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First, there is a risk to what is on the ground. facilities and people on the ground, even if it is montana and is not densely populated. but the pentagon says they dont believe it has intelligence gathering capabilities, what a satellite communications above what chinese satellites already have. in the end the decision was made not to shoot it down, but the pentagon emphasized that should they determine this is a high risk, they do retain that option of essentially shooting this surveillance ba...

So much for joining us. so how concerned should americans be about the possibility of war breaking out with china? the fact that the u.s. defense secretary traveled to the philippines to formally increase military capabilities there. what does that signal? >> it signals that the relationship with china remains very tense and obviously the secretary of state, tony blinken, is going to be going there this week. that will give us a further sense of just how tense the relationship is. but it is pret...

Satellites over the u.s. after 90 minutes as they orbit the earth and they have at least equal surveillance capabilities. they are highly advanced. in terms of what china could gather from this balloon, not an enormous step forward. and we should note this. this is something to be concerned about, is that china is one of the most active in terms of launching new satellites. just look at the growth going back six single digits in the 2000s, now up close to 100 per year. the only other country com...

Peninsula and then force putin to negotiate in earnest, like the director of central intelligence said, he is not serious yet. he will absolutely get serious when crimea is under threat and the ukrainians liberate more territory. the sooner we get there, the less chance of escalation and less risk to spill over into a confrontation with nato. >> you think the u.s. should send the fighter jets? >> we should be training the ukrainians on fighter jets. if we keep saying that it takes months and mon...

Over this? >> i think its very concerning. if you have surveillance of particularly our military assets by a country that is the greatest threat right now to the united states, along with russia, who has, you know, surveillance 90 miles from the shores in cuba. >> this is a concern. and i think this this is why we have established a bipartisan basis the select committee on china to try to drill down on these issues to make us better prepared for the future. its about them knowing about our milit...

Bring it down a little bit and then the chinese have this balloon flying in the area that makes it impossible for the secretary of state to go. >> if youre still at the nsc, how would you advise the biden administration moving forward, victor? >> i still they still have to keep their eye on the ball. continue to deal with this question of how the ukraine war is affecting chinas designs on taiwan, improve capabilities of all the allies in the region. thats chinas threat, thats what we have to foc...

Or sometimes you go prepared to give a very, very strong statement of china violating our sovereignty. there are different ways to approach it. it depends on the broader dynamics. i think the pentagon made a good move with regard to expanding access to philippine bases. h and its very good that we have done that because it allows us to address military -- chinese military capabilities in case war breaks out. >> so you think -- >> in the indo-pacific. >> do you think blinken should cancel his tri...

The general made it clear that the duration of this balloon hovering over the u.s. is why they made it public. why do you -- what do you think is the intelligence significance of this? do you accept their argument that they believe, without having hands on, that this is not a military or intelligence threat more so than the average chinese satellite? >> i think theres been an intensive intelligence collection. i think that the intelligence community is trying to assess what the capabilities are....

Going to pose some threat, and the more likely one is going to be a threat to aerial navigation, then they have to discuss on the contingency basis how to take it down, and they should consult with the chinese, and tell them, and keep them fully inform and be transparent about it, but in the meantime, since it is not posing a direct threat, and not a hazard to navigation, and just watch it, and see where it goes. >> according to the pentagon, this is not the first time that a balloon like this h...

Chinese statement. i tons it is unprecedented, and they dont express regret for anything, but if you are looking at what and what is it doing, because i am surprised by the statements that we have heard from the administration coming out over the last 24 hours are dismissive of the capabilities of this airship, and it means that not has what is potentially a collection gold mine for the united states. i saw secretary esper talking about this earlier on cnn and i agree with him wholeheartedly, th...