so i think the president made a very clear and decisive decision in asking the military to take it out as soon as possible, and they advised that the best time to do it was when it was over water. >> let me just ask you one quick follow-up question to some of this reporting that this may have occurred -- appears to have occurred during the trump administration as well. we just didn't know about it. it sounds as though maybe lawmakers weren't told about it, and there might have been national security officials in the trump administration who didn't know about it. is it plausible the pentagon would not have told then-president trump about something like that? >> well, i would think that over the course of his presidency, because of the presidential daily briefing and other intelligence briefings, that the president would have a pretty good idea about china's intelligence surveillance of the united states. so i would think that over those four years, he would have a good understanding about how exactly china was gathering information about the united states. >> and let me ask you about some of the political back-and-forth