0 president lula has to make. >> reporter: i wanted to follow up on a question i asked in september. in light of the chinese spy balloon incident does this administration consider chinese land purchases near u.s. military bases a national security threat? >> we are always concerned about potential foreign collection near or around our military sites, and you're right, last week is a good example of that. we take that seriously, whether that's terrestrial related or whether it's from the air. and i think i'll just leave it at that. >> reporter: would you work with congress to put in place legislation to prevent that -- >> we are always willing to work with congress to address our national security interests and threats as best we can. >> reporter: real quick, is there a time line for recovery of this object? >> you would have to talk to the pentagon. i don't know, guys, this just happened within the last hour and a half, and they're still assessing where this thing landed and the degree to which they can get to it. >> reporter: the president is going to meet with leaders of the eastern flight nato countries. are other european leaders, nato leaders expected to join the president on the trip. >> we're putting the agenda together. the predominant reason to meet with them, the bucharest nine is to talk to the nations who are literally on the eastern flank of the nato alliance, i can't rule in or rule out there will be additional attendees. >> reporter: back to lula, is there going to be any commitments to the amazon fund by the united states during this? >> let's have the visit occur here shortly, and we'll provide you a readout. i don't have anything specific on that. >> reporter: so, john, the u.s. special presidential coordinator for global and infrastructure energy is in angola, so he met with president lorenzo, can you elaborate a little more on this visit. >> i don't have any information on that. we'll take the question and see if we can get you a better answer. >> reporter: was the president briefed on the object last night when the track first came to the administration's attention? >> he was. as soon as the pentagon had enough information, they did. >> reporter: thank you, madame, thank you, john. as far as russia's war against ukraine is concerned, one year now, did president believe that when prime minister modi of india told president putin to stop the war, and you think there's still time for prime minister modi to stop the war or president putin? >> i think there's still time for mr. putin to stop the war. i think there's still time for mr. putin to stop the war. >> and mr. modi can convince? >> i'll let the prime minister speak to whatever efforts he's willing to undertake. i want to stress it again, certainly the united states would welcome any effort that could lead to an end of hostilities in ukraine. that's in keeping with president zelenskyy's objectives and his leadership, his determination of what is acceptable to the ukrainian people. nothing about ukraine without ukraine. so president biden has said this, gosh, dozens of times. we think this war could end today, should end today. the single person responsible for what the ukrainian people are going through is vladimir putin. and he could stop it right now. instead, he's firing cruise missiles into energy and power infrastructure, and trying to knock out the lights and knock out the heat so the ukrainian people suffer even more than they already have. he could end it right now. and since he's not willing to do that, clearly, we've got to make sure that we can help the ukrainians succeed on the battlefield, so that when president zelenskyy determines it's time to negotiate, and he's the only one that can make that determination, he can do it with the strongest hand possible. >> reporter: 4 billion people in india are waiting for president biden to welcome, when is the next trip? >> i don't have any information on travel. >> now for the boring part of the briefing. we just have a few minutes, guys, we don't have a lot of time. let me go over the week ahead. >> you see it on the box in the small corner of your screen there, the pentagon set to brief reporters and the nation on the extraordinary information that was announced from the podium at the white house that the u.s. military has shot down what's being described as an unidentified object over alaska, just within about the last 90 minutes or so. they're not calling it a balloon. nobody is saying it is a balloon. they are saying it was traveling at an altitude, high enough, that made it a potential threat to planes in the sky, civilian planes in the sky. you heard from john kirby of the national security council saying president biden ordered the military to shoot this down out of an abundance of caution. courtney kube is with us, along with allie raffa, "new york times" white house correspondent, and msnbc political analyst, peter nicholas, along with retired four star general, barry mccaffrey, an msnbc military analyst. let me start with what we know, and what we do not know yet about this object. we know it was spotted in the last 24 hours. it was taken down, we think, roughly 1:30 eastern in the range between 1:30 eastern and right now, 3:00 eastern. president biden ordered it to be shot down. there is an expectation that because the debris ended up on frozen water basically, they can recover some of that, it is much smaller than that chinese surveillance balloon. they're not even saying when we talked about what we don't know who owned this object, where it came from, and they don't know the purpose of it. not calling it chinese, not calling it a balloon either. presumably, and you heard john kirby reference this a couple of times, more details could come from the pentagon briefing set to start truly any minute. >> a couple of things i know will get asked at the pentagon briefing whether we get the details or not is tbd. one is what kind of air craft was used. what kind of missile was used or how was it brought down, shot down, and then i think we'll get more questions, detail about what this object was. one of the big differences here that i suspect was one of the determining factors for the pentagon recommending to president biden to take this out was the altitude it was flying at, somewhere around 40,000 feet. that gets into a potential problem for commercial and military aircraft. the difference between the chinese spy balloon we have been talking about for the past week and a half, that was more in the 60 to 65,000 feet range. it didn't present a direct threat to aircraft. that's a big difference here. also one thing i'm sure will get asked at the pentagon briefing. if this went down on frozen water, that's a different impact. they may be able to recover stuff. if there was some sort of a structure in it that could be broken, falling from 40,000 feet, it may not be recoverable in that they may not be able to determine exactly what was it. i know we'll get those kinds of questions. whether we get the answers, just by virtue of the fact that this all has happened in the last 90 minutes or so. we'll see. >> general mccaffrey, can i ask you this, the white house is being careful not to call it a balloon. we know it's the size of a small car, seen at 40,000 feet altitude. what could be it be? what are the possibilities that are out there based on your expertise here? >> i assume it's a balloon. i assume it came out of either russia or china. the fact that it was smaller means it potentially could be just a metro device, not an intelligence device. it was easily shot down. i think the key question for us to find out is was it chinese? was it launched subsequent to the last balloon being identified, meaning they were ignoring u.s. feedback. the whole notion of the previous shoot down was the unbelievable brazenness of collecting intelligence in a manner that was easily could be discovered by the united states. so we got to be concerned. what is going on in china. is the people's liberation army and the intelligence services out of control? disease xi still have control of his own forces? >> peter, the significance of whatever the answers are to those two questions that the general just laid out, tell us a lot, right? they have a major impact on the geopolitical drama here. was it china and when was whatever this was launched, and the answers to those two questions are going to tell us a whole lot about what, for example, secretary of state tony blinken is going to have to do over the course of the next several weeks, how the president is going to handle this, et cetera. >> that's exactly right. look, the biden administration, after the first balloon was hoping to keep the relationship from rupturing for too long. you know, they had to cancel the meeting that secretary blinken was going to have in beijing. they had to shoot down the balloon, issue protests. there were hopes they could keep it from escalating. if china has sent a second object, and we don't know that they have, but if they have, that's the question general mccaffrey has asked, that's a different beast. if we know they have done so, deliberately knowing what has happened, that seemed particularly brazen, provocative and hostile. it changes the whole diplomatic dynamic if that's the case. still a big if. could be completely different. those are the questions you're going to hear at the briefing. the questions u.s. policy makers are going to ask themselves. >> general mccaffrey, peter is saying, and listen, we don't know the answers to these questions. we're asking them. we're in the position to ask them live on television as we wait for the pentagon briefing here. one of the key points will be where did this balloon come from. if not china, would the next likeliest option be russia? what else or who else could be behind this? >> the thing that jumped out at me is a much smaller device at much lower altitude was picked up at norad. i imagine after the first balloon outrage that they went back and relocked their censure package, if they're airborne or ground based to try and pick up on future softer, higher, slower, flying objects. obviously they have solved the problem. they found it at night out over the ocean. pretty remarkable. so that's another thing that we are obviously changing the dynamics or intelligence surveillance. >> the timing of this is notable too. they did not wait. there was no waiting for this object to drift over the continental u.s., for example, or to see where it might drift at this point. they took action, it sounds like, they found out about it very quickly. >> that's right. and i will say, another question we should be asking is there any closure of airspace, given the nature of where it was flying, the altitude, and remember, i'm not saying this is a sign of who was behind this object, but remember the balloon last week flew down over the aleutians, it's very plausible this was on a similar track to the one that we just saw last week. another question that we'll be asking. another big difference here, the balloon from last week, we were told the u.s. was tracking it prior to this. >> the pentagon briefing is about to begin. we're going to listen in and hear anything more on these answers. >> 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 p.m. eastern standard time today within u.s. sovereign airspace over u.s. territorial water. on february 9, north american aerospace defense command detected an object on ground radar and further investigated and identified the object using fighter aircraft. the object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of the civilian flight. u.s. northern command is beginning recovery operations now. u.s. northern command's alaska command coordinated the operation with assistance from the alaska air national 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 origin. the object was about the size of a small car, not similar in size or shape to the high altitude surveillance balloon taken down off the coast of south carolina. northern command continues their recovery operations in report of the surveillance balloon. recovery teams have mapped the debris field and are in the process of searching for and identifying debris on the ocean floor. debris that's been recovered so far is being loaded on to vessels, taken ashore, cataloged and then moved on wards to labs for subsequent analysis. and why i won't go into specifics due to classification reasons, i can say that we have located a significant amount of debris so far that will improve helpful to our further understanding of this balloon and surveillance capabilities. of note, due to less than favorable sea states right now, teams will continue to conduct underwater survey and recovery as conditions permit. the department wants to thank our inner agency partners from the u.s. coast guard, fbi, and state and local authorities. in other news, i think this is important that we remember a lot of folks, people in turkey and syria right now are suffering. we want to, again, express our support for the people of turkey and syria as they respond to the deadly earthquakes that struck there earlier this week. in support of ongoing u.s. assistance efforts, spearheaded by the u.s. agency for international development, u.s. european command has positioned personnel, equipment and a range of assets to aid the government of turkey in its continues search and rescue efforts, includes the u.s. navy's george h.w. bush carrier strike group, to provide logistics, medical, and rotary air lift support. to transport first responders to the most affected populations and on february 8th, uh-60 black hawks transported injured civilians to a local medical facility. u.s. european command has designated u.s. naval forces europe and africa as the lead component command overseeing the disaster relief efforts. to aid in that coordination, u.s. marine corps brigadier general, u.s. naval amphibious forces europe commander and commanding general arrived in turkey february 9 to lead military coordination efforts with u.s. agencies involved in the humanitarian aid and disaster relief efforts. we'll continue to provide you with updates as we receive them. issuing a press release with further details. we offer our thoughts and prayers to the people of turkey and syria during this tragic and difficult time. . the secretary expressed his thanks and appreciation to minister anon to the cooperation, in the surveillance balloon that violated the sovereignty of both countries. during the meeting, they reaffirm ld the close defense relationship between the united states and canada and a readout will be available later today in defense.gov. i'll take your questions. we'll start with associated press. >> reporter: thank you for doing this. a couple of questions on the latest shoot down. first, what type of u.s. fighter aircraft were used and what type of munition did they fire? do you already have navy assets or coast guard assets out involved in a recovery process, and i have a few more? >> thanks, tara. so the aircraft that took down the object was an f-22, it employed an a9x to take down the object. in terms of assets that are currently involved, in terms of recovery, we have hc130, hh 60 and ch 37 aircraft participating in that recovery effort. >> reporter: 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 hasn't been said 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're able to potentially recover some of those materials. but the primary concern, again, was the potential hazard to civil flight. again, we'll know more later. >> the perceived threat to any of the radar installations that we have based in alaska? >> again, right now, we'll know more once we assess it. we'll just leave it at that. thank you. liz. >> reporter: thanks for taking my question. what made this threatening enough to shoot down? what is different about this object than the last object that was over alaska because it was chosen not to shoot the last one down over alaska? >> so, you know, the important thing to understand here, anytime we detect anything, we're 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. in this particular case, given the factual that it was operating at an altitude that posed a reasonable threat to air traffic, the determination was made and the president gave the order to take it down. >> reporter: was there a specific threat or specific air civilian traffic that could have happened? >> as you know, civilian air traffic operate at a variety of ranges up to 40 to 45,000 feet. there was a reasonable concern that this could present a threat to or potential hazard to civilian air traffic. >> reporter: has secretary austin reached out to his chinese counter part or any other counter parts at all since this has been tracked? >> since this particular object, no. let me go here, and then i'll come over to lauren. >> reporter: previous balloon had been recovered, what additional information you have now about the capabilities of that balloon? >> yeah, so we're continue to go assess that. again, i'm not able to go into more detail other than in addition to learning a lot about the balloon and the capabilities that 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. >> manufacturing label on these or the balloons indicated that they are manufactured in china? >> i'm not going to have details to provide at this time. >> reporter: other countries have indicated they have seen balloons in their territories. sharing information from the pentagon to these countries, are the capabilities who how you shot them down? >> the state department has talked to this in terms of our international outreach. the department of defense plays a role in those relationships. we will continue to work with our allies and partners to share information along with our state department colleagues. let me go to warren. >> reporter: two questions, first did this object show signs of maneuverability or propulsion, and you made a big deal about how much intelligence was gather bid letting the other one float across much of the united states, and let you shot this one down before it entered the united states, is that the pentagon bowing to political pressure? was there nothing to gain from this one? >> so again, we're going to judge each of these on its merits. no indication at this time that it was maneuverable. but again, we'll know more. and in terms of entering the united states, it did enter u.s. airspace, and we took it down. >> reporter: did you gain intelligence from this as you did the previous one? >> we're going to recover what we can and more to follow. >> reporter: was the decision to take it down before it entered too far in u.s. airspace, the pentagon bowing to political will? >> we're going to judge each object on its own merits, it entered in u.s. air face. we set up aircr