last few days is they were able to collect intelligence about the way the balloon was transmitting information, for example, and other ways about how it maneuvered. ultimately we re told that the administration doesn t believe it was able to gather that much intelligence at all because the specifications were not all that sophisticated, no more sophisticated than the satellites the chinese have hovering in orbit as we speak. the issue with the satellites is they do not stay in one place for as long as a balloon can. a balloon can loiter for a much longer period of time as it did over montana, for example. the officials we spoke to said there are with steps taken to cover up certain areas, to make sure no unencrypted communications were happening in the vicinity of the balloon and minimize the ability of the balloon to collect intel. one detail we learned today is that the u.s. military actually doesn t have the capability on a day-to-day basis to collect intelligence on thing
there are a lot of questions suggested. i m not sure there s any harm in raising them. absolutely not. ask away. i think the questions are good to ask. i just don t know an answer as to where it would have been appropriate to shoot it down. 8,000 people live on the aleutian islands. officials say the balloon was up to 200 feet tall, weighed a couple thousand pounds that we know the debris field in the atlantic outside the carolina coast was seven miles long. if it was shot down theoretically, somebody could have been killed by the debris. fair points, jake, all of those. ultimately that s what the president is responsible for, making those calls. but the reason questions are raised about it, it is disheartening to the american people with this balloon drifting across the continental united states until it s ove.
as soon as tomorrow. there s an expectation that a so-called gang of eight, the leaders of congress and the intelligence committee will get highly classified information about exactly what happened here. there will be another briefing for a larger set of members. the senate cleanse committee members as well the full senate and the full house could potentially get briefed next week. jake, there is still uncertainty whether house republicans will take some symbolic gesture to condemn the president s actions. remember, the house majority on the republican side, very narrow. they can t lose more than four republican votes to approve anything. at the moment they don t have an agreement on what any resolution could look like. i m told at this moment they re still debating on whether to proceed on any vote to push back against the biden administration here. kevin mccarthy right now meeting with his top leaders in his office as they chart out the strategy and decide how to proceed on this is
authorization to collect intelligence on this balloon while it was over the united states, jake. anew, house republicans are discussing whether or not they should pass a resolution to condemn the biden administration s handling of the balloon entering and traveling across u.s. airspace for days. biden says the pentagon warned him shooting it down over land posed a real risk to americans. what s the real risk you re hearing from republican lawmakers? reporter: republicans are saying the president pould have acted sooner and they should have taken steps to shoot down the balloon. senate republican leader yesterday said it defies belief to suggest there was nowhere between the aleutian islands of alaska and the coast of carolina where the balloon could have been shot down to avoid endangering american lives. senator chuck schumer says those criticisms are premature and political. there s hope among the democratic leaders and republican leaders that there will be more information comin