0 a little further detail on that, the decision was made this morning he just revealed, asked when did the president give the order to shoot it down? this morning. >> john: talk about burying the lede, talks about all of this other stuff, and then a reporter says, oh, by the way, did you shoot something down? oh, yes. here are the details. my gosh. >> martha: grade to be with you come have a great weekend. i'm sandra smith. >> martha: elsey and monday, thank you for joining us, "the story" with martha continues to breaking news. >> it's actually a trace, good afternoon, and trace gallagher in for martha maccallum, "the story" is a bombshell as we can train new breaking news, about to go to the pentagon as a white house confirms a "high altitude object was shot down over alaska today. though there is no confirmation on who owns the object. we don't know if it is state owned or corporate owns, we just don't know that right now, mainly because we spotted this thing at night. in a moment, republican congressman jim banks who sits on the armed services committee and general jack keane will join us, but first, for the very latest on the breaking news let's bring in lucas tomlinson to give us a run down. lucas, you know a lot about these types of objects, these airborne objects, would you make of the breaking news? >> well, trace, we have learned moments ago, the white house hang the u.s. military has shot down an object flying at 40,000 feet over u.s. territory waters over northern alaska in just the last hour. john kirby said it was a fighter jet that down the object over alaska on the orders a president biden today. the debris is sitting on frozen water in the or take over northern alaska trace and he said this is a much smaller object to them previous by craft that was shot down last saturday. this one is about the size of a small car, john kirby just said. he also said no significant payload, keep in mind last weekend, the payload about 2,00y craft, he says that the object was shot shot down because it was a flight issue, because u.s. civilian airliners are flying a 40,000 feet and saying the object did not appear to maneuver like the spy balloon that the u.s. shut down last week off the coast of south carolina. >> trace: i want to go back to the breaking news said that john kirby standby, we will get back to you. >> the prime minister told president putin to stop the war, and they said, this is not the way and will go like this, and with think that there is still time for him to stop the war? with president putin? >> i think that there is still time for mr. pruden to stop the war -- i think there is still time for mr. putin to stop the war prayed i will let the prime minister stop don't make speak to whatever efforts he wi. but i want to stress it again, doyle. currently the united states would welcome any effort that could lead to an end of hostilities in ukraine. that are in keeping with the president zelenskyy's objectives. and his leadership, his determination of what is acceptable to the ukrainian people. nothing about ukraine without ukraine. sue president biden has said this gosh, dozens of times. we think that this work could end today, should end today. the single person responsible for what the ukrainian people are going through his vladimir putin. and he could stop it right now. instead, he is firing cruise missiles into energy and power infrastructure and trying to knock out the lights in the heat so the ukrainian people suffer even more than they already have, he could end it right now. and since he is not willing to do that, clearly, we have to make sure that we can help ukrainian succeed on the battlefield, so that when president zelenskyy determines its times to negotiate, and he is the only one who can make the determination, he can do it with the strongest hand possible. >> 1.54 billion people in and r are ready to welcome the next trip. >> other than what was talked about, i don't have any trouble to announce. >> now for the boring part of the briefing. >> trace: with the pentagon briefing should start any moment now, we will get more information on this object to that was flying over alaska and that was shot down somewhere near alaska and the canadian border on the northeastern side of the continent. we want to bring in joe concha, media and politics columnist and fox news contributor. your thoughts on how this was handled primarily, it was not brought up as hate, we have breaking news and want to notify you, it was a question asked and then the pentagon grabbed the paper, john kirby, rather not the pentagon, former spokesperson picked up the paper and said, oh, by the way, we want to confirm we did shoot down an object, we don't know what the object was at a certain time because we were concerned about air traffic or the certain time in the morning because we were concerned about air traffic coming your thoughts? >> right, trace, in this object we are told was shot down hours ago. in the white house decided not to say anything about it. and as you just said, john kirby, that's the lead. you get up to that podium and that should be your first announcement and you should be proactive in getting that information to the press and not wait for question to be asked by a reporter in terms of uncovering this. so it is interesting that we were told last week, trace, that that spy balloon that flew across the country could not be shut down as it approached alaska, our airspace or was over alaska or montana or other rural areas, could not shoot that down because it was a threat to civilians on the ground, but now with the latest object over northern alaska, the president ordered to shoot this down without hesitation it appears. it's a lot more questions than answers, no question. >> trace: just to give a timeline, so we are clear, and then you bring up a very good point which is if the question was not asked to during the white house briefing, would the subject have been brought up? i mean, that's a key thing, if you don't lead and have the information going into the news conference, if the question was not asked by somebody, and we don't know what to put this person got to ask the question, with the subject have been brought out? and secondly, we learned during this news conference that to the president found out about this last night. so he waited at least the better part of ten, 11, maybe 12 hours before making the decision to shoot this down. they had fighter jets that went up there, they were close enough to this object, again, he wants a balloon or anything else, close enough to know that it was unmanned. they got close enough to see that there was nobody inside this object, but not close enough apparently to decipher exactly what this object is or was. >> right, and trace, this is still as clear as mud, so what kind of object was this? was it a drone? wasn't an unmanned aircraft? was it a balloon? it's amazing john kirby ran from the podium and now we see karine jean-pierre up there instead. and i'm sure that she won't be able to answer any questions about this, which is kind of the thing with her when it comes to any tough question. but overall, was this going to be a major breach of our sovereignty again? and who sent this aircraft? i would imagine china is number one in terms of if you were to guess given their history around these things, but we don't know much right now, and to your point, i have a feeling that this would not have been broached if that reporter did not ask mr. kirby when he did. i think they would've moved on with other things. to be on standby if you would come i want to bring in lucas tomlinson again, who covered the pentagon and still covers for many years also former military, good at these things, luke, as you know the inside game, it seems to me like we are not getting the whole story. it seems to me like it was brought up because a question was asked. it was told to us that we had fighter jets that got close enough to the object where they could see that it was unmanned and then he says it was night, so it was hard to tell what the object was, but we knew that there was nobody on it, so it was okay to shoot down. but it seems like the information is kind of coming in and john kirby was answering on the fly, what is your take away of what you saw today? >> it is notable that "the new york times" actually first reported on the shoot down just minutes before, i even texted jacqui heinrich, our colleague at the white house about the shoot down and one of the questions in the briefing like joe just said was not part of the top or off the top, and a question was asked about the shoot down, john kirby did have a prepared statement, it's very notable they are calling this an object, not a spy craft or spy balloon. it's notable that unlike the last balloon that was shot over the aleutian islands and southwest alaska, this was shot over the floor area of northeast alaska along the border with canada near the artech and is notable that kirby said it was shot down over frozen waters, they are hoping to recover some of this, and also interesting that john kirby did not say which country this came from that it was just a big mystery. in this object was much different in the spy craft shot down over south carolina last saturday. much smaller about the size of a small car and did not have the large payload, certainly going to be a scramble straight from the former defense chief stating they are scrambling to reach the debris, gather as much, and the conditions will be tough in northern alaska on the middle of the winter, trace. spin on my second question would be if you know there is no payload, you know there are no people on board this thing, how do you not know what it is? i mean, you know, it is small enough, you can't tell me what country it is from? you can't tell me if it is corporate or state owned, but you can tell me there is not a significant payload on this thing, how would one decipher that from a fighter jet at 40,000 feet being maybe a couple of thousand feet away from this. >> just peer size, f-22, and more space in alaska, so plenty of aircraft, they launch routinely to intercept the bear bombers over near alaska, supplying nearby and taking photos and sending us back and having and analyzed in the fact that it was discovered last evening, certainly many hours that went by because it was a immovable object traveling the size of a small car, but traveling at the same speed, they were able to do some estimated positioning if you will, so it was found much farther west and was traveling east. >> trace: lucas standby, let's bring in house armed service committee republican jim banks of indiana, congressman, thank you so much for coming on. i want to know what you make of this and if it is china sending this object, maybe not a balloon, but an object over, still waiting for the pentagon briefing when it starts, we will go to it. if, in fact, this was china, what do you make of that and what is going on? >> well, first of all it is good news that they are on alert now and they spotted this object as it flew into the u.s. airspace, it still begs the question why they weren't on alert last week when the spy balloon flew into the air space for many hours before the public was made aware of it and they were made aware of it because people were looking up in the sky and saw it. so we don't know enough about the new object, but we can assume that it probably is -- has been sent by the chinese and this president for two years has shown so much weakness towards the chinese, now is the time to act, let them know we will not stand. >> trace: let me pause you right here, here is the pentagon briefing. >> first of all to add to information already provided earlier by the white house at the direction of the president of the united states, fighter aircraft assigned to u.s. northern command successfully took down a high altitude airborne object off the northern coast of alaska at 1:45:00 p.m. eastern standard time today with any u.s. sovereign airspace over u.s. sovereign water, the command detected an object on ground radar, further investigated, and identify the object using fighter aircraft. the object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet imposed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flights. u.s. northern command is beginning recovery operations now. u.s. northern command's alaska command, coordinated the operation with assistance from the alaska international guard, federal aviation administration and the federal bureau of investigation. we have no further details about the object at this time including any description of its capabilities, purpose, or urgent. the object was the size of a small car, so not similar in size or shape to the high altitude surveillance balloon that was taken down off the c cow coast of south carolina on february 4. separately u.s. northern command continues to recovery operations in support of the recent takedown of the chinese high altitude surveillance balloon, recovery teams have mapped the debris fields and are in the process of searching for and identifying debris on the ocean floor. the debris that has been recovered so far as being loaded on the vessels, taken ashore, catalogued, and moved onwards for subsequent analysis, but i won't go into specifics due to classification reasons, i can say we have located a significant amount of debris so far that will prove helpful to the further understanding of this balloon and it surveillance capabilities. of note, due to less than favorable see states right now, teams will continue to conduct underwater survey and recovery as conditions permit. the department wants to thank the interagency partners from the u.s. coast guard, the fbi, state and local authorities for their continuing assistance and partnership. in other news, and i think that this is important that we remember a lot of folks and people in turkey and syria are suffering we want to express our support for the people of turkey and syria as they respond to the deadly earthquakes that struck their earlier this week. in support of ongoing u.s. assistance efforts spearheaded by the u.s. agency for international development coming u.s. european command has position personnel and equipment and a range of assets to aid government of turkey and its continued search and rescue efforts, this includes george wh bush carrier strike to the eastern mediterranean sea to provide logistics, medical, and rotary airlift support if required. additionally u.s. army aircraft began flying missions out of the airbase on february 7th to transport first responders to the most effective populations, and on february eighth, blackhawks transported civilians to a medical facility. u.s. european command has designated u.s. full civil forces europe and africa as the lead component command overseeing the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts within turkey. to aid in that determination, general andrew pretty, u.s. naval amphibious forces extradition theory per grade arrived february 9th to lead military coordination efforts with u.s. agencies involved in the humanitarian aid and disaster relief efforts. we will continue to provide you with updates as we receive them coming uconn will be issuing a press release with further details, but again, we offer our thoughts and prayers to the people of turkey and syria during this tragic and difficult time. and finally, secretary austin welcomed a bilaterally meeting here today, the secretary express his thanks for the cooperation rendered by canada in altitude surveillance balloon that violated the sovereignty of both of our countries, during the meeting they reaffirm the close defense relationship between the united states and canada and it will be available later today on the defense side, and with that i will take your questions, will start with associated press. >> hi, thank you for doing this, a couple of questions on the latest shoot down, first, what type of u.s. fighter aircraft was used and what type of munition did they fire, and do you already have navy assets or coast guard assets outs involved in a recovery process? and then i have a few more. >> thank you. so the aircraft that took down the object was an f22 flying outs of joint base elmendorf and alaska, and employed in a nynex to take down the object. in terms of assets that are currently involved in terms of recovery, we have hc 1:30, hh c, and hc3 aircraft participating in that effort. >> you mentioned there was a reasonable threat, was there also a threat to potentially this object detecting some of our more sensitive radar capabilities that are based in alaska? and then, what has him and said it is where this object has come from, is there any indication that this was also a chinese surveillance balloon object, whatever it is? >> at this point, we don't know the origin of the object, again, we will know more once we are able to potentially recover some of those materials, but the primary concern again was the potential hazard to civil flight and so, again, we will know more later. thank you. >> a perceived threat to any of the radar installations we have based in alaska? >> again, right now we will know more once we assess it, but we'll just leave it at that, thank you. liz. >> thank you. thanks for taking my question. what made this threatening enough to shoot down? what is different about this object in the last object to that was over alaska, because it was chosen not to shoot the last one down over alaska? >> so the important thing to understand here is any time we detect anything, we are going to first of all observe it and then make a decision and take appropriate action, so you have to look at each individual case on its own merits, and this particular case given the fact that it was operating at an altitude that posed a reasonable threat to civilian air traffic in the determination was made and the president gave the order to take it down. >> was there a specific threat of air traffic incident that could've happened? >> again, as you well know, civilian aircraft operates at a variety of ranges up to 40-4500a reasonable concern that this could present a threat to two or potential hazard to civilian air traffic. >> has secretary austin reached out to his chinese counterpart or any other counterparts at all since this has been tracked? >> since this particular object? no, we go here and then i will come over more. >> from the previous balloon has been covered, what information do you have about the capabilities of the bloom. >> we are continuing to assess that, i can't go into more detail other than learning a lot about the ballooning capability said it has while it was over the continental united states, we have identified or located a significant amount of debris on the ocean floor that will be very beneficial to us learning more about it, but at this point in time i'm not going to have more details. >> and the balloons indicated that they are all manufactured in china, so it is from china? >> again, i won't have details at this point in time. >> but 39 other countries have indicated they have seen balloons in their territories, showing those information from the pentagon to these countries or the capabilities of how you shut them down? >> in terms of what we are learning about the balloons come i know the state department has talked about this in outreach certainly, the department of defense plays a role in those relationships and so we will continue to work with our allies and partners to share information along with our state department colleagues. i will go to lauren. >> two questions, first of the object show any signs of maneuverability or propulsion anyone other pentagon officials made a big deal about how much intelligence was gathered by letting the other one flowed across much of the united states, and you shut this one down be