ukraine. the lead with jake tapper starts right now. welcome to the lead, i m jake tapper. we start with breaking news, the united states military has taken down another high-altitude object flying over the united states this afternoon. the white house announced the object was shot down at 1:45 p.m. eastern time at the direction of president biden. u.s. officials say it was flying off alaska s northern coast at an altitude of 40,000 feet and was approximately the size of a small car. as of now, the administration is not offering many more details than that. we re calling this an object because that s the best description we have right now. we do not know who owns it, whether it s it s state owned or corporate owned or privately owned. we just don t know. the context, of course, is crucial. last saturday, less than a week ago, the u.s. military shot down what the biden administration says was a chinese surveillance balloon. they did this off the coast of the united
that s the same type of aircraft and missile that shot down the chinese balloon off the coast of south carolina. one of the questions we asked at the pentagon briefing was if there was so much intelligence to gain by letting the previous balloon fly across the united states and being able to observe it, why was this one shot down so quickly especially when the senators were furious it wasn t shot down earlier. was the pentagon wbowing to political pressure. the decision to shoot it down before it entered into u.s. airspace, the pentagon bowing to pressure from the hill? we re going to judge each of these objects on its own merits. it entered into u.s. airspace on february 9th. we sent up aircraft to assess what it was. the decision was made that it posed a reasonable threat to civilian air traffic. the president gave the order to take it down and we took it down. in the end this was shot down just a few miles over the water. that water frozen so it did essentially fall
denied the care they need to survive. now, five of those women are fighting back, bringing th landmark case against the stat of texas for denying the lifesaving care. and while they re at it, they re exposing one of th most insidious lies of the antiabortion movement. and, california congressman an u.s. senate candidate, ada schiff, talks about trumpism the future of democracy, the war in ukraine, and more velshi starts now. good morning it is sunday, march 12th i m ali velshi we begin today with an insurrection although probably not the on you re thinking of and an important warning, th biden administration i publicly announced that russia actors, some with direct tie to russian intelligenc operations, are seeking to sow political unrest and protest i moldova, a nation that was formally part of the sovie union. according to the nationa security spokesman, it is quote a manufactured insurrection against the moldovan government, and quote the biden administration adds, quote
joining us live. but first, this fox news alert. two interviews and a primetime speech, but a week of talk from president biden only serving to raise new questions. one was about the chinese surveillance craft. the president brushing off its significance and risk after it loitered across the nation just last week. john: president biden claiming the violation of u.s. air space was not a major breach of national security, yet it traveled thousands of miles over some military sites and collected information from the ground to above. and capable of collecting communications and sending them straight back to china. sandra: a far cry to portray it as no big deal, just a balloon. a lot to unpack as america reports rolls into a second hour here. another busy news afternoon on a friday. sandra smith in new york. great to be with you. john: john roberts in washington, good to be with you, sandra. the president getting attention for trying to downplay the classified document
president biden, democratic senate candidate john fetterman is getting an assist from former president barack obama. will it make a difference in the high-stakes pennsylvania race? and we ll also go inside children s hospitals overwhelmed right now by the surge in respiratory illness as more and more kids are getting sick and beds are running out. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin this hour with the new response from the former president, former president trump s lawyer to the most aggressive move yet by the january 6th select committee. cnn political correspondent sara murray is joining us with details. so, what is the trump team saying about this new subpoena from the select committee delivered to trump today? well, it s now up to his legal team to grapple with how they want to respond. in a statement from one of these law firms, they slammed the select committee for making