past week has been heartbreaking. We’ve seen gut wrenching images of panicked people acting out of sheer desperation,” Biden said. “They’re frightened, they’re sad, uncertain what happens next, I don’t think anyone I don’t think any one of us can see these pictures and not feel that pain on a human level.”

He went on to say “We’re doing all we can” in reference to the nearly 6,000 American troops helping with evacuations. “They’re doing it in a dangerous place to save other Americans, our Afghan allies and citizens of our allies, who went in with us,” Biden said. “There will be plenty of time to criticize and second guess when this operation is over. But now, now I’m focused on getting this job done.”

This year’s Afghan Independence Day was dominated by protests and gunfire Thursday. The video above shows some of that protesting and gunfire in Kabul.

A procession of cars and people near Kabul’s airport carried long black, red and green banners in honor of the Afghan flag. Those people began to flee as Taliban fighters fired their rifles. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone died in the gunfire.

At another protest in Nangarhar province, video posted online showed a bleeding demonstrator with a wound from gunfire. And in Khost province, Taliban authorities instituted a 24-hour curfew after violently breaking up another protest. This comes after the Taliban killed one person while violently clearing a protest in Jalalabad.

Back in the United States, Pentagon officials gave an update on their efforts to get evacuees out of the country.

“Since the start of evacuation operations on August 14th, we have airlifted approximately 7,000 total evacuees,” Maj. Gen. William “Hank” Taylor said. “We’re ready to increase throughput and have scheduled aircraft departures accordingly. We intend to maximize each plane’s capacity. We’re prioritizing people above all else.” Taylor went on to say the military now has enough aircraft to get 5,000-9,000 people out a day, depending on how many people have been processed and other factors like weather.

Despite video and reports of violence against Afghans by the Taliban, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said there has been no Taliban violence against U.S. personnel.

“We haven’t seen them impede or harass or obstruct the movement of American citizens from the environs into the airport,” Kirby said.

Both Kirby and State Department Spokesperson Ned Price gave an idea of how the rest of the month will look before President Joe Biden’s deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“We are going to do as much as we can for as long as we can,” Price said. “So what we did overnight was to send a message to all American citizens who had expressed an interest in repatriation.”

“There has been no decision to change the deadline and we are focused on doing everything we can inside that deadline to move as many people out as possible,” Kirby said. “And if and when there’s a decision to change that, then obviously that would require additional conversations with the Taliban as well.”

In an attempt to improve its image compared to the last time they were in charge of Afghanistan, the Taliban announced Tuesday it will respect women’s rights and forgive those who opposed them.

In his first news conference Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said women’s rights would be honored within the norms of Islamic law. Few other details were given.

As for private media, Mujahid said the Taliban wanted journalists to “remain independent,” but said they “should not work against national values.”

This is a stark difference from the brutal rule the group laid down in the late 1990s, fueled by ultraconservative Islamic views. This included severe restrictions on women as well as public stonings and amputations.

While the Taliban pledged not to go after their enemies, some in Kabul say Taliban fighters have lists of people who cooperated with the Afghan government. The Taliban are accused of seeking out people on those lists.

A broadcaster in Afghanistan said she was hiding at a relative’s house, too frightened to return home or go to work following reports saying the Taliban are also looking for journalists. She said she and other women didn’t believe the Taliban had changed their ways.

The still-tense situation in Afghanistan comes as the Department of Defense said U.S. military commanders at the Kabul airport are in touch with Taliban leaders.

“[The commanders] are charged with making sure this is a safe and secure environment and we trust them to have the interactions they feel they need to have to ensure that in every aspect across the whole spectrum of what this mission requires of them, that they can do it safely and efficiently in an orderly manner,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

Major General William “Hank” Taylor gave an update on the Kabul airport, a day after at least seven people died trying to escape the country via the airport.

“[The airport] remains secure, it is currently open for military flight operations as well as limited commercial flight operations,” Maj. Gen. Taylor said. “The speed of evacuation will pick up. Right now, we’re looking at one aircraft per hour in and out of [the airport]. We predict that our best effort could look like 5,000 to 9,000 passengers departing per day.”