it was a good week. and thanks to you at home for joining us. as you are probably aware there is a balloon in the sky. it is a big balloon, about the size of two school buses according to the pentagon. it traveled from china, to the solution islands of alaska late last week, through the northwest canada, until finally being spotted somewhere over montana on wednesday. chinese officials said that the balloon was a civilian air ship used mainly for weather research and that it had just been instantly innocently been blown off course. the pentagon says that they are confident that it is a surveillance balloon. you know? for spying. flying at about 60,000 feet above ground and moving eastward across the continental u.s.. the pentagon has yet to confirm the balloons latest citing but the national weather service in kansas city and kansas city, missouri, said earlier that they have several reports of a large balloon on the horizon, and that the balloon is not one of their weather b
it is a big balloon, about the size of two school buses according to the pentagon. it traveled from china, to the solution islands of alaska late last week, through the northwest canada, until finally being spotted somewhere over montana on wednesday. chinese officials said that the balloon was a civilian air ship used mainly for weather research and that it had just been instantly innocently been blown off course. the pentagon says that they are confident that it is a surveillance balloon. you know? for spying. flying at about 60,000 feet above ground and moving eastward across the continental u.s.. the pentagon has yet to confirm the balloons latest citing but the national weather service in kansas city and kansas city, missouri, said earlier that they have several reports of a large balloon on the horizon, and that the balloon is not one of their weather balloons. in neighboring kansas senator roger marshall said the balloon was above his state. the pentagon has yet to con
the military base in afghanistan, there is some chance you may have seen a military balloon covering that military base. it s no big secret there. closer in assets like a balloon might be able to show, which is why, sometimes, when you see pictures of our bases abroad, you might see a balloon tethered and observing what is happening below. were you surprised that the secretary of state, tony blinken, postponed his trip to china? i think, presumably over this incident. and how do you read the postponement of that? i was not surprised and i was actually pleased. i think that s actually exactly the right response. there has to be a response because we don t want to see chinese assets hovering over the united states on a regular basis. so, i think a regular response is necessary. as i said a couple of times, we hope we get our hands on this, on this particular piece of equipment. i think that ought to be technologically feasible. i d rather get my hands on it then picking up burnt
as i said in the very beginning, it will surprise nobody to know that both china and the united states and russia and north korea and great britain and france and pretty much every other country on the planet works hard to figure out ways to collect intelligence on their potential enemies. and so, without going too far down the path i can t go down exactly what we are researching and looking into of course, of course. we are exploring whatever technologies that might give us an. it that s a responsibility as people concerned with national security. and by the way, if you ve ever seen a photo of, for example, the military base in afghanistan, there is some chance you may have seen a military balloon covering that military base. it s no big secret there. closer in assets like a balloon might be able to show, which is why, sometimes, when you see pictures of our bases abroad, you might see a balloon tethered and observing what is happening below. were you surprised that the secret