Kamala Harris reaffirms Biden's commitment to evacuating Afghan women at ...

Vice President Kamala Harris declared that evacuating US citizens and allies out of Afghanistan is the Biden White House's 'highest priority' at a press conference in Vietnam on Thursday.

Harris also told reporters that she spent 'almost [her] entire career' on 'the protection of women and children' after critics spent a week pointing out her delay in speaking out about the plight of Afghan women and girls under Taliban rule.

It was the second of two stops on the vice president's Southeast Asia tour.

Asked about American safety and evacuations in light of the growing threat from an Afghanistan ISIS affiliate, Harris echoed other senior Biden officials: 'Our highest priority right now is evacuating American citizens, evacuating Afghans who worked with us and Afghans who are at risk, with a priority around women and children.'

'It is a dangerous and difficult mission, but it must be seen through, and we intend to see it through as best as we can.'

Harris's visit to Vietnam immediately after Kabul fell to the Taliban spurred comparisons to the fall of Saigon.

The Taliban's brutal and regressive treatment of women when it last held Afghanistan has concerned human rights advocates and lawmakers around the world that they will face the same treatment again. 

At the press conference Harris said 'there's no question that any of us who are paying attention' share the same fears. 

She noted her own background 

'We have said before, and I will say again, that we are going to do what we are able to do in terms of the evacuation process, but in addition to that, what we are able to do politically and diplomatically to secure and to continue to work on the protection of women and children in that region, including working with our allies,' she said.

But US allies have pressed President Joe Biden to extend his August 31 deadline to allow for all foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans - including women and girls - to evacuate the country. 

He's held firm despite pleas from his fellow G7 leaders at a meeting on Tuesday.

Approximately 95,700 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since August 14. Over the last 24 hours, roughly 13,400 people were evacuated from Hamid Karzai International Airport on 17 US military jets and 74 coalition aircraft. 

Harris vowed the international community will do whatever they can to 'keep a focus on that issue' in Afghanistan, though no officials have publicly discussed any contingency plans should problems arise. 

She didn't mention whether the US had a plan for evacuating women or girls who need to escape after August 31. 

Women and girls are not specifically named in any formal US visa categories. 

On her previous stop in Singapore, Harris also affirmed US support for evacuating citizens and allies, particularly mentioning women and children.

A day later on Tuesday she wrote on Twitter, 'We are working around the clock to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies—including translators, interpreters, Afghan women leaders, and journalists.' 

State Secretary Antony Blinken said in a press conference on Wednesday that 45-46 percent of the people evacuated at that point were women and girls.

He also said as many as 1,500 Americans - 500 actively in touch with the US government and 1,000 whose status needs to be ascertained - were still in Afghanistan.

Fears of an ISIS-K terrorist attack forced the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs to send out a warning for people at three Kabul airport gates to 'leave immediately.'   

ISIS-K is a sworn enemy of the Taliban, and intelligence officials reportedly believe they are actively planning multiple attacks in a bid to create mayhem at the airport.