POLITICO Playbook: About Jim Jordan’s other Jan. 6 call with Trump

There are just over 48 hours left before the deadline for U.S. forces to withdraw from Afghanistan.

— The State Department says there are roughly 250 Americans still in Afghanistan who want to leave the country, per a spokesperson.

— Leaving was made more difficult overnight, as the U.S. Embassy, citing “a specific, credible threat,” advised Americans to stay away from Kabul’s airport.

— Hope is fading among the thousands of Afghans desperate to flee the country — and among their family members in the U.S, writes WaPo.

— Evacuations are winding down. The number of U.S. troops in the country has rapidly declined in the last few days, reports the NYT.

— Yesterday, the U.S. “used a special Hellfire missile” in an airstrike that killed two ISIS-K militants in Afghanistan, per the WSJ’s Gordon Lubold and Warren Strobel.

— President JOE BIDEN “expects to carry out additional airstrikes in the coming days and weeks,” reports our Lara Seligman. Biden “has given the Pentagon the ‘green light’ to strike any targets affiliated with the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan, ISIS-K, the group responsible for [Thursday’s suicide] attack, without seeking White House approval, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the operation. … The president’s ‘guidance is to just do it,’ the person said. ‘If we find more, we will strike them.’”

— One of those airstrikes happened just hours ago: “American forces launched a drone strike in Kabul on Sunday targeting a suicide bomber in a vehicle who was aiming to attack the airport,” scooped Reuters’ Idrees Ali.

We have more about both Afghanistan and the powerful hurricane bearing down on Louisiana. But first…

SCOOP: MORE THAN ONE JAN. 6 TRUMP-JORDAN CALL — We know that DONALD TRUMP and Rep. JIM JORDAN spoke once on the day of the Capitol riot, but the Ohio Republican has said he doesn’t remember when their conversation took place. We have some new details that could help clear up that timeframe — including confirmation of at least one more phone conversation between Jordan and the then-president during the siege.

After a group of lawmakers were evacuated from the House chamber to a safe room on Jan. 6, Jordan was joined by Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) for a call during which they implored Trump to tell his supporters to stand down, per a source with knowledge of that call. The source declined to say how Trump responded to this request.

Jordan, when asked about whether Gaetz participated, said he’d “have to think about it,” citing many conversations he had during the frenetic attack. He also said phone calls to Trump happened more than once on that deadly day.

“Look, I definitely spoke to the president that day. I don’t recall — I know it was more than once, I just don’t recall the times,” Jordan told our Olivia Beavers. He later said that “I’m sure” one of the Trump-involved calls took place in the safe room “because we were in that room forever.” (For safety reasons, we are not disclosing the specific room where members were evacuated to, but that is the room Jordan is referencing.) Jordan would not get into the specifics of what he discussed with the president, though he said that like everyone, he wanted the National Guard to get involved.

A spokesperson for Gaetz, who has supported Trump’s decisions on Jan. 6, said: “Congressman Gaetz speaks with President Trump regularly and doesn’t disclose the substance of those discussions with the media.”

Jordan has previously disclosed that he spoke to Trump on Jan. 6, but not the existence of more than one call on the day — a rare piece of new information on the former president’s moves during the riot at a time when House Republicans are loath to discuss such specifics. Trump-Jordan discussions are likely to be of keen interest to the Democrat-led select committee on Jan. 6, which is expected to soon seek phone records of members of Congress themselves in its probe.

It’s Sunday morning, and thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.

HAPPENING NOW — Biden is at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as the remains of the 13 U.S. troops killed in Thursday’s sucide bombing in Kabul are returned home. Under grey skies, the president and first lady JILL BIDEN have been privately meeting with the mourning families and will take part in the “dignified transfer” of the remains of the service members. More from AP

HEROES REMEMBERED — On Saturday, the Pentagon released the full list of the 13 American service members killed in Thursday’s bombing in Kabul. Saturday morning, we remembered the nine whose names were already public; today, we’re doing the same for the remaining four.

— NICOLE GEE, 23. A week before she was killed, Gee posted a photo on Instagram of herself cradling a baby at Kabul’s airport. “I love my job,” she wrote in the caption. Mallory Harrison, Gee’s best friend and fellow Marine, posted a moving tribute on Facebook. “The war stories, the losses, the flag-draped coffins, the KIA bracelets & the heartbreak,” she wrote. “It’s not so distant anymore.”

— JOHANNY ROSARIO PICHARDO, 25. She emigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic and grew up in Lawrence, Mass., where she served in the JROTC before enlisting to active duty. Per the Boston Globe, in a statement, her family asked that their “loved one be recognized as the hero that she was.”

— HUMBERTO SANCHEZ, 22. As a student at Logansport High School in Indiana, Sanchez was an honors student, varsity athlete and artist, according to the Indianapolis Star. His service awards and decorations include the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, per the Marine Corps Times.

— DYLAN MEROLA, 20. Merola was planning to go to college and study engineering after returning from overseas. He’d been in Afghanistan less than two weeks. “One of the best kids ever,” his mother told CBS 2 Los Angeles. “Kind, loving … he would give anything for anybody.”

— Related: “Most of the Americans killed in the Kabul bombing were 9/11 babies who never knew a nation at peace,” by WaPo’s Marc Fisher, María Luisa Paúl and Jose Del Real

THE HEAT TURNS UP ON SULLIVAN AND BLINKEN — This morning, the administration put its two foreign policy frontmen — national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN and Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN — on the Sunday shows to explain the chaos in Afghanistan. And it wasn’t pretty.

— Speaking of the Americans who remain in Afghanistan, Sullivan told “Fox News Sunday” that “after Aug. 31, they are not going to be stuck in Afghanistan. We are going to ensure that we have a mechanism to get them out of the country should they choose in the future to come home.”

— On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Blinken said: “Nothing has been promised to the Taliban. To the contrary, we have made very clear — and not just us, country upon country around the world have made clear — that there are very significant expectations of the Taliban going forward if they’re going to have any kind of relationship with the rest of the world.”

— One such expectation, Blinken told MARTHA RADDATZ on ABC’s This Week that the “Taliban will permit freedom of travel going past Aug. 31,” and that “the Taliban have a strong interest in having an airport that functions.” More on that from David Cohen

— Immediately after that segment, Sen. BEN SASSE (R-Neb.) joined the show and called Blinken’s interview “a disgusting revelation of yet again no plan.”

— It seems like that might be an increasingly popular view. The Washington Post reports that House Democrats are privately discussing whether Blinken or Sullivan “should lose their jobs.”

— More: “Sullivan, Blinken warn of ‘exceedingly dangerous moment’ in Afghanistan,” by Aubree Eliza Weaver

HURRICANE IDA NEARS CATEGORY 5 STRENGTH — As it nears the Louisiana coast on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ida has strengthened rapidly and is just shy of Category 5 strength. The latest from NOLA.com

— Ida’s top winds have hit 150 mph, and it is projected to hit at least 155 mph. According to the National Hurricane Center, Category 5 hurricanes start at 157 mph.

— Gov. JOHN BEL EDWARDS said Ida “will be one of the strongest hurricanes that hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s,” per CNN.

— What happens when a major hurricane hits an area with low vaccination rates and surging Covid cases? We may be about to find out. “New Orleans hospitals planned to ride out the storm with their beds nearly full, as similarly stressed hospitals elsewhere had little room for evacuated patients,” write AP’s Kevin McGill and Jay Reeves. “And shelters for those fleeing their homes carried an added risk of becoming flashpoints for new infections.”

— Another wildcard: how the hurricane will affect oil and gas prices. More than 80% of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has halted because of the storm, reports AP’s Frank Bajak. He also notes that “Louisiana’s 17 oil refineries account for nearly one-fifth of the nation’s refining capacity,” which could mean a surge in gas prices if the…