Page 773 - Balloon News Today

Tracking the progress of the suspected chinese spy balloon floating above the united states. by next guest was actually able to catch footage of the balloon as it passed over his montana workplace. michael alverson joins me from bills, montana. michael, thank you for joining us this evening. we are getting a lot out of the footage to see what it looked like and how close it was for it to be visible to the naked eye. what did you do when you first saw it? what did you think it was? >> at first we...

Back or denying. but potentially that was an effort to keep the blinken meeting on track. the government actually apologizing for what it had called a weather balloon flying off course, a claim of course which the pentagon rejects. but state media here is putting out headlines saying this balloon isnt a big deal and accusing the u.s. of hyping it up. so this is what a china daily editorial said. quote, this is not a media event but rather a political balloon from washington to maneuver the domes...

Blinken postponed a trip to china that was supposed to start this weekend because of the violation of u.s. sovereignty and international law, caused by the spy balloon. joining me now is courtney kube, nbc news correspondent covering national security and the pentagon. courtney, whats up with the balloon? >> who doesnt love a story about a spy balloon, right? >> right. >> you said it, michael. its moving eastward across the continental u.s. whats critical to know here for our viewers is that it ...

Out into the ocean. >> right. its hard to say where it could go because of the change of winds and speeds. i think it would be hard for it to end up across the northeast, major cities if its solely drifted by the winds because the winds will be north to south. we have this extreme cold blast in the northeast right now driving the winds from north to south, so i think it would hold on to that trajectory aas of right now. so many things to consider. super weird im talking to you about this. based ...

The start of the pandemic. >> it is a disease, without question. it has more names than any disease in history. i can name kung flu -- wuhan. wuhan was catching on. coronavirus, right? kung flu? >> the republican party loves a punching bag, especially when that punching bag is not america. and the party that has built its platform on nativism and isolationism also loves to fearmonger about foreign threats. so, when an opportunity arose, literally, 60,000 feet in the air, the gop had a field day....

Theres also a risk there, i mean, you her or en talk about the earlier you shoot something down big as three bus that is could harm hundreds of americans, the pentagon said today, so we know that these discussions are still ongoing, they havent decided if theyre going to shoot it down, it is still an option on the table. >> thanks so much. joining us dennis wilder formally cia, currently a professor a at cool of foreign service, four star general supreme court allied commander. professor wilde...

Its now at 6.5% down from nearly 9% just last year. trace. >> trace: thats called hockey stick inflation. anita vogel live for us in beening no. lets look at the self-proclaimed most transparent white house in history. white house reporter phil wegmann. the president was eager to get out and talk about the job numbers but as far as the other subjects, nope. it kind of fits this pattern of if its not good news, its no news. your thoughts phil. >> it certainly does. we know at some point the presi...

Will continuously track the balloon make its way across america, the u.s. response so far on diplomatic front with secretary of state antony blinken >> we concluded conditions were not conducive for a constructive visit at this time, decision to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions we were prepared to have c for now, the pentagon said they dont have the plan to shoot this down partially because of the risk to people and property below, if ...

That we do nothing. should we shoot this thing down? >> look, i dont know that we should necessarily shoot it down, but we put a man on the moon decades ago we can figure out how to slow decscent this thing and theres no reason we shouldnt be doing it. >> greg: congressman thank you for your time. >> thank you, trace. >> trace: lets bring in an actual eyewitness to the chinese spy balloon missouri resident jennifer. so nice of you to come on. give me an idea when you first spotted this balloon i...

And more timely. say you have a new camera or a new sensor, and you dont want to wait a year or six months, but want to fly it now. the balloon is built. its ready now. how high do the balloons fly? how high is the first balloon, do you know? at first, they were saying 150,000 feet. now theyve updated it and say it is 60,000. does it surprise you to hear that there is now a second balloon that has been seen over latin america? actually, what surprises me is that theyre paying attention to it. at...