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that would come. and it was handled appropriately. and we are now getting a clearer picture of exactly how the u.s. response played out, at last saturday the balloon was first detected in alaska. on tuesday, it relented continental u.s. airspace, which is when the president asked for military options on wednesday, the president ordered the military to take out the balloon as soon as practicable. on friday, the president was briefed on an execution plan, and on saturday the balloon was shot down. now, the balloons eight-day track is sparking debate and political finger-pointing on capitol hill over the administration s approach. listen here. clearly this was an attempt by china to gather information to defeat our command and control, are sensitive mission weapon sites, and that certainly is an urgency that this administration does not recognize. the president and united states military did what they did, that is my opinion, very just and very defensible. so the pre ....
Down, the military made a thoughtful decision, and i trust the united states military. now we have several reporters in place from washington to beijing to go over all of these new developments in this story. let s go first to deangelis, nbc news investigative reporter. dan, was the balloon able to keep scooping up information as it drifted across the u.s.? that is a really key question, and it looks like the answer is no. u.s. officials are telling nbc and other news organizations that, while the balloon was drifting across the u.s., they were taking what they call a u.s. counter intelligence measures. i.e., they were jamming it, preventing it from scooping up information or eavesdropping. so the argument that it was doing damage that is really an open question. if they were jamming it, then it really wasn t able to do much aside from cause a bit of concern, it was drifting across the u.s., it was not posing some kind of imminent physical threat. so the view from the administratio ....