Page 832 - Balloon News Today

Said that they will not give a blank check to ukraine when it comes to helping them. at the moment, though, recent surveys do suggest around three in four americans believe that ukraine should still be supported by the us. but as we know, politics can change. and if they can, so can policy. let us now look back to our top story. us foreign policy towards beijing. after chinese surveillance balloon was detected over united states. joining me now is scott kennedy, whos a senior adviser and trustee...

Agreed with the pentagons strong recommendation. the risks involved with shooting down the balloon just too great. >> any potential debris field would be significant and potentially cause civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage. >> reporter: for its part, china insisting today the balloon is not a spy vessel at all, but a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes. the pentagon flatly rejecting that claim. >> we are aware of the prcs statement. however,...

And secondly, is the, to the point about capabilities, how is it powered? how is it moving? how does it maneuverable? >> thanks, phil. on your latter question, ill not get into intelligence, it is balloon with payload underneath it. leave it at that. whats that? it has a large payload underneath surveillance component under the actual balloon piece of it. so leave it at that. and then in terms of the maneuverability, again, all i can say is this point, it is moving eastward across the united sta...

Areas in recent days — was a "high—altitude surveillance" device. our security correspondent, gordon correra reports. i...have no idea what this thing is. a strange object in the sky, filmed by a member of the public in rural montana. and for those of you who think this mightjust be the moon, it is not the moon, the moon is off to my right, i can sate... to my right, i can see it... its not the moon, nor a ufo, but, us officials claim, a chinese spy balloon. it seemed so brazen and just so i...

>> republicans as you heard think we should have shot this down when we first saw it over montana when it was over a less populated area. whats your take on that? >> sitting down the balloon is difficult, but possible. the altitude that it flies at are above what would normally be available to u.s. jet fighters. the altitudes also make it difficult for the missiles we used, their control surfaces struggle at these sorts of altitudes. the other issue is that u.s. missile technology was developed ...

More information, but republicans certainly trying to make this an example of bidens lack of leadership on the world stage, and again, pressuring him for action on that balloon right now. >> so ambassador locke, let me let you jump in on that, right. when you are considering this pressure that you are seeing from some of these lawmakers on the republican side of the aisle, on president biden, and on the defense secretary here, do you believe thats warranted? is it politics? is it a little of bot...

China balloon incident lends a backdrop to the president of the union speech just a couple of days ago. on my reporting, a lot of people on both sides of the aisle are interested in what he says about china and his tone. >> you know as well as anybody the president right now is making final decisions about whether to run again in 2024. he has one potential challenger in the former president donald trump saying hell run. he posted shoot down the balloon on his twitter like posts as well, of cours...

The Secretary of State cancelled a trip to Beijing. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made a meme. D.C. is obsessed with the "civilian airship."

What is correct is irrelevant, what is important is what the chinese are thinking and we are acting feebly with regard to the balloon. >> go ahead. >> that is exactly right, mr. gordon chang, what do you predict will be said when and if president biden makes a public statement? >> i think he probably will say condemn this move, but probably wont do anything substantive. im glad they are not sending the secretary of state to beijing, if biden want to impose cost, first thing ask blinken to go to ...

Options but not going into further specifics. thank you. >> considering that this is a surveillance balloon as you said, does it have ability to collect very sensitive data, given that it flies over nuclear sites in the state of montana? >> yeah. so again, im not going to get into intelligence. you know, as we mentioned in our statement last night, once the balloon was detected, we acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information and ill just leave it at that. thank y...