Page 713 - Balloon News Today

Balloon? >> my colleague, zach cohen, obtained a military report outlining details about these kinds of balloons. not this balloon exactly, because that one was shot down on saturday and were waiting to see what intel officials and military officials can glean from the wreckage there. in terms of what the administration and the u.s. at large knows about these balloons, an air force report says over the last several years, china deployed multiple balloons across the world that can fly as high as ...

Enshl explosives, there are reinforcements coming? >> reporter: they are bringing a huge crane. they have now located what they believe is the payload, the most important part of this balloon, on the sea floor, so that crane will go down there, look for it. there will be divers down there. and they hope to bring it up quickly and piece it together, david. >> and of course, we dont know if the president will bring up this balloon, but surely china will be on the agenda later tonight for the state...

American sovereign air space but its a complete -- another word you cannot say on television -- up that they didnt see these things. >> the general and i were talking, the reality is this. we are in a competition with a peer in china, they are three times our size, not just geographically, but population-wise, they are coming at us and we are neck and neck, we need to make sure we remain the number one country in the world. coming after us militarily, economically, technology, we have to stop as...

Our white house team reported yesterday they were still actively updating the language around china especially as it pertains to this balloon, but china has been a focus here on capitol hill and was always going to be so central to this congress because in a period of divided government, theres so little these two parties agree on and so little progress to be made on key issues, but when it comes to china, the fact they were able to in bipartisan fashion, put together a select committee to focus...

>> reporter: shortly after the military downed that chinese balloon off the coast of south carolina on saturday, defense sect lloyd austin told d.o.d. to reach out to the chinese ministry and see if it was possible to set up a phone call and that was rebuffed, refusing engage in the conversation between the u.s. defense secretary and his chinese counterpart. he put out a statement a short time ago saying they still view communication as important especially at times like this and weve seen austi...

Prepositioned a lot of the equipment and boats as well as personnel. in fact, were here bright and early this morning when more boats were brought out, and personnel were brought out, and these folks were carrying the equipment and oxygen tanks and at least two of the boats made their way towards that debris site. now for better part of the day, we are told that crews out of a few miles off of the coast of south carolina, they have been using equipment essentially to try to get a better sense of...

Done. if not, we cannot build what needs to be bill of indictment and not deliver the energy the country needs. >> bret: a couple more things. >> sure. >> bret: what do you make of this chinese spy craft, the balloon. >> crazy. now that we are hearing things we are going to have a secured briefing thursday. why didnt they take it down sooner? why did they let it go clear across the united states? i saw the path and trajectory i knew where they were going fairbanks and down to montana. some of th...

From the ground level all the way up to outer space. thats what was missing here. we didnt think the chinese would be using balloons to this -- for this purpose, and the fact is, of course, they are using them. they gave us indications that they were doing it and we should have followed up on that. >> theres also one flying over latin america as we speak. sheena, do you think it was right -- i know there was pressure from republicans and democrats to respond, and respond he did by canceling tony...

Shoot it down. >> absolutely not. der elections of duty to wait six, seven days to wait to shoot it down. >> house g.o.p. leadership scrapped a plan to hold a floor vote condemning bidens handling of the balloon only hours before his address in the chamber. instead, opting for a bipartisan condemnation of china, possibly later this week or following classified briefings. house speaker kevin mccarthy reportedly asked biden to maintain that spirit of unity and avoid talk of ultra maga republicans ...

Policy have not been reworked because of this balloon. >> martha: okay. so heres a map that show that ten different balloon incursions that were aware of over the past six years, this is extraordinary. this isnt one balloon that passed over the country. >> sandra: so how much attention does the president need to sort of head on this is what were facing from china tonight? >> this should be a sputnik moment. not because of the capabilities were equatable to sputnik in the late 50s. this illustrat...