is it time to pop that balloon? i'm michael smerconish. it sparked kshs about national security regarding beijing. is it more a about symbolism? secretary of state antony blinken was due to travel to china this weekend. he postponed his trip calling the infiltration a, quote, irresponsible act that created conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip. the public first learned of the balloon's existence thursday while it was over montana, which is home to ballistic missile silos and bomber bases. china is saying it's all innocent. a spokesperson for the chinese foreign min city sits is a civilian air shift used for meteorological purposes affected by the westerlies and limited self-steering capability, it deviated from its course.

the chinese side regrets the entry of the ship. but it was a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law. the balloon does not pose a military or political threat and a senior defense official said military officials a advised president biden not to shoot the balloon down due to fear of the debris posing a safety threat. i said the violation of our sovereign air space should not be a partisan issue. many are question ing why we ar taking it out and they are coming from the right. florida senator marco rubio, a member of congress's gang of eight briefed on national intelligence matters, he tweet ed it was a mistake to not shoot down that chinese spy balloon when it was over a sparsely populated area. this is not some hot air balloon. it has a large payload of sensors the size of two city buss and the ability to maneuver

independently. utah senator myth romney, a big balloon in the sky and tiktok balloons on our phone, let's shut them all down. on truth social, former president trump much more sis cincinnati. shoot down the balloon, he said. the post cover agrees, pop this balloon, calling the spy craft. when i posted the question yesterday, should we shoot the balloon down? here's the result with 21,000 votes cast. 64% said yes, we should. john tester of montana, where it was first spotted, chairs the subcommittee that controls the budget. he told anderson cooper he lances to hold a hearing to investigate how the balloon was able to violate air space and what went into the thinking about how it's been dealt with. >> i thus any time you have china, a country that wants to replace us as the economic leader and the military leader

in the world doing this kind of garbage, it requires some explanations and to make sure that if this happens again, we are very confident that there will be no good things that come out of it for china. >> meanwhile, the pentagon said friday evening there's another chinese spy blon over latin america. the u.s. balloons trajectory has it hitting the atlantic by the end of the weekend. the state of the union address is tuesday night. you put those two together and i predict it will be popped in the next 48 hours. at least i hope so. i want to know what you think. go to my website and answer today's poll question. is the chinese spy balloon more a matter of american national security or national pride. joining me to discuss is retired air force lieutenant general david deptala, the first chief of intelligence, surveillance and recognizance.

he's a fighter pilot with more than 3,000 flying hours. he was the principle attack planner for desert storm, commander of no-fly operations over iraq and serve issed on two commissions focused on america's future defense strategy. he's currently the dean of the mitchell institute for aerospace studies. thank you for being here. what exactly are the options when an object like this is at 60,000 feet? >> well, first, thank you for having me on and really appreciate it. it's a great question. there are several ogss. some of them depend upon the location of the balloon. what make this is a complicated situation is it's up at 60,000 feet. there aren't a the lot of aircraft that can go up there with the kind of means to shoot it down. today you're looking at the f-22 or f-15 and weapons that can be

used actually to shoot the balloon down. there are surface to air missile systems, but those are fixed. we really don't have any of those operationally deployed in the continental united states. so the options are limited to fugter aircraft. >> do you know it's necessarily going to fall over a particular area? meaning, if you use the weapon systems that you just identified and you're successful in hitting it, how long is it going to take for it to come down and do you know where it will land? >> that's a great question. the short answer is no, you don't know with any degree of accuracy because it depends upon just how large the whole or the damage done to the balloon, which will determine how fast it will come down, and then what you hit. you hit the balloon and you can penetrate it and it can come

down at a certain rate. if it's all-in-one piece, probably no big deal. it's going to land in one place. if you hit the payload package and destroy that, now you have debris that's going to be scattered. but the fact of the matter is the thing should have been shot down before it penetrated the territory of our sovereign air space. what's really of more concern than the sensor package that this chinese balloon is carrying, is why did we let this penetrate the sovereign territory of canada the united states. it should have been neutralize ed as it entered our identification zone. >> so we in the public only learn ed of this on thursday. i think what you're saying is that the military probably had knowledge for much longer, including precede ing when it entered our air space. is that what you're saying with.

>> absolute ly. we have this organization that's a combineed organization of the united states and canada that provides aerospace warning, our sovereignty and protection or at least it's supposed to protect canada and the continental united states. it's a discussion for another program. they are underfunded and allowed to at try fee. this is a consequence. >> general, how is it going to ends? i pointed out a political reality that the president is going to speak to the nation and to the congress on tuesday night. and the reports that we're getting suggest a that this thing will hit the atlantic probably by the the end of the weekend depending upon the wind. so you think he's going to take it out? you think the president is going to give the order before tuesday?

>> that's -- i don't want to be facetious, but that's a question for the president. i really don't foe. my opinion is he will probably let it go. but the fact of the matter is this is not an inconsequential act and should have been shot down prior to violating the sovereign air space. >> my poll question today asks whether this is a matter of national security or national pride. what's your answer to that question? >> national security. look, this particular balloon may have been just a weather balloon flown off course. i don't believe that. i don't think it was an accident. i believe it was a chinese testing the u.s. reaction. another balloon could carry an emp device that could shut down segments of our u.s. electric

power grid. so it's not an inconsequential fact that this balloon has been isn't to fly over the continental united states. >> general, thank you so much for your expertise. we appreciate it. >> have a great day. thank you. now to the question of what to do about china. joining me is gordon change chak. he's a columnist for "newsweek." he's written several books. nice to have you book. what do you make of the fact that the chinese acknowledgeds at least that it is theirs? that seems out of character for them. >> that they had to do. we could track this balloon. but really the problem we have is that this really didn't make very much sen to send this balloon just before secretary blinken's trip to beijing, unless the chinese wanted to derail that trip.

it could point to instability inside the regime, disagreements between the military and others, but it would have been the chinese ruler testing the reactions of the united states. and really we should have shot this down because by not doing that, we convince the chinese we're incapable. they already believe that. that's been the propaganda line. i'm not say ing that the chines are right, but it doesn't matter where the chinese are right in their assessments of the u.s. what matters is what they believe. what they believe is very dangerous because it could push them to do things which can't be undone. >> i think what i hear you say is it was a test and we failed. i want to put on the screen and i'll treated you an opinion piece from the "washington post" on exactly this issue that just caught my attention.

if the chinese stratospheric balloon spotted floating above a dozen miles above the northern united states is a spy craft as the pentagon claims, it's hard to believe that it was meant to chart its course in secrecy. after all, it's a giant balloon. if anything, it was more likely dispatched precisely for the purpose of being seen. you're agreeing with that. >> i think that's a real possibility. as we have seen from what the chinese have been saying, they try to tell the world that we're not able to defend ourselves. we can't defend them. and especially in regard to taiwan, but they say it in general. and the chinese are being very blatant about this they were over the air force base in montana, where we have ballistic missiles. they went very near the air force base where we have our b-2s. and this track could take it close to georgia, where we have

our boomers. that's all three legs of the triad. so really it's an in your face operation by the chinese. it smacks of the very provocative and belligerent attitudes of the chinese military right now. these guys know better, but they emotionally want to go to war. >> was postpone ing the blinken trip the right call? i want you to see something else. this comes from today's "new york times." put that up on the screen. making a statement, she's from cornell university. she said that the decision to cancel blinken's trip, quote, reflects the unfortunate triumph of symbolism over substance. what are we talking about here? >> we're talking substance. just before the trip, it indicated that they really don't want to talk in good faith to the secretary of state. so there's no point in talking.

now i believe blinken should not have scheduled a trip in the first place. but clearly, he could not have gone. jessica believes that the united states should continue to engage china. that's a theory that has failed over five decades and created this dangerous situation. i think that we would have much better relations if we didn't talk to china because that would scare them into actually trying to deal with us on a good faith basis. right now, they are not trying to do that. we heard that with china's top did you want in his phone conversation with blinken. it was a few hours ago. he was just in no mood to talk to the united states. >> gordon, thank you for your expertise. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. so what are your thoughts? hit me up on social media? i'll read sol throughout the program it should have been removed long before we ended up with the 24-hour balloon watch channel.

it's hard to take your eye out of this story. we all kind of get it. we have been talking about the timeline. what should have been done over the air space. they are backing up the clock and saying even before it entered the united states air space, it should have been dealt with then. my guests have also verbally weighing in on today's poll question. here it is. make sure you go and answer this. is the chinese spy balloon a matter of american national security or national pride. up ahead, it's the longest scientific study of happy iness and the results are in. since 1938, a harvard study has been analyzing subjects and their offspring. they now have scientific proof what makes for a happy life might not be what you think. plus they only announced

candidate for 2024 in either party was former president trump. good news for donald trump. nikki hailey says she's entering the fray. why i think that actually helps donald trump. like the subway series menu. just buy any footlong in the app, and get one freeee. free monsters, free bosses, any fofootlong for free! thisis guy loves a great offer. so let's see some hustle!! good news! a new clinical study showed that centrum silver supports cognitive health in older adults. it's one more step towards taking charge of your health. so every day, you can say... ♪ youuu did it! ♪ with centrum silver.

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the world's longest scientific study of happiness is now in its 85th year. researchers have been studying it since 1938. the object i have, to unlock the question of what makes a good life. originally, there were 724 participants. 268 were soft mothers at harvard. their ranks included john f. kennedy and ben bradley. the study later incorporated a parallel one tracking 456 less privileged boston boys. the poll was expanded to include 1300 desen is dantss. they have tracking them for 84 years and the retention rate for the original participants was 84%. every two years the participants answer lengthy questionnaires, every five years they surrender medical records. every 15 years they are interviewed face to face. so what's their life lesson?

good relationships keep us happier, healthier and help us live longer. there's a new book at the study. it's call ed the good life, lessons from the world's longest scientific study of happiness. the authors, my next guest, a harvard psychiatrist and director of the harvard study of adult development. thank you for being here. physical fitness, we all know about that. that's important. but so often overlooked is what you regard as social fit nness. what is that? >> it's the finding in our research that people who do the best, who are happiest and healthier, maintain their relationships, they are active in keeping contact with friends and family and community members. >> you say that the folk who is at 50 are sol ud this their

relationships are going to be the ones at age 80 who are both physically and mentally most sound. is it too late? for some people watching right now who maybe older s it too late to follow your prescription? >> it's never too late. our study shows us that people find friends, they find love when they are sure it's never going to happen for them. and a lot depends on whether you are intentional about making and nurturing good relationships. >> your original pool, both sides of the study, white men. how reliable are your findings for people who are not white men? >> now we have gender balance so we brought in spouses, we brought in children. so we have gender balance. what we do is we make sure that our findings are replicated by

other studies of nonwhite people. and by people all over the world. so we are confident that these findings are true for people of all backgrounds. >> i had you on my radio program and callers after you left pointed out my deficiency in not asking about pets and not asking about religion. address both of those now. >> we did not study pets, but there are studies that tell us that the touch of a pet, petting a pet actually lowers heart rate, calms us down, has a health benefit in that way. with religion, what we found was that religious people weren't happier than nonrlks people and they weren't less happy. but people who had spur chul practices said that they found these practices a real comfort in times of stress.

>> there's a lot of data out there about the relationship, i'm not sure if she would say causation, but she would say correlation between problems of mental health, anxiety, depression among young americans and their connectivity. so how does social media factor into this? i'm worried that too many young people are behind closed doors not having the type of interactions that you say are so important. >> it's a big worry right now in our culture. what the research is starting to show us is that it depends on how we use social media. if we actively use social media to connect with other people, that's likely to increase our happiness levels. if we passively consume somebody else's instagram feeds, somebody else's happy pictures of beaches and parties, that's going to lower our self-esteem and make

us feel like we're missing out on the good life, which isn't the truth. >> in the box, you would present parallel tracks, short bios of some of the folks in this control group, if that's the right way to say it. the person you might expect to end up with the happiness life is often not the case. >> we had two people who started out as harvard undergraduate, lives of privilege, one was our happiest man, who had a very ordinary career as a wonderful high school teacher. but nothing fancy. and another, a very prominent attorney who worked hard all his life and won lots of awards and he was one of our least happy people. and the difference between them was the extent to which they paid attention to and took care of the connections they had with a family, friends, community.

>> before you leave me, give us something everyone watching can do today in line with the findings of your book "the good life." >> take small actions. it doesn't have been big. think of somebody you miss, shb you'd like to connect with. just send them a text. send them an e-mail saying, hi, i was thinking of you and just wanted to connect. if you do that regularly with the people in your life who you value, you'll be amazed at the positive emotion and the positive connection that comes back to you. >> thank you so much for being here. the book is really great and impactful. i appreciate your time. >> thank you for having he. up ahead, nikki hailey became the first to make clear she will be entering the nomination fight against her former boss.

president trump seemed not to mind. i think i know why. south carolina lawyer alex murdaugh says he was nowhere near his family when they were murdered. but evidence presented in court suggests otherwise. i think it's a myth. bad week for the defense. the prosecution theory on motive make any sense. we'll have a reporter that be been in the courtroom every single day. and goo go to my website and answer this week's poll question. by the way, register for the newsletter while your there. is the chinese supply balloon a matter of national security or national pride? u paid too much for those glasses. next time, go to america's best where two o pairs and a free, quality eye exam start at just $79.95. book an exam today at americasbest.com. ♪ at adp, we use data-driven insights to design solutions

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the former south carolina governor announced her intention to run with a formal announcement to come later this month. this despite previously pledging that she wouldn't do so if trump were running again. president trump has been withering about people who he endorsed or appointed becoming his opponents. and when it cams to hailey, he seems less concerned. here's what he said last weekend. >> nikki haley called me the other day to talk to me. i said go by your heart. she said i would never run against my president. he was a great president. >> go by your heart, he said. i am not surprised. i don't think he sees her as a threat. her presence probably helps him in his mind. she has to contend with the fact she may be up against tim scott, should he get in, and that trump's candidacy is has the support of two top success

republicans. l lindsey graham. also trump has this block of voter who is are seemingly locked in with him, no matter what. 22% of republican primary voters say they will support trump, even if he runs as an independent. that might be a low number. it's an immovable number, it seems. it suggests it could be even higher. if 2024 is a rematch with joe biden, a poll found that 44% said they would support trump. 41% said biden. but let's remember if haley barely registers, it could change on a dime making predictions this early in a presidential race is often folly based on polling or on the list of who has announced. a column titled a warning to the media about the next presidential race. there are plenty of historical examples of front runners who never got close.

and had won the endorsement of the prior contenders for the nomination. they ran to john kerry, who ended up being the nominees. then four years later the immemedia was saying the race was america's mayor, rudy giuliani, against hillary clinton. that is until voters normalnitised john mccain and barack obama. in 2019 joe biden's candidacy was perceived as being dead on arrival. all of this early polling is to be taken with a grain of salt. but for trump to prevail as the nominee, he needs to diminish the strength of any single opponent, like ron desantis, and to accomplish that he needs nikki haley in the race just like he needs everybody else.

as many people as he can fit on that stage to divvy up the pie, just like he did in 2016. for donald trump in 2024, it's the more the merrier. joining me is david biler, data analyst and political columnist for "the washington post." his latest piece is trump's republican opponents are making a painfully obvious mistake. donald trump is under vfire fro a variety of investigations and much has been written about those who want the to move on from him. but you point out you think he's in a stronger position than he was at this stage in 2016. how come? >> part of it is exact ly what you pointed out. there's a chunk of the establishment that is already endorsing him if you look at his polling numbers compared to now, he has a higher favorability rating than he did back then. over 0% of the republican party

views him favorably. a lot of voters liked how he governed as president and really have warm feelings towards him. so i think that he could lose. he could go down in flames, but he also has a path to a majority. he doesn't have this same resis is tans of, oh, he's just a reality tv star. these last years have transformed him into really the party's elder statesman, for better or worse. >> so let's put up on the screen where things stood in the 2016 cycle. people like me were laughing at the prospect of him getting in the race, much less succeeding. the bush reference there is jeb. fast forward to today, and donald trump is at 46%. ron desantis at 31%.

you have undecided at 8. those others beyond trump and desantis, they need to hope either trump fades because he has issues, indictments, or ron desantis has a glass jar. if trump remains where he is and ron desantis remains where he is, there's not enough oxygen left in the room. >> exactly. it's still very early going. but the dynamics of the race are very different. in that 2016 race, you had a fraction of the field now and you kept on having skaept skeptical republicans flipping around. right now, you have a two-man race. you have trump with his faction and desantis leading the pack of trump alternatives and everybody else in that range.

so it's just a fundamentally different race at this moment. >> that is the mistake that you think his would be opponents would not recognize. they don't get how they shifted. take 15 seconds on that. that makes for a completely different primary. >> david, thank you for your experience and expertise. we appreciate it. >> thank you. more social media reaction now. what do we have? from the world of twitter. haley is setting herself up for vp. that maybe. i had a radio caller interestingly say to me yesterday, what if desantis and haley were to join forces right now and run a as a ticket in pursuit of the nomination. they are going to jockey as to who should be the upper hand, but that would be an interesting dynamic. we'll see. make sure you're answering

the poll question. it is as follows. is the chinese supply balloon a matter of american national security or national pride? still to come in court, prosecutors shows accused murder alex murdaugh having changed out fits that made it a tough week for the defense. are we any closer to understanding why he may have done it. making real-time money moves with merrill. so no o matter what the market's doing, he's ready. and that's... how you cocollect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company.

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proximity to when the murders were kplited. a video was taken the day of the murders showing wearing different clothing than he was wearing when he was interviewed a after he called 911. but the prosecution also hopes to bring in other evidence of pertaining to his motive. you don't need to prove motive to convict someone of murder. but we want to know why would a man kill his wife and son in cold blood. without the jury present, the prosecution argued why it wants to bring in evidence of the financial crimes stealing money from his law firm and his friend and how his whole world was collapsing. he was disbarred, his life had become a shamble. the defense contends that would be prejudice shl. joining me is the national reporter for the washington street journal who has been covering the case ask has been in the courtroom every single day. as i referenced, the prosecution seemed to put him at the murder

scene close in time to the killing of his wife and son. explain. >> the video evidence was just completely belied his ally bye. he hadn't seen his wife and son for a couple hours when he arrived home at 10:00 and called 911. and yet there's a video taken just before the homicides were committed. you could hear alex's voice and it just was the jury was faced with who are you going to believe? the alibi or our own ears. >> motive. it's not necessary for a conviction, but i think we want to know. there's a human curiosity about why a man might kill his wife and young son. the prosecution and here we are in the midst of the weekend, this is a cliff hanger, we're waiting to see and maybe we'll find out if all of this evidence of his financial crimes is going to come into play.

what's the significance of that? >> the significance is that the prosecution wants to show this was a man who had everything and it was all on the brink of tumbling away. he had been confronted at his law firm about a missing $792,000 fee. he was facing a hearing in a civil case in just a matter of days where he was going to be expected to be forced to turn over his financial information, which would reveal what prosecutors say is a decade-long fraud of stealing from his clients. so they really want to show the jury that this was a man with a lot to lose, desperate to change the subject. >> do they want to do that or do they want to subtly him further and show he's a crumb without having anything to do with murder? it doesn't make logical sense to me. i'll tell you why. if there were a $10 million

insurance policy that he was going to collect, then it would make sense. but why would such a diversion have done anything for him? i don't get that part. >> that's the defense argument. they say they want to say this is a bad guy, but that doesn't follow that because he may have done something bad. another part of his life he would kill his wife and son. there's no evidence of that. it's just also one of those things where there's no text messages that show discord. there's no evidence that maggie was unhappy in any way. so it just this information should not come in. it's too prejudice shl to the jury. >> final issue, the wardrobe chapg. that was significant. i'm watching this thing from afar. you're in the courtroom every day. what am i talking about? >> there are two significant pieces of video evidence. we talked a little bit about the video where you can hear his voice, but there was a short snapchat video that paul had

sent to a friend about an hour before the coroner says he was killed. you see alex looking a at a tree but he's wearing a blue dress shirt and pants and loafers. opposed to tennis shoes that were clean and neat when police arrived. and that's been a big issue. it's another one of those things, who are you going to believe? what you see or what you're being told? >> i think the lawyering in this case has been excellent. that which i have been watching. i'm sure you probably share that from being in the courtroom. i'm envious of you being there. there are a lot of things that have been raised so far in the prosecution's case that without alex taking the stand, i don't know how the defense is going to satisfactorily fill in those gaps. final thought from you. >> i think there was a lot more this week from the defense that alex may need to address these things himself. he may need to hear from him how

you rectify those things. and i also think we will likely hear from curtis edward smith, a close colleague friend and associate of alex's who was a lynch pin of this action. it's very like ly that smith wil also testify this week. it's going to be a fascinating week. >> thank you so much. you're doing a heck of a job covering this thing. i really appreciate it. we have more of your social media reaction. have you voted yet? the final result of the poll question from smerconish.com. is the chinese supply balloon a matter of american security or national pride? go vote. that actively cools, warms, and effofortlessly responds to both of you. our smarart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. proven quality sleep. only from sleep numbmber. ♪

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result of this week's poll question. it's smerconish.com. pretty decisive. is the chinese spy balloon more a matter of american national security or american national pride? now we're close to 30,000. i'm told, it's roughly 70/30 who say security which by the way was the answer of the general as well as gordon chang in the initial block of the program today. maybe they swayed some votes. what came in on social media? smerconish, the balloon should have been shot down as soon as it crossed into u.s. air space. they're testing us to see if we allow it to continue or smooth it down. that was gordon's perspective. a number of close observers of china are saying that it is all of a test. what was to be gleaned from that balloon that would have been pulled from a satellite, that we really can't see or touch, if we wanted to. so you're not alone in that

observation. here is some more social media reaction. what else came in? you're going to see a large field again, trump, hailing desantis, pompeo, abbott, christie, et cetera, large field, unfortunately helps trump, they're all losers to me anyway, dems need a fresh new voice to run. well, trump and biden politically speaking are good for one another. my view is that if donald trump were not already running, and showing some strength at least in the early polls, there would be more move afoot by some in the democratic party to take a look at opposing the president. but where he's defeated donald trump once, i think it's securing biden's position as the democratic nominee. and you heard me say, i don't want to repeat it all, the more the merrier for donald trump, nikki haley, absolutely, get in. mike pence, mike pompeo, chris christie, dilute the pool and not have a race where it is just he and ron desantis. one more if i've got time and i think i do. what do we have? don't forget after the murders,

murdaugh had someone shoot him in the head to get more sympathy, he would seemingly do almost anything to keep his partners from discovering the depth. i get it. look, i think he's a bad guy. okay? i'm not saying he is a murderer. but i'm not sure that the motive argument makes the sense that the prosecution has put forth. i'll see you next week. ultra-cg coveragege. t-mobile for business has 5g that's ready right now. this week is your chance to try any - subway footlong for free. like the subway series menu. just buy any footlong in the app, and get one free. free monsters, free bosses, any footlong for free! this guy loves a great offer. so let's see some hustle! trying to control my asthma felt anything but normal.

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