security analyst for nbc news and msnbc, our friend clint watts. thanks for being here. let s talk about this balloon. we know that chinese and other countries have spy satellites, drones. but why balloons? what could it be used for and what could they glean from it? i don t think we know why they went this route. as we ve seen from many reports, the chinese satellite could probably do everything a balloon can do, at least from an imagery standpoint. i think that s one of the curiosities we ll hopefully get clearance on. was it being used to measure or do some form of intelligence collection other than just straight imagery? in the intelligence community it s known as signature. is there some reason they needed to use a balloon rather than a satellite because it s kind of a very old-fashioned way to do
implications they may have had. maybe they have none at all maybe there historical curiosities. that there are logout for president biden s many mansions as offices or like fences home as well. maybe there is damage we have to see the documents to make that assessment. i will say chairman mike warner and rubio haven t leading our committee and a strong bipartisan unanimous fashion to try to get action on these documents. i hope the administration response to their inquiries. shannon: we block judicial nominees over that? are not going to take that step treatment warner vice chairman rubio speaking for the committee have been working cooperatively try to get access to the city hope is just that. i will say this whole incident raises another of the troublous double standards with the department of justice. the trump you had the fbi rating are logout with mark mike pence of showing up within hours of himself reported the presence of certain classified documents at his home.
implications they may have had. maybe they have none at all maybe there historical curiosities. that there are logout for president biden s many mansions as offices or like fences home as well. maybe there is damage we have to see the documents to make that assessment. i will say chairman mike warner and rubio haven t leading our committee and a strong bipartisan unanimous fashion to try to get action on these documents. i hope the administration response to their inquiries. shannon: we block judicial nominees over that? are not going to take that step treatment warner vice chairman rubio speaking for the committee have been working cooperatively try to get access to the city hope is just that. i will say this whole incident raises another of the troublous double standards with the department of justice. the trump you had the fbi rating are logout with mark mike pence of showing up within hours of himself reported the presence of certain classified documents at his home. but with joe
technology that they might be more inclined to shoot it down, if they could do it in such a way that would not cause harm on the ground, so this is an interesting point to speculate, and as i said, i don t have any inside baseball on the sensor suite on that, on that balloon. i assume the intelligence community and the administration does, and that is accordingly influencing their decision making. therein lies the many curiosities we all. have we re all riveted for a variety of reasons. james clapper, appreciate you. thank you so much. thanks. all right, and still ahead, a brutal arctic blast, making its way across parts of the country right now, more than 15 million northeasterners are facing life-threatening conditions. and temperatures dipping well below zero. the forecast straight ahead. plus, an update on the investigation into the horrific beating death of tyre nichols, a
yellowstones active geologist, it s what givesplac life to ale onl of the park s life to ale onl of the park s geothermal activity, it is like this alien world looks like no other place on earth. and the curiosities are end less.