president biden downplayed that balloon s significance in an interview this week saying the flight was, quote, not a major breach. let s bring in retired four-star general jack keane, chairman of the institute for the study of war and a fox news senior strategic analyst. general, good to see you. thanks for coming in. so do you think the administration did the right thing here shooting down this latest object so quickly after it had waited a long time to shoot down the balloon? no, yeah, absolutely. it s the right call. i mean, it s interesting what we don t know, as you indicated, we need a lot of answers. what s very revealing though and concerning is that this we did not pick this up before it entered u.s. air space which is very similar to the historical record we were able to put together after the spy balloon transversed the entire swath of united states. we went back and looked at what s the history of chinese fleet balloons, and we found several of them that had, in
donald trump who s the nominee, he s ready. and if it s not donald trump, the ads are just going to show some face morphing into donald trump. paul: so you think that this is you can adapt the strategy existence ron desantis or anyone. donald the trump will be on the ballot regardless of whether donald trump is on the ballot, that s for sure. [laughter] paul: okay. all right, thanks, mark, appreciate it. when we come back, president biden steps up his attack on republicans over social security and medicare, so is the entitlement fight really about the 2024 the opponent that hem fearyos most?yo mucurk sprinkler on. and now i m sending mixed signals. to your garage. but, if you haven t bundled your home and auto, unpacking this isn t going to be too much fun. so get allstate. there s something going around the gordon home. good thing gertrude found delsym. now what s going around is 12-hour cough relief. and the giggles.
is not a pathway to do everything you would like. we ask people on twitter to write in. eric writes this, question, do you support privatizing veteran s health care? yes, as an option. i support giving them a card to go anywhere they want to go. if they don t like the v.a., go somewhere else. the centers that serve the veterans well, we ll fund. since the republicans took the house of representatives in 2010, every year republicans have included serious medicare and medicaid reforms as part of the budget. paul ryan s reforms. this year, senate republicans didn t do that. several senate republicans are vulnerable. is this the act of political cowardice that it looks like? no, i think it s a calculation that you don t want to have a one-party entitlement fight right before 2016. but you already had that s the argument i made.
do you think after he voted with boehner last night, he obviously has real standing in the house. do you think he will take a more prominent role in developing a strategy between now and the debt ceiling limit? definitely. you re going to see paul ryan take a real assertive role right now. one of the biggest stories between the election and right now is that paul ryan has been quiet. he doesn t give comments to reporters in the capitol hallways. he s not taken a stand except when he s on the house floor. what he s trying to do from people who are close to him, he wants to make this budget and the entitlement fight of fight of 2013. that s why he s been quiet during this fiscal cliff. but i think mika and mark bring up two great points real quick. are republicans disagreeing with each other? of course. there s total disarray within the house republican caucus. the most interesting thing is that the one relationship in washington is working that s vice president biden and minority lead
sessions with boehner and reid, he refrained from the out-and-out political attacks. he pulled back. he was trying very much to appear above the fray. it s going to be different when you go after when you start the entitlement fight, but i think for now, you know, obama s definitely did the political calculus that he has to steer above it all, presidential. we ll take a break. i want to come back with chuck on the politics of this budget fight. plus, our political unit battleground map for 2012. more with our panel when we come back after this.