Meet the Press - February 12, 2023

Interview

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Well, Chuck, the first balloon, the one that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, we got a very extensive briefing on -- at the Gang of Eight level. And then subsequently, the entire Congress got a top secret briefing on it. So we're pretty good on that one. You lose track of these things. You know, since then, of course, there's been the shoot down over Alaska and the shoot down over the Yukon. Congress has been out of session, and so we have not been directly briefed on that. Our staffs have been kept informed. But the reality is Chuck here, I think part of the reason -- and by the way, I have real concerns about why the administration is not being more forthcoming with everything that it knows, but part of the problem here is that the -- both the second and the third objects were shot down in very remote areas. So, my guess is that there's just not a lot of information out there yet to share.

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Well, yeah. And that's still where my head is. And I should be clear, as I was on Friday, that, you know, I haven't been briefed on the other two shoot downs. But I look back a year ago to when we had this both open hearing and classified hearing on what are -- most people call it UFOs. you're supposed to call it "unidentified aerial phenomenon." And what we'd learned in that hearing is that there is a lot of garbage up there. It's really not that hard. Certainly, countries can do it, companies can do it and do do it. Individuals with resources can put balloons up there. And so there is a lot of garbage up there. And my, again, speculative guess as why we're seeing these things happen in quick succession is that now, we're really attuned to looking for them, right? Without getting into detail, I can tell you that much of our radar, much of our sensors, are not--are really designed against the threats that most Americans are familiar with. We spent generations worried about missiles coming over the North Pole. They move very, very quickly and don't act like balloons. We always worry about aircrafts. Those of us who remember 9/11 worry about aircraft that are unidentified. The truth is that most of our sensors and most of what we were looking for didn't look like balloons. Now, of course, we're looking for them. So I think we're probably finding more stuff.

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Well, I certainly hope not. I mean, if that's where we're going to go, there will be an accident, you know? At some point, we're going to shoot down something we don't want to shoot down, whether it's civil aviation or what have you. So, but no, I think it's a little early to make that call. I mean, I would say two things about it. Number one, there's a logic to what the administration has done. The two shoot downs have occurred around objects that were a threat to civil aviation. Remember, the Chinese -- the initial Chinese balloon was at 50, 60,000 feet. That's not a threat. If you're down at below -- at or below 40,000 feet, now you're in the travel zones for civilian aviation. There are concerns about gathering intelligence. That's why I think it wasn't wrong for the administration to want to observe the first Chinese balloon. There's questions about where this stuff might land. The two shoot downs, obviously, were over very remote areas. You know, the one thing, Chuck, that is troubling me here, I sort of see a pattern as I looked at social media this morning, you know, all of a sudden, massive speculation about alien invasions and, you know, additional Chinese action, or Russian action. In the absence of information, people's anxiety leads them into potentially destructive areas. So I do hope that very soon the administration has a lot more information for all of us on what's going on.

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Yeah. I really can't answer that question because I haven't been briefed, either. And I do think by the way -- look, I got a very detailed briefing on the first Chinese balloon and I think the decision-making process there was very good. We cap -- we now own something that we're going to exploit for intelligence. I think the decision making was good. But I would observe for you, as well, that we didn't hear about the first balloon until it was over Montana. And, again, I think there may be reasons for it, but -- and maybe it's because I'm in politics, and so I spend a lot of time talking to folks in grocery stores and town hall meetings. You know, in an absence of information, people will fill that gap with anxiety and other stuff. So I wish the administration was a little quicker to tell us everything that they do know.

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Well I'd, first of all, I'd be surprised by that. I'm going to be careful, because I don't know what the second and third objects were. But I'd be surprised by that. I mean, I think it's fair to say that the Chinese are probably pretty embarrassed that they let a surveillance platform -- the first one -- go over the United States. It became a, you know, cause célèbre around the world. We now own it. That's not a comfortable thing for the Chinese. And of course, we canceled the trip of the Secretary of State. So my guess is that the other two objects are not Chinese, that China is doing everything they can right now to keep as low a profile as possible. But, who knows? We won't know for -- I guess, until the administration fully briefs on what these things are. And to be fair, remember, Chuck, when you go by one of these things in an F-22 or an F-18, you're moving pretty fast. Until you actually pick up the pieces on the ground, there'll be some uncertainty.

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Thank you, Chuck.

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