Likely have grave consequences to our national security posture. and the briefing confirmed that. it essentially confirmed two things pete, what the chinese did two months ago with that spy craft was unprecedented. an unprecedented violation of sovereign u.s. air space that our country has never seen and two that it was deliberate. a dedicated spy mission as you said to go over sensitive sites. icbm at mall strom, the home of us strategic command, home of the btwo bomber, the oak ridge national laboratories, the port of south carolina, which just for comparison, you know, south carolina seven military bases there and that port there would be the airlift and sea lift logistical mission support and distribution center should china decide to move on taiwan our ability to support and defend taiwan would be critical. if that wasn t bad enough, pete, since this happened two things
Now, i can tell you on sunday, several vessels, large and small, were out on the water presumably for this operation which is expected to take days. we re told recovery efforts began not long after the balloon was shot down by f-22 fighter jet. debris went crash into the atlantic. the suspected spy balloon originated in china and floated for at least a week through the continental u.s. with a brief conversation into canada before it eventually ended up off the coast of south carolina. the balloon passed over at least five sensitive u.s. military sites including mall strom air force base in montana home to one of the nation s three nuclear missile silos. chinese spy balloon one flew over portions of texas and florida while president trump was in office. a senior biden administration telling fox news in a statement,
This was, this was not a disaster for the united states, but this is no great win either because, as you point out, they saw a lot of stuff over mall strom air force base in montana, perhaps whiteman in missouri and god knows what they saw after going past missouri. so this is not a good story. on balance, this is we did not acquit ourselves well. arthel: so if this band of bad actors is working inen concert in concert, how do we take control and direct this musical the way we need it to resonate with the world? we need to have a big win somewhere, because the chinese are watching ukraine, the russians are watching what just occurred. i believe that the best way to deter xi jinping over taiwan or india or japan or the philippines is to make sure that ukraine wins. yes, that s dangerous.
We should president expect anything less. this was the most severe version of it i think we ve seen. i think it s a mistake to view the speech as a reset. i think it was a reaffirmation of his determination to redefine the republican party as a populist, nationalist party built around the white working class, but it was the most effective presentation of that argument that we have seen. it s an argument that has limits. as he show, it has some real power as well. then to go from that directly into the mall strom of the russia to story with another senior official being forced to acknowledge that at the least he misled congress and the public about his contact with russia shows that that s not going anywhere. the president made a choice, took to twitter once again, attacked the democrats, said this is about sour grapes about the election. he went out on a limb about what sessions meant and said and that he s honest, before we know all the facts of the situation. by doing that, he stoked what is the political dynamic here.
Joining us is the author of nuclear nightmares securing the world before it is too late. you were the man i wanted to talk to today when i shrieked at my desk when i saw this headline. is this problem getting worse, the way it feels like it is getting worse? or are more people getting caught for something that shouldn t be more alarming than it used to be? it is getting worse, rachel. there s a reason that one of the top commanders released a statement a few months ago when this first came to light that there was a rot in the nuclear command structure. in 2007 .we had the incident at minot air fort base north dakota where we lost track of six nuclear missiles for 36 hours. nuclear cruise missiles. now we have this cheating and drug scandal at mall strom. minot was strike one. malmstrom is strike two. i m fearful of what strike three looks like.