the pentagon briefing has begun, let's go there. >> the pentagon for a variety of reasons our normal call-in options will not be available, for those that have had to call in, we apologize. we will get it up as quickly as possible for reporting purposes and answer questions from the dod press desk. moving forward we'll look at ways to improve briefing operations and expect regular press briefings will resume in the press briefing room in middle to late may. we appreciate your patience and extend our thanks to department of air force for using airmen's hall for temporary briefing home. secretary austin returned yesterday from a productive series of meetings in the republic of korea in the philippines, the secretary and his counterpart reaffirmed measures for deterrence on the korean peninsula, and pledge to closely cooperate regarding assets in the future, as well as further expand and bolster level and scale of combined exercises and training. in the philippines, secretary austin had his first meeting with secretary galvez, and reiterated commitment is iranclad, the secretary express

>> you'd have to talk to the pentagon, i don't know. guys, again, this just happened in the last hour and a half and they're still assessing where this thing landed and the degree to which they can get to it. >> on the poland visit, i know in the statement that you put out, it says that the president is going to meet with leaders of the eastern flank countries. are any other european leaders, nato leaders expected to join the president on this trip? >> we're still putting the agenda together. the predominant reason is to talk to those nations who are literally on the eastern flank of the nato alliance. but i can't rule in or rule out there may be additional attendees that the president may have. >> thanks very much. back to lula, is there going to be any commitment to the amazon fund by the united states during this visit? >> let's have the visit occur here shortly and we'll provide you a readout. i don't have anything specific on that. >> so, john, the u.s. special presidential coordinator for global and infrastructure energy is in ang

as the pentagon correspond, i can tell you, it is a very rare thing for the pentagon to come out and tell us what their advice to the president is. i can't tell you how many times, probably thousands of times we'd ask the question and the leadership all the different leadership in the pentagon always says, we keep our advice to the president quiet so that we can give him our best advice. so it was a very rare thing for them to come out and say, we didn't want to shoot this down. now over days then you started to see republicans, especially right wing media really go after president biden saying he can't protect the borders, he can protect the skies. so there was a political push for him to do something. what they did initially is to say ok 2nd secretary of state and team lincoln was going to take a trip to china just now. he was supposed to be there now, but they said that they were going to postpone it because they called it a very responsible and a breach of a sovereign us air space. and so that seemed that they were going to take that step the deck, the diplomatic step of sending

the pentagon has its doubts. still, it says the balloon is not a threat to any one on the ground or plains since it's flying well above commercial air traffic. but there are questions about why the pentagon is allowing the chinese surveillance balloon to linger, looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians on the ground or property damage right now, as i mentioned we, we assessed that it is not pose a risk to people on the ground as it currently is traversing the continental united states. that hasn't satisfied biden's critics and congress who believe the us needs to take further action to punish china can't reward the ccp for this kind of fly and violation of her sovereignty by pretending everything his businesses normal. anna a griffin grinned session was she's been paying as if it was happening. would have been a terrible look for years diplomacy. the ccp will continue to push the envelope until we push back. this isn't the 1st time the china has lives to spy balloon over the united states.

out of abundance of caution and recommendation of the pentagon, pr

not all that deep, according to the pentagon. a senior defense official says the wreckage landed in 47 feet of water, so relatively shallow there. there were navy and coast guard assets on-site to begin establishing a perimeter and a salvage vessel on its way to start bringing up the wreckage here. it may be difficult to see what's left of that wreckage. it did fall from a height of 60,000 feet. so nearly 12 miles and impacted the water that may very well have done serious damage to the technology on board. that's what the pentagon and that's what the u.s. government will figure out. what condition is it in and what is salvageable, what can you learn from this? what can you glean about the state of chinese technology and what they put on that surveillance balloon? that becomes the effort now. a senior defense official says that didn't just start now, though. over the course of the last several days, the pentagon made an effort to make sure this chinese surveillance balloon couldn't gather as much information as they were looking

so again, for the pentagon, this is of significant value. so after days of intrigue, how has this incident affected diplomatic relations thing between the us and china? yet this has been a huge, just diplomatic confrontation for sure. so this trip was highly anticipated. it was seen as an opportunity to finally engage in dialogue again at a time where the u. s. and china are seeing extremely strained relations. so secretary of state, blanca and antony blank, and he already had a list of really thorny issues to address on this trip from the south china sea. to the warn you cranes are wanting china to take a bigger role in deterring russia. and of course taiwan as well, things were already very tense and the fact that a secretary of state blanket had to cancel that trip is one that just indicates how serious things are. he would have been the highest ranking member of the biden administration to visit china. so this is something that is being seen as a lost opportunity. the lines of communication i should say, between the us and china are stil

the pentagon had pointed out this had the ability to maneuver. it may have looked like a floating balloon, but the pentagon said it had the ability to maneuver and had the ability to loiter and it had surveillance capabilities. so this is an opportunity to see what can be recovered and what can be learned about that. i should also point out that the dod statement from defense secretary loloyd austin also sad this was done in coordination from canada. it was over canada that this flew into montana earlier this week. >> thank you so much. >>> juliette is back. there's the president right there. let's listen in. >> wednesday when i was briefed on the balloon, i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. they decided, without doing damage to anyone on the ground, they decided that the best time to do that was as it got over water within a 12-mile limit. they successfully took it down and i want to compliment our aviators who did it and we'll have more to report on this a little later. thank you. >> you were saying the rec

so again, for the pentagon, this is of significant value. so after days of intrigue, how has this incident affected diplomatic relations in between the us and china? yeah, this has been a huge dis diplomatic confrontation for sure. so this trip was highly anticipated. it was seen as an opportunity to finally engage in dialogue again at a time where the u. s. and china are seeing extremely strained relations. so secretary of state, blanca and antony, blinking, he already had a list of really thorny issues to address on this trip from the south china sea. to the warn you cranes are wanting china to take a bigger role in deterring russia. and of course taiwan as well, things were already very tense and the fact that a secretary of state blanket had to cancel that trip is one that just indicates how serious things are. he would have been the highest ranking member of the biden administration to visit china. so this is something that is being seen as a lost opportunity. the lines of communication i should say, between the us and china are still o

you know, obviously, the pentagon is aware. i think, you know, there are questions as to why this was not shot down, this spy balloon shot down, as soon as we were aware it came into american air space. but, you know, i think there are a lot of questions still to be answered. and i think, obviously, the biden administration should work closely with congress here to provide those answers as quickly as possible. >> on that subject, the pentagon says that the decision was made not to shoot the balloon down, at least right now, because debris could injure or kill people on the ground, seriously damage buildings. take a listen to what former defense secretary under the trump administration, mark esper, said about that subject earlier on cnn today. >> my interest would be not necessarily shooting it down but bringing it down so that we can capture the equipment and understand exactly what they're doing. are they taking pictures? are they intercepting signals? what are they doing and what is the level of technical capability? >> what

most of the claims knocked down by the pentagon. not the first time china has done this. there are accounts china sending other surveillance balloons in the past over the continental u.s., and those not as well documented by amateur photographers. it has caused the state department to postpone a trip of antony blinken to beijing, he was supposed to leave this evening and meet with xi and others, and they are perplexed about the timing, it has disrupted possibly useful diplomacy for beijing. john, both china and the u.s. claim to be in contact with each other over the balloon, trying to avert the shootdown, could be dangerous in a lot of ways. >> john: it's been tried before, too, apparently the canadian military tried to shoot one down, 1,000 rounds of 20 millimeter cannon fire, popped holes in it but it did not do anything. these things are huge. wisconsin republican congressman mike gallagher, very interested in what's going on right now. congressman, i know you wanted to respond to the information that gillian learned from a trusted source that the united states has kn

so we only know what we've learned from the pentagon, that the pentagon says that it is in latin america won't go into the specifics of where exactly it is hovering above latin american. i think it's rather remarkable that we're learning this today. because along with that, citing here in the united states and actually officials here now pointing towards this balloon above us territory, which apparently joe biden, the u. s. president learned already on tuesday. we also learned at least one previous such incident was reported during the trumpet, ministration. so these balloons seem to be something that has been present, that has been an issue much longer than is publicly known to the war here in europe . now, the united states has announced a new weapons package for ukraine worth $2200000000.00. it includes new longer range missiles which could double the distance you can, can strike and put rushes supply lines in eastern ukraine within reach more armoured vehicles and air defense systems are also being provided. part of the latest package brings the total us support for ukraine since rus

the pentagon flatly rejecting that claim. >> we are aware of the prc's statement. however, the fact is, we know that it's a surveillance balloon. we have clearly communicated that this balloon is violating u.s. air space and international law and that this is unacceptable. >> reporter: china says the balloon deviated far from its planned course, but the pentagon questioning that as well, saying the balloon can be maneuvered. a senior u.s. official telling abc news, it's likely being navigated with spy satellites. this all happening as secretary of state antony blinken prepared for a weekend trip to beijing. that trip now canceled. >> in light of china's unacceptable action, i am postponing my planned travel this weekend in china. we concluded that conditions were not conducive for a constructive visit at this time. >> reporter: there have been other foreign surveillance balloons above the u.s., but not like this. >> what makes this different is the duration and the length to of which it has been over u.s. territory. >> reporter: the pentagon says the balloon is exp

the pentagon has its doubts. still, it says the balloon is not a threat to any one on the ground or plains since it's flying well above commercial air traffic. but there are questions about why the pentagon is allowing the chinese surveillance balloon to linger, looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians on the ground or property damage right now, as i mentioned we, we assessed that it is not pose a risk to people on the ground as it currently is traversing the continental united states. that hasn't satisfied biden's critics and congress who believe the u. s. needs to take further action to punish china can't reward the ccp for this kind of fly. violation of our sovereignty by pretending everything his businesses normal in a grip and grin session was, she's in pain. as this was happening, would have been a terrible look for you as diplomacy. the ccp will continue to push the envelope until we push back. this isn't the 1st time the china has lives just by balloon over the united states. the pe

>> you would have to talk to the pentagon. i don't know, guys, this just happened within the last hour and a half, and they're still assessing where this thing landed and the degree to which they can get to it. >> reporter: the president is going to meet with leaders of the eastern flight nato countries. are other european leaders, nato leaders expected to join the president on the trip. >> we're putting the agenda together. the predominant reason to meet with them, the bucharest nine is to talk to the nations who are literally on the eastern flank of the nato alliance, i can't rule in or rule out there will be additional attendees. >> reporter: back to lula, is there going to be any commitments to the amazon fund by the united states during this? >> let's have the visit occur here shortly, and we'll provide you a readout. i don't have anything specific on that. >> reporter: so, john, the u.s. special presidential coordinator for global and infrastructure energy is in angola, so he met with president lorenzo, can you elaborate

that figure is a new detail from the pentagon. we had been told it is u.s. air space in the atmosphere but not in outer space. that is a very high altitude which makes the question over how to shoot it down and where whether to shoot it down more complicated. only a handful of fighter jets can get up that high. for the time being that's not really the argument against shooting it down. the administration, the pentagon, holding firm that it is simply too dangerous and that for right now, there is no real point. they say that the balloon is not a danger to people on the ground as it flies through the sky. it's not a threat to homeland security. they say they have taken steps to prevent this balloon from carrying out its mission of surveillance of gathering intelligence. the president was briefed on military options. he asked for military options we're told and was told by his top commanders it would not be a good idea to shoot this down, simply because of the damage it could do to people and property on the ground. remember, this thing is the size of three sch

so frozen waters recovery efforts are underway according to the pentagon. and they do expect that recovery should be easier than the chinese bible in you. you reference that was down off of the east coast last week off open waters. and the object had crossed over into u. s. air space. when it was shot down. you mentioned the president ordered this object to be shot down. we don't know when those orders came in, but we have heard that this object was 1st detected thursday evening. they then sent up fighter jets to see what they could determine and they came to the to termination that this one's an unmanned object. and then they made the decision to shoot it down and it was indeed an f $22.00, a fighter jet that took it down off the coast of alaska. but we don't know what the optic was brent and who was behind it or what was behind it. yeah, and we're getting information that the object was about the size of a car, not the size of 3 buses that was used to describe the the boot spy balloon village spar believe it was shot down last week at meet. are there any

it corresponds to what the pentagon has been saying. now, we've been trying to get any sort of official reaction from either of these two governments, colombia and costa rica. there are some media reports citing columbian military officials, saying that, indeed, there was an object flying at 70,000 feet. >> let me just interrupt you for a moment because now i'm hearing witnesses say that it has actually been shot down. now, at the pentagon, our oren lieberman, what more can you tell us about this? >> reporter: we haven't gotten official confirmation from the pentagon, but apparently there's video of this being shot down, because this was right off the coast, essentially. we saw where the temporary flight restriction was starting over the coast of north and south carolina and people have been spotting this as it made its way across the united states. perhaps it's not too surprising when when the air force or navy sent fighter jets to shoot this down it would simply be visible to the people on the ground who were able to track this. now,

why is the pentagon convinced that this is a surveillance balloon? and then can you give us a little bit more on the status of the blend you said is in the central of the central central us. what state do you have any guidance for people as they see this balloon or they're trying to photograph it or maybe try and interfere with it? sure, thanks tara. so 1st of all, we are aware of the p r c's statement. however, the fact is, we know that it's a surveillance balloon, and i'm not gonna be able to be more specific than that. we do know that the balloon has violated us airspace and international law, which is unacceptable. and so we've conveyed this directly to the p r c at multiple levels. and in terms of specific locations, i'm not going to be able to go into specific locations. again, other than to say it's moving you sword at this time. yeah, you had to follow as people start to see the bullying, do you have any guidance for should they try not to interfere, not photograph. so the balloon is currently assessed to be at about 60000 feet. so again, wel

we'll get the latest from the pentagon. what more do we know or have you learned? >> lucas: moments ago president biden was asked repeatedly about this and this is how he characterized shoot down of this object over northern alaska. >> anything to say about the object shot down over alaska, mr. president? >> lucas: the president was waiting for the brazilian president to arrive and he said success and the president refused to respond more, you played the tape. we don't know where the object is from, which country, just couple days ago the state department says chinese are flying over four countries and five continents. we don't know where this one is from and no sign it was turning around and don't know when it was launched from where it came from. that map is showing recovery effort overhead, c-130 aircraft and aircraft special operation, hh6 helicopters, chanooks and army soldiers also on the ground. the ch-47s have special skis, you can lain on the frozen water. i temperature in prudhoe bay is minus 20 degrees, dangerous, freezing conditions and you have oilfiel

of the pentagon. they're not beginning brief to top levels in the chain of command. so right now , there's no question the us military's on heightened alert. right now, any kind of radar anomaly is going to be investigated. of course, we have alert aircraft throughout the united states that will be scrambled in case of things like this, and that's what happened. that's why there's 15 eagles were scrambled at a portland and sent him bound to montana. unbelievable this is out of control. lucas thompson. thanks so much for joining. let let's go back to the congress of matt rosendale. thank you, sir. what is your reaction to what are white house reporter the same i've got my other phone going right now. lawrence and i'm trying to get updated information from the department of defense to find out if they had given me some from late information, because the last information that i had, which has been within the last 45 minutes was that they did have an object that they were tracking and that they were going

>> reporter: the pentagon still knows little about the object. it is now sitting on the arctic ice waiting to be recovered. a senior official describes it to abc as cylindrical and silverish gray. >> it was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. out of abundance of caution at the recommendation of the pentagon, president biden ordered the military to down the object. and they did. >> reporter: the military says the object was unmanned and we are told it appears to be floating, not being steered or propelled like the chinese spy balloon. no word on who sent this object up or what it was doing. >> we do not know who owns it, whether it's state owned or corporate owned or privately owned. we just don't know. >> reporter: it comes less than two weeks after that giant chinese spy balloon entered american air space also over alaska. the military waited to shoot that down until it had flown across the country and out to sea. alaska senator lisa murkowski outraged. >> to me, the clear message

could go back, is it in the pentagon's vou _ we could go back, is it in the pentagon's you plausible - we could go back, is it in the pentagon's you plausible ori we could go back, is it in the - pentagon's you plausible or maybe even likely— pentagon's you plausible or maybe even likely that _ pentagon's you plausible or maybe even likely that it _ pentagon's you plausible or maybe even likely that it was _ pentagon's you plausible or maybe even likely that it was not - even likely that it was not necessarily— even likely that it was not necessarily intentional. even likely that it was not. necessarily intentional when even likely that it was not - necessarily intentional when that balloon _ necessarily intentional when that balloon turned _ necessarily intentional when that balloon turned eastward, - necessarily intentional when that balloon turned eastward, that. necessarily intentional when that balloon turned eastward, that iti balloon turned eastward, that it seems — balloon turned eastward, that it seems to— balloon turned eastward, that it seems to have _ balloon turn

oren liebermann at the pentagon. let's go arlette at the white house. >> reporter: president biden offered his first comments on the situation regarding that chinese spy balloon just moments ago, saying they are prepared to take care of it. president biden has been receiving briefings since tuesday, including potential options relating to how they could address this. here is how he answered reporters' questions moments ago. you heard president biden say we are going to take care of it. officials here at the white house say the president is consistently being briefed on the various options they have been presented. one option was the possibility of shooting down this plane. that's something they have not ruled out. previously as he was presented that option, he was warned about the potential impact it could have o and impact it could have here on the ground and affecting people. we will see what else the white house and pentagon has to say later today regarding this balloon. it has been seen over north carolina, poten

why is the pentagon convinced this is a surveillance balloon? can you give us a little more on the status of the balloon? you said it's in the central u.s. what state? do you have any guidance for people as they see this balloon or trying to photograph it or maybe trying to interfere with it? >> sure. thanks. first of all, we are aware of the prc's statement. however, the fact is, we know that it's a surveillance balloon. i'm not going to be able to be more specific than that. we know that the balloon has violated u.s. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable. we conveyed this to the prc at multiple levels. in terms of specific locations, i'm not going go into specific locations other than to say it's moving eastward at this time. you had a follow-up? >> a quick follow-up on -- as people start to see the balloon, do you have guidance? should they not photograph, not interfere? >> it's assessed to be at 60,000 feet. well above the range of civilian air traffic or civilian air traffic would normally fly. there are cameras -- civilian

the top levels of the pentagon here, and that raises the question, does the pentagon plan on shooting this down, once it is no longer a risk to people and property below and this is out over u.s. waters? >> right, all right, well, you'll be watching. keep us posted. orben lieberman, thank you very much. >>> so many extraordinary things about this, but particularly the balloon is actually visible to the naked eye. giving many in north carolina a view this morning. and joining us right now on the phone, evan fisher, he saw the balloon over asheville, north carolina, this morning. evan, had you been looking for it in anticipation that it might be moving over north carolina air space? how did you spot it? >> well, we were expecting it to move over the western north carolina area between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. but then to our surprise, it doesn't show up until after sunrise, so i spotted it around 8:50 this morning, in the southern skies of the south of asheville. much larger than i expected it to be, lifting off to the east/northeast as we were talking about in the interview. a beautiful

and that's why the pentagon said that this decision was taken to a shoot down this object. it was originally detected on thursday, and that according to the pentagon, they sent a fighter jets to try to assess what this object was. and it was deemed that it was an unmanned object. it was the orders were then given, we don't when by the president to shoot it down. and f 22 fighter jet shot it down . and president, by himself hasn't said much only that this mission was a success. right. so there are there any indications about what this object might have been useful and also where it came from. we don't know any of that yet. we're hill and officials will have been very careful in talking about this incident. they said, we don't know who or what is behind this object. and they haven't told us much more about the provenance of it. but the pentagon and the white house made clear that there are some big differences to that chinese spy balloon incident. a you mentioned in the lead, in 1st and foremost, this object they said is much smaller. so they say that the size of a small car,

is that the pentagon bowing to political pressure? >> we are going to judge each of these on its merits. no indication at this time that it was maneuverable. we will know more. in terms of entering the united states, it did enter u.s. airspace and we did take it down. >> did you get as much intelligence from this one? >> we are going to recover what we can. >> was the decision to shoot it down before it entered too far into u.s. airspace the pentagon bowing to political pressure? >> we will judge each object on its own merits. it entered u.s. airspace on february 9. we set up aircraft does -- to assess what it was. the decision was made it posed a's -- a reasonable threat. the president gave the order to take it down. thank you. >> thank you for taking my question. first, has anything like this happened before? with an object this size in this particular range? has that happened before? second, why did you -- can you say more about why you knew the last balloon or object was from china whereas this one you do not know? >> in terms of

the pentagon doesn't buy that claim. what is extraordinary is that the chinese government expressed regret. this is extremely rare and a major shift of the playbook of hitting back and denying. they say, quote, it is a civilian airship affected by the westerlies, deviating far from its planned course. the chinese regrets the unintended entry of the airship into us air space. this softer response makes it clear china is trying to deescalate the situation. the foreign ministry did accuse some politicians of hyping up the incident to, quote, attack and smear china. we are left with the mystery of why beijing let this happen, if it was deliberate or an accident. it's embarrassing for beijing and derails the meeting with secretary of state antony blinken. this was supposed to be a part of chinese reopening to the world after ending zero covid. china wants to improve ties with the u.s. and focus on boosting its damaged economy. there were no expectations for any concrete outcomes from blinken's trip to china. this event highli

the pentagon has its doubts. still, it says the balloon is not a threat to any one on the ground or planes since it's flying well above commercial air traffic. but there are questions about why the pentagon is allowing the chinese surveillance balloon to linger, looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians on the ground or property damage right now, as i mentioned we, we assessed that it is not pose a risk to people on the ground as it currently is traversing the continental united states. that hasn't satisfied biden's critics and congress who believe the u. s. needs to take further action to punish china can't reward the c c p for this kind of fly. and violation of her sovereignty by pretending everything his businesses normal in a grip and grin session, which she's been paying as if it was happening, would have been a terrible look for us diplomacy. the ccp will continue to push the envelope until we push back. this isn't the 1st time that china has lied to spy balloon over the united states.

the pentagon has rejected claims. a chinese balloon that's moving across the central united states is civil. busy and not being used for surveillance, u. s. secretary of state entity, lincoln hospice boned, a rare trip to beijing over what the state department described as a clear violation of u. s. sovereignty. ukrainian president vladimir zalinski has urged western allies to supply his military with long range missiles. he's hosting a summit of european union dues, for they've also discuss ukraine's membership application to the book. the head of the roman catholic church has appealed to said sedans, leaders to end bloodshed corp francis on historic visit with elitists of the anglican church and the church of scotland. 2 sides. he died 1st of this time since the palestinian man shot in the occupied west bank on friday has died of his woods. abdulla co ali was stopped short at war. a checkpoint, south of nablus, the palestinian red crescent said he was injured. lie is rarely gone far, is really immediate said he trie

i guess you can never touch the pentagon. there's no fraud waster abuse at the pentagon. really? >> laura, it's hard to disci what he said there and i'm trying to tease out what he was trying to say there. you're absolutely right and this is at a time when polling shows that the government's performance is at an all time low and the issue that americans care about is how our government is performing and that's above inflation. that's above the economy and so at the same time it's business as usual at the biden white house. so they're just completely out of touch with what americans care about today. >> laura: sean, seems like it's almost a daily occurrence where we see these headlines and these are huge companies announcing mass layoffs and here's what the democrats think about this. >> had two quarters last six months of last year and very substantial growth and there's a chance we might avoid recession and jobs continue and wage increase continues and it's not perfect but it's de-vent for the average american -- decent for the average person. >> laura: life is not decent but pr

we only know what we've learned from the pentagon, that the pentagon says that it is in latin american won't go into the specifics of where exactly there's hovering above latin american. i think it's rather remarkable that we're learning this today. because along with that, citing here in the united states and actually officials here at now pointing towards this balloon above us territory, which apparently joe biden, the u. s. president learned already on tuesday. we also learned at least one previous such incident was reported during the trumpet ministration. so these balloons seem to be something that has been present. that has been an issue much longer than is publicly known. a brief look now at some of the other stories from around the world at this hour. authorities in chalet or struggling to contain deadly wildfires that are sweeping parts of the country. so far, at least 13 people have died and over a 140 square kilometers of land have been devastated in the blazes caused by heat waves in the region. even mosque has been cleared of liability in a fraud trial, over tweets in whic

the pentagon said this balloon is over the central part of the u.s. so the big question is, what happens if and when it does come down? could this have more of an impact on commercial flights or the air space in general, the u.s. jurisdiction ends about 60,000 feet. we'll see if they ultimately make statement, so far they've remained pretty mum on this. >> what goes you must come down, i'm guessing it will have more of an impact on air travel. thank you very much, keeping us posted >> a short time ago the national weather service tweeted these images of what they say is a large balloon in the kansas city area, look closely. you can see it in the kansas city we've had several reports across northwest missouri of a large balloon, it is now visible from our office in pleasant hill and cans city metro area, we have confirmed it is not a national weather service weather balloon. >> pentagon are tracking the balloon but have not given a location where it is right now. let's bring in kim or global affairs analyst and david, a cnn political and national secur

and how important is it for the pentagon to, to gather evidence? very important. so indeed, the pentagon said in a statement that they believe that this balloon and particularly the payload, so that is the heavy part of the balloon under or under the balloon. rather, that's conducting the surveillance that it is of significant intelligence value. it's being reported here that the navy and the coast guard are now working together to gather the debris of this balloon in the waters. we don't have any further details on, on how they're collecting it. but again, it's considered to be very important. and secretary of state antony blinking in his press conference on friday said this was the number one mission to know what exactly the contents of that balloon are, are and, and to carry out an analysis on what exactly is in this balloon in that payload, as i mentioned the pentagon i should add, had been saying for a few days that they didn't believe that there's balloon had as much capability counter intelligence capability as for example, a satellite. so it wasn't seen as

the pentagon was ve clear gathering exercise. the pentagon was very clear all — gathering exercise. the pentagon was very clear all week _ gathering exercise. the pentagon was very clear all week this _ gathering exercise. the pentagon was very clear all week this was _ gathering exercise. the pentagon was very clear all week this was a - very clear all week this was a surveillance balloon flying at significant altitudes and doubling that of course was not manned but man controls, and you have to look at the root it was travelling over the islands in alaska, through much of canada into montana, tracking a lot of those sensitive sites, that is most of the heart of us and canadian missile and defence architecture, so even if it is something the chinese already know, it is a very deliberate seeming preparing the battlefield, if there were to be a conflict, to reinforce that the chinese are ready here. fascinating, and again, to reinforce that, another snap from the reuters news agency who are saying the us defence official says, this chinese balloon is part of a fleet of surveillance b

the pentagon has its doubts. still, it says the balloon is not a threat to any one on the ground or planes since it's flying well above commercial air traffic. but there are questions about why the pentagon is allowing the chinese surveillance balloon to linger, looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians on the ground or property damage right now, as i mentioned we, we assessed that it is not pose a risk to people on the ground as it currently is traversing the continental united states. that hasn't satisfied biden's critics and congress who believe the u. s. needs to take further action to punish china account reward. the ccp for this kind of fly violation of our sovereignty by pretending everything his business as normal in a grip and grin session was, she's in pain. as this was happening, would have been a terrible look for you as diplomacy. the ccp will continue to push the envelope until we push back. this isn't the 1st time the china has lives just by balloon over the united states. the

the pentagon has its doubts. still, it says the balloon is not a threat to any one on the ground or planes since it's flying well above commercial air traffic. but there are questions about why the pentagon is allowing the chinese surveillance balloon to linger, looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians on the ground or property damage right now, as i mentioned we, we assessed that it is not pose a risk to people on the ground as it currently is traversing the continental united states. that hasn't satisfied biden's critics and congress who believe the u. s. needs to take further action to punish china can't reward the ccp for this kind of fly. violation of our sovereignty by pretending everything his businesses normal in a grip and grin session was. she's in pain as if it was happening. would have been a terrible look for us diplomacy. the ccp will continue to push the envelope until we push back. this isn't the 1st time the china has lives just by balloon over the united states. the pentag

the pentagon has been tracking it for days. it reached montana and was hovering above a nuclear weapons facility. we expect a pentagon briefing very soon and we'll cover that as it happens. china claims by the way this was a civilian air ship used for weather research and was blown off course as you might imagine, it is raising major concerns about chinese surveillance with republicans hitting biden's failures to take immediate action. you heard from chairman comer just this hour on that. the search for answers continues in the murder of a new jersey republican councilwoman. police say they don't know why whoever did this did so. and they've made no arrests in the case. what we do know coming up. plus the house voted yesterday on a bill to condemn the horrors of socialism. it barely got the support of democrats and even appeared to trigger a few of them including minority leader hakeem jeffries. >> the extreme maga republican agenda have no plan, they have no vision, they have no ideas. when it comes to making life better for e

and one thing we heard from the pentagon yesterday is at the moment that the pentagon had been monitoring the balloons movement from thursday and friday, they didn't deem it to be a, a military or physical risk. it appears that at the point that airports had to be closed down because of this, a path of the balloon that, that is when the white house and the pentagon likely decided to move forward with the shooting this balloon down and has the closing all of this airport cause any disruption to passengers? well we're seeing it so far that there were some disruptions. again, those were 3 airports that were closed down the f. a hasn't released much more information about those airports, but of course some disruption was caused. and again, that is one of the reasons it appears that the white house, that the u. s. officials here decided to take action. but at the moment, it appears obviously with this balloon having been shot down that this object being in the way of civilian air traffic will no longer be an issue. what we can say is there might be disruptions going forward because recovery ef

that's what the pentagon is saying. after another such balloon was seen floating about the us hot land. rising americans, cameras towards the heavens and complicating an already strained diplomatic relationship between washington and begging. there is losing nearly 2 kilometers above the united states. this balloon is causing major diplomatic problems back on earth. and i have no idea what it is. first spotted over montana by curious residence. it's now believed to be a chinese espionage platform. china's decision to fly a surveillance balloon over the continental united states is both acceptable and irresponsible. that's what this is about. a is a violation of our sovereignty. so violation of international law, china rejects the spying claims and sees it's a wither balloon that's fear. of course, the white house isn't convinced and a plan diplomatic trip to beijing has been abruptly cooled off. what this is done is created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip, including ongoing efforts to build a floor

and that's why the pentagon said that this decision was taken to a shoot down this object. it was originally detected on thursday, and that according to the pentagon, they sent a fighter jets to try to assess what this object was. and it was deemed that it was an unmanned object. it was the orders were then given, we don't when by the president to shoot it down. and f $22.00 fighter jet trotted down and present by themself hasn't said much only that this mission was a success. right? so there are there any indications about what this object might have been useful? and also where it came from. we don't know any of that yet. we're hill and officials will have been very careful in talking about this incident. they said, we don't know who or what is behind this object. and they haven't told us much more about the provenance of it. but the pentagon and the white house made clear that there are some big differences to that chinese spy balloon incident. a you mentioned in the lead in and 1st and foremost, this object they said is much smaller. so they say that the size of a small

." >> breaking tonight yes another one the senior pentagon official says yet another ufo has been shot down by the us military this time over lake huron in michigan. the pentagon says it is likely that not yet confirmed that the latest object is the same one they shut down yesterday picking up on radar over montana. the michigan congressman said it had the octagonal structure flying at 15000 feet.

>> i'm not going to speak for the pentagon. i can tell you the president doesn't regret the way that we handled the first balloon. >> will: no regrets. we just handled this one completely differently than we handled the first object, the chinese balloon. and i guess it's because unknown objects just keep flying all around us. in order for some answers, maybe we can now turn to florida congressman michael waltz because he serves on the armed services committee and he has served this great country. congressman, great to have you on "jesse watters primetime" tonight. what do you make of this? >> what are we supposed to assume this is, this ufo? >> you know, every time one of these incidents happens and then every time the white house and pentagon comes to the podium, i end up with more questions than we have answered. and now what is our shootdown criteria? what is a danger to the united states if apparently this much smaller object was shot down immediately, mainly because it was at 40,000 feet where civilian aircraft fly around.

>> i'm not going to speak for the pentagon. i can tell you the president does not regret the way we handled the first balloon. first of all, apples and oranges in terms of size. the size of a small car and over very sparsely populated area and critically, it was over water, water space, when we ordered this down as we did the last one. but completely different size. and the debris field for this we expect to be much, much smaller than would have been for the other one. that's difference 1. difference 2, we knew the prc balloon was in fact a surveillance asset, and capable of surveillance over sensitive military sites and that it had self-propulsion and maneuver capabilities. the first one was able to loiter, slow down, speed up, very purposeful inside the jet stream. >> that would suggest over alaska, too, though -- >> the pentagon has already spoken to this question about whether or not they should have or could have shot it down over alaska air space. hours and hours of testimony yesterday on that. >> on the communications, t

so we only know what we've learned from the pentagon, that the pentagon says that it is in latin america won't go into the specifics of where exactly it is hovering above latin american. i think it's rather remarkable that we're learning this today. because along with that, citing here in the united states and actually officials here at now pointing towards this balloon above us territory, which apparently joe biden, the u. s. president learned already on tuesday. we also learned at least one previous such incident was reported during the trumpet ministration. so these balloons seem to be something that has been present, that has been an issue much longer than is publicly known. so what are the likely repercussions of the balloon incident for the delicate relations between washington and beijing? he was d. w. e stager correspondent william. yes. i think the postponement of the visit reflects how much distrust there is between the 2 countries. because even a incident like this would have stopped a highly anticipated visit that has been prepped, prepared from both sides for months. and now

oren lieberman is at the pentagon for us. back to the video we just got from c infer n in the last several minutes just to highlight the clearest image yet that we have where you can see the balloon is popped, essentially, destroyed. you can clearly see what appears to know the surveillance equipment dropping very quickly into the atlantic ocean. i suppose that gives the military, the pentagon, some hope that what they are hoping to retrieve out of the atlantic is salvageable and may offer some clues as to what the chinese were up to. >> reporter: absolutely. that video is pretty incredible. it is not that close but it is pretty good quality, it is clear that missile hit the balloon itself. that's what the u.s. wants to get its hands on. this shows the payload was at least mostly intact. now, of course, it fell from 60,000 feet and then hit the water so that might have broken up quite a bit of it. but senior officials say it fell in 47 feet of water which isn't that bad as far as recovery. some of it may have broken up as it

the pentagon has yet to confirm that. the u.s. has been tracking the balloon since athletes tuesday, when president biden was first briefed about it. while biden was initially inclined to shoot it down, the pentagon rep recommended against doing so, saying that to doing so would cause significant debris that could cause civilian injuries or death on the ground. today, as a result, secretary of state antony blinken postponed his weekend trip to china. that trip was going to be the first trip in roughly five years by an american secretary of state. >> the presence of this surveillance balloon over the united states in our skies is a clear violation of our sovereignty, a clear violation of international law, and, clearly, unacceptable. job one is getting it out of our airspace. >> that is a reminder that this thing is still in american airspace, where officials say it could remain for several days. nbc news has learned tonight that the u.s. is taking precautionary measures to weaken the balloon surveillance capabilities, including th

the pentagon has a budget of over $800 billion. the pentagon spends more money on military bans then to be due on the national archives. that gives us some sense on how much value we place on preserving our natural patrimony, records going all the way back to the founders that we keep to know what it is leaders do in our name in order to study the past and try to avoid future mistakes. i think that work is quite valuable. wouldn't we rather learn the lessons of the past, learn some of the lessons from our military history in order to avoid some of the disastrous wars and disastrous pullouts we have seen in recent years? it is not free. the national arc i needs far more in the way of appropriations and new technology to deal with this colossal challenge they are facing which grows year by year. host: in your book, you talk about reviewing documents that come from the presidential libraries. what is the relationship between the national archives and documents going to the various libraries? presidential libraries are changing as of b