♪ inner voice (kombucha brewer): if i just stare at these payroll forms... my business' payroll taxes will calculate themselves. right? uhh...nope. intuit quickbooks helps you manage your payroll taxes, cheers! with 100% accurate tax calculations guaranteed. arthel: well, the white house weighing a big decision is that chinese spy balloon flies over our country. while it could be leaving the u.s. airspace soon, the political finger-pointing has just begun. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioning the president's decision not to take immediate action after the balloon was spotted over montana earlier this week. welcome to fox news alive i am arthel neville hi mike. next i am mike emmanuel in for eric shawn today fox news is on

the biden administration to shoot down the balloon over the atlantic ocean. the federal aviation administration has issued a ground stop close airspace in north and south carolina until 2:45 p.m. eastern time. the balloon is currently floating over south carolina and moving southeast republican congressman anthony of the homeland security committee standing by with his reaction. but first lucas tomlinson is live at the white house with 30 tables unchecked details. >> good afternoon mike if you going to shoot down a chinese spy balloon over the atlantic that's exactly how you do it. you close airspace you launched fighters. that appears to be what happened are present biden spoke earlier indicated a decision had been made without offering specifics. [inaudible] >> earlier this morning on fox former defense secretary chuck said it's unlikely this bible it

will make its way home. >> i do not have the pentagon is going to do with the president ultimately decides but once he gets out over open waters i would be surprised if we would allow this balloon to just float back to china. >> of quick history both countries of course spy on each other for just over a month ago chinese fighter jet came just 1y plane flying over the south china sea as you can see here. back in 2006 and was accused china of stealing underwater drone was later returned into many pieces in a box. 2001 u.s. navy ep three spy plane is a chinese fire jet chinese islands for the crew for help for 11 days former defense secretary mark esper said this thing should be brought gently to exploit the information. >> captured the equipment to

understand the instrumentation was there's insights with regard to what they are looking for and whether they are looking for signal. now, barring that partly to send a message to china. president biden langley air force base or johnson air force base in north carolina f-15 and f-16's. and course u.s. navy certainly patrol the east coast near operating area routinely does submarines profit out of bay, georgia. they routinely conduct a missile shoot you close down the airspace just like using this type of thing. up-and-down east coast for the military to exploit information

they want to do it very precisely. insensitive into the balloon back into american custody, right? like she want to do that part of the best way i've been told from experts 20-millimeter the f-22 f-16 to build a poke holes in the balloon if you will. not have exploded in midair but actually go down into the ocean gently. of course in the atlantic and not worry as much about chinese warships or russian warships. the area will be not contested you be able to roll up on this thing, take it aboard and disseminated and exploited. of course is a chinese spy balloon has been transmitting officials say in real time. and the information has been sent home something good old days are set to go back into the earth.

putting similar silos in china double according in the next decade. of the u.s. does business you're less concerned about where it lands and potential for any problems on that's bible it was flying over the east coast, charlotte north carolina you not to shoot something down a lot of collateral damage on the ground. he wanted to happen over open ocean. plenty of empty space in the ocean, a question about that. but they spy plane to land hopefully gently and recovered profitably by the u.s. navy.

mike: lucas many thanks. arthel: chinese spy balloon violating u.s. airspace and obvious homeland security concern. joining is now a new member of the house of homeland security committee republican congressman anthony of new york. congressman just about an hour ago president biden said will take care of it have you been briefed to know what that means what you want that to mean? >> think what the refocus is for multiple reports received the biden administration knew about this days ago was coming over islands in alaska we could have taken it down into open water without causing any casualties or any concerns on u.s. soil. the fact we've allowed to enter u.s. airspace is a direct result of the fact joe biden is just weak.

he is viewed as weak. >> congressman gwen stop just for a moment. you are a new member of the homelands purity committee i want to speak to you from that placement of course there is going to be a lot of finger-pointing. but i want to ask you specifically what you hope that means in terms of taking care of this balloon? what can we collect from fragments of this balloon should we shoot it down worse or different way to take it down? >> what i hope this once we get into the safe space over the coach ocean the balloon is taken down in a careful way so that we can extract from any evidence that we need. because obviously if you talk to him the last is in real time. anything they've collected his back to the chinese communist government. we went century extricate from the splint anything that was sent over moving forward and how they are sending balloons like

this over other areas of the country. arthel: any idea or concerns is what you might have real-time intelligence this balloon was able to send back to china? >> listen, anytime we have a bullet from any foreign country but especially communist china going over its nuclear missiles silos in the united states we have a serious problem. the fact of the matter is not to point fingers but the chinese they smell blood in the water. when you have blood in the water you have a lot of sharks ready to write it in time. arthel: listen to the initial reaction from republican senator mike rounds of south dakota. >> the first question, why would they ever let it get into our airspace? the request and after that is how soon did they find out it was only an observation balloon? and along with that he made the

political decision than it should be allowed to enter simply because they felt it was harmless? arthel: i want to give you an opportunity to answer and centers question while you're at if you can tell me, if you believe this was accidental a wayward weather balloon and how should the u.s. respond? >> i do not believe this was accidental this is every bit of intentional. mike is at the beginning of the segment when we had the opportunity with administration knew about this over the waters of alaska and we should have taken the balloon down in a swift manner before it entered u.s. airspace coming over the continental united states. arthel: you are intimating earlier that because that action was not taken immediately you feel the u.s. now has been put at a disadvantage and losing whatever leverage that we may have in terms of further future negotiations, or just cut it looking meat week from a military standpoint. it is how you're telling us?

>> absolutely. communist china is pushing the envelope so to speak. they see our leader as weak. he is not taken a hard line on defending us here in america and standing up to the chinese government. and now we are seeing they are actually sending balloons into our airspace. going over the nine states of america. arthel: you free some really strong concerns they are. can you pinpoint specifically what you are talking about so our audience will understand how you believe we are vulnerable? >> any of the information they have taken in this balloon in this bible and that's come over the united states as passover military bases. it has passover areas that we do not need to spy balloons coming over the nine states of america. the fact again that we had the opportunity days ago to take this out of the sky and joe biden and his administration did

not do that it puts this country at risk. it puts our national security at risk and quite frankly we have seen is not securing our border now is not securing u.s. airspace. arthel: how does this balloon differ from other spy satellites that china has over the united states? >> i don't think it does differ from the fact of the matter is we should build them all accordingly. this one specifically we have seen it like i sent jason only had the opportunity. they decide to not even tell the american people they were concerned about a trip there going on in china. that is not the way to handle u.s. security or national security here in america. arthel: i want to get in a quick question with the really quickly because you are new member of the house homeland security committee. as i said earlier based on your early assessment are we prepared to challenge and beat china cyber warfare?

>> i think we are. we are ready and capable to challenge china in any way possible. we are a global powerhouse and we need to start acting like one. we need to make sure we are leading from the front. i think german green and the entire homeland security committee are going to be standing arm in arm to just that. excellent congressman d'esposito if you would stand by force, going to toss it over too mike with another interview will get back to you a little bit later, thank you congressman. mike: arthel let's bring retired keith kellogg he served in the trump administration and national security council. so in general, we understand the commander-in-chief is considering shooting down this balloon. take us inside the national security council. what kind of conversations are taking place? what kind of planning is

underway? works of art event planning for these three indicators the planning is complete there going to do something for one, casey 135 to orbiting off of north carolina looking the aircraft are going to shoot them down for it secondly you have f-22 raptors at langley air force base. there they want aircraft that can take it down this thing is at 60008 the rapture can get up to 65000 feet it's gonna take it down. and third there is lsd from beaumont coming south of carter hall that is a landing ship dock which has a 30-ton crane capability on it that is my big now south from beaumont. got three indicators to me that clearly they made a decision in the white house to take this balloon down. they've got the recovery assets and carter hall printed out the aircraft at langley air force base they've got the tankers orbiting to refuel the aircraft in case they need it. looks like what they've done is they've made a decision.

inside the white house this decision would've been made in situation room by the national security council party full of counsel. not just the principles that would've made the recommendation to the president, pass the reclamation of the national security adviser to the president. member the president always has national security team travels with them full-time 24/7. so when he gets up to camp david the team is ready to go they vtc it in. think the decision is made by think is going to be a just a period of time before they can take it down because to me all the indicators are there, all the details are showing right now. >> in general, if you are in the national security council right now what would you be most concerned about this information that is been sent real-time back to beijing to chinese military, chinese intelligence personnel as this balloon is made his way across the united states. >> mike the information they gathered is massive. the sensor package under that balloon is as big as a school bus. they've got some sort of signals

communications intelligence they picked up. it's been able to loiter. it is god across all three basis of our missile wings. that 341st, the 90th and 91st controls the 400 icbm minuteman three missiles and got part as a triumvirate flowing over that is scooped up all the information like a vacuum cleaner that move south they can see and that is where our air force base in her our b-2 bombers are at. and look that is the second element of the triad. if in a gutter kings bay that's a classic trifecta of looking or tried scooped up this information. my concern is that should have made this decision well before but likable and some just follow the sky was shoot them down this is going to be a slow drifting balloon as it comes down. we've had expenses shooting down weather balloon before they don't just fall straight down. they talk about a debris field that was foolish. think what happened there reacting to pressure your same republicans, democrats public pressure another making the decision to shoot it down and

they're going to use the excuse we do not to harm anybody or hurt anybody. look, actually the horses left the barn. all the information is scooped up by china it's a lot of information because that is a very slow loitering device. both are very, very good for that. but they get if you think about it is much much better than the satellite that is orbiting, a lot better. mike: how critical will be for the data collection equipment to the bottom of the equipment to be preserved so american officials can study it to see exactly what was being sent back to beijing? >> mike that is the reason why that carter hall is out there. what it is designed to do is recover the balloon, the package the sensor package once he gets on the water. my concern is can they get to the package? that information is, the pick up the sensor package clearly they can extract the information what kind of packages out there that the chinese has news but it is a

little bit late what i would've done which at the sensor package added to secretary blanket goat would add it back to president xi can tell him that is the last time this type of spiraling, united states of america just a few years ago in fact i think it was two decades ago weather balloon floated over china they shot it down it was a weather balloon but they would've done something much more aggressive earlier on that we did. think we're reacting to public pressure again all the indicators are there for the going to shoot down the got the aircraft available at langley that the refueling tanker the got the recovery that it's already coming south from south carolina. mike: general when new american republican or democrat there frequently tested by our adversaries in our rivals. is this a test? >> it is beyond the test with their doing is pushing the limit. i think what they are doing in my experience is the kind of incrementally going forward in seeing where are the limits out

there? where are they going to make the decision? this is a very critical president joe biden is a very risk adverse president. this is same individual as vice president did not want to take out osama bin laden. the situation he recommend to obama to not do it. here we have something he's been very slow to react to something like a spy satellite, spite balloon coming over the united states. there is a concern we're going to offend the chinese. they are offending us. we need to protect the american people, american security. is clearly over installations. you cannot drive onto the air force base if you are still you just can't get on it there's a lot of restrictions on it and never letting us spy balloon pass overhead and scoop up information? is it a test? absolutely they are testing the limits my concern the going to extrapolate that information and afford how are we going to react to something like taiwan? this is how they think this is not about spy balloons but the next step is going to take in

diplomatic and aggressiveness with the united states. mike: retired colonel keith kellogg thank you very much. arthel: all eyes over surfside beach south carolina as the white house ways and downing the chinese spy balloon. will have more coverage after the short break after years of chasing the big idaho potato truck... i finally caught it. oh man. always look for the grown in idaho seal. oooohhh, it is cold outside time to protect your vehichle from winters wrath of course the hot sun can be tough on vehicles too you need weathertech all year round! come on, protect your investment laser measured floorliners and cargoliner will shield the carpeting from sand and snow for your interior, there's seat protector and sunshade

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(upbeat music) arthel: as it floats over surfside beach, south carolina and we continue the chinese spy balloon u.s. airspace. joining conversation fox news senior strategic analyst and chairman of the institute for the study of war. so general as a spy and constable to take the spy balloon down for the damage has been done. what ever information has been collected has been sent back to beijing in real-time. what is it about that information that concerns are the most? >> what was certainly the damage is done. as a general kilos was saying, they are also testing us. any penetration is not just to

get the information but also to understand what kind of response do we have? what, with they have cost us is really quite dramatic. it is inexcusable china can spend a spy balloon across the entire swath of the united states from alaska although i down to the southeast coast of the united states and we don't do anything about it. i have never seen anything like that in my experience. secondly it's a huge geopolitical because i was there adversaries are looking at this and seeing united states airspace penetrated by adversary country and we do nothing. they are going to draw conclusions from that. it is obviously a sign of weakness also concerned about our allies who are looking. i am concerned about taiwan. i think we have whispered in taiwanese leadership we are going to be there for them, president biden has sent messages to that effect pub

publicly. we've seen not respond to penetration of their own airspace much less taiwan's airspace. we witnessed here on the public relations nightmare and not have a rational explanation as to what took place. the present instincts and the pentagon told us is going to be a debris field endanger others. that what the retake of that should have been i still want shot down, bring the options we can do it safely and that is what should have been executed in my judgment. the fact it has not explained the situation we are in now. >> what does that say to you it appears the white house and the pentagon were at odds in terms

of what to do and how quickly to do it? folks in the report is accurate the president had the right instinct, should this thing d down. we presented qualifiers to that. i understand about the debris field and it is certainly an issue. if you are coming to alaska and north american airspace is the north american aerospace defense command. canada and the united states joined together. that means missiles coming out we are tracking it internally across the ocean to the united states itself.

we had to have clear knowledge that this balloon at 60000 feet, and as large as was left in mainland china across the ocean. we had to have that warning we have the capability to sweep readers and satellites that track that for a much smaller device than what we are seeing here today. when you got days in advance. other opportunities and willing to get it into the continental united states itself. it was really quite exterminate what took place here. like i said it's inexcusable. >> why did we stop it?

>> once again this has happened to us before we do not let foreign powers penetrate united states airspace. we just don't let that happen. the debris field which could was a condition and finding the absolute better place to do that will there still be risk? of course there will be risk. like there wasn't any military operation we are conducting. stopping a foreign power from an msi from penetrating u.s. airspace.

i understand it seems very hard to believe pushing the gate of taiwan to see how far this the trial balloon of source what is the u.s. position now. how does secretary blinken go back over too china and say hate knock it off. thirty knocked everything over the china start sorry about that comparison soreness that lemus now? china felt like it got away with it. what happens now?

the coercive pressure on the other allies in the region without having to fire a shot. they have been quite successful at it. we don't encounter this intimidation coercion campaign that they have. as a matter fact we do not even at the secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs visit taiwan. for if i were that's our time one of his most comprehensive worry we have fought since world war ii but we do not in the pacific command who had been in were to go into taiwan and visit with the generals there and work through solutions. we don't play your exercises for them. we self the chart ourselves. that is the advantage trend has

had for a number of years we have to have a comprehensive strategy to deal with this. we focus so much i want to be going to do if there's an invasion a d-day type invasion? we do not have a comprehensive strategy to push back on the coercion campaigns of our allies in the region and also particularly taiwan. the sad thing about this story today is the administration. i want to hear that i have to take a hard break. i want to hold you over where keeping track of this chinese spy blew over surfside beach, south carolina. we are back after this break with two max-strength pain relievers. ♪ so you can rise from pain like a pro. icy hot pro. this week is your chance to try any - subway footlong for free.

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if i general jack keane is with us. look at shots of chinese spy

balloon traveling overhead and want you to continue your thoughts before he took a break. but we are going to say to me, sir? >> this has been such a negative experience for the administration. something positive that happened earlier in the week that certainly had to deal with secretary of defense visit to the philippines where the philippines made a deal with us and opened up for additional military bases for us to use. not on the permanent basis but on a rotational basis to add to the five we already have. that is really quite signi significant. i am assuming a lease unless foreign bases are going to be in the northern part of the philippines very close to taiwan it would be absolutely critical any conflict we would have with taiwan. and also it's part of a package we are trying to deter china from thinking about seriously going into complex operations over taiwan. right now we have an erosion of

our deterrents. this is part of a package to reestablish effective military deterrence. that story i literally swiped up the front pages and off of our screen about what is happened here. that is unfortunate as well. at that major strategic accomplishment. then comes the bullying. this is what china is doing right now they are bullying. not to escalate or promote military action of course, general cane. in the vein and taking stock in the traditional military sense is the u.s. still strong to intimidate china? also, what about when it comes to cyber warfare? >> in terms of intimidate them, yes we can absolutely do that. the hard reality is because of 9/11 and the cuts in the defense budget during the obama years there military defense have

eroded significantly. china has more airplanes, more ships and more missiles offense and defense that we have. i'm assuming ammunition stockpile could last for months as opposed to just a few weeks which is where we are. we have serious deficiencies. and what we don't want to do is encouraged china, recognize the united states has a vulnerability. incentivize them to move on taiwan. that is the position we are on right now. what we have to do is bring in more capability to the region and having these basis is critical to that. we went to the same thing in australia. the other things wrapped up gun taiwan probably learn anything out of the ukraine or who were not able to deter it. almost everything. arthel: general keane you can

say this but we have a live shot now of this balloon going down. this balloon has been taken down. it is now falling from the sky there over surfside beach, south carolina so your reaction to this sir? >> yes i am watching it. first of all, well done. congrats to the military for being able to do that. obviously tracking this thing is no problem in bringing it down with the united states military is not much of a problem either. it's still a major coordination effort to do it. hopefully we will cover the sensor package on this as well but we have a pretty good feel they know with the wind currents are there tracking all of this with some degree of sophistication. we have a lot of capability to do that certainly. and we can recover this. we may not be able to what were dealing with here. arthel: and general keane i went to say is we are watching this

exclusive coverage on this chinese spy balloon going down over south carolina could you talk to us about what happened in terms of coordinating us to get to this point now? >> we have all of our watching this for some time. certainly our military capability got alerted. people have been planning it likely for couple of days. i am assuming the president made a decision within the last 24 hours to take this out. they probably presented him with a number of options where the best place to do so we heading to the east coast which is considerably more populated than montana last probably ruled out they would do anything over land if they were willing to do it over montana they are certainly not going to do it on the east coast of the united states or in transit to the east coast.

they are taking advantage of obviously doing this safely in terms of civilians. it is not a complicated operation. i believe for the nine states and military to take a balloon moving at the speed is moving at take it down. the coordination to do that, the intelligence to bring all that together is not a major problem for us at all. now, can we recover the sensor package? that is going to be iffy given the size of this thing and how much it weighs. but, nonetheless we finally did what we should've that at the beginning. remember this was approaching the united states over waterbury is approaching the aleutian islands overwater. we had plenty of opportunity to take it down then. that is what should have happened. we had to print tracking from mainland china across the pacific ocean. we had plenty of warning to put together an operation that we

are conducting now on the east coast that should have been done there. and by the way we have alert aircraft in alaska for the principal reason of the penetration, largely from ru russia. that is why the aircraft are there. they have been able to respond to this when approached the united states in the name of the aleutian islands. now were chewing on the door words leaving the united states. anti- climatic in that sense bristol sends a message to china that we are not going to let you get away with this nonsense. hopefully learn diplomatic team gets back together with china we really put some cards on the table with them. arthel: you sent collecting the data from this balloon will be tricky and difficult why do you say that? >> what is been described to us this is a very heavy object.

it is heading towards the ocean. obviously is going to sink. and being able to recover it is problematic. the other point i am trying to make is we have got to look at how we are dealing with china short of conflict. they are trying for example in taiwan, trying to use persuasion to get the taiwanese to believe that reunification is inevitable. they use intimidation and coercion to get the taiwanese to capitulate. what are we going? we are self deterring ourselves from visiting the island from coordinate properly, from drink exercises with them on a comprehensive basis. we have got to relook the whole non- conflict strategy.

i believe china is winning the hybrid non- conflict strategy that they are using. i'm not countered it enough in a comprehensive way to make certain the chinese know they are going to pay a price for intimidation and coercion of taiwan. this is just another step in the right direction for china. that they were able to come over here and demonstrated all of our allies. also our adversaries they can actually fly a spy balloon across the entire swaths of the united states and get away with it. and be able to collect as much data as they wanted too. arthel: absolutely. the race very important crucial questions general jack keane and the white house will have to answer many of those. i believe mike emmanuel you are going to be speaking with lucas tomlinson who is light at the white house. specifically exclusive live images on the balloon coming down to the earth after flying

across the united states, lucas tomlinson in his life that perched on the white house north lawn. lucas, what is the latest from there? works with the president was asked a short time ago if he planned to shoot down the spy balloon he gave a big thumbs up or he didn't say much after it is not specific it appears the shiny spy balloon has been shot down by u.s. fighter jet progressive fighter jets are equipped with 20-millimeter cannons. they tell fox to use canon sent over the damage this thank you do not want to poke holes in this thing have it float down intended at it almost like a parachute that is not been deployed fully. coming straight not no shortage of prior firepower: east coast 22 jets at langley air force base in hampton roads area super hornets out of virginia beach. f-15 aircraft at seymour johnson in south carolina. shop air force base in south carolina this line look from surfside beach california.

people familiar with myrtle beach and it does appear in this chinese spy balloon has been shot down. we are seeing tethering the u.s. military waiting until it safely off the east coast of the nine states over the atlantic ocean print terms about the general same exploiting sinus material, obviously sensitive chinese spyware will not mix well with the saltwater of the atlantic ocean. but there is no question from wanting to see how these things are designed for the summit u.s. military will want to know. as we heard early former defense secretary u.s. military the biden administration did not this chinese balloon floating also back to china. there not be mission accomplishment for the united states. mike: folks at home and we are lucas talk about different bases in that sort of thing going to cover the pentagon for a number of years for us but lucas is also a naval academy graduate. it's hard to imagine better colic on duty today as we do this breaking news coverage. lucas, talk about the heartburn

there at the white house. they have had this chinese spy balloon flight over the continental united states in recent days. quick status right we first saw the spy balloon over montana come to air force base we have a number of nuclear missiles. minuteman three missiles in the chinese are building their own missile silos back home. in fact the pentagon says a chinese nuclear forces are going to double and stockpiled double over the next decade, there's no question chinese wanted to look at how the u.s. air force has their silos for china is no stranger to stealing information especially sensitive information for summit military was stolen from the united states. was concerned for many officials at the white house was the pentagon is a slow burn if you will the chinese spy balloon was lighting from montana to down to the air force base in missouri. when the two bombers i can deployed nuclear warheads for

the fact over the east coast charlotte, north carolina. we do not want to bring down a spy balloon that weighs as much as three school buses over a major american city. the faa closed the airspace. when in the systemic by the closing of the airspace. they wanted to make sure there were no commercial airliners in the area. the refueling plans tankers to refill the fighter jets pretty have a number of bases i just listed on the east coast of the u.s. you also have speaking of the navy, naval station off florida. nor folk the largest naval base in the world for you have no shortage of naval assets as well recovery ships and of course this time of year you navy ships and op areas off the united states are going to be training for some of this worships nobby urgently tasks to pick up the spy balloon. we can see now these pictures really looks like a parachute that is not deployed it is all

linked down to earth we do not have an altimeter here but it does appear to be falling down to earth this taken out by american fighter jets progress lifecare was having trouble keeping track of it was dropping so rapidly. these are images from a short time ago the chinese spy belinda's is descending to earth. we expect u.s. military quick response units will go to the scene to recover what they can of that equipment. lucas and someone to cover the pentagon for a number of years can you imagine the kind of conversations that were going on in terms of when to take it out? where did take it out and help us to recover? >> as a general keane reference this was first spotted over the pacific in the aleutian islands at sovereign u.s. airspace. alaska is on the 50 states and already penetrated u.s. airspace there certainly discussions the

pentagon always presents options. they certainly had this on the books. there f-22's base in alaska certainly had enough firepower to do it then a decision was made to hold fire. part of the decision possibly was to track this spy balloon to see where over the united states it was going to go. here the political pressure vertically from republicans to do something about the spy balloon not let it just loiter and zigzagged around the united states. it needed to be shot down shot needed to be taken for the only question is the weight this is the weight of about three school buses coming down in the ocean. this thing is likely not going to beat floating. that is going to be when it lands will the u.s. military or any salvage vessel get there in time to grab this thing? this is not the first time in chinese and spied on the us and vice versa. just over a month ago a chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of america spy plane in the

south china sea. back in 2016 the pentagon key is a chinese of drone from the u.s. navy and digging all the '2001 the ep three during the bush administration collided with the chinese fighter jet the crew held for 11 days parentheses latest chapter of espionage between the united states and china, mike looks good contacts are lucas thompson live on the lawn thank you very much. arthel: all right, lucas and mike general keith kellogg signed and sent to former national security adviser to vice president mike pence and fox news contributor general kellogg so good to speak with you. i wanted to ask spencer why should chinese spy balloon go down into the saltwater of the atlantic ocean what concerns you in salvaging whatever information intelligence has been collected? >> if you rerun this pictures and look closely think the package the sensor package and disconnected from the balloon

almost immediately. if that thing is falling as the size of a school bus at that thing is valid for 60000 feet hitting the water and there's not going to be a lot left with an recovery recovery is going to be very, very hard. they've got a landing ship docked in route to that area. i think right now that sensor package if you look at it closely and look at the street again and you really run that underneath bloom and the balloon is hit you will see a package separated from that balloon. i am pretty sure it's a sensor package. i don't know what we're going to recover from it now. hopefully we will but i would not put a lot of money on recovery. much of the sensor package when it hits the water from that altitude and at that speed. the fact we got it, great and congratulations to the aircraft and the crews that took balloon down. should have been done a lot easier. think checking was right on target when it talked about how

should respond. general keane has been very right on that this is a test by the chinese i think on us. they so we did not respond with great speed or with great force. they're going to put that into their thought process. this is not a simple decision by some random general in china. this was something a senior level within the chinese hierarchy. within their government less just tested out and see was going to happen. people think this is an errant balloon and it was a random descending of a spy balloon across united states it is not. spirit calculated per his design to see what kind of were going to have. they're gathering the information is just secondary. arthel: so what is she shavings take away in terms of what he got away with? and also the beijing side in terms of collecting intelligence.

what did they get and how vulnerable does not make us? >> number one i think what he saw as his administration is very timid on approaching crisis situations. that is an issue and i'm very concerned about that we do not respond with great speed and great force with this. i am member which a council of money that decision was made and we got within 48 hours. this took time for it to happen. when you look at the information they collected, this passover too many critical parts of the trident missile fields across over three regiment units we have in control of the missiles we have. it was sitting there loitering. it was like eight vacuum cleaner just picking up information. either communication information or signal information i was able to do it. as secondary close to air force base in missouri. that is where the beat to the second part of our triad. the bomber fleet is located.

i don't know what they've got but i'm sure they got it. but more importantly it was a test. is twofold on their part part of the arthel: valuable information on the very equipment that could be used in the event of a chinese invasion into taiwan. >> well, not so much taiwan. when it comes to the taiwan issue, i think what they were judging is the reaction of the united states in a crisis. look, they send multiple fighters into the air defense identification zone of taiwan. not necessarily into the air space, but into the zone that there's great concern with the taiwanese government and the chinese on who controls that air space. and when they get in there, taiwan has to react to it. and they're looking at our reaction as well. i've seen this before, i've actually done this before, years ago before the invasion of panama. we had sanding flea exercises,

and i was one of the assault commanders physically on the ground in panama. what we did under these exercises, we deliberately tried to do some provocations with at that time the panamanian military to find out what their reaction was going on the, how timely was it going to be the, what kind of force were they going to respond with, and and we actually kept pushing the envelope. this is what the chinese are doing, very similar. just find out how the u.s. is going to react, what their decision making process is. is it going to be fast, is it going to be slow. is it going to be hard? is it going to be soft. i think they're continuing to gather information on the leadership and the decision making process of the united states. and so they'rerring great information not just military and what they've gathered, but on our decision making process. very concerning. arthel: very concerning. and in the meantime, and those are really excellent points, of course, that you make, general kellogg, many terms of what -- in terms of what they gleaned in

terms of the reaction time and willingness to react on the part of the u.s. also they did, perhaps, collect realtime information of the military equipment that you outlined. so what part of that is concerning, or should we just not be concerned about that at all in. >> well, no, we should be. it's not just maybe on the equipment, but when it was the loitering and the sensor package they had, they were gathering signals intelligence and communications intelligence, and that's very important. what were we saying, how were we reacting to it. and when you sweep up that kind of information and pass it back, they can decipher that kind of information, and it's all based on decision making. we weren't just being silent when all this was going on. the military command authorities were making calls, i am sure, we were passing information back and forth. and it was sort of like eavesdropping on a telephone. they were just listening in, and they were passing that information back to china. so part of the calculus when you're involved in a military operation or a national security operation is the decision making process involved.

not necessarily what you do the or when you do it, but how is that process, how is it evolving. and they would be picking that up. even though it would with encrypted, there's an ability to decrypt information. it's not always encrypted information that is passed. so what they gather is this decision making process. and then at the national level what kind of reactions are we going to make and what reactions do we have. so i think it's kind of a cumulative effort not only what they captured technology, in the spirit of technology, but also in the spirit of decision making. so it was a win-win for china. this thing should have been taken out long ago. and i have said this repeatedly, watch how the balloon's coming down. i said all along that balloon was not going to go erratically down, it's going to the fall slow are. that's how those balloons do it. the concern is, okay, it should have been what happens with the sensor package. if you're going to shoot that thing down, be able to recover it, shoot it down over montana where there's not a whole lot of people out there. let it hit the ground and then recover the pieces on the ground.

i'm not sure we're going to be able to he -- recover it when it hits the ocean. there's going to be a lot of pieces, and i'm not sure we have the recovery ability because it's not in place flight to get that sensor device we see underneath the balloon. arthel: and also how we recover leverage over china. and i kid hear you say that very, make that very prediction in terms of where it should be taken down. so, general keith kellogg, as always, we appreciate your expertise and stick around for us. i'm sure we'll stick to you again in the next hour or sir. thank you, sir. >> thanks, arthel. arthel: for your viewers in the hour, you've seen exclusive live coverage of u.s. fighter jets shooting down the chinese spy balloon there, the view from surf beach, south carolina. -- surf ofside beach. with that, let's bring in south carolina republican congressman russell frye joining us live now. congressman, welcome. my understanding is this was part of your district that this balloon flew over. what were your concerns, what

have you been told by officials here in washington? >> we haven't been toll much, honestly. i mean, this is right over -- i mean, it fell right above my hometown, so we're kind of in the dark a little bit. i think the american people are in the dark. you know, why was this allowed to go clear across the country for so many days? you know, you look at this, national security is one of the biggest things that any country can co. it is a core function of government. so i think for us in congress and, i think, for the american people there are a lot more questions than answers at this point. mike: you're a member of the jewish curbly committee, also a member of the house oversight committee. can you foresee the possibility of hearings in the oversight committee to get a better understanding of the administration's actions and when and where it decided to the take out this balloon? >> i think we should. i think we're owed answers. i think the american people are owed answers. you look at this, you know, when it was discovered by a local press outlet in montana, it was monitored for days.

the white house was completely quiet for th